[Transcriber's note: This production is based on https://archive.org/details/fiveminutesermon02unknuoft/page/n6 Pages 46 and 47 are missing from the image file. Additional citations indicated by "USCCB", are based on the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops Bible found at http://usccb.org/bible/books-of-the-bible.]

Five-minute Sermons
for
Low Masses
on
All Sundays Of The Year,

By
Priests Of The Congregation Of St. Paul.
Volume II.
New York:
The Catholic Publication Society Co.,
9 Barclay Street.
London: Burns & Oates.
1886

Copyright, 1886, by I. T. Hecker.
All Rights Reserved.

Preface.

Repeated and urgent requests from both clergy and laity have induced the publication of this second volume of Five-Minute Sermons. They have all been preached in the Church of St. Paul the Apostle, New York, and published weekly in the Catholic Review. Choice has been made of such as are really little sermons, since there are many excellent manuals from which purely doctrinal instructions may be prepared. Yet they all contain, it is hoped, a solid basis of doctrine plainly put and appropriately illustrated. The main object is, however, to edify, to quicken the moral perceptions, and to move in a reasonable degree the religious emotions.

Nearly all of these sermons may serve as skeletons for discourses of greater length; a fuller treatment of the topics, by means of familiar illustrations and more copious extracts from Scripture, will fit them for use at High Mass, or on Sunday evenings.

Contents.

First Sunday of Advent:
Sermon I. The Spirit of Advent, [14] Sermon II. The Graces of Advent, [16] Sermon III. St. John the Baptist, [18]
Second Sunday of Advent:
Sermon IV. Fair-weather Christians, [23] Sermon V. The Immaculate Conception, [25] Sermon VI. The Total Abstinence Pledge, [28]
Third Sunday of Advent:
Sermon VII. Bad Company, [32] Sermon VIII. The Voice in the Wilderness, [34] Sermon IX. Penance, [37]
Fourth Sunday of Advent:
Sermon X. Fruits of Penance, [41] Sermon XI. Preparation for Christmas, [43] Sermon XII. Christmas Eve, [46]
Sunday within the Octave of Christmas:
Sermon XIII. Christmas Joy, [50] Sermon XIV. New Year's Eve, [52] Sermon XV. The Feast of the Holy Innocents, [55]
The Epiphany:
Sermon XVI. The Testimony of the Spirit, [59] Sermon XVII. Following God's Guidance, [63]

First Sunday after Epiphany:
Sermon XVIII. The Christian Home, [67] Sermon XIX. Jesus Teaching in the Temple, [70] Sermon XX. How our Saviour takes away Sin, [72]
Second Sunday after Epiphany:
Sermon XXI. Profanity, [76] Sermon XXII. The Sin of Cursing, [79] Sermon XXIII. Reverence for the Name of God, [82]
Third Sunday after Epiphany:
Sermon XXIV. Practical Faith, [86] Sermon XXV. Living up to our Faith, [89] Sermon XXVI. The Sacrament of Matrimony, [91]
Fourth Sunday after Epiphany:
Sermon XXVII. The Ingratitude of Children, [95] Sermon XXVIII. Love of our Neighbor, [98]
Fifth Sunday after Epiphany:
Sermon XXIX. The Christian Family, [102] Sermon XXX. The Duty of Good Example, [105] Sermon XXXI. Bearing one another's Burdens, [108]
Sixth Sunday after Epiphany:
Sermon XXXII. How to make Converts, [113] Sermon XXXIII. The Blessings of the Faith, [116] Sermon XXXIV. Good Example as a means of
making Converts, [118]
Septuagesima Sunday:
Sermon XXXV. Bodily Mortification, [123] Sermon XXXVI. Sudden Death, [126] Sermon XXXVII Life's Purpose, [129]

Sexagesima Sunday:
Sermon XXXVIII. Perseverance after a Mission, [134] Sermon XXXIX. Good Seed but no Harvest, [137] Sermon XL. The Uses of Temptation, [140]
Quinquagesima Sunday:
Sermon XLI. The Qualities of Christian Charity, [144] Sermon XLII. Delay of Repentance, [147] Sermon XLIII. Lenten Obligations, [150]
First Sunday of Lent:
Sermon XLIV. The Merit of Pasting and Abstinence, [154] Sermon XLV. Difficulties of Fasting, [157] Sermon XLVI. Wasted Opportunities, [159]
Second Sunday of Lent:
Sermon XLVII. The Joy of Penance, [164] Sermon XLVIII. Christian Perfection not Impossible, [167] Sermon XLIX. The Divine Presence in our Churches, [170]
Third Sunday of Lent:
Sermon L. Immodest Language, [174] Sermon LI. Honorary Church-Members, [177] Sermon LII. Half-hearted Christians, [180]
Fourth Sunday of Lent:
Sermon LIII. The Happiness of True Penance, [184] Sermon LIV. Liberty of Spirit, [187] Sermon LV. The Lust of the Eyes, [190]
Passion Sunday:
Sermon LVI. The Precious Blood, [194] Sermon LVII. Christ's Passion, [197] Sermon LVIII. Dangerous Companionship, [199]

Palm Sunday:
Sermon LIX. Hardness of Heart, [203] Sermon LX. Spirit of Holy Week, [205]
Easter Sunday:
Sermon LXI. Easter Joy, [210] Sermon LXII. Easter and the Love of God, [212] Sermon LXIII. The Triumph of Christ, [215]
Low Sunday:
Sermon LXIV. How to use God's Gifts, [219] Sermon LXV. The Christian's Peace, [222] Sermon LXVI. True and Lasting Peace, [224]
Second Sunday after Easter:
Sermon LXVII. The Good Shepherd, [229] Sermon LXVIII. Dead Faith, [232] Sermon LXIX. Suffering False Accusations, [234]
Third Sunday after Easter—
Feast of the Patronage of St. Joseph:
Sermon LXX. Devotion to St. Joseph, [240] Sermon LXXI. Christ and the Church, [242]
Fourth Sunday after Easter:
Sermon LXXII. Evil Conversation, [246] Sermon LXXIII. Temptation, [248]
Fifth Sunday after Easter:
Sermon LXXIV. Sins of the Tongue, [252] Sermon LXXV. Perseverance in Prayer, [255]
Sunday within the Octave of the Ascension:
Sermon LXXVI. After a Mission, [259] Sermon LXXVII. Bearing Witness for our Lord, [261] Sermon LXXVIII. The Indwelling of the Holy Spirit, [263]

Feast of Pentecost, or Whit-Sunday:
Sermon LXXIX. The Holy Ghost in the Church, [268] Sermon LXXX. The Guidance of the Holy Spirit, [271] Sermon LXXXI. The Easter Duty, [273]
Trinity Sunday:
Sermon LXXXII. The Divine Majesty, [277] Sermon LXXXIII. The Mystery of the Holy Trinity, [279] Sermon LXXXIV. The Divine Judgment, [282]
Second Sunday after Pentecost,
and Sunday within the Octave of Corpus Christi:
Sermon LXXXV. Holy Communion, [286] Sermon LXXXVI. The Sacred Heart of Jesus, [289] Sermon LXXXVII. Ingratitude, [291]
Third Sunday after Pentecost:
Sermon LXXXVIII. Sinful Amusements, [295] Sermon LXXXIX. Divine Providence, [297] Sermon XC. How to Bear Burdens, [300]
Fourth Sunday after Pentecost:
Sermon XCI. How to Suffer, [304] Sermon XCII. Good Works done in Mortal Sin, [306] Sermon XCIII. Fishing for Men, [309]
Fifth Sunday after Pentecost:
Sermon XCIV. Forgiveness of Injuries, [314] Sermon XCV. Feast of Sts. Peter and Paul, [316]
Sixth Sunday after Pentecost:
Sermon XCVI. The Divine Bounty, [321] Sermon XCVII. Feast of St. John the Baptist, [324] Sermon XCVIII. Idleness, [326]

Seventh Sunday after Pentecost:
Sermon XCIX. Mortal Sin the Death of the Soul, [330] Sermon C. False Prophets, [332] Sermon CI. The Last Sin, [334]
Eighth Sunday after Pentecost:
Sermon CII. Spirit and Flesh, [339] Sermon CIII. The Business of the Soul, [342] Sermon CIV. The Judgments of God, [344]
Ninth Sunday after Pentecost:
Sermon CV. Justice and Mercy, [349] Sermon CVI. Neglect of Divine Warnings, [351] Sermon CVII. Living from Day to Day, [354]
Tenth Sunday after Pentecost:
Sermon CVIII. Sympathy for Sinners, [358] Sermon CIX. Morning Prayers, [360] Sermon CX. Feast of St. Mary Magdalen, [363]
Eleventh Sunday after Pentecost:
Sermon CXI. Want of Confidence in God, [367] Sermon CXII. Devotion to the Blessed Virgin, [369] Sermon CXIII. Gratitude, [373]
Twelfth Sunday after Pentecost:
Sermon CXIV. The Good Samaritan, [377] Sermon CXV. Our Neighbors, [380] Sermon CXVI. Occasions of Sin, [382]
Thirteenth Sunday after Pentecost:
Sermon CXVII. Thanksgiving, [387] Sermon CXVIII. Shamelessness in Sinning, [389] Sermon CXIX. Dangers of Venial Sin, [392]

Fourteenth Sunday after Pentecost:
Sermon CXX. The Poverty of Christ, [396] Sermon CXXI. Brotherly Love, [399] Sermon CXXII. Religion for Week-Days, [401]
Fifteenth Sunday after Pentecost:
Sermon CXXIII. The Fruits of a Bad Life, [406] Sermon CXXIV. Sins of Parents, [408] Sermon CXXV. The Law of Charity, [411]
Sixteenth Sunday after Pentecost:
Sermon CXXVI. Christian Humility, [415] Sermon CXXVII. Vanity, [418] Sermon CXXVIII. Behavior in Church, [420]
Seventeenth Sunday after Pentecost:
Sermon CXXIX. Prayer for Sinners, [425] Sermon CXXX. The Christian Vocation, [427] Sermon CXXXI. Erroneous Views of Vocation, [430]
Eighteenth Sunday after Pentecost:
Sermon CXXXII. Presumption of God's Mercy, [435] Sermon CXXXIII. Drunkenness, [437] Sermon CXXXIV. The Dignity and Happiness of Obedience, [440]
Nineteenth Sunday after Pentecost:
Sermon CXXXV. Lying, [444] Sermon CXXXVI. Truthfulness [447] Sermon CXXXVII. White Lies, [449]
Twentieth Sunday after Pentecost:
Sermon CXXXVIII. Christian Marriage, [453] Sermon CXXXIX. Mortification of our Lower Nature, [455] Sermon CXL. The Value of Time, [458]

Twenty-first Sunday after Pentecost:
Sermon CXLI. Forgiveness of Injuries, [462] Sermon CXLII. Gossiping, [465] Sermon CXLIII. Mixed Marriages, [467]
Twenty-second Sunday after Pentecost:
Sermon CXLIV. Obedience to the Civil Authorities, [472] Sermon CXLV. Thanksgiving Day [475] Sermon CXLVI. The Communion of Saints, [477]
Twenty-third Sunday after Pentecost:
Sermon CXLVII. Mixed Marriages, [481] Sermon CXLVIII. Imitation of the Saints, [484] Sermon CXLIX. Heaven, [486]
Twenty-fourth or Last Sunday after Pentecost:
Sermon CL. Marrying out of the Church, [491] Sermon CLI. Joy in God's Service, [494] Sermon CLII. Forgive and be Forgiven, [497]

First Sunday of Advent.

Epistle.
Romans xiii. 11-14,
Brethren:
Know that it is now the hour for us to rise from sleep. For now our salvation is nearer than when we believed. The night is passed, and the day is at hand. Let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and put on the armor of light; let us walk honestly as in the day; not in rioting and drunkenness, not in chambering and impurities, not in contention and envy; but put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ.
Gospel.
St. Luke xxi. 25-33.
At that time Jesus said to his disciples:
There shall be signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars: and upon the earth distress of nations, by reason of the confusion of the roaring of the sea and of the waves, men withering away for fear, and expectation of what shall come upon the whole world. For the powers of heaven shall be moved: and then they shall see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with great power and majesty. But when these things begin to come to pass look up and lift up your heads: because your redemption is at hand. And he spoke to them a similitude. See the fig-tree, and all the trees: when they now shoot forth their fruit, you know that summer is nigh; so you also when you shall see these things come to pass, know that the kingdom of God is at hand. Amen I say to you, this generation shall not pass away, till all things be fulfilled. Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away.

Sermon I. The Spirit Of Advent.

It is now the hour for us to rise from sleep.
—Romans xiii. 11.

This life of ours is made up of beginnings. After the rest of the night we have on each succeeding day to begin again our round of work, and then comes the night again, when our work must be laid aside. So, too, does the life of our souls consist in great part of beginnings, though in the great work of saving our souls there should be no such thing as rest. This work must be unceasing, until that night comes wherein no man can work, the night of death, when our great Master shall demand of us an account of our labor. On this day, then, which is the beginning of the Church's year, it is well for us to pause and ask ourselves how we are fulfilling the task that is set before us. Are our souls asleep? Have our consciences been lulled into a false security concerning the state of our immortal souls? Are we careless or indifferent about the one thing needful for us—our soul's salvation?

To each and every one of us to-day come the warning words of the Apostle, "Brethren, know that it is now the hour for us to arise from sleep." Now is the time for us to shake off our slothfulness, to rouse ourselves from our dangerous state of idleness and inactivity, to cast off the works of darkness and clothe ourselves in the armor of light, to put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and, arrayed in the strength which he gives, to walk honestly as in the day. "The night is passed," says St. Paul. God grant that for each one of us the dark night of mortal sin may be for ever past and gone; that its terrible gloom may never again settle down upon our souls, shutting out the light of heaven, the pure and radiant light of God's grace. For "the day is at hand," the day of reckoning, the day of wrath and terror, when we shall all stand before the judgment-seat of Christ. The Church to-day warns us of the approach of that time. Year by year, day by day, hour by hour it is drawing nearer. "For now is our salvation nearer than when we believed."

Yes, our salvation if we have been faithful, or our eternal damnation if God's judgment overtake us in the state of mortal sin. Therefore it is that the Church, upon this first Sunday of Advent, lifts up her voice to warn us of the coming of our Lord, telling us of his near approach, and bidding us to prepare to meet him. Will you heed this warning, or will you still put off the day of your conversion to God? Beware! God's warning may be given you to-day for the last time. "Behold, now is the acceptable time"; "it is now the hour to rise from sleep." There is still time for you to turn from your sins and begin again to serve God. Perhaps you have tried before and then have fallen back into old ways and habits of sin. Begin again. We must always be beginning if we would make any progress. We must examine our consciences at the end of each day, and find out how we have offended God, make earnest resolutions for the morrow, and then begin each day with the determination to avoid the faults of the day before. This is a sure means of perseverance.

And this beginning of the Christian year is a good time to take a fresh start in the affairs of our souls. During Advent the Church brings to our minds the consideration of the four last things. Death and judgment, heaven or hell are awaiting us. Begin this day, then, as though it were to be your last day on earth, and on each succeeding day for the rest of your life keep up this practice. "For as lightning cometh out of the east, and appeareth even unto the west, so shall also the coming of the Son of Man be." "Let us therefore cast off the works of darkness" now at the beginning of this holy season. Drunkenness, impurity, contention, and envy are, alas! far too common amongst us. "Let them be not so much as named among you, as becometh saints," mindful of your high calling in Christ. Then when the Judge appears, he will find you ready to meet him. Having begun each day with the intention of serving God, you will then be ready and fit to begin that day which shall have no end in that heavenly city which "needeth not sun nor moon to shine in it; for the glory of the Lord hath enlightened it, and the Lamb is the lamp thereof."

Sermon II.
The Graces Of Advent.

The night is past, and the day is at hand.
Let us, therefore, cast off the works of darkness
and put on the armor of light.
Put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ.
—Epistle of the Day.

To-day, dear brethren, we enter upon the season of preparation for the coming of Jesus Christ. For "the night is past and the day is at hand." "The day-spring, the Brightness of the everlasting Light, the Sun of righteousness," is come "to give light to them that sit in darkness and in the shadow of death."

To give light to them that have been unfaithful to God's grace, to call them back—to turn them to a new life—this is the mission of our Saviour; and this is the call he makes upon us to-day—that we should return to him, "the Ruler of the house of Israel, who didst appear to Moses in the burning bush, and gave him the law in Sinai."

You, dear brethren, were taught that law when the first rays of the light of reason lit up your soul. God wrote it on your hearts; you heard it from your parents lips; your teachers bade you love it and keep it. But have you done so? Have you not become like those whom of old God taught, and who would not listen, but went after false gods, who bowed down before idols of gold and silver, of wood and clay?

Have you not bowed down like them when you preferred money-getting to serving God; when you were willing, for the sake of gold and silver, to risk the loss of your immortal souls? Have you not bowed down when you chose to gratify your lower instincts at the cost of your spiritual ruin? Have you not bowed down to idols of clay when you have steeped yourselves in drunkenness, in impurities, in the many sins of the flesh? Oh! surely you have need of the "wisdom that cometh out of the mouth of the Most High" to teach you "the way of prudence." Oh! surely you have need of "the Orient from on high," for you "sit in darkness and in the shadow of death."

But, dear brethren, "the night is past." "Let us, therefore, cast off the works of darkness"; "let us walk honestly." Oh! "put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ." "Behold Emmanuel, our King and Law giver," he for whom the nations sighed and their salvation, has come to save us—to save men whom he has made from the dust of the earth.

Dear brethren, shall we be slow to go to him who comes with healing for our immortal souls? Tell it out among the people, and say, "Behold, God our Saviour cometh. Emmanuel is his name, and his name is great. Behold, he is my God, and I will glorify him; my father's God, and I will exalt him. The Lord our Law-giver, the Lord our King, cometh to save us."

Begin this day to prepare for the joyous feast of Christmas. Cleanse your hearts by prayer and fasting; come to the sacraments and be washed in the blood of your Redeemer; come to his table and break the bread of true friendship, that the joy of your heart may be full when we shall celebrate that day of days, when the Word which "was made flesh dwelt among us." Truly "we have seen his glory," and "of his fulness we have all received." Let us never forget his mercy; let us remember "that it is now the hour for us to rise from sleep."

Sermon III.
St. John The Baptist.

The angel said to him: Fear not, Zachary,
for thy prayer is heard;
and thy wife Elizabeth shall bear thee a son,
and thou shalt call his name John;
and thou shalt have joy and gladness,
and many shall rejoice at his birth.
—Luke i. 13.

These words, my brethren, were spoken by the Angel Gabriel to Zachary, the father of St. John the Baptist, while he was engaged with his religious duties in the temple at Jerusalem. Before giving the account of the angel's visit St. Luke informs us that Zachary and his wife, Elizabeth, were both acceptable to God and obedient to the divine law. There are few who have received such commendation in the pages of Holy Scripture. It might have been surmised that Zachary led a good life, practising the virtues and avoiding the vices, since he belonged to the Jewish priesthood. Yet we find that his wife, Elizabeth, is mentioned as deserving equal praise with himself, for it is stated that "they were both just before God, walking in all the commandments and justifications of the Lord without blame."

Such is the brief account that St. Luke has given of the parents of St. John the Baptist. Though brief, it is enough to show that any son might well feel proud of parents such as they were—blameless in the sight of God. For many years they had lived together in the hill-country of Judea, conscientiously performing their duties, and cherishing the hope that they would be rewarded for their good actions. Like the rest of the Jews who remained faithful to the laws promulgated by Moses and the prophets, which God had made for Israel, they prayed earnestly for the coming of the Messias, the Orient from on high, who was ardently expected to descend from his throne in heaven in order to enlighten those in darkness and in the shadow of death, directing their steps into the way of peace. While serving God by strict fidelity to the commandments, they did not anticipate that an angel would be sent to visit them; they did not know until advanced in age that a son would be born to them who would be called the prophet of the Most High, the precursor of the son of David, appointed to prepare his ways.

That this blessing was unexpected is shown by the fact that Zachary hesitated to believe the message of the Angel Gabriel, and on account of this hesitation, this mistrust of the good tidings that God sent to him, he was deprived of the use of speech for several months. After the birth of St. John the Baptist his tongue was again endowed with the power to speak, and his words on that occasion, spoken under the influence of inspiration, have been preserved in the grand canticle known as the Benedictus, which is justly assigned to a prominent place in the Office of the Church.

These considerations enable us to perceive what sort of a home St. John the Baptist had while he remained with his aged parents. From the knowledge we have of them, there is no reason to think that they were deprived of anything requisite to make their home happy and comfortable. Early in life, however, St. John manifested a peculiar preference for the lonely desert. In a special manner he was sanctified before his birth, and received the gifts of the Holy Ghost in an extraordinary degree. It was not because his fellow-creatures had proved deceptive, nor because sad experience had taught him that the glittering charms of the world are transient and wither into dust, that he resolved to live like a hermit, separated from his relatives. Joyfully he abandoned his family privileges, with all that seems to make life among men pleasant, and went forth among the wild rocks in the mountain solitudes to live alone with God. Why was it that he made such a strange choice? The answer is, that God directed him to leave houses and lands, his home and kindred, and endowed him with the heroism needed for a solitary, penitential life. In obedience to the will of God, acting under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, he practised unusual mortification. He selected coarse raiment, made of camel's hair; he used a strange kind of food; he abstained entirely from the use of wine. By deeds of heroic penance, by extraordinary acts of self-denial, combined with the performance of his other duties, he advanced in the way of perfection. During this season of Advent we should invoke his intercession, and strive to remove the obstacles that impede the way of the Lord and the action of His grace in our sanctification.

Second Sunday of Advent.

Epistle.
Romans xv. 4-13.
Brethren:
What things soever were written, were written for our instruction; that through patience and the comfort of the Scriptures, we might have hope. Now the God of patience and of comfort grant you to be of one mind one towards another, according to Jesus Christ: that with one mind, and with one mouth, you may glorify God and the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Wherefore receive one another, as Christ also hath received you unto the honor of God. For I say that Christ Jesus was minister of the circumcision for the truth of God, to confirm the promises made to the fathers. But that the Gentiles are to glorify God for his mercy, as it is written: Therefore will I confess to thee, Lord, among the Gentiles, and will sing to thy name. And again he saith: Rejoice, ye Gentiles, with his people. And again: Praise the Lord, all ye Gentiles; and magnify him, all ye people. And again Isaias saith: There shall be a root of Jesse; and he that shall rise up to rule the Gentiles, in him the Gentiles shall hope. Now the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing: that you may abound in hope, and in the power of the Holy Ghost.
Gospel.
St. Matthew xi. 2-10.
At that time:
When John had heard in prison the works of Christ, sending two of his disciples he said to him: Art thou he that art to come, or look we for another? And Jesus making answer said to them: Go and relate to John what you have heard and seen. The blind see, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead rise again, the poor have the gospel preached to them. And blessed is he that shall not be scandalized in me. And when they went their way, Jesus began to say to the multitudes concerning John: What went you out into the desert to see? A reed shaken with the wind? But what went you out to see? A man clothed in soft garments? Behold they that are clothed in soft garments are in the houses of kings. But what went you out to see? A prophet? yea, I tell you, and more than a prophet. For this is he of whom it is written: Behold, I send my angel before thy face, who shall prepare thy way before thee.

Sermon IV.
Fair-Weather Christians.

What went you out into the desert to see?
A reed shaken with the wind?
—Gospel Of The Day.

Our Lord asked this question of his disciples, my brethren, regarding his precursor, St. John the Baptist, whom also they had followed in his time. "Why," said he, "did you take such trouble to see him? Why did you think so much of him? Was it because he was like a reed shaken by the wind? No, but because he was just the opposite of that. You thought highly of him, you honored him as I myself honor him, because he did not shake and tremble at the breath of popular opinion; because he was not afraid of the world, or of all the powers that are in it; because he only thought of God, and of his duty; of the work that he had been sent to do."

But would our Saviour be able to praise us so highly, my brethren, if he should come down now in our midst? Would he not say rather that we were indeed like reeds, turning to one side or another, according to the wind that happens to be blowing? I am afraid that he would have too good reason to find fault with the words and actions of many who call themselves Christians, an who even pass for pretty good ones.

Who are these people whom he would find fault with? There are plenty of them. They are what I should call fair-weather Christians. They go to church regularly, perhaps, and to the Sacraments, it may be, quite often; when they are with pious people they can be just as pious as anybody else. They say their prayers not only in church, but at home, too; they certainly try in a way to be good; sometimes at least they would not say or do anything wrong of their own accord. And when they are alone they do very well, too; they resist many temptations, and avoid a great deal of sin. They are not what one would call hypocrites; far from it; they have a good many virtues, within as well as on the outside.

But the trouble with them is that they have little or none of what is commonly called "backbone." Alone or in good company they are all right; but take a look at them on the street, in the shop or factory, at their work or their amusements with their associates, and they do not stand the test so well. They laugh at every vulgar, filthy, and impure word that any one else pretends to think is funny and wants them to laugh at, or if they do not laugh out right they give a miserable, cowardly smile. They hear something said about the faith which they know is a vile falsehood, but they say nothing in reply; perhaps they even allow that there is some truth in it. It takes a long while for any one to find out that they are Catholics who does not guess it by their names or know where they go to church; it takes a great deal longer to find out that they are supposed to be good ones.

Now, what is the reason of this contemptible sneaking and meanness in those who ought to be brave and generous soldiers of Christ? It is just one thing. These people do not love God enough to dare to displease any one else for his sake. Most of them have got pluck enough when something else is concerned. They would resent an insult to themselves; perhaps for years they have not been on speaking terms with many people on account of some trifling slight or injury. But when God's honor and love are concerned, the first breath of disapproval keeps them from standing up for him, as the reed bends with the gentlest breeze which strikes it.

Yes, that is the difficulty; these good people do not love God enough to stand up for him as all Christians worthy of the name should do. Let them think of this seriously. For if one does not love God enough to offend bad men for his sake, how can he love him above all things? And if one does not love God above all things, how can he be saved?

Sermon V.
The Immaculate Conception.

The beautiful feast of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin being so near at hand, let us consider it this morning. The doctrine of the Immaculate Conception, then, my dear brethren, is simply this: that our Blessed Lady, though the offspring merely of human parents, like the rest of us, and naturally liable to inherit original sin from them as we have inherited it from ours, was nevertheless by the special providence and decree of God entirely preserved from it.

She was preserved from it entirely, I say. This may be understood in two ways. First, it was never in her. It was not taken from her at the first moment of her existence, as it has been taken from us at baptism; no, it was not taken from her, for it was not in her even at that first moment.

Secondly, she was entirely saved from its effects, not partly, as we have been. None of its consequences remained in her, as I have said they do in us. No, she was as if there had never been such a thing; except that her Son willed that she should suffer together with him, on account of its being in us.

