So Basil said, and paused awhile;
The Arch-fiend answered not;

But he heaved in vexation

A sulphurous sigh for the Bishop's vocation, And thus to himself he thought:

"The Law thy calling ought to have been, With thy wit so ready, and tongue so free! To prove by reason, in reason's despite, That right is wrong, and wrong is right, And white is black, and black is white, What a loss have I had in thee!"

66

"I rest not here," the Saint pursued;
"Though thou in this mayest see
That in the meshes of thine own net
I could entangle thee!

Fiend thou thyself didst bring about
The spousal celebration,

Which linked them by the nuptial tie
For both their souls' salvation.

"Thou sufferedst them before high Heaver
With solemn rites espoused to be,
Then and for evermore, for time
And for eternity.

VOL. VII.

"That tie holds good; those rites
Will reach their whole intent;

N

And thou of his salvation wert
Thyself the instrument.

"And now, methinks, thou seest in this A higher power than thine,

And that thy ways were overruled
To work the will divine!"

With rising energy he spake,
And more majestic look,
And with authoritative hand
Held forth the Sacred Book.

Then with a voice of power he said, "The Bond is null and void!

It is nullified, as thou knowest well, By a Covenant whose strength by Hell Can never be destroyed!

"The Covenant of grace,

That greatest work of Heaven, Which whoso claims in perfect faith, His sins shall be forgiven.

"Were they as scarlet red,
They should be white as wool:
This is the All-mighty's Covenant,
Who is All-merciful!

"His Minister am I! In his All-mighty name

To this repentant sinner
God's pardon I proclaim!

In token that against his soul
The sin shall no longer stand,
The writing is effaced, which there
Thou holdest in thy hand!

66

Angels that are in bliss above
This triumph of Redeeming Love
Will witness, and rejoice;

And

ye shall now in thunder hear Heaven's ratifying voice!"

A peal of thunder shook the pile; The Church was filled with light; And, when the flash was past, the Fiend Had vanished from their sight.

He fled as he came, but in anger and shame; The pardon was complete;

And the impious scroll was dropped, a blank, At Eleëmon's feet.

NOTES TO ALL FOR LOVE.

There, on the everlasting ice,

His dolorous throne was placed. - II. p. 142.

It was the north of heaven that Lucifer, according to grave authors, attempted to take by storm. "En aver criado Dios con tanta hermosura el cielo y la tierra, quedo ordenada su celestial Corte de divinas Hierarchias; mas reynò tanto la ingratitud en uno de los Cortesanos, viendose tan lindo y bello, y en mas eminente lugar que los demas (segun Theodoreto), que quiso emparejar con el Altissimo, y subir al Aquilon, formando para esto una quadrilla de sus confidentes y parciales."

With this sentence, Fr. Marco de Guadalajara y Xaviera begins his account of the "Memorable Expulsion, y justissimo destierro de los Moriscos de España."

The description of the marriage service is taken from Dr. King's work upon the "Rites and Ceremonies of the Greek Church in Russia." "In all the offices of the Greek church," he says, "there is not perhaps a more curious service than this of matrimony, nor any which carries more genuine marks of antiquity; as from the bare perusal of it may be seen, at one view, most of the ceremonies which antiquarians have taken great pains to ascertain." It agrees very closely with the ritual given by Martene, "De Antiquis Ecclesiæ Ritibus," t. ii. pp. 390-98.

In these ceremonies,

"The which do endless matrimony make,".

the parties are betrothed to each other "for their salvation," -"now and for ever, even unto ages of ages."

The Πρόναος.

The Ante-nave. - IV. p. 157.

The coronals,

...

Composed of all sweet flowers. - IV. p. 160.

"Formerly these crowns were garlands made of flowers or shrubs; but now there are generally in all churches crowns of silver, or other metals, kept for that purpose." — Dr. King's Rites, &c., p. 232.

"A certain crown of flowers used in marriage," says the excellent Bishop Heber (writing from the Carnatic), "has been denounced to me as a device of Satan! And a gentleman has just written to complain that the Danish government of Tranquebar will not allow him to excommunicate some young persons for wearing masks, and acting, as it appears, in a Christmas mummery, or at least in some private rustic theatricals. If this be heathenish, Heaven help the wicked! But I hope you will not suspect that I shall lend any countenance to this kind of ecclesiastical tyranny, or consent to men's consciences being burdened with restrictions so foreign to the cheerful spirit of the gospel." - vol. iii. p. 446.

Basil, of living men

The powerfulest in prayer. — VII. pp. 174–5.

The most remarkable instance of St. Basil's power in prayer is to be found, not in either of his lives, the veracious or the apocryphal one, but in a very curious account of the opinions held by the Armenian Christians, as drawn up for the information of Pope Benedict XII., and inserted by Domenico Bernino in his "Historia di tutte l'Heresie" (Secolo xiv. cap. iv. t. iii. pp. 508-36). It is there related, that on the sixth day of the creation, when the rebellious angels fell from heaven through that opening in the firmament which. the Armenians call Arocea, and we the Galaxy, one unlucky angel, who had no participation in their sin, but seems to have been caught in the crowd, fell with them; and many others would in like