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 say respectively:  "  It  is  a  holy  and  a  wholesome thought  to  pray  for  the  dead  that  they  be  freed  from their  sins,"  and  "faith  without  works  is  dead;"  and Our Lord's  words:  "  This  is  My  body,"  were  by  the Calvinists either  changed  so  as  to  read:  "This  signifies My  body,"  or  else  altogether  rejected  and  expunged. Thus do  they  wrest  the  Scriptures  to  their own destruction,  for,  says  St.  Ambrose,  "  their  punishment is  that  while  they  are  erasing  the  words  of truth  from  the  Book  of  God,  God  is  erasing  their names  from  the  Book  of  Life."

Brethren, ten  days  after  the  Ascension  of  Our  Lord the Holy  Ghost,  as  Christ  had  promised,  descended on the  Apostles. At the  creation,  the  Spirit  of  God brooded over  the  waters  and  brought  order  out  of chaos. During the  intervening  centuries,  He,  by virtue  of  His  divinity,  had  filled  with  His  presence the whole  world. He had  even  vouchsafed  at  various times special  manifestations  of  Himself,  as  when  He appeared  to  the  wandering  Israelites  as  a  pillar  of cloud  by  day  and  a  pillar  of  fire  by  night,  or  hovered as a  dove  over  Christ  in  the  Jordan,  or  passed  like  a breath  from  Christ  to  His  Apostles,  or  in  mortal guise chanted  a  psalm  before  Eliseus,  or  instructed the centurion  Cornelius,  or  in  silence  overshadowed the Virgin. But on  that  first  Pentecost  Day,  His coming meant  more  than  all  these — He  came  then to renew  in  very  truth  the  face  of  the  earth,  and  to remain  with  men  all  days  to  the  end  of  time. Since the Ascension  the  Apostles  had  been  hiding  in  Jerusalem through  fear  of  the  Jews,  and  being  all  together,