Now, my brethren, I hope you all understand this; for a great deal of nonsense is talked about this matter, especially by Protestants, most of whom have not the least idea what is meant by the Immaculate Conception of our Blessed Mother, and who yet object to it just as bitterly as if they did. They either confound it with her virginal motherhood, in which they themselves believe and yet seem to object to our believing it, or they accuse us of saying that she was divine like her Son, our Lord. If they would only examine they would find that what the Church teaches is simply this: that our Lady is a creature of God like ourselves, having no existence at all before the time of her Immaculate Conception; but that she is a pure and perfect creature, the most pure and perfect that God has ever made; immaculate, that is to say, spotless; free from any stain or imperfection, especially from the fatal stain of original sin. And that the reason why God made her so was that she was to be His own mother, than which no higher dignity can be conceived. If they object to this, let them do so; but let them at least know and say what they are objecting to.

Let us hope that some Protestants, at least, will not object to this doctrine when they understand it. But perhaps some of them may say: "This is all very good, but what right has the pope, or any one else at this late day, to make it a part of the Christian faith?" And it may be that even some Catholics will find the same difficulty.

I will answer this question now, though it is a little off of our present subject, on account of the prominence which has been given to it of late. The answer is simply this: The pope has not added any thing at all to the Christian faith in defining the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception. He has no more done so than the Council of Nicæa did in defining the doctrine of the Divinity of our Lord.

You remember, my brethren, perhaps, that from this council the Nicene Creed, which is said or sung at Mass, takes its name. It was called together to condemn the errors of some who maintained that our Lord was not truly God. And it solemnly defined that he was. Very well; was that adding anything to the Christian faith? Of course not; it was simply declaring what the Christian faith was, to put an end to the doubts which were arising about it. That is plain enough, is it not?

Now what was it that the pope did in defining the Immaculate Conception? Exactly the same thing. He defined what the faith really was to put an end to doubts about it. The only difference was, that those who opposed or doubted the Immaculate Conception of our Lady were not so much to blame as those who opposed or doubted the Divinity of our Lord, or even in many cases not at all to blame. It was not such a prominent part of the faith, and had been more obscured by time. But the action of the pope and the council in the two cases was just the same.

Sermon VI.
The Total Abstinence Pledge.

The angel said to him: Fear not, Zachary, for thy prayer is heard; and thy wife Elizabeth shall bear thee a son, and thou shalt call his name John; and thou shalt have joy and gladness, and many shall rejoice at his birth. For he shall be great before the Lord; and shall drink no wine nor strong drink; and he shall be filled with the Holy Ghost even from his mother's womb; and he shall convert many of the children of Israel to the Lord their God. —Luke i. 13-16.

My brethren, the message brought from heaven by an angel deserves careful examination, because the angel acts as a messenger from God. A little reflection will convince us that the message delivered to Zachary by the Angel Gabriel contained a very peculiar prediction concerning the total abstinence from wine and strong drink, which St. John the Baptist practised throughout his life. In other matters no special directions were given regulating his acts of self-denial. No mention is made of his raiment in the angel's message; neither was any information communicated in regard to his choice of food. Hence there is a special significance in the declaration which the Angel Gabriel put forth when he predicted that St. John the Baptist would abstain from the use of wine and strong drink. This passage of Holy Scripture, therefore, furnishes a strong proof in favor of total abstinence. In the Book of Leviticus, x. 9, and in the Book of Numbers, vi. 2, as well as in the writings of the prophet Jeremias, xxxv. 61-69, there are texts to be found which show that total abstinence was recognized long before the birth of St. John the Baptist. But on account of his intimate relations with the Holy Family, and on account of the extraordinary approval bestowed upon him by our Lord, by which he was canonized, so to speak, before his death, St. John the Baptist is the most prominent of all the total abstainers mentioned in the Bible.

Considered as an antidote, an effectual safeguard against the degrading vice of intemperance, the practice of total abstinence is now defended not only by examples from Holy Writ, but also on arguments based on common sense and experience. It is regarded as the heroic form of the virtue of temperance, which may be meritoriously practised by those who have never been addicted to drunkenness. The determination to renounce even the lawful use of strong drink is especially commendable as a means of self-preservation for young men. More than any other class of society, they are assailed by temptations to excessive drinking; and by unwise and unscrupulous friends they are often taught to regard drunkenness as a pardonable weakness. Undoubtedly, then, it is a wise act for a young man at the present time to erect a strong barrier, a wall of defence, to protect himself from a most dangerous and destructive vice. For occasional and habitual drunkards, however, who wish to reform and live in state of friendship with God, total abstinence is not a mere act of heroism, but something indispensably necessary. The pledge for them is simply a firm purpose of amendment, a manifestation of their desire to avoid that which they know has been for them a proximate occasion of sin. In many cases total abstinence, though it may be a stern remedy, is the only sure preventive of intemperance, and is imperatively demanded for the spiritual and temporal welfare of numerous families. The man who has offended God and debased himself by drunkenness cannot obtain an unconditional pardon. To obtain forgiveness from God he must have a sorrow for past offences, a determination to do better in the future, and a willingness to atone for his sins. What he must do in the future to secure his safety can be ascertained by examining his past experience. By the application of these principles, especially in the tribunal of penance, the growth of virtue is fostered and the progress of vice is retarded. In this way the Church proclaims to each individual the great lessons which St. John taught by the banks of the Jordan. To all of her children she repeats during this season of Advent the admonition uttered long ago by the voice crying in the wilderness: Prepare ye the way of the Lord; make straight his paths.

Third Sunday of Advent.

Epistle.
Philippians iv. 4-7.
Rejoice in the Lord always: again, I say, rejoice. Let your modesty be known to all men: The Lord is nigh. Be not solicitous about anything: but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your petitions be made known to God. And the peace of God which surpasseth all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.
Gospel.
St. John i. 19-28.
At that time:
The Jews sent from Jerusalem priests and levites to John, to ask him: Who art thou? And he confessed, and did not deny: and he confessed: I am not the Christ. And they asked him: What then? Art thou Elias? And he said: I am not. Art thou the prophet? And he answered: No. They said therefore unto him: Who art thou, that we may give an answer to them that sent us? what sayest thou of thyself? He said: I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness, Make straight the way of the Lord, as said the prophet Isaias. And they that were sent, were of the Pharisees. And they asked him, and said to him: Why then dost thou baptize, if thou be not Christ, nor Elias, nor the prophet? John answered them, saying: I baptize with water; but there hath stood one in the midst of you, whom you know not. The same is he that shall come after me, who is preferred before me: the latchet of whose shoe I am not worthy to loose. These things were done in Bethania beyond the Jordan, where John was baptizing.

Sermon VII.
Bad Company.

In one of his epistles (2 Timothy iii. 1-5) St. Paul speaks of dangerous times for Christians, when "men shall be lovers of themselves, covetous, haughty, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, wicked, without affection, without peace, slanderers, incontinent, unmerciful, without kindness, traitors, stubborn, puffed up, and lovers of pleasure more than of God; having an appearance, indeed, of piety, but denying the power thereof."

At the present time there is in the world, especially in populous cities, no small number of men who have the combination of vices so forcibly described by the Apostle St. Paul. In some places they may be in the majority, and have the power to enforce their depraved views on their righteous neighbors. By their slanders they can revile virtue; by their blasphemies they endeavor to bring odium on God's plan of ruling the world. Their hatred of religion is manifested not only in the regulation of personal affairs, but also in their business methods, and in their utterances on public questions. If these stubborn, puffed-up lovers of sensuality, traitors to God, who are without affection and without peace, could be assigned to a reservation in some corner of the world, their range of influence would be kept within a definite area. But they are like their master the devil, roaming from place to place, every where seeking the destruction of men's souls.

Hence it is an important matter, and especially for Catholic young men, to consider the injurious results of the unavoidable contact with those in the world who are more or less infected with erroneous views, or have become the victims of debasing vices. Such characters are to be found in nearly every department of business. It often happens that a young man, when he begins to work, is obliged to enter a sphere beyond the control of his parents, where he will be in close proximity to blatant infidels, who claim an intellectual superiority on account of their unbelief. Business engagements may compel a Catholic young man to be within hearing of shallow sceptics, who take every opportunity to ask questions—not to get information, but merely to ventilate their contempt for all religious teaching. These hostile influences have produced in many of our young men very deplorable results. By a sort of indifference, resembling the dry rot, they have allowed themselves to get into a very unsafe state of mind regarding their duties to God.

Enlightened self-interest should prompt every young man to keep a sharp lookout for all that is injurious to him. He may have the best religious training, together with the virtuous surroundings of a good home, but these will not be sufficient without his own personal activity. If he selects by preference heretics and freethinkers as the companions of his leisure hours; if he is so puffed up with the idea of his own ability that he can find no Catholic associates worthy of his notice; if he is so confident of his own strength that he habitually neglects to receive Holy Communion, he has become a traitor to the King of Heaven. Our Lord wants his followers to attain the highest standard of human excellence. To those who love him and fearlessly keep his commandments he gives the courage which belongs to true manliness; and their piety has power to surmount every obstacle on the way to heaven.

Sermon VIII.
The Voice In The Wilderness.

Make straight the way of the Lord.
—John i. 23.

This expression, dear brethren, is no new one in Holy Scripture, and it fell on no unaccustomed ears. More than seven hundred years before Jesus Christ the great prophet Isaias spoke about "the voice of one crying in the desert: Make straight in the wilderness the paths of our God." Again, three hundred years later, another prophet, Malachias, wrote: "Behold, I send my angel, and he shall prepare the way before my face." Again, about six months before Jesus Christ was born, an aged priest, Zacharias, took his own little child, who was only eight days old, in his arms, and in the beautiful hymn of the Benedictus says of him: "Thou, child, shalt be called the prophet of the Most High; for thou shalt go before the face of the Lord to prepare his way."

You know, dear brethren, who this little child was, who was the burden of all this prophetic song. You know it was St. John the Baptist. And you know, too, the mighty work he had to do.

And now, in this morning's Gospel, it is St. John the Baptist himself speaking: "I am the voice of one crying in the wilderness. Make straight the way of the Lord."

Now, how is this "way of the Lord" to be "made straight" in the spiritual desert of our hearts? Well, the prophet Isaias tells us that there are five things which we have to do in this matter: The first, "every valley shall be exalted"; the second, "every mountain and hill made low"; the third, "the crooked become straight"; the fourth, "the rough ways plain"; and the fifth, "the glory of the Lord revealed."

He begins, you see, by telling us that the valleys must be exalted. And don't you think that these "valleys" are a very good likeness of all the things which we have left undone in our lives? All these abysses of idleness, of neglect, of carelessness, of indifference, which lie in the wilderness of our sinful past, these have to be filled up. Christ our Lord cannot come to us so long as there are such great holes in the road. We must set to work and "exalt" them by throwing into our religious life all the pains and care and diligence and faithfulness we can.

Then there are the "mountains and hills," which must be made low. For oftentimes, when the Evil One sees that a man cannot be altogether discouraged from serving God, then he turns round and persuades him that he is serving God very well indeed; that he may be proud to think how often he has resisted temptation, how often overcome difficulties, how often done great things for Christ's sake.

So arise the vast mountains of pride and self-will and self-conceit. But be sure our Lord will not climb over these to come to you. You must first get them out of the way. They must be made low, if you would enter into life: for it is written, "God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace to the humble."

Then the "crooked places"—I suppose you know what they are—all crooked ways of lying and deceit and untruthfulness. We call a truthful person straightforward, because he does not turn about to this side or to that in what he says, but goes straight to the truth. Well, whatever is not straightforward is crooked, and the crooked path is one which Christ will not walk in. So we must try every day to go on more and more straightforwardly with what God would have us do, according to the saying in the Proverbs, "Let thine eyes look straight on, … decline not to the right hand, nor to the left, and the Lord will bring forward thy ways in peace."

Once more: there are the "rough places." Rough tempers, rough words, and rough manners; such feelings as spite, and anger, and ill nature, and revenge; as cutting and cruel words, and quarrelling and fighting. Such rough places must be made very plain and smooth if the road is to be fitted for the feet of our meek and gentle Lord.

And, lastly: "The glory of the Lord shall be revealed." So shall it indeed be to those that are found worthy to enter into the kingdom of heaven. But what that glory is who shall tell? St. John could not. "Beloved," he says, "we are now the sons of God; and it hath not yet appeared what we shall be." St. Paul could not, for when he was caught up into heaven he tells us that he heard words "which it is not granted to man to utter." Isaias could not. "From the beginning of the world," he says, "they have not heard; the eye hath not seen, O God! besides thee, what things thou hast prepared for them that wait for thee." All we know is, that this glory shall be very great. And if we serve God faithfully here we shall one day see it, and shall one day know. We shall awake after his likeness and be satisfied therewith.

Sermon IX.
Penance.

For now the axe is laid to the root of the tree.
—Matthew. iii. 10.

St. John Baptist, my brethren, as you know, retired to the desert at an early age, and led there an austere and solitary life, eating coarse and unpalatable food, abstaining from wine and strong drink, cutting off all unnecessary enjoyments of the senses, and giving himself up to prayer and meditation. What was his special motive in this extraordinary course of penance? It was that he might worthily prepare himself for the office which had been as signed to him—that of disposing men's hearts to recognize and receive our Lord when he should come as their Redeemer. It was by penance alone that those hearts could be so disposed, and he was to be specially the apostle of penance; hence he had to give a signal example of it in his own person; for preaching, however eloquent, is of comparatively little effect unless the preacher practises the virtues to which he exhorts others; and the power of his preaching will be in proportion to the illustration which it finds in his own life.

Therefore, though it was not necessary for St. John, sanctified as he was even before his birth, to cut off all other sources of pleasure in order to fill his soul with the joy that comes from the love of God, and though he had no sins to atone for, for his life had been free from blame, still he took up this course of penance in order to show forth even more plainly than by his words the need that his hearers would have, in their measure, to do likewise, if they were to share in the redemption to come.

For now, as he told them, the axe was to be laid to the root of the tree. God's chosen people, the Jews, whom he had specially watched over for so many years, whom he had often chastised and corrected, and had brought back to his favor when they profited by his visitations, they were no more to be thus dealt with. The tree which had sprung from the seed of Abraham was not to be allowed any longer to stand with merely some lopping and pruning; no, now, if it still would not bring forth the good fruit of a thorough and genuine penance, it was to be cut down and cast into the fire. It was the supreme test which was approaching; if the people whom he had chosen would stand it, they should still retain their place; otherwise they should be rejected as a nation, and only those among them who would truly turn to their God should be saved.

My brethren, St. John is still preaching this doctrine of penance to us. The Church of the New Law is not on her trial, as was that of the Old; no, her Divine Founder has promised that she shall endure to the end of the world. But we, each one of us, have to take the words of his precursor to ourselves. We are called by the name of Christ; yes, but that will not save us. St. John said to the Jews: "Think not to say within yourselves, we have Abraham for our father." So we are not to think ourselves as belonging to Christ, unless we have cast out from our hearts and souls what puts a fatal obstacle to his entrance into them. His axe will be laid to our root also, unless we on our part lay the axe to the root of our sins.

What is this root of sin in us? It is just this desire of sensual indulgence against which St. John in his life as well as in his doctrine came to make the strongest of protests. If we wish not to bring forth the fruits of sin, we must lay the axe to its root. We must practise penance and mortification, not indeed always to the degree in which he practised it, but at least so far as it is necessary that we may keep the law of God. We must not dally with those things which are dangerous to us, innocent though they may be to others. Our Lord has told us that if even our eyes and hands themselves are an occasion of sin we must pluck them out or cut them off; if, then, there be anything we enjoy, but can really do with out, we must not make a pretext of the good use which we might make of it if it really is plain that we will abuse it, but must resolutely cast it away. If we would avoid the bitter fruit which will naturally grow we must lay the axe to the root of the tree.

Fourth Sunday of Advent.

Epistle.
1 Corinthians iv. 1-5.
Brethren:
Let a man so look upon us as the ministers of Christ, and the dispensers of the mysteries of God. Here now it is required among the dispensers, that a man be found faithful. But as to me it is a thing of the least account to be judged by you or by human judgment: but neither do I judge my own self. For I am not conscious to myself of anything, yet in this am I not justified: but he that judgeth me, is the Lord. Therefore judge not before the time; until the Lord come, who both will bring to light the hidden things of darkness, and will make manifest the counsels of the hearts: and then shall every man have praise from God.
Gospel.
St. Luke iii. 1-6.
Now in the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Cæsar, Pontius Pilate being governor of Judea, and Herod being tetrarch of Galilee, and Philip his brother tetrarch of Iturea and the country of Trachonitis, and Lysanias tetrarch of Abilina, under the high-priests Annas and Caiphas: the word of the Lord came to John, the son of Zachary, in the desert. And he came into all the country about the Jordan, preaching the baptism of penance for the remission of sins: as it is written in the book of the words of Isaias the prophet: A voice of one crying in the wilderness: Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make his paths straight. Every valley shall be filled: and every mountain and hill shall be brought low: and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough ways plain And all flesh shall see the salvation of God.

Sermon X.
Fruits Of Penance.

Bring forth therefore fruit worthy of penance.
—Matthew. iii. 8.

St. John Baptist in these words, my dear brethren, teaches us, as he taught those who came to him, that penance, if it be true and genuine, must bring forth its proper fruit. Every repentance, if it be sincere, every confession, if it be really good, must be followed by a good life. If any confession is not so followed, it must needs be a delusion; though it should have been accompanied by torrents of tears, and the sins exposed as perfectly as God himself knows them.

And, moreover, the tree which brings forth the good fruit should continue to bear it; it should not only for a few days or weeks give this proof that it is what it should be, and then have him who planted it come to seek fruit on it and find none.

Yet how often do we find sinners who come to confession with what would seem to be the best dispositions very soon back just where they were before! How discouraging it is to the priest to find the fruits of a mission which seemed to be so promising reduced down almost to nothing for so many who seemed to profit by it; to spend long hours, to wear away his strength, instructing, exhorting, and absolving, and to have so little return from his labor for God and for souls!

What is the reason of all this failure of what began so well? Of course it is partly that the tree planted by the grace of God in the Sacrament of Penance was not tended afterwards. Its life was not supplied to it, as it should have been, by the frequent renewal of confession and reception of Holy Communion. But there was a difficulty further back than that; a want of something at the start, which, indeed, was the reason that the sacraments were not regularly received. What was this difficulty? It was a want of a thorough earnestness; of an understanding of the greatness of the work that was undertaken, and of a real determination to sacrifice everything in order to accomplish it.

It is a great undertaking which one commits one's self to in coming to reconcile himself with God after a sinful life. The task is not merely to examine his conscience, to tell his sins plainly and without concealment, and to feel heartily sorry for them; that is a great part of it, but by no means all. There is a great deal left, and that is to leave them for good; to quit company with them for ever. And this is not such an easy matter. When, one has lived so that his whole pleasure has been in sin, in drunkenness and debauchery, in filthy conversation, in bad actions and bad thoughts, it will perhaps seem almost like giving up life itself to part with them. The penitent sinner has not all at once become an angel; his whole nature has been warped and twisted out of place by sin, and, though the guilt of the sin has gone, the effects are there; his soul, like a limb out of joint, has much to suffer before it can get set right again.

A man must make up his mind, when he comes to serve God after serving the devil, that he has got an uphill road to travel; if he does not, he will not persevere. Labor and suffering, self-denial and mortification, he has to face these manfully. His consolation, his happiness, as well as his strength, have got to come from God. If one understands this he will seek that happiness and that strength again where he first found it—in confession and Communion. But if he does not, if he thinks that all will go right now without any more trouble, his old nature and habits will claim their dues, and he will soon be back in his sins again.

Yes, we must cut right down to the root of sin if we wish to bring forth the fruits of penance, and must make up our minds to suffer the pain that this cutting will bring. Occasions of sin must be avoided, appetites must be denied, contempt and ridicule must be faced; we must pray, we must struggle, we must resist even to blood; we must put our former life to death, that Christ may live in us. For, as St. Paul tells us: "If we be dead with him, we shall live also with him; if we suffer, we shall also reign with him." There is no other way.

Let us not shrink from this pain and this conflict; that would be the greatest mistake of all. But let us understand it, that when the trial comes, as it surely will, it may not find us unprepared.

Sermon XI.
Preparation For Christmas.

Prepare ye the way of the Lord.
—Matthew iii. 3

We are such unprofitable servants that we have much to do to prepare the way of the Lord in our hearts. If we have done all that is required of us we are, nevertheless, unprofitable servants, and unless we believe this we are spiritually blind.

The better the opinion which we have of ourselves the worse is our spiritual condition. The good opinion, than which nothing can be more false, which we have of ourselves prepares the way for a fall into sin.

The way of the Lord, the way of salvation, is found by humility, which always leads to penance.

The holy Council of Trent says that "the whole Christian life ought to be a perpetual penance." How few realize this, because they think they are what they really are not! Now, if penance be the life of the Christian in the state of grace, it must be a crying necessity for one who is in the state of sin. What food is to the starving man penance is to the soul in this unhappy state.

Penance is the preparation required of us for the coming feast of Christmas. This is the lesson of Advent. For four weeks the purple vestments, the prayers and ceremonies of the church, and the fasts on Fridays have been appealing to our eyes and ears, if not to our hearts, to prepare in this way. The wise man views the obligation which he is under to do penance as very urgent. He banishes timidity and cowardice and puts his hand to the plough with courage and confidence.

The foolish man hates to hear of penance, because his passions have got the mastery. When asked to keep the commandments and fulfil the duties of his state, he says: "I cannot." To bridle his passions and give up bad habits seem to him too hard a task.

Now, if you should consult any man who has done penance faithfully, so as to persevere in God's grace for years, he would say the foolish man's view of penance is a false one. God is more merciful and lenient than we imagine. It is the devil who dresses up penance as something repulsive.

In urging upon you to prepare for Christmas by penance my first words are: "Take courage." "Taste and see how sweet the Lord is."

St. Leo says "the cause of the reparation which we make for our sins is the mercy of God." It is our way of loving him who first loved us. How well the prophet Isaias describes this penance when he says: "The Lord says, I will lead the blind in the way in which they have not known; in the ways which they have not known I will make them walk. I will change their darkness into light, their crooked ways into ways that are straight, I will accomplish these words in them and will not abandon them. I am found," says God, "by those not seeking me, and I have appeared openly to those who have not asked for me."

We see by these words how much the grace of God assists us, and how God mercifully forgets our past sins when we do penance sincerely.

But our penance must be sincere. We must "bring forth fruit worthy of penance," says St. John the Baptist, the precursor of our Lord.

It matters not if we are "the offspring of vipers," as the holy Baptist called the multitude who approached him for penance, provided "we lay the axe to the root of the tree."

Now, the words of the prophet, instead of repelling sinners, attracted them. The publicans who were farthest from God came and asked: "Master, what shall we do?" And they received the gentle …

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… which should be our chief one at Christmas, now that the days of innocent childhood are past. We do not hate sin from our hearts; we even cling to it; at best we make compromises with it. Mortal sin, perhaps, we try to avoid, but venial faults do not trouble us; this is the best that can be said for most of what may be called good Christians. And how many there are who come outwardly to worship before the manger of Bethlehem, but with hearts entirely turned from their God, who lies there in cold and poverty for their sakes, pleading with them for his sake to give up their sinful habits! How many go on offending him at this holy time, with out repentance, almost without remorse!

Hatred of sin; yes, that is what we want if we would be happy at Christmas. And now is the time to learn to hate it. For surely the love of God comes easier to us now, if we will only try to obtain it, than at any other time, unless, perhaps, on Good Friday, when we see the sacrifice now begun accomplished. And the love of God is the hatred of sin, which is the only thing which he hates, the one cause of all his pain.

Do not let this Christmas go by, then, my dear brethren, without the joy which should come with it. Do not let this opportunity pass of acquiring that love of our dear Lord which will make you really hate and trample under foot all that offends him, and which will make you rejoice beyond measure that he has put it in your power to do so. Pray, now, at least that you may learn to love him; that you may enter into the joy of knowing not merely that he can save you, but that he has saved you from your sins.

Sunday within the Octave of Christmas.

Epistle.
Galatians iv. 1-7.
Brethren:
As long as the heir is a child, he differeth nothing from a servant, though he be lord of all: but is under tutors and governors until the time appointed by the father: even so we, when we were children, were in bondage under the elements of the world. But when the fulness of the time was come, God sent his Son, made of a woman, made under the law: that he might redeem those who were under the law; that we might receive the adoption of sons. And because you are sons, God hath sent the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying: Abba, Father. Therefore now he is no more a servant, but a son. And if a son, an heir also through God.
Gospel.
St. Luke ii. 33-40.
At that time:
Joseph, and Mary the mother of Jesus, were wondering at these things, which were spoken concerning him. And Simeon blessed them, and said to Mary his mother: Behold this child is set for the ruin, and for the resurrection of many in Israel, and for a sign which shall be contradicted. And thy own soul a sword shall pierce, that out of many hearts thoughts may be revealed. And there was a prophetess, called Anna, the daughter of Phanuel, of the tribe of Aser; she was far advanced in years, and had lived with her husband seven years from her virginity. And she was a widow until fourscore and four years; who departed not from the temple, by fastings and prayers serving night and day. Now she at the same hour coming in, gave praise to the Lord; and spoke of him to all that looked for the redemption of Israel. And after they had performed all things according to the law of the Lord, they returned into Galilee, to their own city, Nazareth. And the child grew, and waxed strong, full of wisdom: and the grace of God was in him.

Sermon XIII.
Christmas Joy.

Behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy.
—Luke ii. 10.

There is hardly any one, my brethren, who lives where this feast of Christmas is kept who does not feel a special joy in it. Why do we say that "Christmas comes but once a year," if not because we feel that there is nothing else that can take its place? We look forward to it months beforehand; when it comes, we keep it as long as we can and let it go with regret. Why is it that it has such a warm place in our hearts?

Is it merely that it is by common consent a great holiday; that it is a breathing-place in the bustle and hurry of life, a time for meeting our friends, for giving and receiving tokens of affection and regard, a time of feasting and making merry? This has some thing to do with it, but it is not all. For if this were all it would be possible to make by law a holiday like this, which no one has ever succeeded in doing. The early settlers of this country, in a mistaken zeal against church festivals, endeavored to make a substitute for Christmas; but the failure of their attempt has driven their descendants back to the observance of this feast, though not to the church which gives it to them.

Yes, we all feel that the joy of Christmas is a thing not made to order. It comes from a source which lies in the very mystery which we commemorate; and, even though we do not meditate or reflect on it, the stream from this source diffuses itself through our life and sweetens all the other joys which come at this time. And they come because of it; we make merry outwardly because we are, and have cause to be glad at heart.

And what is this cause and source of joy? Is it because Christ our Lord has come to save us from sin and eternal ruin? No, it is not simply that; for we celebrate our salvation, our redemption, our ransom from the power of death and hell more specially at Easter than now. That is the festival of our Lord's triumph and our deliverance; it should and does open heaven to our souls, and give them a promise and almost a foretaste of it. But still it does not come home to our hearts as this beautiful time of Christmas does.

