ruler Israel hoped for? No, but to go over to a despised hamlet and fall down in adoration before an infant in a manger. Ah! Brethren, how many individuals, aye, how many nations are kept from the true faith by similar considerations! Many a minister of a national establishment, many a highly-salaried preacher embarrassed with a family, is deterred from embracing Catholicity only by worldly motives. Though Catholic at heart, the rich and mighty often hide their faith through fear of being lowered socially, while the lower social grades are made or kept non-Catholic by self-interest, ancestral prejudice, or ignorance and indifference about the truth. But many, many more, alas! neglect the call to faith because they find like Herod that faith runs counter to their vices. When Stephen preached the faith, his hearers gnashed their teeth at him. When men possessed of demons were brought to Christ for cure, the devils howled and spat and raged at Him and tore and lashed their victims into fury before abandoning dominion over them. So, too, the wicked of to-day oppose the faith of Christ, and Herod-like they fain would stamp it out by measures quite as drastic as the slaughter of the Innocents. Especially dangerous are the enemies within the fold, the hypocrites, who while seemingly anxious to follow and adore the Christ, are really hounding Him to death by the scandal of their lives. As warm water is most easily congealed, so a pervert makes the fiercest bigot. They believe for a while, but in time of temptation they fall away, and their last state
