25 OCTOBER 1873, Page 13

" THE SACRED HEART."

[TO THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR."]

observe by a letter in the Spectator of September 27, from " The Editor of the Month," that the promoters of the Pilgrimages to Paray-le-Monial are not agreed as to what is the alleged fact or .doctrine which the Pilgrimages commemorate, and which the Court of Rome has sanctioned. If I do not mistake, the 17th of this month is one of the great anniversaries connected with the " Sacre Cceur," and it may therefore be useful to quote one or two pas- -sages from books sold on the spot, and published by Charles Donniol, Paris.

My first extract shall be from "La Vie de la bien-heureuse Marguerite Marie, par le Pere Croiset, de la Compagnie de Jesus." It relates to the physical nature of the miracle, which is denied by the Editor of the Month as well as by another high authority in the Roman Catholic Church. The words are cited from Margaret Mary Alacoque herself,—" Jesus asked me for my heart. I begged Him to take it, which He did, and placed it in His own adorable heart, where He made me see it like a little atom consuming itself 'in that burning furnace. Then, withdrawing it like a burning flame in the form of a heart, He put it back into the place whence He had taken it, saying, ' Behold, my well beloved, a precious pledge of my love. I have enclosed in thy side a little spark of -the most lively flames of this love, to serve thee for a heart, and

to comfort thee to the last moment of thy life Its heat will not abate, and thou wilt find it eased only in some measure by Zleeding.' " (pp. 180-181.) This is the outward fact alleged. I add from another book, also sold on the spot (" Paray-le- Monial," par L6on Aubineau), another revelation of Margaret Mary Alacoque, which conveys part at least of the moral -significance of the event:—" On June 17, 1689, I heard these words, ' Make known to the son of my sacred heart,' speaking

of our King [Louis XIV.] 'that he shall obtain his spiritual birth and eternal glory by the consecration that he will make of himself to my adorable heart, which will triumph over his heart, and by his means over the heart of the great ones of the earth. It will reign in his palace, be painted on his standards, and graven on his arms, to make him victorious over all his enemies,' in beating down before his feet those proud and haughty heads, to make him triumphant over all the enemies of the Holy Church" (pp. 63-68.) This revelation is, it must be remem- bered, represented as the expression of the mind of the Most Holy and Most Merciful towards the perfidious conqueror of Strasburg, the head of the Court of Versailles, the author of the Dragonnades and of the devastation of the Palatinate.

I do not enter on the question whether it is orthodox to speak of the deification of a material substance, or whether Roman Catholics who agree with Benedict XIV. can accept as infallible the contradictory dogma on this subject of Pius IX. But it may be worth while, in these days of fashionable exaggeration, to call attention to the fact that the form of religion which is recom- mended by the present rulers of the Roman Catholic Church as the best remedy for the evils of France, Spain, Italy, and England, is the assertion of an anatomical operation performed on a sick nun in the seventeenth century, and of the Divine approbation of the conduct and character of Louis X1V.—I am, Sir, &c.,

A TRAVELLER.