at all these customs were not favorable to sanity of mental action any more than to soundness of body. They co-existed with attractive virtues; they sprang from pure motives: but they were none the less excesses of superstition. Persuaded on one occasion, when he was enfeebled by illness, to eat of a fowl, be demonstrated his penitence by causing himself to be led, with a rope round his neck, like a criminal, through the streets of Assisi, by one of his followers, who shouted all the time, "Behold the glutton!"

The sort of miracles ascribed to St. Francis, and the measure of credence which the stories of them deserve, may be understood from what is said of his miraculous dealing with the lower animals. On a journey, leaving his companions in the road, he stepped aside into the midst of a concourse of doves, crows, and other birds. They were not frightened at his approach. Whereupon he delivered to them a sermon, in which he addressed them as "my brother-birds," and gave them wholesome counsel - supposing them able to comprehend it—respecting their duties to God. But we are assured that they did comprehend it, and signified their approbation by stretching their necks, opening their mouths, and flapping their wings. Having received from the saint the benediction, and permission to go, this winged congregation flew away. This is only one in a catalogue of wonders of the same kind. Fishes, as well as birds, listened to preaching, and waited for the discourse to conclude. We can readily believe Celano, when he says that St. Francis was a man of "the utmost fervor," and had a feeling "of piety and gentleness towards irrational creatures." He was probably one of those who have a remarkable power of dispelling the fear, and winning the confidence, of animals. Incidents where this natu

ral power was exercised were magnified, by the fancy of devotees, into the tales a sample of which has been given. A like discount from other miraculous narratives resting on the same testimony would reduce the events which they relate to the dimensions of natural, though it may be remarkable, occurrences. It is need. less to recount these alleged miracles. One or two will suffice. Travelling together, St. Francis and his fol lowers see in the road a purse, apparently stuffed with coins. There was a temptation to pick it up. The rule of poverty was in imminent peril. The saint warns his curious disciple that the devil is in the purse. Finally, the disciple, after prayer, is permitted to touch it, when out leaps a serpent, and instantly-mirabile dictu!-serpent and purse vanish. When the saint came to die, one of his followers beheld his soul, as it parted from the body, in appearance like an immense luminous star, shedding its radiance over many waters, borne upon a white cloud, and ascending straight to heaven.

The great miracle in connection with St. Francis is that of the "stigmata," or the marks of the wounds of Christ, which the Saviour was thought in a vision to have imprinted upon his body. From the hour when a vision of the crucified Christ was vouchsafed him, as he thought, while he was in prayer before his image, "his heart," say the "tres socii," was wounded and melted at the recollection of the Lord's passion; so that he carried while he lived the wounds-stigmata- of the Lord Jesus in his heart. He sought in all ways to be literally conformed to the Lord as a sufferer. For example, remembering that the Virgin had no place where her son could lay his head, he would take his food from the table where he was dining, carry it out, and eat it on

the ground. It was his constant effort to bring upon himself the identical experiences of pain and sorrow which befell Christ. Especially did he concentrate his thoughts in intense and long-continued meditation on the crucifixion. There is a considerable number of other instances of stigmata found upon the body, besides that of St. Francis. The scientific solution, which has high authority in its favor, is, that the phenomenon in question is the result of the mental state acting by a physiological law upon the body. It is considered to be one effect of the mysterious interaction of mind and body, the products of which, when body and mind are in a morbid condition, are exceptionally remarkable.

Before leaving our subject, let the reader reflect on that one trait of the apostles by which they are distinguished from other witnesses to alleged miracles. It is their truthfulness. Men may be devout; they may be capable of exalted emotions; they may undertake works of self-sacrifice, and be revered for their saintly tempers; and yet they may lack this one sterling quality on which the worth of testimony depends. This defect may not be conscious. It may result from a passive, uninquiring temper. It may grow out of a habit of seeing things in a hazy atmosphere of feeling, in which all things are refracted from the right line. But the apostles, unlike many devotees of even Christian ages, were truthful. Without this habit of seeing and relating things as they actually occurred, their writings would never have exerted that pure influence which has flowed from them. Because they uttered "words of truth and soberness," they make those who thoroughly sympathize with the spirit of their writings value truth above all things.

And there is one proof of the truth of the apostles' testimony which can be appreciated by the unlearned. The character of Jesus as he is depicted in the Gospels is too unique to be the result of invention. It is the image of a perfection too transcendent to be devised by the wit of man. Yet it is perfectly self-consistent, and obviously real in all its traits. In him the natural and the supernatural, divine authority and human feeling, the power which gives life to the dead and the sympathy which expresses itself in tears, blend in complete accord. This portrait of Christ in the Gospels is evidently drawn from the life. It demonstrates the truth of the Gospel history.

CHAPTER XI.

THE ARGUMENT FOR CHRISTIANITY FROM THE CON VERSION OF SAUL OF TARSUS, WITH AN EXAMINA. TION OF RENAN'S THEORY OF THAT EVENT.

No event in the founding of Christianity, which does not relate to the life of Jesus himself, is so important as the conversion, at a very early day, of that able, resolute, and zealous enemy of the Christian cause, Saul of Tarsus. No one who looks at his career, or weighs the effect of it on the subsequent history of the world, will doubt, that, in force of intellect and of character, he was one of the greatest men, if not the greatest man, of his age. He was not content to confine his labors in behalf of Christianity within the borders of his own nation. He went forth as a conqueror through the Roman Empire, to convert the heathen. He made his way to Athens, there to reason with philosophers, and preach to the people. He aspired to preach in Rome itself, not heeding the contempt that his doctrine would excite. He had the courage to face mobs at Jerusalem and at Ephesus; to be persecuted by his own countrymen as a heretic, and by Gentiles as an atheist. No bodily hardship or peril discouraged him. No rebuff disheartened him. He had the independence to withstand Peter, the leader among the original disciples, when he gave way to timidity. No man ever afforded more signal proofs of independence of thought and of judgment. He was acquainted with the eye