And no wonder; for at Easter we cannot but feel that our Lord, though triumphant and glorious, and promising us a share in his triumph and glory, still is separated from us. He has passed the portals of death, he has risen from the grave, he has put on immortality. We cannot follow him where he has gone till we have freed ourselves from all the stains of earth, till we have been purified and washed by penance in his Precious Blood. He has passed from mortal to immortal life, and it is the raising of the mortal to the immortal, of earth to heaven, that Easter celebrates. And this, though indeed it is the object of all our hope, is so high that we, sinners that we are, cannot fully make it our present joy. But Christmas is heaven come down to earth. It is the God of heaven condescending to us; taking our weakness upon him, sympathizing with us, and asking us for sympathy and love. He hides his majesty and glory; he veils the splendor of his face; he puts aside all that could distinguish him from ourselves. He invites us to come to him with out fear; he asks only that, sinful though we be, we should try to love him as he loves us. Christmas is the sight of the Creator begging for the love of his creatures, and humbling himself that he may obtain it; that is the reason why it goes to the heart of all who have any heart to give.

Let us then, in this happy season, enter into this joy which is the cause of all the rest which we have, which is so easy for us, which has come to our doors, and only asks that it should be let in. But let the love which goes with it be not a mere passing feeling, to bear no fruit in our lives. Let it bring us indeed to him who has come down to us; let our joy be crowned and perfected by a real return of our hearts to him who has done so much to win them; let us receive him in deed and in truth in his holy sacraments, and never let him go again.

Sermon XIV.
New Year's Eve.

Be sober.
2 Timothy. iv. 5.

Brethren, those two little words of St. Paul in the epistle of to-day contain excellent advice, especially to-day, on the eve of the new year. How much woe it would hinder, how many families it would save from ruin, how many souls from hell, could they be made a common watchword in any large city in this country during the year 1883!

But do you wish me to tell you the easiest way to be sober? It is to take the total abstinence pledge. What does a man do when he takes the pledge? Just what the farmer does who, seeing that his fence is about high enough to keep the cattle out of the grain, makes it just one rail higher; for he knows that there may be one beast wilder than the rest who will leap over an ordinary fence. So a prudent man, seeing the ravages of the vice of intemperance among his friends, dreads some taint of it hidden in his own nature; dreads some moment of weakness during the passing of the convivial glass, or during some depression of spirits or foolish mirth. So he puts all danger out of the question by the pledge. For if there be danger from an inherited appetite or from a convivial disposition, or from prosperity or adversity, there is no mistake about this: the man who does not drink a single drop cannot drink too much.

But again: what does a man do who takes the pledge? Just what the kind mother does who wants to induce her sick child to take the bitter medicine—she tastes it herself. The pledge is taken by a man who may not need it for his own sake, but who loves another who does need it. It is taken in order to give good example. It is not only a preventive for one's self, but for those who may be led by our influence. It is one great means that fathers and mothers use in order to save their children from the demon of drunkenness. Oh! how pleasing to God are those parents who practise total abstinence by way of good example! Oh! how blessed is the home from which intoxicating drink has been utterly banished! How wise are those parents who thus teach their children that intoxicating drink, though it may be used with innocence, must always be used with caution! Children reared in such a home know well enough how to avoid treating, frequenting saloons, and convivial habits of every sort. Such parents not only obey the Apostle's injunction, "Be sober," but do the very best possible thing to induce those whom they love to obey it also.

But once more: what does a man do who takes the pledge? He offers something to God in atonement for the sin of drunkenness. And herein is the best use of the pledge. It combines all the other good purposes of it. It puts the top rail of double safety on the fence that keeps the beast out of the garden of the soul; it sets up the strong inducement of good example; but more than all it consecrates everything to God by uniting it to our Lord's thirst on the cross.

Brethren, why was it that, when our Lord suffered agony of soul, he complained in such words as would be apt to move the drunkard more than any other sinner: "O my Father! if it be possible, let this cup pass from me." "O my Father! if this cup may not pass away from me except I drink it, thy will be done." Is there no special significance in his choice of those words? And listen to the account St. John gives of our Lord's physical agony: "Jesus, knowing that all things were accomplished that the Scriptures might be fulfilled, saith, I thirst! … And they filled a sponge with vinegar and put it to his mouth. When Jesus, therefore, had received the vinegar he said: It is finished! And he bowed his head and gave up the ghost." Thirst was the only bodily torment he complained of. Had he no special purpose in this?

So the man who takes the pledge suffers thirst in union with Christ and for the love of God to atone for sins of drunkenness.

That is why it does not settle the matter against taking the pledge when one can say he does not need it. Our Lord had no need to suffer thirst. He could say, I own all the cool fountains in the world, and all the strengthening wine of the world is mine, and I might drink and never need to thirst for my own sake; but I love the poor drunkard, and for his sake I will die thirsting for a cool drink and tasting only bitter vinegar. And the Catholic total abstainer says: "O Lord! permit me to bear thee company in thy bitter thirst."

Sermon XV.
The Feast Of The Holy Innocents.

And Herod sending killed all the men-children that were in Bethlehem and in all the confines thereof from two years old and younger.
—Matthew ii. 16

Who is not shocked by the recital of Herod's cruelty? Carried away by pride and ambition, and the fear of losing what he had usurped, this tyrant tried to put to death the King of Kings by the murder of the holy innocents. Who in our day are like Herod? Those who murder innocent children. Fiendish mothers, desiring, perhaps, to cover their shame or to escape the labor of bearing and bringing up children, take the lives of their unborn infants. Those, too, who knowingly sell or give or advise the use of drugs calculated to destroy the life of the unborn—all such commit Herod's crime. Yet how often this crime is nowadays committed!

Woe to these wretches! Woe to the Herod-like physicians who, for any reason whatsoever, directly prescribe or use means to prevent child-birth! Herod met his punishment in a bad death, and his soul went into a hell of eternal torments. What must the murderers of little children expect?

But I have another cruelty to cry out against. It is that of those who destroy the "little ones of Christ" by neglecting to instruct their little children in the way of salvation. The law of God requires that children as soon as they have the use of reason, which is about the age of seven years, should know the elements of the Christian doctrine, should know the necessity of avoiding sin, and should be taught the practice of virtue; also, that children, as soon as they are able to sufficiently profit by receiving Holy Communion, should do so. No child should ever be allowed to go beyond the age of twelve years without having made First Communion. Many can receive First Communion at nine or ten years of age, and perhaps younger. Confirmation should be received as soon as First Communion. Parents are guilty before God if they do not require their children to keep the commandments of God and his church from their earliest years until they leave the parents charge. How many parents do their little ones a deadly injury by not sending them regularly to Sunday-school! What is it to bring up children to burn in the flames of hell for ever, as some Christian parents do? It is simply soul-murder. It deserves no better name. Have you been guilty of soul-murder? If so, hasten to repair the evil as much as you can. You can never do it wholly, but you must do what you can. There is yet another cruelty towards "the little ones" of Christ. It is to scandalize them by your bad example. Instead of learning by your example to adore our Blessed Lord, to love and reverence his Blessed Mother and the saints, they, perhaps, learn to take God's holy name in vain. Your falsehoods teach them to lie; your dishonesty teaches them to steal. Your anger and quarrelling teach them to be stubborn and disobedient. Ah! Christian parents, be careful how you hang this millstone of scandalizing the little ones of Christ about your necks.

Finally, you destroy your children by not correcting their faults. You wink at the evil which they do. You fail to punish them, regardless of God's honor and their good. If you do punish them, it is not "correction in the Lord," but you do it to gratify your satanic rage. Some fathers and mothers are not worthy of the name. The dignity and responsibility of fathers and mothers are very great. See that you are faithful to the obligations which belong to your high and holy state.

The Epiphany.

Epistle.
Isaias lx. 1-6.
Arise, be enlightened, O Jerusalem: for thy light is come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee. For behold darkness shall cover the earth, and a mist the people: but the Lord shall arise upon thee, and his glory shall be seen upon thee. And the Gentiles shall walk in thy light, and kings in the brightness of thy rising. Lift up thy eyes round about, and see: all these are gathered together, they are come to thee: thy sons shall come from afar, and thy daughters shall rise up at thy side. Then shalt thou see and abound, and thy heart shall wonder and be enlarged; when the multitude of the sea shall be converted to thee, the strength of the Gentiles shall come to thee. The multitude of camels shall cover thee, the dromedaries of Madian and Epha: all they from Saba shall come, bringing gold and frankincense: and showing forth praise to the Lord.
Gospel.
St. Matthew. ii. 1-12.
When Jesus, therefore, was born in Bethlehem of Juda, in the days of King Herod, behold, there came wise men from the East to Jerusalem, saying: Where is he that is born King of the Jews? For we have seen his star in the East, and we are come to adore him. And Herod the King hearing this was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him: and assembling together all the chief priests and Scribes of the people, he inquired of them where Christ should be born. But they said to him, In Bethlehem of Juda; for so it is written by the prophet: "And thou Bethlehem, the land of Juda, art not the least among the princes of Juda: for out of thee shall come forth the ruler who shall rule my people Israel." Then Herod, privately calling the wise men, inquired diligently of them the time of the star's appearing to them; and sending them into Bethlehem, said: Go and search diligently after the child, and when you have found him, bring me word again, that I also may come and adore him. And when they had heard the king, they went their way; and behold, the star which they had seen in the East went before them, until it came and stood over where the child was. And seeing the star, they rejoiced with exceeding great joy. And going into the house, they found the child with Mary his mother, and falling down, they adored him; and opening their treasures, they offered him gifts; gold, frankincense, and myrrh. And having received an answer in sleep that they should not return to Herod, they went back another way into their own country.

Sermon XVI.
The Testimony Of The Spirit.

For whosoever are led by the Spirit of God
they are the Sons of God.
—Romans viii. 14.

The end of our pilgrimage, like that of the three wise men, my brethren, is union with our Lord. Of course union with God, through his power and his being present everywhere, always exists, whether we are his friends or not. But the state of grace is the union of love. By that union God rules our souls. By that union the Holy Spirit of God, the third person of the most Holy Trinity, really dwells within us. In the state of grace we are brought into loving contact with the divine Spirit. Now the Apostle, in the words of our text, wishes to teach us one effect of that wonderful union. "For the Spirit himself giveth testimony to our spirit that we are the sons of God." That is to say, when the Holy Spirit enters into your heart he announces his coming, he assures you of his friendship, he excites within you a sentiment of filial affection for your Heavenly Father. How could it be otherwise? Could God be long in our hearts and we be altogether ignorant of it? Of course he does not take away the natural fickleness of our minds; the star sometimes shines faintly, or even for a while disappears from view. God does not reveal himself as he is; he does not interfere at all with his external work in the holy church; he does not substitute his interior action on the soul for that exterior action of visible authority and sacramental symbols. It is, indeed, by means of this external order that the Holy Spirit enters into our hearts; it is, besides, only by means of the church's divine marks, her divine testimony, her divine influence in the sacraments, that we can be quite sure that Almighty God has come down into our souls. Yet the Holy Spirit really has a secret career within us. "Deep calleth unto deep"; that is, the infinite love of God calls into life our little love. He has his inner church in our souls, so to speak; or rather he brings into his spiritual and hidden temple all that is outside, spiritualizes the external order, joins the purely mental with the sacramental, and, having set our faces in the right direction and started our feet moving in the right road, he sets us to thinking right, he stirs up noble aspirations, he purifies our feelings, and finally gives us testimony that it is really himself, the Spirit of God, who has thus been at work making our inner life such as befits the sons of God.

Now, my brethren, as I said before, this testimony of God within us is not like the splendors of Paradise bursting upon the soul; nor is it so very plain as to be able to stand alone without the external criterion of his church as a testimony of God's friendship, except now and then in the case of some great saint. Yet there are many things in our inner life that, if we study them over a little, show that God has been acting upon us. What else is that wonder of the world called the faith of Catholics? Who else but the Spirit of God could give such power to believe very mysterious truths, such a stability to wavering minds, such a humility of belief to proud minds? And what except divine love could be as sweet as the taste the soul enjoys in the reception of the sacraments? Call to mind the utter transformation of soul that so often takes place at First Communion; remember the flood of divine influence at your Christian marriage; remember how after that death-bed scene your broken heart was cured of its despair when you turned to God; remember how at missions or during seasons of penance, or at one or other festival, it seemed to you that heaven was beginning before its time. All this is God's work on your life. The tender emotion at hearing the divine promises, the loving regret for sin, the joy of forgiveness, the imagination filled—plainly by no human means—with images of celestial peace, the understanding as clear of doubts as heaven of clouds, the will strong and easily able to keep good resolutions, sometimes the very body sharing the lightness and vigor of the soul—what is all this but the embrace of the Holy Spirit? And if one says he does not feel it, and yet hopes he is in the state of grace, I answer that he will not be long deprived of it. Or it may be he is tepid; his soul is not able to feel any more than a hand benumbed with cold; his ear not hearing because his attention is too much fixed on the voices of the world to hear the voice of the Holy Spirit. His eye is too much dazzled by the false glitter of the world to catch sight of the star that leads to our Lord's feet.

Sermon XVII.
Following God's Guidance.

Be ye, therefore, followers of God,
as most dear children.
—Ephesians. v. 1.

My dear brethren, these are not words of counsel or good advice; they are words of command, written by St. Paul. This command is to follow God, and to follow him as most dear children, obediently as the Magi did of old. What is it to follow God? It is to do at least as much as we do when we follow any one great man. How do we act then? We seek to be with him a great deal. We listen to his every word. We do as he does. We adopt his views of things. We repeat what he teaches. Neither do we dare to differ from him, for fear that people will say that we have no sense; nor do we venture to act in any manner opposed to his ways of doing. In a few words, a man who is followed is the leader in fashion, in taste, and style. Everybody approves his ways, and imitates them. His friends have also the friendship of the world, simply because they are his friends. Any one whom he approves and recommends is listened to and followed because he has recommended him. If we want to follow God, he does not really require, outwardly, any more than men require of us to follow them.

But how can we do this?

First: Seek to be with God a great deal. Where is he, that we may find him? God is everywhere, and is always found by looking for him and seeking for him diligently in prayer; for prayer keeps us near to God and God near to us. And he is always on the altar: hear Mass not only on Sundays but now and then on week days; visit the Blessed Sacrament.

Secondly: Listen to his every word. God speaks to our souls in prayer, not with a voice like the voice of a man, but in his own sweet and quiet way. We must listen attentively to hear the gentle words of God, not with our outward ears of the body, but with the ability to hear that is within our souls; the ability of the soul to hear the voice of a spirit speaking to our spirit. God also speaks to us through his Holy Word in the Sacred Scriptures, in the Epistle and Gospel set apart for each Sunday of the year, in the writings of holy men and women, in the teachings of Christian parents and friends. But the most important way in which God has taught, and continues to teach us all, is by means of his church. When we listen to her words, in sermons and other instructions, we hear the Word of God.

Thirdly: Do as God does. Try to be like him, and him alone. Take care to do always the thing that is right. Try hard to be loving, merciful, forgiving, and gentle to all, even your enemies. When we have anything to do, we must say, Would God do this way or that way? When we meet with cruel treatment from others, with ingratitude and base injustice from those we love, we must say at once, How does God treat those who do these things? How does he treat me, notwithstanding my many, many sins? I shall go and do to these bad people as he has done to me. I shall even bless them, as he has blessed me.

Lastly: If we want to follow God, at least as well as we follow a great man whom we have made a leader among us, we are sure to honor his friends, and obey those he sends to us in his name. Who are these? Not only all good people, but especially our pastors and spiritual directors. The pastor or parish priest is a man sent by God to make sure of the success of God's work in his parish. Any one who follows God in that parish unites heart and soul with his priest to help him carry out his plans. If any one wants to get the greatest amount of merit for his good deeds, he is sure to get it by following first these plans. For the priest stands as a father among his children. He knows the good and the bad, the rich and the poor. He knows what is best for each. He is the best adviser as to what ought to be done, and as to the way it is to be done. In charities he is certainly the best leader. Private works and charities are good, it is true; but the first duty, after one's own necessities are cared for, is to follow the order of God, in aiding the parish work through the parish priest and his assistants. We may safely say that one act done for God, in union with those put over us by him, is worth in heaven, and here also, many good works done simply because we like to do them our own way.

To follow God, then, is to follow as dear children. We must consent to be led by God in all things connected with duty, just as little children are led by their fathers and mothers. We must take care, at least, that we follow his lead, and not show more honor to others than we do to him.

First Sunday after Epiphany.

Epistle.
Romans xii. 1-5.
Brethren:
I beseech you, by the mercy of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, pleasing to God, your reasonable service. And be not conformed to this world: but be reformed in the newness of your mind, that you may prove what is the good and the acceptable, and the perfect will of God. For I say, through the grace that is given me, to all that are among you, not to be more wise than it behooveth to be wise, but to be wise unto sobriety, and according as God hath divided to every one the measure of faith. For as in one body we have many members, but all the members have not the same office: so we being many are one body in Christ, and each one members one of another in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Gospel.
St. Luke ii. 42-52.
When Jesus was twelve years old, they went up to Jerusalem according to the custom of the feast, and after they had fulfilled the days, when they returned, the child Jesus remained in Jerusalem; and his parents knew it not. And thinking that he was in the company, they came a day's journey, and sought him among their kinsfolks and acquaintance. And not finding him, they returned into Jerusalem, seeking him. And it came to pass, that after three days they found him in the temple, sitting in the midst of the doctors, hearing them and asking them questions. And all that heard him were astonished at his wisdom and his answers. And seeing him, they wondered. And his mother said to him: Son, why hast thou done so to us? behold thy father and I have sought thee sorrowing. And he said to them: How is it that you sought me? did you not know that I must be about the things that are my Father's? And they understood not the word that he spoke unto them. And he went down with them, and came to Nazareth: and was subject to them. And his mother kept all these words in her heart. And Jesus increased in wisdom and age, and grace with God and men.

Sermon XVIII.
The Christian Home.

He went down with them and came to Nazareth,
and was subject to them. …
And Jesus advanced in wisdom and age, and grace
with God and men.
—Gospel of the Day.

In these few words, my brethren, the sacred writer raises the veil that conceals the mysteries of our Lord's hidden life, and gives us an insight into the domestic concerns of the Holy Family at Nazareth. Jesus lived with Mary and Joseph. He was obedient and subject to them, and so he advanced in age and wisdom and grace with God and men. The door of the holy house is opened to us, but only for a moment, so that we might get a glimpse of the domestic life of a model family. Joseph, the father, day by day works at his trade to support the family. He rises in the morning; gives his soul to God in prayer. He toils through the day. He comes home at night to enjoy his rest in the company of Jesus and Mary. He meets with trials, but he is patient; he is tempted, but he sins not; he leads a busy life, but he still finds time to pray. Mary, the mother, tends the household duties, with care and precision, and by her sweet, kind ways diffuses an air of peace and contentment throughout the home. Jesus, the child, is affectionate and submissive to his parents in everything. Here is the model of a true Christian home. Its ground work is the love of God; it is surrounded by an atmosphere of virtue, and to its members it is the holiest and dearest spot on earth. Such should our homes be.

The true Christian home is to society what the sanctuary is to the church of God. The parents are the priests in this sanctuary. It was God who ordained them priests when they stood before the altar with clasped hands and promised that they would be faithful to each other while life lasts. The Blessed Sacrament of this sanctuary is the Sacrament of Matrimony. It is the great treasure-house of supernatural strength to the married couple.

The perpetual presence of our Lord in this sanctuary is by his grace, which is never wanting.

The altar in this sanctuary is the hearthstone around which the family gathers. The communion-rail in this sanctuary is the family table, from which are dispensed the necessities of life.

There is about the sanctuary in the church of God an atmosphere of piety and reverence. It has a sanctity that no stranger dare violate; it has a privacy which no one but he who has a right dare invade. Such an atmosphere should be about the sanctuary of home. A priest would never allow a heretic or an infidel to sit in the sanctuary of God. He would never allow a corrupt man to stand on the altar of God. Take care, then, Christian parents, how you violate the sanctity of your homes. Take care what heretical or infidel books you allow to pass the gate of that sanctuary. Take care what bad newspapers you allow within its sacred precincts. Take care of the persons whom you allow to stand around your family altar. It is one thing, you know, to be obliged to meet a man in every-day life; it is a far different thing to invite him to your home, and permit him to violate its sanctity.

It is the duty of a priest on the altar of God, by his good example, to edify his flock; to stand at all times before his people a bright, shining light of Christian virtues. So, too, it is your duty, priests at the family altar, to be a model of all virtues to your children, so that they might learn from you what it is to be a Christian. Would it not be horrible for a man to come in on the altar and utter repeated curses? Would it not be fearful to see him stagger up to the altar of God in the state of intoxication? It happened once while Mass was going on, during the Elevation, while all heads were bowed in humble adoration, a drunken man rushed into the church, and in a loud voice uttered a horrible oath. It made the hearts of the good Catholic people stand still, and their blood ran cold in their veins. Is it any the less horrible for a father to come home intoxicated to the household sanctuary, or a mother, when anything goes wrong in the house, to give vent to her wrath in harsh language and sometimes even cursing?

See to it, then, dear parents; make your homes holy places—real sanctuaries, where you can do your duty as priests of our All-Holy God. Keep from them all evil influences, so that they might be places where even the Child Jesus would not be ashamed to dwell.

Sermon XIX.
Jesus Teaching In The Temple.

And not finding him,
they returned into Jerusalem, seeking him.
—Luke ii. 45

The Gospel of to-day tells us, my brethren, how our Blessed Lady and St. Joseph lost Jesus on their way home from Jerusalem, where they had gone with him to keep the feast of the pasch, and how in great distress they returned to the city in search of him. What fears and anxieties must have filled their minds as they thought of the many enemies which he had among the rulers of the people, jealous of his promised kingdom, and of the harm which they would try to do him if they recognized him for the child whom Herod had sought to destroy! And how perplexed Mary and Joseph must have been that he who had hitherto saved himself by their protection should at this tender age abandon them and remove himself from their care! Had they not shown enough love and care for him? Had they proved themselves unworthy of him? Surely it could not be his purpose when so young to begin his great work. Would he not at least have told them if such had been his plan?

No, our Lord did not propose to begin his mission then; for, though he was indeed God, he was also then a child, and that mission was not a child's work. But he did wish to show them that his great work even then filled his heart and soul; that the fire of love for us, which brought him to the cross, was consuming him even in childhood. "Did you not know," he said to them when they found him, "that I must be about my Father's business?" "How is it that you sought me?" "You might have known," he seems to say, "that, if I were not with you, I must be in the temple speaking to my people of their God."

He also wished to give them an opportunity of merit by showing the love of God which filled their souls, too. For their grief was not the common grief of parents who have lost a child, great as that trouble is. It was the loss of the Divine Presence which affected them beyond measure. God had been with them for all those years as never with any one else, and now he had left them, they could not tell why or for how long. They would not have spared him for an hour, even to their kinsfolk and friends, with whom they thought he was, except for charity; and now he had left them, perhaps for the rest of their lives, which were worth nothing without him.

Would that we loved God, my brethren, as they loved him; that he were the light and consolation of our lives, as he was of theirs! Let us think of this as we reflect on their pain and anguish in that weary search for the visible presence of him whose grace was, after all, always in their souls. How is it with us? Would we care for this presence which they so bitterly missed? Would it not, perhaps, even be a painful restraint? Do we care, as it is, to be near Jesus? Is his presence in the Blessed Sacrament of the altar a consolation to us? We revere that real Presence of our Lord, but do we love it? If so, why do we not seek it more?

Do we even care for his presence by grace in our souls, which they always had in its fulness, and never dimmed by the shadow of sin? To lose that, had it been possible, would have been a thousand deaths to them; what is it to us? How easily do we lose that grace; how little do we care to regain it!

Oh! let us at least imitate our Blessed Mother and her Holy Spouse as far as this. If we do not love to be with Jesus as they did, let us at least seek to have him with us by his grace. If we have lost him, let us seek him, and not be weary till we find him; let us not rest till he comes again to our souls, never to leave them again.

Sermon XX.
How Our Saviour Takes Away Sin.

Behold the Lamb of God,
behold him who taketh away the sins of the world.
—St. John i. 29.

After our Blessed Lord was baptized by St. John the Baptist, beloved brethren, he retired into the desert, where he remained forty days in prayer and fasting. At the end of this time he directed his steps towards the river Jordan, where John was baptizing. Here a large concourse of the Jewish people had assembled to listen to the preaching of the forerunner of Christ. In the midst of these St. John, inspired by the spirit of God, and professing his deep and ardent faith, testified of our Lord that he is the Lamb of God, and that it is he who taketh away the sins of the world.

What a glorious testimony this, and how cheerfully received by the fervent Christian! Have you ever pondered over these beautiful words, and made them the subject of your meditation? Have you ever tried to find out their true meaning, and thus make them profitable to your souls? Yes, truly, Jesus Christ is the Lamb of God. He is the Lamb slain from the beginning of the world. For you and for me he voluntarily left the bosom of his Father, and lowered and even debased himself by assuming a nature like our own. For us he endured the sufferings and privations of his childhood; for us he sent up many heartfelt prayers to God the Father before the beginning of his public life; for us he labored and preached; for us he suffered the ingratitude of his disciples, the ignominies of the Jews, the insults of the soldiers, the hardships of the journey to Calvary, and, finally, ended his torments on the cross, with the cry "Consummatum est—It is finished." This, and much more, did our Blessed Lord gladly undergo for us all. And how have you, dear brethren, requited such infinite love? Fathers, are you solicitous for the little household which Almighty God himself has so fondly entrusted to your care? Then are you imitators of the patience and endurance of your Saviour during his bitter passion. Mothers, do you strive to make yourselves patterns of the Christian virtues of gentleness and forbearance? Then do you imitate the example of your Lord in bearing the defects of others and treating them with kindness and compassion. Oh! how watchful would we not be, dear brethren, could we but understand the infinite love our Lord Jesus Christ manifested for us during his life on earth! But St. John not only gave testimony to our Lord being the Lamb of God, but he further testified that it is he who takes away the sins of the world. He did not come simply to announce to the world the divine mission which he received from the Father; he also came to heal the infirmities of our souls by imparting to them the abundance of his grace. This office he performed himself during his mortal life on earth. He it was that purified the soul of Mary Magdalene and enriched it with sanctifying grace. It was he who gave the living water of eternal life to the sinful Samaritan woman. And what our Lord did for these and many others, beloved brethren, he is now effecting in the midst of us. It is not necessary to remind you of how our Lord chose a small band of apostles, and made them the beginning of his church; how he bestowed upon them and their successors the unheard-of and marvellous power of forgiving sins. Yes, brethren, the bishops and priests of the Catholic Church are the visible representatives of Jesus Christ; they are the comfort of the afflicted, the strength of the weak; they have an efficacious remedy for those who are living in the state of mortal sin; by pronouncing the words of absolution they restore to the penitent and contrite sinner his lost inheritance of sonship, and make him an heir of the kingdom of heaven. Oh! how thankful we should be for the mercy and goodness of our God! What a tender love we ought to cherish for the Church, the Bride without spot! What respect is not due to those who hold the place of Christ in our behalf! How sufficiently prize the inestimable blessing of the tribunal of penance! Let us remember and meditate upon those three precious graces, beloved brethren, that they may be the source of sweet joy to us now, and the earnest of a happy eternity hereafter.

