and they shall be one flesh. Listen to one who tells us who is speaking, and to what the mystery refers; This is a great mystery; but I speak concerning Christ and the Church."

Ps. xli. 9.-"What is hath laid great wait for me? The Greek has a word meaning hath magnified; and the Lord has movingly explained both words in the gospel, saying, He that eateth bread with me hath lifted up his heel against me.

When I was a boy I saw a wrestler after throwing his adversary strike his forehead with his heel, which was a remarkable thing, because in it he insulted the vanquished. And this is the meaning of the saying, hath laid great wait for me; by this word the Lord declares the arrogance of one who insulted Him. Judas lifted up his heel against Christ when he betrayed Him, but he did not lift it up unpunished. Adam still lifts up the heel which was wounded by the serpent. Christ, indeed, had washed the feet of Judas, and he had heard Him say, He that is washed needeth not save to wash his feet, but is clean every whit. But what grace washed, treachery had polluted. Judas, therefore, lifted up his heel to his wounding. He did not truly hold the Head who lifted up his heel against Christ. Adam lifted up his heel against himself, Judas his against Christ, and therefore the serpent wounded him more grievously than others. He lifted up his heel, who offered the treacherous kiss, to lay wait for his Master; and therefore it is written in the prophet, hath laid great wait for me. He who lays wait practises some trick by which he throws or wounds his adversary.

Therefore Judas is said to have laid wait, because by his kiss he inflicted a wound, by which he gave the persecutors a sign to rush upon the Saviour. So he laid wait like a serpent; because a serpent injects venom with his mouth, and wounds the heel with his fangs; and Judas wounded not the Divinity of Christ, but the end of the heel of His body. And Judas, too, lifted up his heel like a proud and insolent wrestler, in order to smite the Saviour's head; but he could not strike the head of Christ, for the head of Christ is God. He bound his own head with the knot of the hideous halter, to take away from himself the means of salvation."

The exposition on the 44th Psalm has a melancholy interest for us. It was the last work of the great Milanese prelate, the unswerving champion of the faith. It was never delivered; its concluding sentences were dictated and committed to writing only a few days before his decease. And in it he is still true to his principle; he still sees Jesus in the Psalter, with a spiritual sight not darkened by the weakness of the failing body, but intensified in its keenness by the nearer approach of the brightness of eternal day. Commenting on ver. 11 of this Psalm, Thou hast given us like sheep appointed for meat, he says: "Our good Lord Jesus Christ was made a sheep for our banqueting. Do you ask how? Listen to one who says, Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us; and consider how our forefathers in figure divided and ate the lamb, signifying the Passion of the Lord Jesus, on Whose sacrament we feed daily. Through the Sheep Himself, therefore,

they became flocks for meat, as Aquila says; or flocks for eating, as Theodotion expresses it; or pasture of the eaters, as Symmachus has it. But a good banqueting is not to be feared, but to be desired by the saints; for otherwise one cannot arrive at the kingdom of heaven, since the Lord Himself has said, Except ye eat My flesh, and drink My blood, ye shall not have eternal life. It is clear, therefore, that our Lord is the meat, the banquet, the nourishment of the eaters, as He Himself says, I am the living Bread which came down from heaven. And that you may know that, since He so came down, all has been done for our sake, the holy Apostle says, We are all one bread. Let us not fear, then, because we are become sheep appointed for meat. For as the flesh and blood of the Lord Himself has redeemed us, so also Peter, and the holy Apostle Paul too, and the other apostles, endured much for the Church when they were beaten with rods, stoned, and thrust into prison. For the Lord's people are made to stand firm, and the Church has gained her increase by their endurance of injuries and experience of dangers; since others hastened to martyrdom, seeing that no loss befell the apostles by their sufferings, but that by (the sacrifice of) this short life they gained immortality."

So, again, on Ps. xlvi. 5. God shall help her, and that right early, he explains "right early" with a minuteness equal to that of the acknowledged interpretation of the xxii. Psalm.

"By this is signified that the resurrection early in the morning brings us heavenly aid, driving away the

night and restoring the day, as the Scripture says, Awake, thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light. See the mystery. Christ suffered towards eventide; therefore it was that according to the law the lamb was slain towards eventide. It was in the morning that He rose; for so it is written, the first day of the week cometh Mary Magdalene early, when it was yet dark, unto the sepulchre, and seeth the stone taken away from the sepulchre. Towards the evening of the world He is slain, when the light was beginning to fail; for the whole world was in darkness and would have been wrapped in more miserable darkness still, had not Christ, the Everlasting Light, come to us from heaven to pour out on mankind a season of innocence. So the Lord Jesus suffered, and pardoned our sins by His own blood; the light of a purer conscience shone out, and the day of spiritual grace beamed forth. Whence also the Apostle says, The night is far spent, the day is at hand."

And on Ps. xlviii. 2 :—

Beautiful for situation, the joy of the whole earth, is mount Zion, on the sides of the north, the city of the Great King. Why she is the joy of the whole earth is clearly expressed; it is because the Lord Jesus has gathered for Himself a Church from among sinners. Therefore those who before were the sides of the north, that is, associates and adherents of the devil, to whom it is said, Awake, O north wind, and come, thou south, are made the faithful in Christ. For of them is it said, They that trust in the Lord shall be as Mount Zion; and so they become the Mount Zion

by the grace of Christ and the sacrament of baptism."

Christ is the key to a difficult passage, Psalm xlix. 14:

"Like sheep they are laid in the grave; death shall feed on them; and the upright shall have dominion over them in the morning; and their beauty shall consume in the grave from their dwelling. Those who would not let Christ feed them, death shall feed on them. Who then would drive away the Good Shepherd, Who lays down His life for His sheep, because the care of His flock pertains to Him? Or who would choose death the hireling, to be brought to him with the due reward of deeds of wickedness? Know, O man, that Christ is the true Shepherd, Who feeds unto life. Death has entered, and leads some to destruction, and devours those over whom it is able to prevail because of their sins. Though they have in this life eagerly pursued wealth and favour, that they might have dominion over others, yet in the resurrection servitude shall be theirs, when the brightness of the morning dawns on the righteous, the figure of whom is Jacob, set as a lord over his brother. And a miserable servitude it will be, that, at the time when others are called into the glory of light and splendour, their glory will be waning and consuming in the darkness of the grave."

On the Latin and Greek rendering of Psalm lxii. 1, Shall not my soul be subject unto God? (A. V., Truly my soul waiteth upon God), Ambrose 'takes occasion to make an affectionate reference, at some length, to the memory of the pious Gratian, murdered in 383,