Page:Tracts for the Times Vol 2.djvu/89

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 * Jan. 25.
 * Feb. 24.
 * Apr. 25.
 * May 1.
 * June 11.
 * June 24.
 * June 29.
 * July 25.
 * Aug. 24.
 * Sep. 21.
 * Oct. 28.
 * Nov. 30.
 * Dec. 21.
 * Dec. 26.
 * Dec. 27.
 * }
 * Aug. 24.
 * Sep. 21.
 * Oct. 28.
 * Nov. 30.
 * Dec. 21.
 * Dec. 26.
 * Dec. 27.
 * }
 * Dec. 21.
 * Dec. 26.
 * Dec. 27.
 * }
 * Dec. 27.
 * }

On these days we are instructed to seek encouragement in our Christian warfare, by remembering the triumphant issue of that warfare in the cases of those eminent followers of their Lord, the Apostles, the Baptist, and the first martyr. In the graces bestowed upon them, we behold the most striking illustrations of God's merciful promises of support to His servants; and in striving to confirm our own faith by the example of theirs, we are following the advice of one of themselves—of one "not a whit behind the chiefest of them,"—St. Paul. See his Epistle to the Hebrews, chap. xi.

. On this day we commemorate the infants of Bethlehem, whose blood, shed by Herod, was the first spilt by the enemies of Christianity in opposition to its progress. Mourning this, and all similar events, the Church yet directs our praises to Him, who made infants to glorify Him by their deaths; and who, while receiving to His mercy, these and millions of other infant souls, has declared for the instruction of those more advanced in years, that "of such" as little children "is the kingdom of heaven." (Dec. 28.)

Sept. 29.

Nov. 1.