Second Sunday after Epiphany.
Feast Of The Holy Name Of Jesus.

Epistle.
Romans xii. 6-16.
Having gifts different, according to the grace that is given us, whether prophecy, according to the proportion of faith, or ministry in ministering; or he that teacheth, in teaching; he that exhorteth, in exhorting; he that giveth with simplicity; he that ruleth with solicitude; he that showeth mercy with cheerfulness. Love without dissimulation. Hating that which is evil, adhering to that which is good; loving one another with brotherly love; in honor preventing one another; in solicitude not slothful; in spirit fervent; serving the Lord; rejoicing in hope; patient in tribulation; instant in prayer; communicating to the necessities of the saints; pursuing hospitality. Bless them that persecute you; bless, and curse not. Rejoice with them that rejoice; weep with them that weep; being of one mind one to another; not high-minded, but condescending to the humble.
Epistle of the Feast.
Acts iv. 8-12.
Then Peter, filled with the Holy Ghost, said to them: Ye rulers of the people and ancients, hear: If we this day are examined concerning the good deed done to the infirm man, by what means he hath been made whole; be it known to you all, and to all the people of Israel, that in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified, whom God hath raised from the dead, even by him doth this man stand here before you whole. This is the stone which was rejected by you, builders; which is become the head of the corner; nor is there salvation in any other. For there is no other name under heaven given to men, whereby we must be saved.

Gospel.
St. John ii. 1-11.
At that time:
There was a marriage in Cana of Galilee: and the mother of Jesus was there. And Jesus also was invited, and his disciples, to the marriage. And the wine failing, the mother of Jesus saith to him: They have no wine. And Jesus saith to her: Woman, what is that to me and to thee? my hour is not yet come. His mother said to the waiters: Whatsoever he shall say to you, do ye. Now, there were set there six water-pots of stone, according to the manner of the purifying of the Jews, containing two or three measures apiece. Jesus saith to them: Fill the water-pots with water. And they filled them up to the brim. And Jesus saith to them: Draw out now and carry to the chief steward of the feast. And they carried it. And when the chief steward had tasted the water made wine, and knew not whence it was, but the waiters knew who had drawn the water, the chief steward calleth the bridegroom, and saith to him: Every man at first setteth forth good wine, and when men have well drunk, then that which is worse: but thou hast kept the good wine until now. This beginning of miracles did Jesus in Cana of Galilee, and he manifested his glory, and his disciples believed in him.
Gospel Of The Feast.
St. Luke ii. 21.
At that time:
After eight days were accomplished that the child should be circumcised, his name was called Jesus, which was called by the Angel, before he was conceived in the womb.

Sermon XXI.
Profanity.

To-day, my dear brethren, as you know, the church celebrates the festival of the Holy Name of Jesus; of that name which is above all other names, at which every knee shall bow, and every tongue shall confess the glory of him to whom this great name belongs.

Yes, the holy church does indeed reverence this holy name, and we, her children, do not fail to honor it. Following a pious custom, we bow the head when it is mentioned, and it is to be hoped that we also make at the same time with our hearts an act of homage to him who bears it, and thank him for all that he has done for us.

And yet, strange to say, some of these very Christians who pay to the name of their God and Saviour, at least outwardly, this tribute of honor on certain accustomed occasions seem to take at other times a pleasure in trampling it, if I may so speak, in the very dirt under their feet. To see them in church, you would think that they would hardly dare even to take at all upon their own lips this holy name which they hear from those of the priest; but outside, on the street, and even, it may be, in their own homes, they show a horrible familiarity with it. This name above all names is coupled with every foolish, passionate, and even filthy word which the devil can put into their hearts and on their tongues.

Do I say this is strange? Ah! that is far too weak a word. To one who will stop and consider, even for a moment, it seems incredible, impossible that a Christian, one who believes himself to have been created by the great God whose name he bears, and to have been redeemed by him from the power of the devil, at the cost of his own Precious Blood; who has knelt in prayer before him; who has received from him the pardon of his sins; who has received him in his real and true Presence on his tongue in the sacrament which he has instituted with such infinite condescension and love—I say it seems impossible, intolerable, inconceivable, that this wretched worm of the earth, on whom so many and such surpassing favors have been showered by the Divine Goodness, should, with this very tongue on which his God has rested, outrage and insult the name of this God, and that the name which above all others tells how good and merciful he has been. It seems as if even the infinite patience and love which our Lord has for us could not brook this indignity, this spittle cast in his face, not as at the time of his Passion, by one who did not know who he was, but by those who from childhood have known full well all the truths of their holy faith, and who well understand that it is the Divine Majesty which they despise.

Indeed, my brethren, believe me, even the infidel shudders when he hears in passing along the street the holy name of our Lord God and Saviour Jesus Christ, of him whom even he respects above all other men that have ever lived on earth, thus outraged, profaned, and defiled by those who profess to believe him to be far more than the best and greatest of men; who invoke him as the One who sitteth on the Eternal Throne, before whom the angels veil their faces, to whom is due benediction and honor and glory and power for ever and ever. Even the infidel, I say, shudders; and he wonders how it can be, if what Christians believe is true, that the God whom they thus insult suffers them to live.

But you may say it is a habit you have got; that is the excuse which seems good to you, and which you seem to think that God ought to accept. Sup-pose you had a habit of spitting on your neighbor's face or clothes by preference to any other place, how long would he endure it? It is a habit, yes; but it is one which you can amend and get rid of altogether, and which you are most urgently and seriously bound to get rid of, if you would not have to answer for it at the bar of him whom this insufferable habit outrages and defies. Take care, take care, take care, I warn and beseech you, for God's sake, for the sake of those who hear you, and for your own sake, that this habit come to an end. Watch, keep guard against it; punish yourself should you even inadvertently fall into it, that your offended God may not have to take the punishment into his own hands.

Sermon XXII.
The Sin Of Cursing.

Bless them that persecute you;
bless, and curse not.
—Romans. xii. 14.

These words are found in the epistle appointed for the second Sunday after Epiphany, and were read by the church long before the institution of the Feast of the Holy Name of Jesus, which is now always celebrated on this day, yet they contain a lesson most appropriate to this feast. For there is no way in which God's most holy name, which to-day is especially set before us for our veneration, is more frequently or more grossly dishonored than by cursing. To curse is to call down God's judgment or vengeance upon our fellow-men, and its worst form is when the holy and awful name of God or our Lord is made use of. Unhappily the fault has become so common, even among those who think themselves good Catholics, that its grievous nature is seldom realized or, perhaps, even thought of.

The habit is often acquired in childhood, frequently from the example of parents, themselves given to cursing. Like all early-acquired habits, it grows stronger and more deeply-rooted with advancing years, until at last the habit is made the excuse for the sin. It is a vain excuse. You are guilty before God of mortal sin if you have formed this habit, and you are guilty of remaining in the state of mortal sin if you make no effort to break yourself of it. It will do you no good to go to confession and accuse yourself of cursing, unless you are contrite and follow the advice which your confessor gives you, and really make an earnest resolution and a serious effort to overcome this scandalous habit.

You should begin by making each morning a resolution to avoid cursing throughout the day, begging God's assistance for your efforts. If, during the day, you fall inadvertently into the old fault, you should impose some little penance upon yourself, such as the recitation of the "Hail Mary," or the pious ejaculation of the holy name of Jesus, with a prayer for God's forgiveness. And then at night you should examine your conscience as to how often you may have fallen into the habit during the day, and resolve to make the next day a better one in this respect. If you faithfully persevere in this practice you will soon be the master of your tongue, and able to restrain it from cursing by a little watchfulness; but if you do not adopt some such practice as this, and really set to work in earnest to overcome this habit, you are guilty before God of mortal sin, and your contrition at your confessions is not good for much.

I have spoken of this habit as scandalous, as this is one of its worst features. Besides the insult that is offered to God and his holy name, an incalculable amount of harm is done to our neighbor. Children, especially, learn to curse from their elders, and the extent of this fault among young children is frightful to contemplate. Those, too, who are not of our faith, when they hear Catholics cursing and swearing, are apt to set it down to some defect in our religion, and thus the true faith is brought into contempt.

But the habitual curser seldom thinks of these consequences of his sin. He rarely even attends to the meaning of the words he uses. If he could only be brought to stop and think of all that is implied in the expressions we so often hear upon our streets, he would shudder at the thought of using them. To ask Almighty God to send a soul to hell for all eternity, to utter that holy name whereby we are saved in a prayer for the eternal damnation of a soul redeemed by the Precious Blood of Christ, is an impiety so dreadful that we could scarcely believe it possible did not our ears tell us the contrary.

Yet there are those who not only say these things, but mean them, at least at the moment when they are uttered. How carefully, then, should we guard ourselves against those outbursts of anger in which we are led to make such a fearful abuse of the gift of speech, the noblest of God's natural gifts to man! Above all, we should try to realize the spirit of the Gospel as expressed in the words of St. Paul, "Bless them that persecute you," remembering that no affront that can be offered to us can even justify the spirit of revenge that is implied in a curse. "Bless," therefore, "and curse not," that so you may yourselves receive the blessing of the Lord.

Sermon XXIII.
Reverence For The Name Of God.

The Feast of the Holy Name of Jesus, brethren, affords an opportunity for meditating upon reverence for the honor of God, especially in the person of our Blessed Saviour. Reverence for God is something different from the love of God and the fear of God. Have you not noticed that when a bad boy neither fears his father nor (as far as we can see) loves him, that he yet often keeps up at least a show of respect for him? I don't care much for him, he says, but after all he is my father; I must respect him. So with sinners. Many a sinner will break every commandment of God and the church except one or two, which he fancies he must observe in order to keep up appearances; that is to say, show at least some outward respect. The most atrocious scoundrel will not eat meat on Friday, because that would be a sign of losing all respect for religion. A wretch abandoned to every vice will say a Hail Mary or make the sign of the cross sometimes in order to persuade at least himself that he has not lost all respect for religion. He will not despise the piety of his friends, but rather respect it. Respect for holy things and holy practices is the last remnant of religion in the sinner's soul.

Well, brethren, let us ask if Almighty God has not set up any particular sign of reverence that we are to pay him? What is that, among all religious practices, which he would have us do as a token of inner and outer reverence? Of course you know what I mean; you know that it is reverence for his holy name.

The name of God, and especially the name of Jesus, are set up as the divine standard before which every man will prove his reverence for God. Cursers and swearers and blasphemers forget this. No sin is so common as profanity in its various forms. Yet it shows a heart not only void of the fear of God, and of the love of God, but also, and worst of all, void of even reverence for God. A man who habitually curses is penetrated with defiance of the Divine Majesty. Holy Scripture says that he has put on cursing like a garment; that it has entered in unto his bones. In the old law a blasphemer was stoned to death. And in our own times God often anticipates the wrath to come by sending sudden death upon profane men. I lately read in the papers that a man, standing at a saloon-counter, cursed his own soul, and instantly sank down upon the floor stone dead. Many of you have doubtless heard or even seen such visitations of divine justice.

And it is in view of the sacred obligation of reverence to God in his chosen symbol—which is his name and his Son's name—that, although he had but ten commandments to give us, one of them was set apart to secure respectful speech when dealing with God: Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain, for the Lord will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain.

Brethren, you and I in [the] future will be particularly careful to honor the sacred name of Jesus. Are you tempted? That name is a resistless charm against assaults of flesh, world, or devil. Are you tired out? The name of Jesus is a restful and soothing influence. Are you sick? That holy name will strengthen you with supernatural vigor. I hope that when you come to die your last breath may utter that name of Jesus with deep confidence, and that our Lord will answer your dying sigh with an affectionate welcome into his heavenly court.

Third Sunday after Epiphany.

Epistle.
Romans xii. 16-21.
Brethren:
Be not wise in your own conceits. Render to no man evil for evil. Provide things good not only in the sight of God, but also in the sight of all men. If it be possible, as much as is in you, have peace with all men. Revenge not yourselves, my dearly beloved; but give place to wrath, for it is written: "Revenge is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord." But if thy enemy be hungry, give him to eat; if he thirst, give him drink; for doing this thou shalt heap coals of fire upon his head. Be not overcome by evil, but overcome evil by good.
Gospel.
St. Matthew viii. 1-13.
At that time:
When Jesus was come down from the mountain, great multitudes followed him; and behold a leper coming, adored him, saying: Lord, if thou wilt, thou canst make me clean. And Jesus, stretching forth his hand, touched him, saying: I will; be thou made clean. And immediately his leprosy was cleansed. And Jesus said to him: See thou tell no man; but go show thyself to the priest, and offer the gift which Moses commanded for a testimony to them. And when he had entered into Capharnaum, there came to him a centurion, beseeching him and saying: Lord, my servant lieth at home sick of the palsy, and is grievously tormented. And Jesus said to him: I will come and heal him. And the centurion, making answer, said: Lord, I am not worthy that thou shouldst enter under my roof; but only say the word, and my servant shall be healed. For I also am a man under authority, having soldiers under me; and I say to this man, Go, and he goeth, and to another, Come, and he cometh, and to my servant, Do this, and he doeth it. And Jesus, hearing this, wondered, and said to those that followed him: Amen I say to you, I have not found so great faith in Israel. And I say unto you that many shall come from the east and the west, and shall sit down with Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, in the kingdom of heaven; but the children of the kingdom shall be cast out into exterior darkness: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth. And Jesus said to the centurion: Go, and as thou hast believed, so be it done to thee. And the servant was healed at the same hour.

Sermon XXIV.
Practical Faith.

Many shall come from the east and the west,
and shall sit down with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob
in the kingdom of heaven;
but the children of the kingdom
shall be cast into the exterior darkness.
—Gospel of the Day.

These words, my dear brethren, were spoken by our Blessed Lord to the Jews on the occasion of the cure of the servant of the centurion. This centurion was an officer, like what we would call a captain, in the Roman army; he was not a Jew, so he did not belong to God's chosen people, his church of the old law. No, he was a heathen by birth; he had been brought up in error, in ignorance of the true religion; he had not the prophecies which the Jews had to tell him clearly that a Saviour was to come into the world. He was indeed in darkness compared with this favored Hebrew people among whom his lot was cast; but he saw our Lord, and that was enough for him. He saw the power of God, and he believed. He knew that this Messias, whom the Pharisees were rejecting, was the Master of life and death. "Lord," said he, "I am not worthy that thou shouldst come under my roof; but only say the word, and my servant shall be healed." Immortal words these, which the Catholic Church has treasured up, and puts on thousands of lips every day, and which were rewarded by the divine acknowledgment, "Amen I say to you, I have not found so great faith in Israel. And I say to you that many shall come from the east and the west, and shall sit down with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven; but the children of the kingdom shall be cast into the exterior darkness."

Now, my brethren, what lesson have we to learn from this praise of the heathen centurion, and this warning to God's own people, coming to us from the mouth of God himself? Simply this: that our salvation depends on the use which we make of the graces which he gives us; that the least will suffice, if we will but avail ourselves of them; but that the greatest will only serve for our eternal condemnation and ruin if we slight them and pass them by.

A simple and evident truth this surely, and yet how apt we are to forget and neglect it! We are Catholics from our infancy, we say; we belong to families which have always kept the faith. We are indeed the faithful, to whom the kingdom of heaven is promised. And if we have not been always so, but have been brought from darkness into light, then still more is the divine favor to us manifest. Will He, then, who has done so much for us, not complete his work? We believe his word, we are in his true church, we receive his saving and life-giving sacraments; how, then, shall we not be saved? Are we not indeed those of whom he said, "My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me; and I give them life everlasting, and they shall not perish for ever, and no man shall pluck them out of my hand"?

Yes, my dear brethren, we think that we shall be saved because we are Catholics. But the truth is, that our being Catholics only gives us greater means of salvation; it is far from making our salvation sure. We have greater means and helps to save our souls; but woe be to us if we abuse them! And when we look around, and see many good and earnest souls, similar, as far as we can see, to that of the Roman centurion, deprived of the light that we have, not by their own fault, but by that of their fathers; when we see them trying to do their best with the little knowledge and the few helps that they have, must we not fear that God will take away from us the graces that we despise; that we, the children of the kingdom, will be cast into the exterior darkness, while others shall come from the east and the west and take the place which we have but do not deserve?

Let us, then, each and every one, if we have been unfaithful to the great graces which we have as Catholics—and which of us has not been so?—rouse ourselves to our danger. Yes, having the faith and the sacraments is a great privilege, but is one for which we must give a most strict account when we stand before the throne of God.

Sermon XXV.
Living Up To Our Faith.

Jesus, hearing this, marvelled;
and said to them that followed him:
Amen I say to you,
I have not found so great faith in Israel.
—Gospel of the Day.

The love and care of the heathen centurion for his servant should certainly put to shame many Christian masters and mistresses of to-day, who not only do not encourage their servants to approach our Lord at Holy Mass and in the sacraments, but even put obstacles in their way. However, the lesson to which I wish to direct your thoughts this morning, and which it is the primary object of the Gospel narrative to teach, is the immense importance of living up to the grace and light which God has so bountifully given us.

A few weeks ago we kept the Feast of the Epiphany, the manifestation, that is, of our Lord to the Gentiles, to those who had not till then formed part of the church of God. The Jews alone, as you are aware, were God's chosen people. To them had been given the law and the prophets, the temple and the sacrifices, and—that to which everything else led up—the promise of the Messias. And all these privileges led them to think that they were individually very excellent people, and to look down with contempt upon the rest of the world and everybody in it. Now, here was a Roman, born and brought up in heathenism, taught, doubtless, to say his prayers to Jupiter and Venus and other vile creatures like them, a man holding, too, high office, commanding a garrison of soldiers, whose duty it was to keep down a conquered race. Well, this man, notwithstanding his bad education, notwithstanding the pride which, on account of his position, must naturally have been his, had made greater progress than the self-conceited Pharisees, with all their advantages, had ever made or were ever to make. While they lived and died in unbelief, he had already recognized in Jesus Christ the power of God; and, laying aside prejudice and pride of place and birth, he sends humbly to our Lord to ask him to heal his servant.

So clearly did he recognize our Lord's divine power that he did not think it necessary for him to come to his house. Jairus, the ruler of the synagogue, as you will remember, would not be satisfied unless our Lord came down to his house; the centurion, on the contrary, stopped our Lord while he was on the way, saying: "Lord, I am not worthy that thou shouldst enter under my roof; but only say the word and my servant will be healed." So that our Lord, on hearing it, marvelled, and said: "Amen I say unto you, I have not found so great faith in Israel."

Now, how does all this apply to us? What lesson can we learn from these events? The answer to this question is easy and obvious. We are by God's grace the members of the church of God, and, as such, we are in possession of the means of grace—the sacraments, the word of God, the intercession and prayers of the saints, and of innumerable privileges and spiritual treasures. Above all, and as the source and spring of all spiritual life, without which everything is valueless and worthless, we have the gift of faith. Now, faith is necessary; but faith is not sufficient. Without faith no one can be saved. But we must have something more than faith. The shipwrecked man clings for his life to anything within his reach; but unless the plank, or whatever else he has got hold of, is washed ashore, or a boat or some other means of help arrives, his plank only prolongs his agony. So is it with us. Faith is our plank; but unless this faith works by charity it will only add to our condemnation. More than this, it will, if not acted upon, get weaker and weaker, and be scarcely strong enough to move us to action. What, then, must we do? Why, we must live as our faith teaches us. First, we must learn our faith: learn the truths of our religion; next, we must practise them. If we do not do so we shall, perhaps, see what those Jews of old saw: the heathen and those who were outside of the church entering and taking their places. What our Lord said of them may, perhaps, be said of us: "I say unto you that many shall come from the east and from the west, and shall sit down with Abraham and Isaac in the kingdom of heaven; but the children of the kingdom shall be cast out into the exterior darkness: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth."

Sermon XXVI.
The Sacrament Of Matrimony.

I think you are all persuaded, my brethren, of the wrong and the danger of Catholics going to a Protestant minister for marriage; and similar ones can be given why we should not go before a magistrate for that purpose. It is plain that the authorities of the State are not the right persons to assist officially at the sacraments of the church. It would be just as proper to ask the mayor to baptize your children as to go to him for marriage. To refer the matter of your marriage to him, however fine a man he may be personally, would be to acknowledge the right of the civil authority to take charge of religious affairs; and such a right Catholics cannot admit.

Besides, the magistrate labors under the same difficulty as a Protestant minister in conducting a Catholic marriage, of not knowing the laws of the church on the subject, and the impediments which may make the marriage invalid; that is, which may make it, though seemingly good, in reality no marriage at all. You know, for instance—to speak of this a little more fully—that the Catechism says that you should not marry within certain degrees of kindred; very well, it is not only forbidden to marry within these degrees, but a marriage within these degrees is not recognized by the laws of the church as a real and true marriage, and the parties have to be married over again, at least privately, if it is ever found out. And there are some other impediments which have the same effect. It is of no use to publish all these and try to explain them; many mistakes would be made, and matters would only be come worse. No, to be safe in all affairs of this kind you must go to those who have made a special study of it; just as you find out the law of the State from your lawyer, and not from a book. Go, then, to the priest; he is the one who has made a special study of the law of the church, and the only one.

In order to make sure that Catholic marriage shall be contracted before the priest, a law has been made, and binds in some countries, and in some parts even of this country, making it invalid, or null and void, if contracted without the presence of the parish priest of at least one of the parties. This does not, however, hold just here. But there is a very special and urgent law in this diocese, and in many others, forbidding the going to a Protestant minister for marriage, and reserving the absolution for this to the bishop, or some one authorized by him. Catholics, therefore, who are guilty of such a rash act get themselves into a very unpleasant position; still, they must, of course, try to get out of it sooner or later, and if any one finds himself in this predicament the only sensible thing to do is to come at once to the priest, who will help him as far as possible. All sins can be forgiven, and all mistakes rectified, if one has the right dispositions.

One word more on this most important subject. Some people seem to imagine that the difficulty which may come, especially in a mixed marriage, of avoiding the Protestant minister, may be got over by going both to him and to the priest, and going through the form of marriage twice. Now, let it be understood that this course cannot be thought of for a moment; for by it not only is the law broken which I have just mentioned, but a profanation of the sacrament also is committed by endeavoring to make the contract to which it is attached twice in the same case. It is as if one tried to be confirmed twice. No, in this matter there can be no compromise; a marriage in which a Catholic is a party must be put in charge of the Catholic clergy, and of no one else, except as far as mere settlements of money and the like are concerned.

Go, then, to the priest for marriage; do not think of doing anything else. But do not go to him, as I have said some people do, for the first time just at the moment you want the ceremony performed, and expect him to marry you off-hand; for there are some very important preliminaries to be settled first, and it may take some time to settle them.

Fourth Sunday after Epiphany.

Epistle.
Romans xiii. 8-10.
Brethren:
Owe no man anything, but that you love one another. For he that loveth his neighbor, hath fulfilled the law. For "Thou shalt not commit adultery. Thou shalt not kill. Thou shalt not steal. Thou shalt not bear false witness. Thou shalt not covet." And if there be any other commandment, it is comprised in this word: "Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself." The love of the neighbor worketh no evil. Love, therefore, is the fulfilling of the law.
Gospel.
St. Matthew viii. 23-27.
At that time:
When Jesus entered into the ship, his disciples followed him; and behold a great tempest arose in the sea, so that the ship was covered with waves, but he was asleep. And his disciples came to him, and waked him, saying: Lord, save us, we perish. And Jesus saith to them: Why are you fearful, O ye of little faith? Then rising up he commanded the winds and the sea, and there came a great calm. But the men wondered, saying: Who is this, for even the winds and the sea obey him?

Sermon XXVII.
The Ingratitude Of Children.

Brethren: owe, no man anything.
—Epistle of the Day.

We are all debtors, brethren, for we all have some accounts to settle up. There are debts we shall never be able to redeem, debts that are just, pressing, and lasting as long as we are in this life. Such, for instance, is the debt we owe to God.

The fact of his having created us, of having brought us out of nothing, of having given us immortal souls imaged after himself, would alone put us under the gravest obligations to him; but what is that compared to the debt we owe God for having redeemed us at a nameless price, by nothing less than the Precious Blood of his own beloved Son; and, furthermore, what is all this in comparison with the debt we owe God for our sanctification, for the priceless gift of his Holy Spirit dwelling within us, breaking away the mist of error and ignorance that clouds our intellect and hides from our vision the eternal truth; that gift that endows us with strength and fortitude, with the courage that comes from conviction, with the power that makes us triumph over every weakness, every unruly passion, every snare of our enemy the devil, over every thought, word, and action that makes us unworthy of sonship with God, brotherhood with Christ, and the heritage of an eternal crown?

This debt, dear brethren, is in general obvious enough; but, while we recognize it, How often do we find in our experience that men neglect, and shamefully neglect, debts that are dependent on and derived from the debt they owe Almighty God; men who neglect debts that are as grave and binding as those which are due to the God from whom they are derived!

Now, brethren, if there is any injustice in this world more flagrant than all others, more worthy of condemnation and detestation, more certain of the visitation of God, it is this: the neglect of our duty to our parents. "Owe no man anything." Do we owe them nothing? Do we not owe them much? Is there a time in our lives when that debt is not binding?

Ah! dear brethren, and what do we see in the world about us? Ingratitude, the vice of monsters, forgetfulness of ties that are nearest, dearest, and holiest. Young men, growing up into adult age, who, in their vain seeking after pleasures, become so blinded to duty, so debased in their appetites, so completely transformed into the incarnation of selfishness, as not only to disregard the law of God, but the very instincts of nature—sons who would rob and starve their parents to satisfy their mean and low appetites.

The ingratitude of children to parents is a crying sin of our times. Let us be alive to it. Let the young men and women of our day remember that they are bound to satisfy these grave and serious obligations; that they are not to heedlessly put themselves into any state that will debar them from redeeming the debts they owe, from recompensing for all the care, toil, and money expended upon them.

"Owe no man anything." Take heed of this warning also, all you who contract debts without the slightest hope of paying them; see to it that the clothes you wear, the food you eat, the pleasures you indulge in are paid for; see to it that they are not purchased by the labor and money which belong to others. You who live in fine houses, who keep yourselves in costly array, who deny yourselves no pleasures, however extravagant, take heed! Whose money pays for it? Can you stand up and with a clean heart proclaim that this is honest? As you sit here to-day, do the words of the Apostle offer no rebuke to you, do you not feel their sting?

O brethren! let us be sparing in our debts; let us owe no man anything. The man without debts exalts himself in the eyes of his fellow-men and secures for himself a good conscience.

Sermon XXVIII.
Love Of Our Neighbor.

He that loveth his neighbor hath fulfilled the law.
—Epistle of the Day.

There can be no doubt, my brethren, that the saving of our souls sometimes seems to be a very troublesome business. There are so many laws and commandments binding on us, so many sins which we are likely to commit; and if we break any of these laws in any grievous way—if we are guilty, that is to say, of mortal sin our—salvation is lost till such time as we repair our fault. Yet it may seem that we are surrounded by so many rocks on our voyage through life that it is almost useless to try to steer clear of them; and, if we may judge by their actions, many Christians actually come to the conclusion that there is no use in trying to keep their ship off these rocks. They make up their minds that spiritual shipwreck is unavoidable, and that the only way to reach the port of heaven is to be towed in on a raft which can be made out of the sacraments at the last moment.

