Lourdes

the crowd was so great that we could not find him, so presently we dispersed as best we could. Two other priests and myself went completely

the others, and fought my way back, and into the Bureau, as the

ered the reserved space among the countless litters. The crowd between me and the open space was simply one pack of heads; but I could o

Cox, and our Rosaries were in our hands. The white spot moved on and on, and all else was motionless. I knew that beyond it lay the sic

SING OF

sez nos malades!"

ez nos malades!" a

on Seigneur

on a sudd

g with power. Here beneath lay souls thirsting for its touch of fire-patient, desirous, infinitely pathetic

ere for a few instants it boiled like a pot. A sudden cry had broken out, and it ran through the whole space; waxing in vol

ed thin and clear, with a touch of triumphant thankfulness: "Vous êtes la Résurrection et la Vie!" And again, with entreaty once more-since there still were two thousand sick unto

tood upright; and the crowd smiled and roared and sobbed. Five times I saw that swirl and rush; the last when the Te Deum pealed out from

ction if for no one else's, I wish to set down some of the thoughts that came to me both

with my father, and he used to read and talk on religious subjects; on our return we used to have a short Bible-class in his study. As an Anglican clergyman, I used to teach in Sunday schools or preach to children. As a Catholic priest, I used occasionally to attend at catechism. At all these times the miraculous seemed singularly far away; we looked at it across twenty centuries; it was something from which lessons might be drawn, upon which the imagination

r. Boissarie; but what I cannot understand is that professing Christians are able to bring a priori arguments against the fact that Our Lord is the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever-the same in Galilee and in France. "These signs shall follow them that believe," He said Himself; and the history of the

ngland, if there were more faith there. It is surely a little unreasonable to ask that, in a country which three hundred and fifty years ago deliberately repudiated Christ's Revelation of Himself, banished the Blessed Sacrament and tore down Mary's shrines, Christ and His Mother should cooperate supernaturally in marvels that are rather the rewards of the faithful. "It is not m

that open square, with the sick laid in beds on either side; and that at His word the lame

necessary for the establishment of Christianity, but that they are no longer necessary now, except on extremely rare occasions perhaps; and in my heart I knew my foolishness. Why, for those thirty years Lourdes had been in

trees walking," and the rest-I have no doubt that ten days later they sat themselves with unseeing eyes, and wondered whether it was indeed they who had witnessed those things. Human nature, like a Leyden jar, cannot hold beyond a fixed quantity; and this human nature, with experience, instincts, education, c

ey know well enough from interior experience that when Mary comes forward Jesus does not retire! But for those who think as some Christians do, it is necessary to point out the facts. And again. I have before me as I write the little card of ejaculations that are used in the procession. There are twenty-four in all. Of these, twenty-one are addressed to Jesus Chri

e was once a marriage feast, and the Mother of Jesus was there with her Son. There was no wine. She told he

it is no more than water. Then she turns to her Son. "They have water," she says, "but no more." And then He comes forth in His power. "Draw out now from all the sick beds of the world and bear them to the Governor of the Feast. Use the common

lel halts; but is

guérissez

firmes, prie