Commemoration of the Saints. On every hand we meet with a commemoration of the saints; not only are the churches dedicated to them, but the very streets through which we pass; the sites of the old gates, the corners, rows, and alleys (we have already spoken of the wells), nay, our very names, all remind us of former times, when the memory of the saints was venerated. Have the thousands of "Marys" ever considered that they owe their names to the warmth of the devotion of their ancestors to the Blessed Virgin? Have the multitudes of Johns, Thomas's, James's, Andrews, &c., reflected upon the origin of their names, and that their extremely frequent recurrence is owing to the veneration in which the memory of these apostles and saints was formerly held? Has it ever struck us that the innumerable streets, all bearing the names of saints, have their origin in the same cause?-and have the dwellers in the "abbeys," "priories," &c., which are met with in so many parts of the country, ever reflected that they are surrounded by relics of Catholicity? Undoubtedly they have. But have they ever looked into the index pages of the Common Prayer-book of the Church of England, and observed that there is hardly a day in the year which does not commemorate the death or martyrdom of one or more of the saints? Their calendar remains very nearly the same as ours. becomes second nature, and so interwoven in the religious associations of the early reformers had become their respect for the saints, that they could not bring themselves to expunge at once all recollection of them. Habit The divisions of the year-Candlemas, Ladyday, Shrovetide, Whitsuntide, Martinmas, Michaelmas, &c., are all regulated by the same rule, showing that at one time a tone of religious feeling, of which but a very faint shadow remains at the present day, must have pervaded the whole community and all classes of society; because there is in the human mind a natural propensity to commemorate by some token or visible sign whatever is most interesting. We bestow upon our children the names of our dearest friends, in order that they may in some degree live over again in our recollec tion, and become still more dear to us by association with the past. We have pictures taken of those we best love, to be a memento of them in absence during life, and after death, should we survive them; we prize the gifts of our friends and relatives in proportion to the regard we feel for them, and we value the names of the great and the good according to our appreciation of their merits. Can it be denied that the saints were good, virtuous, and holy? Why, then, should we not venerate their memory, and endeavour to follow their good example? Is there any harm in this? And surely, if we may pray for ourselves, and may ask our friends to pray for us, how much more efficacious before the Throne of Grace may we not believe the intercession of the saints to be for us? We have abundant reason for believing that they are conscious of what passes amongst us, and that there is a communion with the saints in Heaven. We believe in common with the great and the good in all ages-with the universal church. We believe with our forefathers, nor can we imagine that their creed originated in the errors of an unenlightened age, when we have so many proofs that in those times religion flourished and had a hold on the hearts of men, regulated their movements, and was |