But really our salvation is not such a complicated and intricate affair if we would only look at it in the right way. The course which we have to follow is not such a difficult one to bear in mind and to keep. There are many commandments, it is true; but they all have the same spirit, and if we have that spirit they will all come quite easy.

What is the spirit? Our Lord has told us. It is the love of God, and of our neighbor for God's sake. The love of God and of our neighbor gives us a short cut to the kingdom of heaven; if we are guided by it, we shall not come near the dangers that seem so many and so threatening.

Let us see how this is; how is this love going to work to keep us in the safe and sure track? It is not so hard to see. For what is it to love any one; how do we act towards one whom we really and truly love? Are we always trying to give him no more than we can help, and keep as much as we can for ourselves? Do we try to have our own way as much as possible, and never to step out of it for his sake, unless compelled by force or threats?

No, of course not. We keep far away from what will offend him. We always are trying to find out what will please him best. So if he is not unreasonable, and if he knows our desire and intention, the danger of offending him disappears.

Well, it is just so in the matter of serving God and keeping his law. The continual mortal sins into which Christians fall, and which it seems so hard to avoid, are due to their trying to run too near the rocks. No wonder they so often get wrecked in these dangerous waters. They are all the time striking on the commandments, and the whole sea seems full of them because they try to sail as near them as they can. If they would only give them a wide berth, and keep out in the deep ocean of the love of God, sin and its forgiveness would not cause so much anxiety and trouble.

If we would only ask ourselves what will please God best, and try to give him all that he desires, as we should if we loved him as he deserves to be loved, and as we do with others whom we really do love—if we would do this instead of trying [to see] how far we can have our own way and yet come out right in the end, the whole matter of saving our souls would have a very different aspect. Now, why not try to follow this line? It is no fanciful thing beyond our power. Plenty of Christians have done it before us, and are doing it all the time.

But if we do not feel prepared, or are a little afraid to commit ourselves to this course just yet, at least we could endeavor to have some love for our neighbor, and make some sacrifice for him. We have St. Paul's word for it, you see, that even he who loves his neighbor will be sure to fulfil the law. Yes, we may feel quite sure if, by a generous love of our neighbor, we keep far off being wrecked on the last part of the Ten Commandments, that we shall run clear of the first part as well.

Fifth Sunday after Epiphany.

Epistle.
Colossians iii. 12-17.
Brethren:
Put ye on therefore, as the elect of God, holy, and beloved, the bowels of mercy, benignity, humility, modesty, patience, bearing with one another, and forgiving one another, if any have a complaint against another: even as the Lord hath forgiven you, so do you also. But above all these things have charity, which is the bond of perfection: and let the peace of Christ rejoice in your hearts, wherein also you are called in one body; and be ye thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell in you abundantly, in all wisdom: teaching and admonishing one another in psalms, hymns, and spiritual canticles, singing in grace in your hearts to God. All whatsoever you do in word or in work, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, giving thanks to God and the Father by Jesus Christ our Lord.
Gospel.
St. Mathew xiii. 24-30.
At that time:
Jesus spoke this parable to the multitude, saying: The kingdom of heaven is likened to a man that sowed good seed in his field. But while men were asleep, his enemy came and oversowed cockle among the wheat, and went his way. And when the blade was sprung up, and brought forth fruit, then appeared also the cockle. Then the servants of the master of the house came and said to him: Master, didst thou not sow good seed in thy field? whence then hath it cockle? And he said to them: An enemy hath done this. And the servants said to him: Wilt thou that we go and gather it up? And he said: No, lest while you gather up the cockle, you root up the wheat also together with it. Let both grow until the harvest, and in the time of the harvest I will say to the reapers: Gather up first the cockle, and bind it into bundles to burn; but gather the wheat into my barn.

Sermon XXIX.
The Christian Family.

Bearing with one another.
—Epistle of the Day.

No doubt you have often read about the oasis in the desert: a place of tall, shady trees, soft, green grass, and a great spring pouring out sweet, cold water. There the hot and dusty caravan stops, though it be miles out of the way; the heavy burdens are thrown off, and men and animals rest and drink and rest again. For one long, burning day they lie about on the grass and look off from their shady refuge over the yellow, sandy desert. They sleep and are rested; and as the cool dews of evening fall they take a last drink and creep away on their journey, sighing to think of the long and weary tramp to the next oasis.

Dear brethren, the oasis in the desert of this world is the Christian family. The father of the family "shall be like a tree which is planted near the running waters." It is indeed but a feeble word to say that the influence of a good father is like the deep shade of a noble tree in the heat of summer, His influence is like the grace of God. Indeed, there is nothing in all this world so much like the presence of God as the influence of a Christian father. When the instinct of the Christian people would give a name to a good priest they called him father. What is more edifying than the virtue of a good father? In him are chiefly to be seen those manly virtues which are the highest form of human excellence: hearty love, self-restraint, open frankness joining heart, hand, and voice in one. In him you admire that steadfast application to religious things, that regular use of prayer and of the sacraments, that clear knowledge of doctrine and ability to converse about it, that utter absence of frivolity, that intelligent practice of good reading. He is contented with his lot, and yet labors with steady, persistent industry. In prosperity he is modest and frugal. In adversity he is cheerful, a strong wall for others to lean against. He loves home and is fond of his wife. Gladly will he tend the babes while the mother gets the Sunday Mass, or of a Saturday evening while she goes to refresh her weary soul with a good confession. The company of his children is to him a foretaste of Paradise. He is not sour, nor is he brutal or harsh. He is not above making the children laugh or joining in their play; to make them happy and help them save their souls is his greatest joy.

Then there is the mother of the family, whose life is one unbroken round of acts of affection. The spirit of sacrifice, the craving to bear others burdens, is her spirit. You know how a good mother watches at the sick-bed the livelong night, passing back and forth through the dark rooms, listening to every breathing, answering every sigh with a comforting word, or a cool drink, or a soft caress. Only the next world will reveal to us the loveliness of such devoted souls; here we catch but a glimpse and an echo of it. The accents, the tones of the voice, the very silence, the manners, the ways of a good mother diffuse what Scripture calls the fragrance of ointments around her household. You know, too, how she saves and pinches to keep off debt, to dress the children neatly, to save a penny to give them a holiday, to save a dollar for hard times or a spell of sickness. And all this sacrifice is a matter of course with her. But the truest glory of a mother is her patience. The patient mother is the valiant woman of Scripture. She is the woman who smothers her anger; who will suffer the impertinence of an unruly child in silence; who forgets as well as forgives; whose admonition or correction is the reluctant tribute of a tender heart to the child's well-being. Do you want to know how she is able to do this? The secret of it is that she finds time—in the heavy duty of being everybody's servant—to attend to religion; to belong to the Rosary Society and make her monthly Communion; to give alms to the poor from her hard savings; to visit and watch with sick, or afflicted neighbors. It is, in a word, because she ever gazes in spirit upon that Holy Family where Mary was mother that she is able to be a good Christian mother.

When I began I intended to say something of the good boys and girls; while we have been engaged with father and mother the children have passed by. Perhaps we shall overtake them next Sunday.

Sermon XXX.
The Duty Of Good Example.

Use your endeavor to walk honestly towards them that are without.
1 Thessalonians iv. 11.

The holiness of the church, my dear brethren, is for us who belong to her a thing so evident and clear that we can no more think it necessary to prove it than we can think it necessary to prove that the sun shines in the heavens. The practical and imperative way in which the church enforces holiness of life on each and every one of us is something with which we are so familiar that no shadow of doubt can enter into our minds as to its necessity. The means of grace which she offers to us, and of which she even requires us to make use, the sacrament of the Body and Blood of the Lord himself which she gives us, the penances she imposes upon us by way of fasting and abstinence, the warnings which she is ever giving us of the condemnation which will fall upon impenitent sinners, these and ten thousand other things make the sanctity of the church so well known that it is not so much an article of faith as a thing which we see with our own eyes and which falls under our own experience.

But there are those who are without these advantages. There are many around us, our near neighbors and friends, who are outside the church, not through their own fault, but by birth and education. These are not in possession of those means of knowing the church and her sanctity of which we are possessed; and in order to have this knowledge they depend to a very large extent upon ourselves. I wish this morning to call your attention to the responsibility which rests upon us on this account, and to one or two practical ways in which we are accountable to God for what that responsibility involves.

Now, that we lie under this responsibility is a truth not very hard to see. For, as I have said, those outside the church are ignorant of the doctrine and practices of the church. From their earliest years they have had utterly false and erroneous information given them about the church, an information so false and erroneous that they do not think it necessary or even right to make inquiries. How, then, are they to have the truth brought home to them? What way is there of spreading the light? Almost the only way, and certainly a way so necessary that without it all others are futile and vain, is that those who are called Catholics should lead such lives as the church requires of them. Now, if we do not do this we are of course responsible to God, as every man, be he Catholic or be he Protestant, is responsible to God for his whole life and every action in it. But more than that, a special responsibility in this time and in this country lies at the door of every Catholic man and every Catholic woman. Every Catholic man and woman who does not lead a good life is a stumbling-block and a rock of offence standing in the way and preventing many poor souls from seeing and embracing that truth which is necessary for their salvation; and those Catholics whose way of living forms such a stumbling-block will have to give a strict account to God not merely for their own sins and for themselves, but also for the souls of others whom they have ruined.

Now, I am going on this account to ask you some questions which I hope you will answer honestly and conscientiously. And they will be questions about matters on which the world outside is competent to judge; and, therefore, if we fail in this respect we shall meet with its condemnation, and become hindrances to the knowledge of the truth.

First: There is nothing of which the business world thinks so much as truth, uprightness, integrity in business matters. To pay debts promptly, to do work squarely, to execute contracts faithfully, these are some of the marks of an honest man. Now, in view of what I have said, ask yourselves, is this way of acting the mark of all Catholics? Will a man who wants to get a house built, who is looking for a trustworthy clerk or assistant, choose out Catholics in preference to others, because he knows that they are worthy of trust? If this is not the case, if the being a Catholic is no guarantee of trustworthiness, you will have to answer to God for the bad effect your dishonesty has upon those outside.

And now a question for women. You all know in what virtue consists, the glory and honor of women. You all know what the world expects of women. You know, too, how much the church makes of modesty and chastity, in what honor she holds them, how strict she is in inculcating their necessity. Now, one of the effects of genuine modesty and chastity is to overawe and overpower the approaches of the unclean and impure. There is a majesty in virtue which lays low and keeps at its level vileness and impurity. Is everyone who comes near a Catholic girl or woman conscious of this influence? Is there something about every Catholic girl and woman which makes it clear to every dirty fellow that he must go elsewhere if he wishes to find a victim and a means of satisfying his disgraceful passions? It ought to be so, for the soul of every Catholic girl and woman, over and above the majesty of natural virtue, is the abode and dwelling-place of the grace of God. And if you are true children of the church such will be the effect your presence will have.

Well, my brethren, ask yourselves these questions; answer them honestly; and, if you find that you have done wrong, amend, not merely for your own sake but for that of those outside.

Sermon XXXI.
Bearing One Another's Burdens.

Bearing with one another,
and forgiving one another
if any have a complaint against one another:
even as the Lord hath forgiven you,
so do you also.
—Epistle of the Day (Colossians iii. 13).

Perhaps you may think, my dear friends, that we have a good deal to say about this matter of charity and forgiveness, and if you do you are probably right; it was not long ago that we had occasion to remind you of it in one of these little morning instructions. But why should we not speak of it often? Is not the love of our neighbor the second great commandment, like to and founded on the first? Does not St. John also make it the test of our salvation? "We know," he says, "that we have passed from death to life"; and why? Is it because we fast, say long prayers, visit the church, or even because we receive the sacraments often? No, it is "because we love the brethren." And he continues: "He that loveth not, abideth in death. … We ought," he goes on to say, "to lay down our lives for the brethren."

In the latter years of the life of St. John, when he had become so old and feeble that he had to be carried to the church, and was not able to preach at any length to his beloved people, he would still give them a little short sermon. It was very short; not even a five-minute sermon; and it was not fresh every Sunday, but always the same. It was just this: "Little children, love one another." But his people, in spite of their great reverence and affection for him, were something like people nowadays, and got rather tired of hearing this same old story. They wanted something more novel and startling, and one day they asked him: "Master, why do you never tell us anything but this about loving one another?" He answered: "Because it is the Lord's command, and if it is fulfilled it is sufficient."

If St. John, then, preached about this matter of charity every Sunday, certainly we may be allowed to speak of it several times in the year. And you, my dear Christians, will not lose anything by hearing about it pretty often. For the matter is one in which there is always great room for improvement for us all. St. John said "little children"; but he was not speaking to the Sunday-school, if, indeed, he had one; no, it was to the children, big as well as little, children all of God and of his holy church, that his words were addressed.

And these words are more needed now than they were then. Why, in the early times Christians used to be known from other people by their love and charity for each other. It was this that made converts to the faith, more, perhaps, than preaching or miracles. "See," said the world, "how these Christians love one another." But now I am afraid it would be hard to pick out very many Christians by this test. No; it is more likely that our infidel friends would say of all the Christians that they happen to know: "See how these Christians are all the time quarrelling with each other! They never seem to be content unless they can show their pride by having at least some one who is not supposed to be worthy of their acquaintance. They go to church and say their prayers—oh! yes; but perhaps there is some person, even in the next pew, that they used to know, but have not spoken to for years, and have no notion of ever speaking to, unless, perhaps, on their death-bed if the priest should insist on it. Bearing with one another, indeed! Is it possible that one of their Apostles told them to do that? Why, they do not put up with half as much as a sensible man would who had no faith at all. Let them suffer the least even fancied slight or indignity, and there is an end of all their friendship. Forgiving one another, as they say the Lord has forgiven them? Well, if the Lord forgives as they do, his forgiveness does not seem to amount to much."

My brethren, depend on it, those not of our faith feel often this way, though they may not say it right out. And they are not far wrong. The kind of bearing with others, the kind of forgiveness, that is given them by those who have the name of Christians is too often one that will not stand the test of God's judgment. I am afraid that many pious people have found themselves in the wrong place after death on account of it. Let those who still remain profit by this lesson while they have time.

Sixth Sunday after Epiphany.

Epistle.
1 Thessalonians i. 2-10.
Brethren:
We give thanks to God always for you all: making a remembrance of you in our prayers without ceasing, being mindful of the work of your faith, and labor, and charity, and of the enduring of the hope of our Lord Jesus Christ before God and our Father: knowing, brethren beloved of God, your election: for our gospel hath not been to you in word only, but in power also, and in the Holy Ghost, and in much fulness, as you know what manner of men we have been among you for your sakes. And you became followers of us, and of the Lord: receiving the word in much tribulation, with joy of the Holy Ghost: so that you were made a pattern to all who believe in Macedonia and Achaia. For from you was spread abroad the word of the Lord, not only in Macedonia and Achaia, but also in every place, your faith which is towards God, is gone forth, so that we need not to speak anything. For they themselves relate of us, what manner of entrance we had unto you; and how you were converted to God from idols, to serve the living and true God. And to wait for his Son from Heaven (whom he raised from the dead), Jesus who hath delivered us from the wrath to come.
Gospel.
St. Matthew xiii. 31-35.
At that time:
Jesus spoke to the multitude this parable: The kingdom of heaven is like to a grain of mustard-seed, which a man took and sowed in his field. Which indeed is the least of all seeds; but when it is grown up it is greater than any herbs, and becometh a tree, so that the birds of the air come and dwell in the branches thereof.

Another parable he spoke to them. The kingdom of heaven is like to leaven, which a woman took and hid in three measures of meal, until the whole was leavened. All these things Jesus spoke in parables to the multitudes: and without parables he did not speak to them. That the word might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet, saying: "I will open my mouth in parables, I will utter things hidden from the foundation of the world."

Sermon XXXII.
How To Make Converts.

The kingdom of heaven is like to leaven,
which a woman took and hid in three measures of meal,
until the whole was leavened.
—Gospel of the Day.

By the kingdom of heaven is meant in this Gospel, as in many other places, the holy Catholic Church; the spiritual kingdom of God, which is of heaven, though on earth; and leaven is another word for what we call yeast, and is used in the making of bread.

Our Divine Lord, then, tells us that his church, to which we belong, is like yeast; and his meaning, if we consider a little, is plain enough. It is, that as a little yeast is put into a mass of flour or dough, to raise it, as we say, so he has put his church, which was in the beginning a very small thing, into the world, to raise the world to life and the knowledge and love of him.

And certainly his comparison of the church to yeast was fully justified. In the beginning the world was everywhere attracted and moved in spite of itself by the lives of the first Christians. The heathen could not help admiring their mutual charity, their patient and forgiving dispositions, their temperance and self-sacrifice; and they could not refrain from asking themselves and each other: "Who are these that they call Christians? What do they believe, and what do they teach? What is it that makes them so loving and so amiable, so calm and peaceful, so happy in all their troubles, so ready to assist and serve not only each other, but all the world beside?" But no one could answer these questions but the Christians themselves; so the heathen had to go and get instructed in this faith which had been made so charming to them. Thus they were converted, and in their turn became apostles in the same way to others.

So the leaven spread through the mass; the contagion, so to speak, of faith, piety, and virtue was diffused over the world; people caught it from their neighbors. The Apostles had no need to make many converts in any one place which they visited. If they got a few, these few would take care of the rest. The little congregations which they founded grew and multiplied wonderfully, in spite of distress and persecution, by the force of the holy lives and good example of their members.

But was this way of growing only meant for God's church in the beginning? No, by no means. Our Lord says that the leaven of his kingdom was to go on working "till the whole was leavened." Does it, then, still move the world in this way? If so, how rapidly ought the church now to increase, when there are a thousand faithful for one in those early days!

Yes, my brethren, it ought. For in spite of the boasts which the world is making of its reformed religion, especially just now, and of its progress and civilization, it feels at heart very uneasy. It has fallen away from God, and lost the truth, and in its inmost soul it knows this; and it is looking for somone to bring light to its darkness, and to put its confusion in order.

Why, then, does not the church increase more rapidly? Why does not the world now come to us as it did in those former days of its anxiety and doubt? Prejudices it has now against us, I know; but it had its prejudices then, too. There are many slanders believed against us, but that has been so from the very beginning; our Lord warned us of this, and it is a mark of his true church to be thus belied. So this is not the real trouble; no, the trouble is that most Christians do not by the good odor of their lives induce the world to inquire into their faith, and thus overcome its prejudices. We may argue till we and everyone else are ready to drop, but we shall never be as the first disciples were—the leaven of God's kingdom—till we show by our lives that there is something more in us than the natural feelings, good or bad, which make up the lives of others. Christians who forgive and excuse their enemies, who have charity for all, who are chaste and pure in word and deed, who are humble and self-denying, those are the ones—and, thank God, such there are—who make converts; and if we want the leaven of the kingdom to spread and raise the world to Christ we must be like them.

Sermon XXXIII.
The Blessings Of The Faith.

I will utter things
hidden from the foundation of the world.
—Matthew. xiii. 35.

These are the concluding words of to-day's Gospel, and they refer to the great truths that are made known to us through the revelation of Almighty God. For as believers in a divine revelation we know things that have been hidden from the beginning, and we have a knowledge that transcends all human knowledge. Our faith gives us light which our reason could never supply. We might spend our whole lives in the most profound study and investigation, we might dip into all the systems and master all the sciences, and we should still be ignorant of certain truths which our faith makes known to us. When we look back over the world's history and see the greatest minds of every age and country groping in the dark, seeking in vain for the knowledge which we possess, we can appreciate what a glorious privilege it is to be enlightened by the divine light of faith. For where its rays do not penetrate there can never be sufficient security in regard to the most vital truths of human origin and human destiny. We see the sad evidences of this all around us in the world to-day. Men who refuse to accept the revelation of Almighty God and the teachings of his church are in ignorance, or at least they are in doubt, about the origin and end of life. They are even in doubt as to the existence of God himself, though the universe by a thousand voices proclaims his presence and their own souls reflect his image.

From age to age the human mind busies itself over the deep questions of philosophy and the discoveries of science. From generation to generation men seek to solve the great problems of life by the force of reason; but revelation alone can adequately disclose the "things hidden from the foundation of the world," and without its divine light and guidance mankind must ever remain liable to sink into darkness and doubt.

How widely different is the state of the mind established in the settled convictions of faith from that where there is nothing but the theories and opinions of human knowledge! In the one there is the repose of certainty, security, and peace; in the other there are many puzzles unsolved, promptings unsatisfied, disquiet, and unrest. One short lesson learned in the school of divine faith will give more light and bring more comfort to the soul than all the knowledge that can be acquired in a life-time in the schools of human learning.

Great stress is laid nowadays on secular education. And we are told that what the country needs, what the world needs, are intelligent and cultivated men and women; and certainly education is an excellent thing, and most desirable for all. But why make so much of a knowledge that concerns only the petty things of earth and the fleeting course of time, and ignore a knowledge that relates to the Infinite God in heaven and a life that is everlasting? What will it profit us on our death-bed to have learned the facts in the world's history, to have been familiar with the teachings of philosophy and the discoveries of science, to have studied the writings and mastered the thoughts of men, if we know nothing of our Creator and our relation to him and the course of our destiny; nothing of the preparation we should make beforehand and the thoughts that should animate us as we stand on the brink of eternity?

Here is the great contrast between the knowledge that God imparts to us and all human science—the one imparts to us the truths of eternity, the other teaches us the truths of time; and the difference between them is just as great as that between time and eternity. And if, as is generally the case, we estimate the value of a thing by its importance and permanence, there is surely no term of comparison here. The little child who has learned the first page of the Catholic Catechism has already acquired a knowledge which forty centuries of human speculation have never reached, and the simplest believer in Jesus Christ and his church is possessed of a wisdom far higher, far holier, than was ever conceived of by the greatest sages of old.

Let us realize, then, that faith is the highest knowledge, that it discloses to us "things hidden from the foundation of the world," and makes us sharers in the knowledge of God himself, and therefore elevates and crowns our reason.

Sermon XXXIV.
Good Example As A Means Of Making Converts.

The kingdom of heaven is like to leaven,
which a woman took and hid in three measures of meal,
until the whole was leavened.
—Matthew xiii. 33

This may seem a very strange comparison, my brethren, if, instead of letting it in at one ear, as the saying is, and out at the other, we stop to think of it a moment. For what sort of likeness is there between that glorious kingdom of heaven, which we hope some day to enter, and a little leaven or yeast put into flour to raise it and make it into bread? Surely, we should say, none at all. What could our Lord have meant when he said that the two were alike?

But let us think a little more about the matter. Is the kingdom of heaven of which he was speaking that heaven into which all the saved are to enter? Or is there not some other meaning which we may give to the words?

There is another meaning, and it is the true one in this place and in many others in the Gospel. It is the kingdom of God or of heaven, not in heaven, but on earth, of which our Saviour is here speaking. When he says the kingdom of heaven, he means the kingdom which he came to establish, his holy Catholic Church.

But how is this leaven, or yeast? Well, it is not so very hard to see this. It is because, being put into the world in the beginning in the form of a few weak, poor, and unlearned men and women, like the little spoonful of yeast put into a great mass of flour, it soon spread through the whole known world, and is even now spreading in the same way, changing and influencing in many ways all whom it meets with, even if it does not fully convert them: just as the yeast is spread through the whole of the dough, raising it and making it into good and healthy food.

Yes, my brethren, this was the way that the church spread through the world and made its converts, especially in the early times. It was not only by preaching. The Apostles and their successors did not have much chance to preach to the world in general. They were not allowed to do so; public preaching would have brought down on them much greater persecutions than those which they actually suffered, and it would have required great miracles on God's part to preserve his church had such preaching been tried, especially in the great cities. No, they had to teach their doctrine, as we may say, on the sly; in fact, part of it was reserved for those who had already become Christians. It may seem strange now, but in early times no one was allowed to hear anything about the real presence of our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament till after he had been baptized. This was called the discipline of the secret, and was kept up for a long time.

So, you see, Christianity was not learned in the pagan Roman Empire so much by preaching as by private instruction joined with good example. One person caught it from another, as the particles of dough get raised by those next to them. Masters and mistresses, for instance, caught it from their servants, others from their friends and acquaintances—first, from noticing their virtues, so different from those which the pagans had. They saw how gentle and affectionate, and still how courageous, they were; how they bore suffering without a murmur; how they shrank from the idols worshipped by others, and from all the vices which these idols represented; how little they cared for pleasure; how each sacrificed himself for his neighbor. "See," said the world, "how these Christians love one another." Then the world began to inquire what was the reason of this love and of the other Christian virtues; and so religion spread from the lowest to the highest, till at last the Roman emperors themselves knelt before the cross.

Things are somewhat changed now, it is true. The Catholic faith can now be preached and taught openly; still, it is almost the same as if it could not, for people outside the church will seldom come and hear it, or even read books explaining it. The discipline of the secret still prevails, not because we wish it, but because the world does. So now, as before, the faith must catch and spread from one person to another if it is to make much progress in such countries as this of ours. Protestants run away from the priest, and will have nothing to say to him; so it will not do to say that making converts is the priest's business and does not concern you. No, my brethren, making converts is your business, as things stand, perhaps even more than his. But how are they to be made? Not by cursing, lying, and drunkenness, sins too common, alas! among many who call themselves Catholics, and specially liable to be noticed by others. It was not by these that the first Christians converted the world. Not by quarrels and slanders; it is not by these that you will convince people that we Christians love one another. Turn, then, from the vices which repel, and practise instead virtues which will attract unbelievers, and lead them to inquire why you are so good instead of wondering that you are so bad. Then they will come to you, as they did of old to your ancestors in the faith, to learn the doctrine which has taught you these virtues; and you will be, as you should be, the leaven which is to leaven the world.

Septuagesima Sunday.

Epistle.
1 Corinthians ix. 24; x. 5.
Brethren:
Know you not that they who run in the race, all run indeed, but one receiveth the prize? So run that you may obtain.
And every one that striveth for the mastery refraineth himself from all things; and they indeed that they may receive a corruptible crown; but we an incorruptible one. I therefore so run, not as at an uncertainty: I so fight, not as one beating the air: but I chastise my body, and bring it into subjection: lest perhaps, when I have preached to others, I myself should become reprobate. For I would not have you ignorant, brethren, that our fathers were all under the cloud, and all passed through the sea. And all in Moses were baptized, in the cloud and in the sea; and they did all eat the same spiritual food, and all drank the same spiritual drink (and they drank of the spiritual rock that followed them, and the rock was Christ). But with the most of them God was not well pleased.
Gospel.
St. Matthew xx. 1-16.
At that time:
Jesus said to his disciples this parable: The kingdom of heaven is like to a master of a family, who went early in the morning to hire laborers into his vineyard. And when he had agreed with the laborers for a penny a day, he sent them into his vineyard. And he went out about the third hour and saw others standing in the market-place idle. And he said to them: Go you also into my vineyard, and I will give you what shall be just.

