[897] John vii. 30.
[898] John i. 5.
[899] Eph. v. 19; Col. iii. 16.
[900] The meaning of the phrase is explained in De Cons. v. 2: "This will be a returning to our own country, when we leave the country of our bodies and reach the realm of spirits—I mean our God, the Mighty Spirit, the great abiding place of the spirits of the blest" (Lewis's translation, slightly altered). Cp. Serm. ii., § 6.
[901] A.F.M. say, "after the fifty-fourth year of his age." St. Bernard appears to be right. For Malachy was made bishop of Connor when he was just entering his thirtieth year (§ 16), i.e. about his twenty-ninth birthday. A.F.M. give the date as 1124. But if he was over fifty-four on November 2, 1148 (§ 75), his twenty-ninth birthday would have been before November 1123. If he was under fifty-four on that day it may have been in 1124.
[902] Luke xvi. 22.
[903] Acts vii. 60 (vg.).
[904] Luke iv. 20.
[905] Esth. xiii. 17 (vg.); xvi. 21 (vg.); cp. John xvi. 20, etc.
[906] Cp. Amos viii. 10.