And they went their way. And again he went out about the sixth and the ninth hour, and did in like manner. But about the eleventh hour he went out and found others standing, and he saith to them: Why stand you here all the day idle? They say to him: Because no man hath hired us. Ho saith to them: Go you also into my vineyard. And when evening was come, the lord of the vineyard saith to his steward: Call the laborers and pay them their hire, beginning from the last even to the first. When, therefore, they came, who had come about the eleventh hour, they received every man a penny. But when the first also came, they thought that they should have received more, and they also received every man a penny. And when they received it, they murmured against the master of the house, saying: These last have worked but one hour, and thou hast made them equal to us, that have borne the burden of the day and the heats. But he answering one of them, said: Friend, I do thee no wrong; didst thou not agree with me for a penny? Take what is thine and go thy way: I will also give to this last even as to thee. Or, is it not lawful for me to do what I will? is thy eye evil because I am good? So shall the last be first, and the first last. For many are called, but few chosen.

Sermon XXXV.
Bodily Mortification.

"I chastise my body," says St. Paul in the Epistle of to-day, "and bring it into subjection." In these few words he gives us the great reason for the Catholic doctrine and practice of bodily mortification and penance, which Protestants so often find fault with.

"I chastise my body," he says, "and bring it into subjection"; that is, "I chastise it, because I want to bring it into subjection. I want to tame it, to become its master; so I give it a good beating, I starve it now and then, and treat it badly generally, that it may learn to obey me."

That is the great idea of mortification, my brethren, in a nutshell. Every one knows that if you want to break a vicious horse you have to put him through a pretty severe course of treatment before he will be subject to your will. And every one knows that the body is naturally unruly, like a vicious horse; the body is always craving for things which it would be better that it should not have, and it will have them in spite of us if we do not take care. So, to subject it thoroughly to reason, we must put it through a severe course; otherwise, some time or other, it will get the better of us, and have its own way.

And there is a great deal more need of taming our own bodies than there is of breaking horses. For the horse can only kill our body, but our bodies can kill our souls; and furthermore, if we do not want to take the trouble of breaking a horse, we can shoot him, or get somebody else to take him; but we can not in anyway lawfully get rid of our bodies till such time as God sees fit to take them from us. We are tied fast to them, and cannot get away. So we are absolutely obliged to conquer them, if we do not want to be conquered by them. In other words, if we do not want our bodies to be a frequent cause and occasion of mortal sin to us, we must to some considerable extent practise mortification.

That is the Catholic and true doctrine, as taught by the church, and put into practice, in some degree at least, by all the faithful who obey her laws. And it is also common sense. Every one must admit that the body is the great cause and source of mortal sin to far the greater number of people, and that if its appetites were thoroughly brought under control our souls would be saved from very great dangers, which otherwise they cannot escape. If, then, it is any object to escape these dangers—and no sensible man can deny that it is—one does not need to be a Christian, but only to have the gift of reason, and to look a little into himself and into the world about him, and he must grant that the bodily penances and mortifications which the church insists on are not foolish or superstitious, but in the highest degree prudent and wise.

But I know, my dear brethren, that you do not think that the mortification of the body required by the church is useless or superstitious; I give you too much credit for faith as well as for reason to imagine that. You do need courage, though—we all need it—to act up to what we believe in this matter. Let us then look this question fairly in the face. There is heaven before us to be gained, and sin to be overcome that we may gain it; and here are our bodies, with their depraved, corrupted, and often dangerous and sinful desires, standing in the way of our gaining it. If we will only determine in earnest to get the mastery of them, heaven is almost sure; if we do not, they will be very likely to carry us to hell. If we overcome them, we save ourselves and them, and make them a help instead of a hindrance to us; if not, they will do their best to drag us down with themselves to destruction, and if in the mercy of God we may indeed be saved it will be as by fire. Shall we not take a little trouble when such tremendous interests are at stake? Shall we trust to luck when a little effort will make heaven sure?

Sermon XXXVI.
Sudden Death.

Watch ye, therefore,
because you know not the day nor the hour.
—Matthew. xxv. 13.

These words, my dear brethren, are taken from the parable of the ten virgins who went out to meet the bridegroom and the bride. Five of them, being wise and prudent, took oil in their lamps, that they might be ready at any moment to light them; but the five foolish ones gave no thought to the matter. At midnight, when they least expected it, the cry was heard, "Behold, the bridegroom cometh; go ye forth to meet him." Then the foolish virgins tried to borrow oil from the wise to fill their lamps, but were told to go and buy for themselves. While they were gone the bridegroom came; they were not ready; the door of the marriage-feast was closed when they returned, and in answer to their entreaty, "Lord, lord, open to us," came only the words, "I know you not." "Watch ye, therefore," says our Lord, in concluding this parable, "because you know not the day nor the hour."

Brethren, the meaning of this parable is so plain that it hardly needs even a word of explanation. Yet how unheeded it is, alas! by the majority of Christians!

What does this oil mean that the foolish virgins neglected to provide for themselves and to have in their lamps? What but the grace of God, with, which our souls should be provided, and without which they are in the state of mortal sin? If this precious oil of God's grace is in our souls we are ready at any moment to meet the Bridegroom; no matter how suddenly the cry is made that he is coming, we can go forth with confidence to meet him and feel sure that the door of the marriage-feast of heaven will not be closed to us.

But if we have not this oil, if the lamp of our soul is empty, if we are in the state of mortal sin, what dismay comes on us, what terrible fear and distress of mind, when we are suddenly told to prepare for death! We have been saying all along, "Oh! there will be plenty of time," and now there is not plenty of time. God is coming to meet us, and to demand of us an account of our lives; we cannot hide from his face, and he will not wait. The hour fixed in the eternal counsels of his wisdom has come, the hour on which everything depends, the hour for which the years of our life should have been one long preparation, those years so carelessly thrown away.

Friends may stand around us who have not wasted the oil in their lamps as we have ours. Their souls may be full of the grace of God, preserved and increased continually by prayer and good works, by the love of God and frequent confession and Communion. They may have enough and to spare; but they can not lend to us. "No," they must say to us, "go rather to them that sell, and buy for yourselves. Go rather," that is, "to the regular sources of that grace, the sacraments, which our Lord has placed in his church, to give life to the dead. Send for the priest, and with his help fill the lamp of your soul, and prepare to meet our Lord."

But too often it is as in the parable of the virgins. While the foolish Christian, who has put off his preparation for death, who has lived in the state of sin, expecting to die in the state of grace, goes to fill his lamp, his Lord comes, finds him, and judges him as he is. The priest comes, but only to look on him lying dead. Or even if the oil of grace is brought to the sinner, he has not, perhaps, the price to pay for it; that is, he has not those dispositions of sincere penitence and amendment of life, without which all sacraments are vain and ineffectual.

Brethren, it is a fearful point in the parable of the wise and foolish virgins that not one of the five who were so carelessly unprepared was able to have her lamp ready to meet the bridegroom in his coming. It should teach us to expect that, as a rule, a man must die as he has lived. No doubt there are exceptions; the mercy of God is over all, and wills not that the sinner should perish. But the only safe way, the only way, indeed, that is not the wildest folly, and even insanity, is to live as all good Christians do live, continually prepared for death; with the grace of God always in their souls, with no stain of mortal sin on them; with "their loins girt, and lamps burning in their hands"; and "like to men who wait for their lord when he shall return from the wedding: that when he cometh and knocketh they may open to him immediately."

Sermon XXXVII.
Life's Purpose.

Brethren, know you not that they that run in the race,
all run indeed, but one receiveth the prize?
So run, that you may obtain.

There is a great question, my dear brethren, that comes home some time or other to every man in the world who is not entirely taken up with the passing pleasures and fleeting interests of the moment; to every man, that is, who lives as a man, and not as a mere child. It is the most important and vital of all questions; and it will return often on us, put it away as much as we will. It is this: "What am I here for? what is the use, what is the purpose of all this life which I am living? What is the goal to which it is tending? what end do I hope to obtain?"

Yes, we must look forward in this way sometimes, and we must try to find something in the future better worth having than what we have now, or our life, with its labors and fatigues, becomes a burden almost too great to be borne.

So one man proposes wealth, another knowledge and learning, another fame and honor as his object in life; or at least he looks forward to bringing up children to whom he can leave his memory and his name, and who will carry on and complete the work he has begun.

But we Christians do not seek for an answer to this question. The answer is written plainly by faith in our souls; we may try to forget it or put something else in its place, but we shall find no other in which we can believe. The answer for us is, that this life has no end or object in itself which can justify or explain it, but that it is a time of trial, of probation for something better; that we live in order that it may be seen from our life whether we are worthy to share in an eternal life; that only beyond the grave can what the soul longs for be attained, and that we may fail in attaining it if we do not keep it steadily in view and work for it with all the strength we have.

So our life is a race, a struggle for an immense and unspeakable prize to come at its end; and a prize which will never be offered again if we do not secure it this time. If we fail in this life our failure can never be retrieved; nor will anything else ever be offered us to live for. For all eternity we shall see what we might have had, and shall be tortured with vain remorse; and nothing else will give us even a moment's peace. This eternity will be intolerable, even were there no other pains in it; but on account of this alone we shall seek death for ever, and never find it.

And from this race, this struggle in which we are now entered, there is no escape. We cannot withdraw and have our name struck from the list of contestants. There is no half-way place which we can take between triumph and defeat. "Know you not," says St. Paul, "that all run in the race?" Yes, a power greater than ours has put us on the track, and is drawing us along it, whether we will or no. We cannot remain as we are, for He whose power has placed us here has made us for himself, and we cannot rest till we rest in him.

Since, then, we have to run in the race; since we have to suffer, to labor, to pursue a happiness which we now have not; since we must do this even in spite of ourselves; since we cannot sit down and give up our place, what folly it is to run to no purpose, to turn aside and try to forget the only possible reward for all our toil, the only thing that can make the life which we must live worth living! Let St. Paul's words on this Sunday sink into our minds; and, since we have to run in this race on which everything depends, let us not trifle and lose its precious moments, but so run that we may obtain.

Sexagesima Sunday

Epistle.
2 Corinthians xi. 19-xii. 9.
Brethren:
You gladly suffer the foolish: whereas you yourselves are wise. For you suffer if a man bring you into bondage, if a man devour you, if a man take from you, if a man be extolled, if a man strike you on the face. I speak according to dishonor, as if we had been weak in this part. Wherein if any man is bold (I speak foolishly) I am bold also. They are Hebrews; so am I. They are Israelites; so am I. They are the seed of Abraham; so am I. They are the ministers of Christ (I speak as one less wise), I am more; in many more labors, in prisons more frequently, in stripes above measure, in deaths often. Of the Jews five times did I receive forty stripes, save one. Thrice was I beaten with rods, once I was stoned, thrice I suffered shipwreck; a night and a day I was in the depth of the sea; in journeys often, in perils of rivers, in perils of robbers, in perils from my own nation, in perils from the Gentiles, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils from false brethren: in labor and painfulness, in watchings often, in hunger and thirst, in many fastings, in cold and nakedness. Besides those things which are without: my daily instance, the solicitude for all the churches. Who is weak, and I am not weak? Who is scandalized, and I do not burn? If I must needs glory, I will glory of the things that concern my infirmity. The God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who is blessed for ever, knoweth that I lie not. At Damascus the governor of the nation under Aretas the king, guarded the city of the Damascenes to apprehend me. And through a window in a basket was I let down by the wall, and so escaped his hands. If I must glory (for it is not expedient indeed); but I will come to visions and revelations of the Lord. I know a man in Christ above fourteen years ago (whether in the body I know not, or out of the body I know not: God knoweth), such an one caught up to the third heaven. And I know such a man, whether in the body or out of the body, I know not: God knoweth; that he was caught up into paradise; and heard secret words which it is not granted to man to utter. Of such an one I will glory; but for myself I will glory nothing, but in my infirmities. For even if I would glory, I shall not be foolish: for I will say the truth. But I forbear, lest any man should think of me above that which he seeth in me, or anything he heareth from me. And lest the greatness of the revelations should puff me up, there was given me a sting of my flesh, an angel of Satan to buffet me. For which thing I thrice besought the Lord, that it might depart from me; and he said to me: My grace is sufficient for thee; for power is made perfect in infirmity. Gladly therefore will I glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may dwell in me.
Gospel.
St. Luke viii. 4-15.
At that time:
When a very great multitude was gathered together and hastened out of the cities to him, he spoke by a similitude. A sower went out to sow his seed. And as he sowed some fell by the wayside, and it was trodden down, and the fowls of the air devoured it. And some fell upon a rock; and as soon as it was sprung up, it withered away, because it had no moisture. And some fell among thorns, and the thorns growing up with it, choked it. And some fell upon good ground; and sprung up, and yielded fruit a hundredfold. Saying these things, he cried out: He that hath ears to hear, let him hear. And his disciples asked him what this parable might be. To whom he said: To you it is given to know the mystery of the kingdom of God; but to the rest in parables, that seeing they may not see, and hearing they may not understand. Now the parable is this: The seed is the word of God. And they by the wayside are they that hear: then the devil cometh, and taketh the word out of their heart, lest believing they should be saved. Now they upon the rock, are they who when they hear, receive the word with joy: and these have no roots; who believe for a while, and in time of temptation fall away. And that which fell among thorns, are they who have heard, and going their way, are choked with the cares, and riches, and pleasures of this life, and yield no fruit. But that on the good ground, are they who in a good and perfect heart, hearing the word, keep it, and bring forth fruit in patience.

Sermon XXXVIII.
Perseverance After A Mission.

Power is made perfect in infirmity. —Epistle of the Day.

Not so very long ago, my dear brethren, we had a great mission in this church. It was well attended—that was almost a matter of course; for, thank God, every one considers it a shame to neglect so great a grace when it is offered, and the Catholic who refuses to attend a mission is regarded by those who know him as being in a very bad and dangerous state.

And the mission, I trust, was on the whole well made by those who attended it. They made good confessions; they felt true sorrow for their sins. And they made real purposes of amendment against their vices, whatever they might be. The drunkard promised to abstain from drink for God's sake, though it might be almost the only thing that gave him pleasure; the impure promised to abandon and stamp out his evil passions and habits; the one who had neglected Mass and the other duties of his religion out of laziness, gluttony, or indifference, promised to be faithful to them for the future.

But how many of the thousands who made these promises have kept them? How many of those who were not leading a Christian life before the mission are now doing so? Some certainly; yes, some of the seed of the word of God, of which our Lord speaks in to-day's Gospel, which was then sown, has indeed sprung up and borne fruit, it may be a hundredfold. Some, in a good heart, hearing the word, have kept it, and brought forth fruit in patience.

But, alas! how many, on the other hand, have been like the wayside, the rock, or the thorns in our Lord's parable! The seed sprang up, and remained for a few days or weeks; but now, if you look for it, it has gone, trampled under foot, choked, or withered away.

Now, what is the reason of all this sad want of perseverance? Was it that those who made their confessions then were not sincere; that they made promises which they did not really expect to keep? Perhaps that may have been so with some of them; for some people do seem to think that one cannot be expected to avoid mortal sin, unless he is a priest or a religious, and even call others hypocrites who believe that they can and do avoid it. But there were others who failed—and these were a great many—because they thought they had only to say that they would do the thing, and that then the thing would be done.

They did not know how weak they were; perhaps they do not know it yet. They will find it out sometime, as those do who have often taken the pledge in vain; and then it may be that they will despair, which will be the worst of all. But if they use this knowledge right it will be their salvation.

And how will knowing that they are weak save them? Will it make them strong? Yes, but not in their own strength; it will save them by making them turn to the infinite power of God. This is what our Lord told St. Paul, as we learn in the Epistle of to-day, when he asked to have his temptation removed. He said to him: "My grace is sufficient for thee, for power is made perfect in infirmity." The more we know our weakness the stronger we shall be, if our terror and distrust of ourselves will only make us turn to God in frequent, earnest, and fervent prayer for help, and in continual approach to the sacraments which he has given for our aid.

Oh! if Christians would only learn this one great truth, how the whole face of things would change! How the most obstinate vices, the most deep-rooted spiritual disease, would melt away at the touch of the Great Physician of our souls, if we would only go to him continually for their cure! How easily we should overcome the enemy if we would only understand that of ourselves we cannot overcome him, but that we can do all things in Him who strengtheneth us; and, understanding this, would go to him for the strength that we cannot get elsewhere!

My brethren, you who have fallen and now fall so often, I beg you to put this truth in practice. You fail, and why? Because you have undertaken more than you can do. You wish to succeed? I hope so. Well, there is only one way. Do as you have done before, but also call God to the rescue. Pray frequently and fervently, and go often to confession and Communion, and success, instead of being hopeless, will be sure.

Sermon XXXIX.
Good Seed But No Harvest.

The Gospel of to-day, my brethren, is the parable of the sower who went out to sow his seed. Our Lord himself explains the parable, and tells us that the seed is the word of God; and the real sower of this word, of course, is God, from whom it comes, and from whom it has all its life and power.

The ground in which this seed is sown is the mind and heart of man; or, to put the matter in a practical shape, it is your heart and mine. There are many people in this world to whom very little of it has come, at least compared with what we have had; but we cannot complain that we have not had our share. The word of God spoken by the mouth of man, in sermons, instructions, counsels, and warnings, from the altar and in the confessional, and not only from the priests but also from others who have been the ministers of God and the channels of his grace to us—it is certainly no strange or new sound in our ears. And not only in this way have we continually heard God's voice, but often, perhaps even more frequently, have we heard it coming immediately from him, and speaking in our own souls.

Plenty of this seed has, then, been sown in us; but where is the fruit, the harvest that should have come from it? Seed is not put in the ground merely to be kept there. No, it cannot be kept there; if it is not destroyed or carried away it must grow and multiply.

The seed of God's word should, therefore, have grown in us. It should have been the beginning and the increase in us of the spiritual life, which should have grown stronger in us day by day from the time when we first came to the use of reason until the present moment.

Now, how is it in fact? As we look back on our lives, do we find that this has actually been fulfilled in them? Are we better, more perfect, nearer to God now than we were last year, or even ten years ago? Is it not rather to be feared that we have fallen back; that we are more careless, perhaps, even about mortal sin, than we were in times past; or, to say the least, that habits of venial sin have gained on us, instead of being overcome; that our prayers are less fervent, our reception of the sacraments less frequent, our love of God weaker than in the years which have gone by?

Holy Scripture tells us that the "path of the just, as a shining light, goeth forwards and increaseth even to perfect day." "The just"—that is, those who are habitually in God's grace, who have and keep the life of God in their souls. The Christian virtues, the seeds of which were put in our souls at baptism, should have been growing during all our lives; they should have become strong trees now, deeply rooted and spreading far and wide. Even if they were killed at any time by the frost of mortal sin, they should have been speedily brought to life and renewed their growth before they had decayed and rotted away.

Brethren, I need not ask you if this has been so with you. With some, no doubt, it has. They may not feel that they have drawn nearer to God, but really they have. Temptation does not find the material in them to work on that it did; to avoid evil and to do good is every day easier and easier; they have still cause to fear, it is true, but still more and more ground to hope.

But, alas! how many there are in whom there is no sign of this growth which should have come from the seed which has been sown in them! Their light has not increased; no, it is almost always extinguished; when it does seem to shine it is but to flicker for a moment, and to disappear. The seed is no sooner sown in them than it is trampled under foot or carried away by the birds of the air.

Brethren, if the life of grace is not growing in our souls; if we are not falling less frequently, and rising more easily from our falls, than before, our path is not that of the just, and the seed of the word of God has not yet taken that root which will make it bring forth a hundredfold.

Sermon XL.
The Uses Of Temptation.

My grace is sufficient for thee;
for power is made perfect in infirmity.
—2 Corinthians xii. 9.

To all who are striving to lead a good Christian life the example of the saints is a powerful means of encouragement, and the more so when we see in the saints themselves the evidences of our common human nature, when we see them encountering the same difficulties and struggling with the same temptations which we ourselves experience. Their great deeds and miracles exalt them to a sphere far above us, and, while they fill us with admiration, would yet have a tendency to discourage us were it not for those other passages in their lives when they seem to be brought down to our own level by contact with those evil influences which are ever seeking to sway our fallen nature. The fact that the saints have had to engage in conflict with the basest passions is so far from lowering them in our eyes that it only serves to make them dearer to us and to stimulate us to a more faithful imitation of them.

And so St. Paul's account of himself in the Epistle of to-day has been a ground of encouragement to many a soul that had grown weary of an incessant warfare with temptation. The Apostle tells us that, in spite of the wondrous revelations and heavenly favors which he had received from God, he was yet tormented with temptations of the flesh. "And lest the greatness of the revelations should puff me up, there was given me a sting of my flesh, an angel of Satan to buffet me. For which thing I thrice besought the Lord, that it might depart from me; he said to me: My grace is sufficient for thee; for power is made perfect in infirmity." To every soul struggling with temptation God speaks these same words of comfort. "What if you are weak and the temptation is strong? My grace is sufficient for you. My power shall be shown forth through your weakness, for what you could never do of your own strength I can and will do for you with my grace."

Many are the lessons we can learn from this text. When we see the great Apostle of the Gentiles engaged in a hard conflict with the demon of impurity, it shows us that God does not spare in this respect even his most chosen servants. On the contrary, by refusing to grant the prayer of St. Paul that he might be delivered from this sting of the flesh, God teaches us that temptation is often a special mark of his favor, even as a general would place his best and bravest soldiers in the thickest of the fight. We are also taught that, no matter how vile the suggestions of the evil one, they cannot soil the heart of him who resists them. If, as soon as the sinfulness of the foul thought or imagination is realized, resistance be at once begun, and kept up until the suggestion is banished, we may be sure we have not yielded, especially if we have had recourse to prayer. From the shield of prayer the arrows of the tempter are sure to glance and fall harmlessly to the ground.

But, on the other hand, these temptations teach us what we are in ourselves, or rather what we should be without the aid of God's grace. St. Paul tells us that God permitted those buffetings of Satan to preserve in him the virtue of humility, "lest the greatness of the revelations should puff me up." The evil imaginations arising in our minds show us to what a depth we should sink were God to withdraw his grace from us and leave us to ourselves. We should, therefore, make of such temptations an occasion of humility, acknowledging our own worthlessness, our own weakness, yet glorying, as St. Paul did, in the power of God's grace, which is able to make us strong, and endow us with supernatural merit. And here lies the greatest value and use of temptations—God's power is made perfect in our infirmity. A crown of merit is the reward of victory in the fight. Without the temptation we should not have had the merit of overcoming it. In the hour of trial, then, take courage from these words of God to St. Paul: "My grace is sufficient for thee, for power is made perfect in infirmity."

Quinquagesima Sunday.

Epistle.
1 Corinthians xiii. 1-13.
Brethren:
If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity. I am become as sounding brass or a tinkling cymbal. And if I should have prophecy, and should know all mysteries, and all knowledge, and if I should have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing. And if I should distribute all my goods to feed the poor, and if I should deliver my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing. Charity is patient, is kind: charity envieth not, dealeth not perversely, is not puffed up, is not ambitious, seeketh not her own, is not provoked to anger, thinketh no evil, rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth with the truth: beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things. Charity never faileth: whether prophecies shall be made void, or tongues shall cease, or knowledge shall be destroyed. For we know in part, and we prophesy in part. But when that which is perfect shall come, that which is in part shall be done away. When I was a child. I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child. But when I became a man, I put away the things of a child. We see now through a glass in an obscure manner: but then face to face. Now I know in part: but then I shall know even as I am known. And now there remain faith, hope, and charity, these three: but the greatest of these is charity.

Gospel.
St. Luke xviii. 31-43.
At that time:
Jesus took unto him the twelve, and said to them: Behold we go up to Jerusalem, and all things shall be accomplished which were written by the prophets concerning the Son of Man. For he shall be delivered to the Gentiles, and shall be mocked, and scourged, and spit upon: and after they have scourged him, they will put him to death, and the third day he shall rise again. And they understood none of these things, and this word was hid from them, and they understood not the things that were said. Now it came to pass that when he drew nigh to Jericho, a certain blind man sat by the wayside, begging. And when he heard the multitude passing by, he asked what this meant. And they told him that Jesus of Nazareth was passing by. And he cried out, saying: Jesus, son of David, have mercy on me. And they that went before, rebuked him, that he should hold his peace. But he cried out much more: Son of David, have mercy on me. And Jesus stood and commanded him to be brought to him. And when he was come near, he asked him, saying: What wilt thou that I do to thee? But he said: Lord that I may see. And Jesus said to him: Receive thy sight: thy faith hath made thee whole. And immediately he saw, and followed him, glorifying God. And all the people, when they saw it, gave praise to God.

Sermon XLI.
The Qualities Of Christian Charity.

What a beautiful description it is, my dear brethren, which St. Paul gives us of the virtue of charity in the Epistle of to-day! If you have never read it or do not remember it, I would advise you to read it at once; and, indeed, nothing could be better than to commit it to memory.

Let us look just now at a part of it. "Charity," says the Apostle, "is patient, is kind; charity envieth not; dealeth not perversely; is not puffed up; is not ambitious; seeketh not her own; is not provoked to anger; thinketh no evil; rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth; beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things."

Now, I say this is very beautiful, is it not? And perhaps it seems all the more beautiful because the picture which it gives us is not a very familiar one. I know we are apt to think about as well of ourselves as of almost any one of our acquaintance; but can we say to ourselves, on reading or hearing this description of charity, "That's me; that's just my character to a hair"? No; somehow or other, though we would like to put on the coat, it does not seem to fit.

"Charity is patient, is kind." That is rather out of the way, to begin with, when we think how impatient and cross we are if anything goes wrong, if anybody stands in our way or interferes with us, or even ventures to differ from us in opinion.

"Charity envieth not." Worse yet. Why, some people cannot even see their neighbor have a new dress or hat without at once making up their minds to take the shine out of that conceited thing. And if they hear it said that Miss So-and-So is good-looking they will take some opportunity to remark: "For the life of me, I can't make out what any one sees to admire in her." Probably they might manage to see it if they would make a great effort; but how can they make the effort when no one seems to have any eye for their own good points, which ought to be so evident to all? And it is not the ladies only who have this weakness. You will hear something like this: "Oh! I consider him to be a much overrated man. I knew him when he was young, and he was nothing above the common. But some people certainly have luck." Or, if you do not hear it out loud, the grumbling is there all the same in the heart. Perhaps some praise has to be given, but it is very sparing; given with great appearance of careful judgment and a desire to keep closely to the truth.

"Charity dealeth not perversely." How is this? Why, you will find Christians who would, as the saying goes, "cut off their nose to spite their face." They will even suffer themselves, if some one else can only be made to suffer too.

But I shall not have time to make all the applications. As I said, you had better read the Epistle, then you can make them for yourselves.

I wish, however, to call your attention before closing to one unpleasant circumstance. Is this charity, which St. Paul so highly praises and so beautifully describes, a sort of fancy and ornamental virtue, which is certainly very commendable, but which we can get along well enough without? Listen to a few other words which come a little before those I have read: "If I should have prophecy, and know all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I should have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing. And if I should distribute all my goods to feed the poor, and if I should deliver my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing." Notice, he does not say, "I am not much, or these things are not much good, without charity": no, without it "I am nothing"; a cipher, and a sham. Take this home and meditate on it.

Sermon XLII.
Delay Of Repentance.

Be not deceived, God is not mocked;
for what things a man shall sow,
those also shall he reap.
—Galatians vi. 7, 8.

"Never mind, I will repent some day and confess it all to the priest; then it will be as if it never happened." Sometimes, my dear brethren, when men have made up their minds to commit sin, or to go on in a course of sin, they are tempted to say some such words as these; or if they are not fallen so low as to talk in this way, yet, if we may form a judgment of their thoughts by their actions, such are the thoughts of not a few. I propose, therefore, to say a few words this morning on the great folly of this way of speaking, thinking, and acting, and to show you what a false notion it rests upon.

I will not stop to point out how uncertain that really is which is assumed as perfectly certain—namely, that an opportunity of going to confession will be granted to every one who acts in this way. A man who sins can never be sure that he will not be cut off in his sin. But I will take it for granted that the opportunity of making a confession is given; more than that, I will take it for granted that he makes a good confession and receives absolution as he promised himself. In such a case as this is it true that even then all will be just as if the sin had never been committed?

My dear brethren, to imagine this to be the case would be indeed a very great mistake. In order that you may see this I must recall to your recollection some well-known truths. In the beginning, God, having made man, placed him in a state of great happiness. He was without pain, sickness, anxiety, or death. How is it, then, that man finds himself in his actual condition? Why is it that man is subjected to so many hardships and miseries, obliged to toil for his daily bread, and, in the end, through anguish and suffering, give up that life which it has cost so much labor to preserve? Think, my dear brethren, of all the pains of mind and body which you have ever experienced, or which you have seen others experience; think of all the sufferings of which you have ever read, and ask yourselves the reason for all this vast mass of agony and anguish. That reason is given in one word. Of all the suffering that has ever been and that ever will be, sin is the cause. Directly or indirectly, mediately or immediately, every suffering finds in sin its origin.

Now, I do not say that when we come to particular cases we can always point out precisely how and why this suffering is connected with that sin. God in his providence permits suffering to attend upon sin for many different reasons. Sometimes it is permitted as a warning not to sin in order that men of sense and understanding, seeing what sin costs, may avoid it. Sometimes suffering in this world is, I am afraid we must say, but a foretaste of eternal suffering in the next. In some cases sufferings are sent to make us more like our Lord. But—and this is the special point I wish you to notice—suffering is very frequently sent by Almighty God as a punishment in this life for those sins the eternal punishment of which he has forgiven. This brings me back to the special point of this instruction. A man may go to confession, may even make a good confession and receive a good absolution—that is to say, he may receive through the merits of Christ the remission of the eternal punishment due to his sins, and yet things may be very far from being, as he promised himself, just as they were before. On the contrary, he may have a vast amount of punishment to undergo in time in consequence of that sin, which he would not have had if he had not committed that sin. This thought is very suitable for this season. Lent will begin next Wednesday. Its fasting and abstinence are enjoined by the church, among other reasons as a means of satisfying for the temporal punishment due to past sins. But, in order that this fasting and abstinence may be useful for this purpose, those who fast and abstain must be in the state of grace, because all their value as works of satisfaction is due to the indwelling grace of God. In order, then, that your fasting and abstinence may be profitable to your own souls, let me advise you to act like our wise forefathers acted, to come to confession at once in the beginning of Lent, and not to put it off with your Easter duty to the last moment.

Sermon XLIII.
Lenten Obligations.

Next Wednesday, my brethren, we enter, as of course you know, on the great and holy season of Lent. On that day, no doubt, as many of you as can will come to the church and receive on your foreheads the ashes which remind us of the penance to which these coming weeks are specially devoted.

The church is generally full on Ash-Wednesday, and one would think, on seeing the crowds pressing forward to receive the ashes, that they were all determined to enter into the spirit of the church, and to keep Lent as it should be kept. Yet how many there are who go through this outward form, and make a great deal of it, and yet neglect all that is signified by it; who give a show indeed of penance, but bring forth none of its fruits! Some, perhaps, of the Ash-Wednesday penitents will not be seen again in the church till they come forward again on Good Friday to kiss the cross.

Yet it is better to come to church, if only on Ash-Wednesday and Good Friday, than not at all; better to do some penance and show some love of God than to neglect these virtues altogether. But how much better still it would be to now thoroughly understand and seriously take to heart what God requires of us, especially in this holy time, and to make it the means, as it may be more than anything else, of our final salvation!

First, then, to thoroughly understand what we are now to do. Everything must be well understood before it can be well done, and the keeping of Lent is no exception to this general rule. Many people break the rules of Lent because they do not clearly understand them.

Lent, then, my brethren, is not a time to be spent in penance altogether according to one's own devotion. Far from it; the duties to be performed in it are clearly and precisely laid down, and should be attended to very strictly. They are not many; they make no great demand on our time or strength; but the Christian who discharges them properly will make his Lent far better than one would who should neglect them and take any other practices, no matter how hard, in their place. It is better to keep the real rules or laws of Lent faithfully than to hear three Masses every day, and come to all the extra services, and give half one's goods to the poor, and yet neglect our regular duties.

What, then, are these laws? The first is the Easter duty, which should be made before Easter, if possible, though the church indulgently extends the time several weeks after that festival. Make, then, this great duty, far the greatest of all the duties of a Christian, at once; it will be very easy for all of you who have just made the mission to do it now, and the longer you put it off the harder it will be. Make it, then, if possible, the first day it can be made—that is, next Sunday—and get it, if I may say so, off your mind. Do not fancy that, as you have so lately made the mission, the Easter duty is of little consequence. If you had made twenty missions during the past year, and any number of jubilees, the law of the Easter duty would bind you exactly as much as if you had neglected them all. It is like hearing Mass on Sunday; nobody is excused at all from Mass on Sunday because they have been to it through the week. So this time, the great Sunday of the year, is set apart by the church for the precept of Holy Communion; it must be fulfilled at this time, no matter how often one has received outside of it.

The second and only other real law of Lent is that relating to fasting and abstinence. If you attend carefully to the rules that have been read you will understand this well enough. But do not confuse fasting with abstinence; that is the most common mistake. People often say: "Oh! I have to work hard; I can eat meat if I like." That is a great error, and a very foolish one. Many are excused from fasting on one meal and a collation; few from abstinence on the days appointed. If you want to have a safe conscience in eating meat you should consult a confessor, unless seriously ill.

Attend to these two things, then, and you will make your Lent as a Christian should. But, of course, you will also try to follow, to the best of your ability, the other devotional practices recommended by the church at this time. Come to daily Mass, and to the occasional services, and give alms according to your means. These practices, especially now, are of the greatest spiritual profit, and can not generally be neglected without spiritual danger. But remember that Easter duty and fasting, with abstinence, are the real laws. Obey these, at any rate, and then, so far as you are able, add the others beside.

First Sunday of Lent.

Epistle.
2 Corinthians vi. 1-10.
Brethren:
We do exhort you, that you receive not the grace of God in vain. For he saith: "In an accepted time have I heard thee; and in the day of salvation have I helped thee." Behold, now is the acceptable time: behold, now is the day of salvation. Giving no offence to any man, that our ministry be not blamed: but in all things let us exhibit ourselves as the ministers of God, in much patience, in tribulation, in necessities, in distresses, in stripes, in prisons, in seditions, in labors, in watchings, in fastings, in chastity, in knowledge, in long-suffering, in sweetness, in the Holy Ghost, in charity unfeigned, in the word ol truth, in the power of God; by the armor of justice on the right hand and on the left: through honor and dishonor: through infamy and good name: as seducers, and yet speaking truth: as unknown, and yet known: as dying, and behold we live: as chastised, and not killed: as sorrowful, yet always rejoicing: as needy, yet enriching many: as having nothing, and possessing all things.
Gospel.
St. Matthew iv. 1-11.
At that time:
Jesus was led by the spirit into the desert, to be tempted by the devil. And when he had fasted forty days and forty nights, he was afterwards hungry. And the tempter coming, said to him: If thou be the Son of God, command that these stones be made bread. But he answered and said: It is written, "Man liveth not by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth from the mouth of God." Then the devil took him up into the holy city, and set him upon the pinnacle of the temple, and said to him: If thou be the Son of God, cast thyself down, for it is written: "That he hath given his angels charge over thee, and in their hands shall they bear thee up, lest perhaps thou hurt thy foot against a stone." Jesus said to him: It is written again: "Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God." Again the devil took him up into a very high mountain, and showed him all the kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them. And said unto him: All these will I give thee, if falling down thou wilt adore me. Then Jesus saith to him: Be gone, Satan, for it is written: "The Lord thy God shalt thou adore, and him only shalt thou serve." Then the devil left him: and behold, angels came and ministered to him.

Sermon XLIV.
The Merit Of Fasting And Abstinence.

Lay not up to yourselves treasures on earth,
where the rust and moth consume, and where,
thieves break through and steal.
But lay up to yourselves treasures in heaven,
where neither the rust nor the moth doth consume
and where thieves do not break through nor steal.
For where thy treasure is,
there is thy heart also.
—Gospel Of Ash-Wednesday.

If any one of us, my brethren, should be asked what is the object of this holy season of Lent on which we are now entering, or what is the reason why it has been appointed, the answer would probably be that it is in order that we may do penance for our sins. Penance: punishment inflicted on ourselves in satisfaction for those offences for which we feel we have so imperfectly atoned, and to obtain from God those graces which we so greatly need: this, perhaps, is the idea uppermost in most people's minds when Lent comes round.

Well, this is no doubt a reason, and a good one, not only for what we have to do in Lent, but for a great deal more that we may do, not only now, but all through the year. Few even of those who lead good lives do penance enough for their sins, even as it is; almost all go before God with a large account unsettled in this matter. How much worse would it be if there was no Lent, if the church never insisted on our chastising ourselves in any way, and seemed to treat such chastisement as of no consequence! The very notion of it would drop from our thoughts, as it has indeed long ago from the minds of those who have separated from the church and ceased to possess the true faith.

This is, then, a good reason for Lent; but there is another which we are not so apt to think of, and which, for this very reason, I would like to emphasize.

This reason is the one suggested by the words of the Gospel of last Wednesday, which you have just heard: "Lay not up to yourselves treasures on earth; … but lay up to yourselves treasures in heaven. … For where thy treasure is, there is thy heart also."

Brethren, we should have no trouble at all in getting to heaven if we only really wanted to get there. Of course in one way we do want to get to heaven; that is, we all want to save our souls from the eternal anguish and misery of hell, and we know there is nothing for us but heaven or hell in the end. But I am afraid that many Christians, especially when they have health, strength, and plenty of this world's goods, have really very little wish to give them up, in order to pass, even could they do so at once, to those joys which the heart of man cannot conceive. No, their treasure is in this world; all their idea of happiness is founded on the pleasures which they have had, are having, or hope to have in it. Their treasure is here, and, as our Lord says, their heart is here too.

I think, then, that this other great reason and object of Lent, of which I have just spoken, is that we may do something to change this state of things; that we may get our hearts off this world, and see our real treasure in heaven, get to know it and love it, and have our hearts there with it. We ought now not merely to stop for a while from worldly pleasures, but to try to cease loving them, and to care for something better. We must love and care for something; let us try now to get the right object for love.

Now, what is this that we should love; what is our treasure in heaven? It is our Father who is in heaven, and who is heaven itself. Brethren, it is not so hard to love God as some people think. We can all try to do a little, at any rate; I mean to love God, not by keeping his commandments, but to love him in the same way as we love those things which are lovely and attractive here. Come to him now, this Lent; that, above all else, is what it was made for; come to church not only to hear a sermon, but to pray, to get near to God, and to bring him into your hearts. Shut the world out of your heart, that he may come in. Ask him to come to you and make his abode with you. Then, when he is really your treasure, he will draw you where he is; you will not have to try to get to heaven; you will go there of your own accord. To die to the world and live to God, this is the Christian's true life; and Lent was made to give this life to our souls.

Sermon XLV.
Difficulties Of Fasting.

Brethren, another year has passed, and Lent has come around once more. I have no doubt that a great many of you wish that it had not; perhaps you would not be so very sorry if the church would have the goodness to do away with this tedious season altogether. Indeed, I imagine that to some people Lent is one of the greatest mysteries of our religion. And even if it is in some general way acknowledged as the proper thing in its due time, it never seems to come in just at the time that would be convenient. If it comes early, it is a very unpleasant interruption to the winter's pleasures and amusements; if it comes late, why could it not come earlier, so that we could get through and have done with it soon?

All the grumbling in the world, however, will not alter the fact. We cannot get rid of Lent, and we cannot fix its time to suit us, even if there is any time which would seem suitable. It is possible, indeed, to free ourselves from its burdens; we may do so either by neglecting its obligations altogether, or by getting somehow or other dispensed from them, without putting anything else in their place. But, after all, if we do this, we shall hardly feel any more comfortable. The best plan is, since Lent is here whether we will or not, to face it boldly and cheerfully, and make the best of it that we can.

And, when we come to look at it, is it such a very terrible infliction? Do we not make rather too much fuss and complaint over what is not really such a very great penance?

Let us look, then, and see what is required of us. The principal thing, of course, is the fasting, as we call it, on one meal. Now, if we actually were reduced to only one meal in the twenty-four hours, I confess that it would be pretty severe; but, you see, in point of fact, we have the collation, at which eight ounces, or half a pound, of solid food is allowed. Now that is as much as many people would take anyway at tea-time. And then you can have a cup of coffee or tea and a small piece of bread in the morning. So, when we come to sift the matter, the fact hardly amounts to more than this: that the breakfast is rather a light one. And then, for those who really have hard work, even what is left of the fast goes by the board altogether.

Well, next there is the abstinence from flesh-meat. Some seem to think this dreadful. "Oh!" they will say, "I can't eat fish; it makes me sick." Indeed? Perhaps you are not very hungry, and do not need anything very much. When you are really hungry the fish will not taste so bad. But, then, who, except indeed the fisherman, wants you to eat fish? I do not think there is any law requiring it to be eaten; and if it has such a bad effect on you I would let it alone and try something else. And though fish is so uneatable, perhaps an oyster or two might now and then be worried down.

Now, after the fast and abstinence, what is left? Really nothing at all in the law of the church, at least in black and white. There is, however, a custom, having about the force of law, prohibiting such parties and theatre-going as would be allowable enough, at other times. But have not you had a pretty good chance for these amusements for the last few months? And, if you are in the habit of some indulgence of this kind, a little quiet at home might be agreeable by way of a change.

But perhaps you do not like so much church-going. Well, this is not absolutely required of you. But it certainly is expected; and it will be well to cultivate a taste for it. Ought it to be such a great penance for a Christian to come and spend a little while in the presence of Him with whom he hopes to dwell for ever?

I think, then, that if you will look at Lent in the right light it will not seem so very grievous. It may be even that you will feel that now is a time to be a little generous with our Lord; and, since he does not ask much, you may be disposed to give him a little more than he absolutely demands.

Sermon XLVI.
Wasted Opportunities.

Brethren, we exhort you
that you receive not the grace of God in vain.

What is this receiving of God's grace in vain, my brethren, against which St. Paul warns us in these words of the Epistle of to-day? It is receiving it and making no use of it; receiving it only to waste it and throw it away.

We are all the time receiving graces from God. Every day, every hour he is giving them to us. For what is a grace? It is a help, a means to our salvation which comes from him. And these helps he gives us continually, by instructions, by admonitions, by good examples; by the evidences which he puts all around us of the shortness and uncertainty of life, of the instability of earthly riches and happiness, of the peace which virtue gives, of the misery which comes from sin. All these and countless other helps to lead us, almost to force us, into the way of his commandments are lavished on us incessantly. They come more or less to all men, but most of all to us children of his holy Catholic Church, who have the full light of his faith, the full teaching of his law.

But more than all he himself is every day speaking in our hearts, inviting, urging, begging us to turn from mortal sin; or, if we have indeed done that, to rise higher, and serve him more perfectly. If we had listened to all these calls, if we had availed ourselves of all these helps, we should now be far advanced on the way of the saints; we should, like St. Stephen at his martyrdom, see heaven opened before us and our salvation morally secure.

But we have not done that. We have been doing just what the Apostle warns us against; we have been receiving these graces in vain. We have received them, and it has been worse with us than if we had not; for we have received them, many of them at least, only to throw them away and trample them underfoot.

What would you think, my brethren, of a man who, being anxious to reach a distant country, which was his true home, and where were those whom he loved, and, having no means to do so of himself, should throw away with contempt the sums which from time to time might in charity be offered him to enable him to accomplish his desires, should throw them absolutely away, not even using them to supply his daily wants or to secure some passing pleasure? You would say that he was a madman or a fool; that he had not the gift of reason, which raises man above the brute.

And yet this is what we have been doing; and even more than this. For there have been some, perhaps many, graces which God has given us which would even alone, if rightly used, have answered for all our needs. They would not have been mere contributions to our passage-money for heaven, but would have put us aboard the vessel, and made our reaching port little more than a question of time. But these, like the rest, are gone without being used; they are strewn on the road behind us, and we cannot turn back to pick them up.

Such a great grace is the one which, in spite of our unworthiness, ingratitude, and folly, is now once more offered to us by our Father in heaven, who does not follow the rules by which an earthly benefactor would be guided. This season of Lent on which we are entering is one of the great helps, the great opportunities which he gives us to reach that country where he awaits our coming. One who spends even one Lent as it should be spent will be at its close well established in the way of solid virtue and peace, the way which leads certainly to the kingdom to which we all hope to go.

It is for this that Lent is given us, not merely for a season of penance and suffering, to be got through with somehow or other as best we can; it is for this reason also that the church to-day solemnly warns us to use it as it should be used. Listen, then, to her warning voice; listen out of love and gratitude to God; listen out of love and holy fear also for yourself; for it may be the last great grace that will ever be brought to your door.

Second Sunday of Lent.

Epistle.
1 Thessalonians iv. 1-7.
Brethren:
We pray and beseech you in the Lord Jesus, that as you have received from us, how you ought to walk, and to please God, so also you would walk, that you may abound the more. For you know what commandments I have given to you by the Lord Jesus. For this is the will of God, your sanctification; that you should abstain from fornication. That every one of you should know how to possess his vessel in sanctification and honor, not in the passion of lust, like the Gentiles, who know not God: and that no man overreach, nor deceive his brother in business: because the Lord is the avenger of all such things, as we have told you before, and have testified. For God hath not called us unto uncleanness, but unto sanctification in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Gospel.
St. Matthew xvii. 1-9.
At that time:
Jesus taketh unto him Peter and James, and John his brother, and bringeth them up into a high mountain apart. And he was transfigured before them. And his face did shine as the sun: and his garments became white as snow. And behold, there appeared to them Moses and Elias talking with him. And Peter answering, said to Jesus: Lord, it is good for us to be here: if thou wilt, let us make here three tabernacles, one for thee, and one for Moses, and one for Elias. And as he was yet speaking, behold a bright cloud overshadowed them. And behold, a voice out of the cloud, saying: This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased: hear ye him. And the disciples hearing, fell upon their face, and were very much afraid. And Jesus came and touched them, and said to them: Arise, and be not afraid. And when they lifted up their eyes they saw no man, but only Jesus. And as they came down from the mountain, Jesus charged them, saying: Tell the vision to no man, till the Son of Man be risen from the dead.

Sermon XLVII.
The Joy Of Penance.

He was transfigured before them.
—Words from To-day's Gospel.

At first sight, my dear brethren, it seems strange that just as we have entered upon this season of fasting and penance the church should have chosen for to-day's Gospel one of the few accounts which the Evangelists have given of the manifestation on earth of our Lord's glory and majesty. The Gospels, as you are aware, are mainly made up of the record of our Lord's words, actions, and sufferings; they tell us how the Son of God made man went about from place to place doing good, healing the sick, consoling the sorrowful, and in the end undergoing cruel sufferings and an ignominious death. There are but few instances recorded of his being glorified and honored with more than human glory and honor, and when such is the case no long and detailed description is given, the fact is barely mentioned, and the narrative passes on.

But to-day's Gospel forms an exception to this general rule. In it special pains have been taken by the Evangelists to give us in detail a description of the other side, so to speak, of our Lord's life. We are told that our Lord chose, out of the twelve, Peter, James, and John, and led them up into a high mountain, and was transfigured before them: so that his face did shine as the sun, and even his garments became shining and exceeding white as snow, "so as no fuller upon earth can make white." And then there appeared to them Elias with Moses talking with Jesus. And so astonished and impressed was Peter that he exclaimed: "Lord, it is good for us to be here: if thou wilt, let us make three tabernacles, one for thee, one for Moses, and one for Elias."

Now, why has the church, by selecting the account of the Transfiguration at this season, turned our thoughts to what seems so inappropriate a subject? It would seem that it would have been better to have chosen those parts of the Gospel which treat of sin, of the judgment to come, of the punishments which await the impenitent sinner. Well, I do not know that I can tell you all the reasons why the church has made this choice, but I think I can give you one reason, and that is, that the church wished to encourage us and to animate us at this season by placing before us the glory which is in store for those who do penance and suffer here.

In this life there is nothing so familiar to most of us as suffering in some form or other. Most of us are obliged by our circumstances to pass our days in exhausting toil and labor. Disease and anxiety and want and disappointment are to be met with on all sides, and there are but few who are free from all these evils. And to all—even to those who are the most favored in this life—there is an hour coming which nothing can avert—the hour of death. This, as every one may see, is the present state of things. Moreover, our Lord, so far from encouraging us to expect freedom from suffering, insists continually upon its necessity. "Deny yourselves," "take up your cross daily," "blessed are the mourners," such are the words our Lord addresses to his disciples. And the church, that this teaching of our Lord may not be a mere speculation, brings it down into every day practical life by commanding us at this season to fast and abstain. From all this the necessity of suffering is evident.

But however true this is, suffering is not an end in itself; it is only a means to an end; it is but a road to everlasting joy and glory. God permits and commands sufferings in order that he may give to those who endure their sufferings well an abundant reward. As St. Paul says: "That which is at present momentary and light of our tribulation worketh for us above measure exceedingly an eternal weight of glory." And it is in order that we may ever remember this that the church calls upon us to consider the manifestation of the glory of our Lord and Master, to whom we must be made conformable in all things—in suffering in this life, in glory in the next.

Sermon XLVIII.
Christian Perfection Not Impossible.

This is the will of God, your sanctification.
—Epistle of the Day.

What, my dear brethren, is the will or intention of Almighty God and of the Catholic Church, which is directed by his Holy Spirit, in establishing for us this fast of Lent, and commanding us to observe it? What is the end which he meant that every Christian should attain by keeping it, and which makes the opportunity now offered to us such a great grace as we were warned last week that it is? The words of St. Paul to-day answer these questions for us. "The will of God," he says, his intention for us at all times indeed, but specially now, "is our sanctification."

But what is our sanctification? It is the making us saints. That, then, is what Lent ought to do for us. It ought to make us saints; God and his church mean that it should.

"Well," perhaps you may say, "if that is the end for which Lent is appointed, it seems to me that the end is seldom attained. For my part, I am afraid I shall never be a saint; saints are few and far between. It will take more than one Lent to make a saint out of such a sinner as I am."

If, then, you say this, I must confess that there is a good deal of truth in it. We must all feel and acknowledge that. Any one who could feel sure now that when Easter comes he will be fit to be canonized must either be very proud and presumptuous, and far from real sanctity, or have some special revelation from God, to which, I think, none of us will pretend.

But for all that it is true that Lent ought to sanctify us; it ought to make us saints, only we need not take the word in quite so high a sense. Though we may hope for the greatest possible gifts now, we cannot confidently expect them. There is, however, a sanctification that we ought to expect from this Lent, and what is it?

It is what I fear many of you, even though tolerably good Christians, do not expect. What do I mean by a tolerably good Christian? I mean, of course, one who expects to make his Easter duty. One who does not expect and mean to do that can hardly be called a tolerably good Christian; it would be more nearly right to call him an intolerably bad one. Well, then, you who are good Christians expect to make your Easter duty; so far, so good. But it is not far enough. For what is it that is meant, perhaps, by that? Is it not merely to make up your mind to confess your sins and to keep for a few days as you ought to be, and then be pretty much as you were before? Has not that been the experience of the past Easter duties of not a few of you, my brethren; and may not the same be said of the missions you have attended, and the other great graces you have received from time to time in your life? You came up to the surface, as a fish jumps out of the water for a moment, and then down you went again.

But that is not enough. That is not sanctification, and it is not the will or intention of God. What you ought to expect is much more than that. What, then, is it? It is simply this: that when you have made your Easter duty you are going to stay all your life where it will put you. It is that the habits of mortal sin which you may then have to confess will be gone for good; that those impure thoughts, words, and actions will have stopped for ever; that the shameful drunkenness, and all the sins which came from it, will be things only of the past; that you will never again wilfully neglect Holy Mass; that in every way you will really live as you ought, all the time in the state of grace, in peace with God and men, and in readiness to die at any time, even without the sacraments, if such should be God's will; that, in short, you will be truly converted to him once for all.

That is the sanctification which past Lents have not brought you, but which this one should. Do not, I beg you, think it is impossible, for it is not only possible but easy. Do not make your Easter duty the highest point and the end of your Christian life; it should be only the beginning of it. What a consolation it will be to you, if in your future life you can look back on this Lent and say, "That was the time when I really began to be a good Christian; since then I have not had much on my conscience; I have kept in the state of grace. I made really good and strong resolutions then, and I have been faithful to them ever since."

There are those now, plenty of them, who can say this of some past Lent. Let it be now your turn to say it of this one. It is not a matter of luck and chance; if you will, this grace of a lasting conversion from sin is now offered to each and every one of you. It is yours to a certainty, if you will take the trouble to secure it; for it is the will of God.

Sermon XLIX.
The Divine Presence In Our Churches.

Lord, it is good for us to be here.
—St. Matthew. xvii. 4.

The Gospel of to-day tells us of the wonderful Transfiguration of our Lord upon the mountain in the sight of his Apostles Peter, James, and John. "His face did shine as the sun, and his garments became white as snow." And Peter, wrapt in wonder, yet conscious of the privilege of being present at such a time, exclaimed: "Lord, it is good for us to be here." Jesus has withdrawn his visible presence from us. We cannot, like St. Peter and St. John, behold him with our bodily eyes, nor with our ears can we hear him speaking the words of life. It is better for us that it should be so. In our present sinful and imperfect state we could not bear the splendors of his glorified humanity. When from out the bright cloud which overshadowed him the disciples heard the voice of God proclaiming, "This is my beloved Son," "they fell upon their faces, and were very much afraid." The sight of all this glory, and the knowledge that they were in the presence of Almighty God himself, filled them with fear. So, too, would it be with us now if Jesus were to show himself to us as he now is in heaven. At the sight of his majesty and glory we, too, should fall upon our faces with fear and trembling.

Now, our dear Lord, knowing this weakness of ours, does not withdraw his presence from us, for he has promised to be with us, even till the end of the world; but he hides his glory from us under the humble appearance of bread and wine. Beneath these outward forms he remains continually in our churches, there in the tabernacle, by day and night, claiming our adoration and our love. In Holy Mass he is daily raised aloft by the hands of the priest, offering himself to God the Father for the sins of the world. In the Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament he is lifted up to bless his faithful ones. And God still speaks to us by the voice and teaching of the church as truly as he spoke to the disciples upon the holy mountain, saying: "This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased: hear ye him." We can still see our Lord, yet only through the cloud which overshadows him—that is, by the eyes of faith. Yet he is none the less really present in the tabernacle upon the altar than he was upon Mount Thabor on the day of his Transfiguration.

When, therefore, we come into his sacred presence, when we enter the church and see the little lamp burning before the altar to tell us that he is there, our sentiments should be those of St. Peter at the Transfiguration: "Lord, it is good for us to be here." It is good for us to often visit him in the Blessed Sacrament; it is good for us to often receive his Benediction; it is good for us, nay, necessary for us, to assist at Holy Mass when the church bids us do so; above all it is good for us, above all it is necessary for us, to receive him in Holy Communion, and especially now at this time for the fulfilment of the Easter duty. Jesus is present in the Blessed Sacrament only for our own good, for the good of our souls. When, therefore, we see this great goodness of our Lord towards us, how can we be so heedless of our own good as to turn away from him?

And when you come before the Blessed Sacrament, remember that you are in God's presence. Do not forget to bend your knee in adoration. Do not take advantage of his mercy in hiding his glory from you by forgetting that he is really here, by spending the whole time of Mass with roving eyes and thoughts. Fix your attention upon the altar where he is, and offer him the best homage that your heart can give. It will be good for you to be here, if you have the same sentiments at Mass which the disciples had at the Transfiguration. You should be filled with a holy fear lest your idle thoughts at this holy time should one day be reckoned against you. For now he veils himself from you in mercy and love, but one day he will appear to you in far more dazzling brightness than he ever manifested on earth. Oh! then, despise not his presence here, that when at last you stand before him he may judge you worthy to enjoy his presence for ever.

Third Sunday of Lent.

Epistle.
Ephesians v. 1-9.
Brethren:
Be ye followers of God, as most dear children. And walk in love as Christ also hath loved us, and hath delivered himself for us an oblation and a sacrifice to God for an odor of sweetness. But fornication and all uncleanness, or covetousness, let it not so much as be named among you, as becometh saints: nor obscenity, nor foolish talking, nor scurrility, which is to no purpose: but rather giving of thanks. For know ye this, and understand that no fornicator, nor unclean, nor covetous person which is a serving of idols hath any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God. Let no man deceive you with vain words. For because of these things cometh the anger of God upon the children of unbelief. Be ye not therefore partakers with them. For you were heretofore darkness, but now light in the Lord. Walk ye as children of the light: for the fruit of the light is in all goodness, and justice, and truth.
Gospel.
St. Luke xi. 14-28.
At that time:
Jesus was casting out a devil, and the same was dumb; and when he had cast out the devil, the dumb spoke; and the multitude admired: but some of them said: He casteth out devils in Beelzebub, the prince of the devils. And others tempting, asked of him a sign from heaven. But he, seeing their thoughts, said to them: Every kingdom divided against itself shall be brought to desolation, and a house upon a house shall fall. And if Satan also be divided against himself, how shall his kingdom stand? because you say, that in Beelzebub I cast out devils. Now if I cast out devils in Beelzebub, in whom do your children cast them out? Therefore they shall be your judges. But if I, in the finger of God, cast out devils, doubtless the kingdom of God is come upon you. When a strong man armed keepeth his court, those things which he possesseth are in peace. But if a stronger than he come upon him and overcome him, he will take away all his armor wherein he trusted, and will distribute his spoils. He that is not with me, is against me: and he that gathereth not with me, scattereth. When the unclean spirit is gone out of a man, he walketh through places without water, seeking rest: and not finding, he saith: I will return into my house whence I came out. And when he is come, he findeth it swept and garnished. Then he goeth and taketh with him seven other spirits more wicked than himself, and entering in they dwell there. And the last state of that man becometh worse than the first. And it came to pass, as he spoke these things, a certain woman from the crowd lifting up her voice, said to him: Blessed is the womb that bore thee, and the paps that gave thee suck. But he said: Yea, rather, blessed are they who hear the word of God and keep it.

Sermon L. Immodest Language.

How pertinent to our own times are the words of St. Paul in the Epistle of to-day, addressed nineteen centuries ago to the Christians of Ephesus: "But all uncleanness, let it not be so much as named among you, as becometh saints. … For know ye this and understand that no unclean person hath inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God."

There is no vice, my brethren, more common among men at the present day in all classes of society, from the professional man to the day-laborer, among the rich and the poor, the old and the young, than that of obscene or immodest conversation.

Among the better educated this poison of impurity is clothed in language which serves to veil its disgusting nudity, and thus the more securely to insinuate itself and to deceive the unwary; while among the less educated it is oftener expressed in words that reveal its horrid filthiness and shock common decency.

Listen to the conversation of almost any chance gathering of young men, and you will soon hear the double-meaning joke, the attempt of some one to be witty, which serves as much to expose the shallowness of his pate as the corruption and rottenness of his miserable heart.

Holy Scripture says that "out of the fulness of the heart the mouth speaketh." How true this is! But if one were to use this criterion in judging the thoughts that fill the hearts of many amongst us, how debased and pitiable must be their condition!

And how shocking it is, my dear brethren, to meet a young man whose dress and manner at first give evidence of respectability and good breeding, but who, when an immodest allusion is made or an impure joke uttered, is the first to shout with laughter! Such a one is well described by our Blessed Lord as "a whited sepulchre? full of dead men's bones."

And yet these whited sepulchres are not very rare in the community. You meet them in every walk of life—in the counting-room and in the factory, at the "respectable" club-room as well as in the grog-shop, and alas! must we say it, among Catholics as well as among non-Catholics.

Yes, among Catholics, who have been elevated to a supernatural state through the merits and sufferings of our Lord Jesus Christ; whose hearts have been sealed by the grace of the Holy Spirit, and on whose tongue the Body and Blood of our Lord has often been placed—even these have dared to cherish in their hearts and express with their tongues thoughts and sentiments that would shock the moral sense even of the unregenerate.

Are they laboring under the incredible and awful delusion that they commit no great sin when they entertain or give expression to such thoughts? Do they think that they escape mortal sin when their impurity is expressed in the form of a joke or a pun, or when they by a laugh countenance and encourage the like impurity in others? Ah! my dear brethren, it is to be feared that too many consciences have been lulled to sleep by this cunning device of the devil.

The first introduction to sin for many a one has been the listening with pleasure to the double-meaning word uttered, perhaps, by a companion, or while in the company of others. He was then put on trial not by the devil alone, but by the one also who uttered it. But the blush of modesty which rose instinctively to his cheek from a pure heart was by an effort suppressed through human respect, and the voice of conscience, that told him to administer a rebuke to the minister of Satan or abandon his company at once, was hushed into silence, and the demon of impurity from that moment took possession.

Take warning, then, my dear brethren, from the words of St. Paul, and never countenance by a laugh or in any other way any offence against holy purity, in whatsoever form it may be expressed; "for know ye that no unclean person hath any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God."

Sermon LI.
Honorary Church-members.

He who is not with me is against me.
—Luke xi. 23.

Societies in our day, brethren, have become a great moral force, the very best means of promoting and spreading any great cause. Men recognize this fact, and so combine together, that by unity of purpose they may better advance the principles they desire to support. Many of these societies are made up of two distinct classes—the active members, who are the bone and sinew, the life of the institution, and the honorary members, who take no personal interest in the management or working of the society, but who, nevertheless, are good enough, or interested enough, to advance the cause they honor by the support of their name.

You and I, brethren, belong to a society, the Catholic Church, which embraces the whole world. We have in view one great object—the salvation of souls, the spread of the kingdom of Jesus Christ among men. But this society of ours, a real, living, organic institution, differs from most others in this: that it does not need the support of honorary members; neither will it approve their existence in its bosom.

No, the church would have all her members living, active, earnest supporters of her principles, and from them all she requires a pledge that they will keep her laws, advance her ends, and fight her battles for the kingdom she was established to uphold. She will welcome no mere spectators to her ranks, and as for neutral ground, she recognizes none; for those who are not with her are against her.

And yet there are many who call themselves Christians, would-be honorary members of the Catholic Church, who do not even realize what the word Christian means; who seem to forget that to be a Christian imposes the obligation of being at war with all that is anti-Christian. An honorary membership for such Christians is very convenient; a membership that would allow them to be on good terms with Christ and Satan. The fasting and praying, the vigils and good works, the real brunt of the battle they would leave to the active members, while they would look on with an encouraging smile of approval.

Ah! brethren, learn this lesson once for all and well: between Christ and the world there can be no compromise. He who is not with me is against me. There is no neutral ground, for the moment we desert the Christian rank and file we give the hand of fellowship to the enemy. We cannot serve two masters well, and in the Catholic Church there is no membership worthy the name that is not an active, complete membership. The drones of the hive may nourish and thrive for a time, but let them remember they run the awful risk of final destruction.

The question I would have you ask yourselves today, and meditate upon during this holy season, is this: Are you active, living members of the church, that mystical body of which Jesus Christ is the head and the Holy Ghost the life-giving principle, or are you simply would-be honorary members? Have you at heart the interests of God's holy church; are her sorrows, her wants, her trials yours? Are the sacraments she offers you the source and support of your life? If so, you have reason to thank God.

Or are you standing afar off ready to give an approving nod when the world smiles, or slink off like a coward when the world frowns? Are the laws of the church irksome to you and so avoided? If this be the case, you are nothing but dead limbs, and liable to be cut off without a moment's warning from the living body, for dead members are against, not with, the parent stem.

Would-be honorary members of the Catholic Church, beware of the error of trying to give one hand to God and the other to the devil; beware of the fallacy of thinking that because you are outwardly connected with the church you cannot be lost—that hell was never intended for Catholics; that, somehow or other, you will come out all right in the end. That is what Judas thought when with his sin-stained lips he kissed his Lord whom he had so lately sold to the enemy.

Have you still the faith, then beware lest your want of charity may bring on a want of faith. Have you still a conscience, beware lest your frequent attempts to stifle it may extinguish it altogether. If there be a spark of it left I beg of you stir it up. Be in earnest, and at least let not this Lent pass without a good confession and communion, the only condition on which you can become active members of God's holy church. Put your heart in the work and you will be happier for it here and certainly happier hereafter.

Sermon LII.
Half-Hearted Christians.

He that is not with me is against me.
—Gospel Of The Day.

These words, my dear brethren, like many others spoken by our Blessed Lord, may be interpreted in various ways. They may be understood to mean that he who is not with Christ, by being united to his true flock, who does not belong to the one church which he has founded, is injuring the cause of Christ, is persecuting and hampering his church in its warfare against its enemies; or, in other words, that Protestants and heretics in general, zealous Christians though they may seem to be, are really hurting Christianity about as much as they help it, if not more. And it is plain enough to us that this is true. If there had never been any heresies and schisms in the church, we cannot doubt that there would have been now few nations not Christian.

But this, true though it may be, seems to have little practical bearing for us. We are not heretics or schismatics, and I hope that we have no inclination to be so. Still we must remember that bad Catholics do about as much harm to the work of Christ and his church in the world as heretics. In fact, there would never have been any heretics had there not been bad Catholics to begin with.

But, after all, it does not seem that our Lord is speaking so much of heretics, or of bad Catholics, when he says: "He that is not with me is against me." For he goes on to tell us that "when the unclean spirit is gone out of a man, he walketh through places without water, seeking rest; and not finding, he saith, I will return to my house whence I came out; and when he is come, he findeth it swept and garnished. Then he goeth, and taketh with him seven other spirits more wicked than himself, and entering in they dwell there; and the last state of that man becomes worse than the first."

The meaning of this is plain enough. It is that a man cannot give up a bad life, and then remain betwixt and between, neither bad nor good. His soul cannot stay empty, swept, and garnished. He must keep the love of God in it; he must have good thoughts and do good works, or the devil will come back, take possession of the empty soul, and make it worse than it was before.

So this gives a new sense to the words, "He that is not with me is against me." He that is not a real good Christian, trying to live for the glory of God, and to do the work for which God has put him in the world, will be a bad one before long, if he is not already. We cannot lie low and shirk the duties which belong to us as Christians and as Catholics. We must be God's servants, and live in such a way as to be known as such, or we shall begin again to serve his enemy.

Let us take an instance, and you will see well enough what I mean. A young man or woman has been going with bad company, who, though perhaps they call themselves Catholics, are a disgrace to the name, and has joined with them in all their vile conversations and sinful actions. Now, too many of those who have been living in this way seem to think that after their confession and communion they can go back to this company and still avoid remark; that nobody will have occasion to say that they are pious, or notice any change in their life; that they can keep all right in God's sight, and also in that of their bad companions; that they can avoid doing any harm, and still do no good.

Let such remember these words: "He that is not with me is against me." If you want to stay in the grace of God, you must hate sin, and love virtue; and if you really do this your life and conversation will show that such is the case. You must be a friend of Christ and an enemy of the devil and of all his works, and not only be willing but proud to be known as such; if you will not do this our Lord will not have you or keep you. Choose, then, which side you will take; do not fancy that you can take neither. If you try to steer a middle course, and live an empty and unprofitable life, neither one thing nor the other, you will soon slip back just where you were before.

Fourth Sunday of Lent.

Epistle.
Galatians iv. 22-31.
Brethren:
It is written that Abraham had two sons: the one by a bond woman, and the other by a free-woman: but he that was by the bond-woman was born according to the flesh: but he by the free-woman was by the promise. Which things are said by an allegory: for these are the two testaments: the one indeed on Mount Sina which bringeth forth unto bondage, which is Agar: for Sina is a mountain in Arabia, which hath an affinity to that which now is Jerusalem, and is in bondage with her children. But that Jerusalem which is above, is free: which is our mother. For it is written: "Rejoice, thou barren, that bearest not: break forth and cry out, thou that travailest not; for many are the children of the desolate, more than of her that hath a husband"; now we, brethren, as Isaac was, are the children of promise. But as then he, that was born according to the flesh, persecuted him that was according to the spirit: so also now. But what saith the Scripture? "Cast out the bond woman and her son: for the son of the bond-woman shall not be heir with the son of the free-woman." Therefore, brethren, we are not the children of the bond-woman, but of the free: by the freedom wherewith Christ has made us free.
Gospel.
St. John vi. 1-15.
At that time:
Jesus went over the sea of Galilee, which is that of Tiberias: and a great multitude followed him, because they saw the miracles which he did on them that were infirm. And Jesus went up into a mountain, and there he sat with his disciples. Now the pasch, the festival day of the Jews, was near at hand. When Jesus therefore had lifted up his eyes, and seen that a very great multitude cometh to him, he said to Philip: Whence shall we buy bread that these may eat? And this he said to try him, for he himself knew what he would do. Philip answered him: Two hundred pennyworth of bread is not sufficient for them, that every one may take a little. One of his disciples, Andrew, the brother of Simon Peter, saith to him: There is a boy here that hath five barley loaves, and two fishes; but what are these among so many? Then Jesus said: Make the men sit down. Now there was much grass in the place. So the men sat down, in number about five thousand. And Jesus took the loaves: and when he had given thanks he distributed to them that were sat down. In like manner also of the fishes as much as they would. And when they were filled, he said to his disciples: Gather up the fragments that remain, lest they be lost. So they gathered up, and filled twelve baskets with the fragments of the five barley loaves, which remained over and above to them that had eaten. Then those men, when they had seen what a miracle Jesus had done, said: This is the prophet indeed that is to come into the world. When Jesus, therefore, perceived that they would come and take him by force and make him king, he fled again into the mountain himself alone.

Sermon LIII.
The Happiness Of True Penance.

Rejoice Jerusalem.
—Introit of the Mass for the Day.

This is called "Lætare, or rejoicing Sunday." It may surprise you, dear brethren, to be told that this is a day of rejoicing; you will be amazed, no doubt, that, in the midst of the rigorous Lenten fast, when men should bewail their sins and do penance for them, and sounds of mirth and joy are hushed, the church should bid us rejoice. Yet thus she does to-day. In mid-Lent even she would have her children rejoice, would have them forget for the moment penance and turn their hearts to thoughts of gladness, that, by so doing, she may teach them that the rigors of this season, the self-denial and curbing of the flesh she imposes on us, is undergone that we may realize more fully the spirit of her teaching—that we may, in truth, preserve, or get back if we have lost it, that interior joy, that spiritual jubilation which is the portion of every one who serves Christ as he should be served.

Our religion is one of joy, because we are Christ's and he is ours; and what more can we ask, or what greater can be bestowed upon us, than the having of Christ; Christ, at once perfect man and true God; Christ, whose life is the model of our lives, whose grace is the source of all joy; Christ, to have whom is to have a brother, and, at the same time, the eternal God; the God by whose word were made all things that are, who knows no limit to his power, who has in himself all perfections that man can desire or conceive of; a brother—a man like ourselves, with a human heart like our own, with affections like those of other men; a brother burning with tender love for us, knowing our weakness, knowing our wants and ready to succor us; a man who was himself tempted, who has himself suffered the miseries of this life, who, in a word, was made like to us in all save sin. This is whom we have when we have Christ, and should we not rejoice at having such a one?

We should and do rejoice; our hearts are always full of gladness when we are in God's grace, and Christ is ours and we are his; and this is what the church wishes for all her children—the friendship and the love of God. She ever has Christ herself, and so is never sad; though she may mourn with him suffering, still there is joy behind all her sorrow.

If she puts on sombre garments, if she calls man to penance, if she fasts and covers her head with ashes, she is still glad in the depths of her heart. She is calling you and me to share the gladness, to get it back if we have lost it by mortal sin; she is bidding you and me to keep that gladness by chastising our bodies; she is warning us that we may lose God's grace, as, alas! too many before us have lost it, unless we are vigilant.

Dear brethren, listen to the church's voice to-day; come, all of you, come and share her joy. If you are not in God's grace do not let another day go by without making your peace with God. Oh! how much you are losing, and for what? For some trifling satisfaction which cannot bring true happiness; some mean gratification of your lower nature; for sin you are letting slip by the offer of God's friendship and the joy of a good conscience. Do you want to die as you are living? If you do not, repent of your sins to-day; before you leave this church promise God that you will sin no more; that you will be in fact what you are in name—a Christian.

Sermon LIV.
Liberty Of Spirit.

By the freedom wherewith Christ has made us free.

These, my dear brethren, are the concluding words of the Epistle read at Mass to-day. They ought to be of unusual interest to us, for they speak of a matter which we all care very much about; which some care so much about that they are willing to fight for it, and to die for its sake.

If you have listened to these words of St. Paul, which I have just read, you know what this is of which I speak, and for which we all care so much. It is freedom or, as we often call it, liberty. Many, as I just said, will even die, if need be, rather than abandon it; and indeed thousands, nay millions, have actually done so. Man feels that he must have it. Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness he claims as his right.

Especially do people nowadays ask for liberty, and insist on having it. The child is no sooner out of his mother's arms than he wants and tries in all things to have his own way. Obedience is a lesson that he seldom willingly learns. He thinks that when he is a man he can do as he pleases; and he does not see why he should not even now. Sometimes he succeeds in having his own way, in spite of his parents; he runs away from school and, when a little older, from church; he passes his life among such companions as he chooses, who help him to get the liberty which they think they have themselves got, by defying all the laws of God and of man.

But is this really liberty which these foolish children, and young men and women more foolish than children, think they have got by trampling on all law? No; a thousand times no! It is to true liberty only as the shadow to the substance, as they find to their cost before they have travelled very far on this road. They have but escaped from a light and easy yoke to take on their necks one far heavier and more grievous, and which becomes more and more so every day. They have left the service of the kind and good Master to whom they belonged and entered into that of a hard and cruel tyrant instead. He has filled them with base and beastly passions, and made them slaves to these passions. They are given over, body and soul, to impurity, gluttony, or drunkenness, or it may be to a mean and miserable greed for money. At last, perhaps, they try to turn back and shake themselves free from these accursed lusts, which have fastened on them, and are draining the very life-blood from their souls; but it seems that they cannot do so. They set out to do as they pleased, and how has it ended? In their being bound, hand and foot, in the slavery of sin.

But what was their mistake? Were they altogether wrong in wishing for liberty? Is the desire for freedom, which is implanted in us, all a delusion? Are we never to do as we desire, but always to have a restraint and a yoke upon us?

No, my brethren, the idea of liberty is not a mistake. We are right in wishing for liberty, hoping for it, and trying to secure it in the right way. But the mistake these foolish people of whom I have spoken make is in going the wrong way in the search for it: in looking for it in the wrong place.

Where, then, is liberty to be found? I will tell you; and you may be surprised at what I say, for it does not sound as if it could be true; but it is true, nevertheless. True liberty, then, is in the service of God. Those who serve God best are the freest men on earth.

But how can this be? I answer, It can and must be very easily and very plainly. For those who serve God best of all—that is, the saints in heaven—always do just what they like, and enjoy doing it most perfectly. They have got rid of all the hindrances that, more or less, prevent every one here below from doing what he wishes.

And, of course, those who try to walk in the path of the saints here on earth also have much of this freedom. The more they learn to do God's will the more they love it; and so they are always doing more and more what they like, and more and more easily all the time; and that is just what liberty is: to do what you like, and to do it without pain or difficulty.

The servants of God, then, have their liberty, because they have got free from sin, which is the only obstacle to it. And this freedom from sin is the gift of Christ, it is the fruit of his Passion; it is, then, the liberty which he has given us. It is ours if we wish it. Try, then, my dear brethren, in this holy season of Lent, when his graces are so abundantly poured out, to gain that freedom which they will surely give us, that "freedom wherewith. Christ has made us free."

Sermon LV.
The Lust Of The Eyes.

Have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness,
but rather reprove them.
For the things that are done by them in secret,
it is a shame even to speak of.
—Ephesians v. 11, 12.

Some weeks ago, my dear brethren, we had occasion to speak of the horrible and filthy vice of impurity, which is every day dragging into hell thousands of souls with the mark of the cross of Christ on them, and washed in vain with his Precious Blood. As was said then, many Christians do not seem to realize the enormity of sins against the Sixth Commandment—at least those of thought and of the tongue; to which may be added those coming from the use of the other senses, especially that of sight.

An immodest imagination or desire, wilfully entertained or enjoyed, is a mortal sin, and gives the soul so harboring it instantly into the power of the devil. Let us hope that no one having the Catholic faith will doubt this, or think it too strict a doctrine; for it is the unanimous consent of all the teaching authority in the church from the beginning, amply supported also by Holy Scripture. What shall we say, then, of wilful and deliberate gazing at immodest pictures, or of reading matter directly calculated to inflame impure passions, and certain to have its effect?

Now, I hardly need to say that a city like this is full of these temptations coming through the eyes into the heart. The good and pure instinctively avoid them, and scarcely know that they exist; accustomed to watch the slightest movements of their souls to evil, and instantly to repress them, they shrink with horror from those filthy words and pictures on which others eagerly gaze. They know that, as the Apostle says, it is a shame to speak of these things, a greater shame to write or to read of them, a greater shame yet to expose them to sight, to incite temptation by them, and thus to destroy the souls for which Christ died.

I say that the good and pure are not likely to be caught in this net of Satan; by this I mean those who have been warned of the evil, who understand its danger, and from well-formed habits of virtue set themselves resolutely against it. But there are others who are good and pure—in their baptismal innocence, perhaps; young, at any rate, and unused to sin, at least of this kind—who are not forewarned and forearmed like those of maturer years, who, seeing bad pictures in papers sold even at stores otherwise of good repute, and kept, perhaps, by Catholics, do not fully understand how bad they are, and are led to look at them with pleasure, to learn evil which they knew not of, and thus to contract habits of sin which they will never overcome.

Now, what does our Lord say of those who thus put temptation in the way of the young and innocent? You all know his words: "He that shall scandalize one of these little ones who believe in me, it were better for him that a millstone should be hanged about his neck, and that he should be drowned in the depth of the sea." Strong words these, but they are those of the Divine Wisdom, and beyond correction by human lips. Yes, it is better to die, better even to die in the state of sin, than to add such a sin as this to our number.

Let us beware, then, not in any way, however indirect, to give sanction or encouragement to this work of the devil in our midst. "Have no fellowship with these works of darkness, but rather reprove them." Do not buy or even take up for a moment the indecent papers or books now unfortunately so common among us; still more, do not sell them; do not allow them to be in the house; do not suffer your children to look at or read them; do not frequent places where they are to be had. Set your faces resolutely, for the honor of God and the Catholic name, as well as for your own souls sake, against this plague of immodest literature, which has assumed such fearful proportions and become so bold and unblushing in these days in which we live. Think nothing to be light or of little moment in this matter; mortal sin is much easier in it than you may believe.

Passion Sunday.

Epistle.
Hebrews ix. 11-15.
Brethren:
Christ, being come a high-priest of the good things to come, by a greater and more perfect tabernacle not made with hands, that is, not of this creation: neither by the blood of goats, nor of calves, but by his own blood, entered once into the Holies, having obtained eternal redemption. For if the blood of goats and of oxen, and the ashes of a heifer being sprinkled, sanctify such as are defiled, to the cleansing of the flesh: how much more shall the blood of Christ, who by the Holy Ghost offered himself unspotted unto God, cleanse our conscience from dead works, to serve the living God? And therefore he is the mediator of the new testament: that by means of his death, for the redemption of those transgressions, which were under the former testament, they that are called may receive the promise of eternal inheritance in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Gospel.
St. John viii. 46-59.
At that time:
Jesus said to the multitude of the Jews: Which of you shall convince me of sin? If I say the truth to you, why do you not believe me? He that is of God, heareth the words of God. Therefore you hear them not, because you are not of God. The Jews, therefore, answered and said to him: Do we not say well that thou art a Samaritan, and hast a devil? Jesus answered: I have not a devil; but I honor my Father, and you have dishonored me. But I seek not my own glory; there is one that seeketh and judgeth. Amen, amen, I say to you: if any man keep my word, he shall not see death for ever. The Jews therefore said: Now we know that thou hast a devil. Abraham is dead, and the prophets; and thou sayest: If any man keep my word, he shall not taste death for ever. Art thou greater than our father Abraham, who is dead? And the prophets are dead. Whom dost thou make thyself? Jesus answered: If I glorify myself, my glory is nothing. It is my Father that glorifieth me, of whom you say that he is your God. And you have not known him, but I know him. And if I shall say that I know him not, I shall be like to you, a liar. But I do know him, and do keep his word. Abraham your father rejoiced that he might see my day; he saw it, and was glad. The Jews therefore said to him: Thou art not yet fifty years old, and hast thou seen Abraham? Jesus said to them: Amen, amen, I say to you, before Abraham was made, I am. They took up stones therefore to cast at him. But Jesus hid himself, and went out of the temple.

Sermon LVI.
The Precious Blood.

The Blood of Jesus Christ his Son
cleanseth us from all sin.
—1 Epistle St. John i. 7.

We all know, my dear brethren, that when a man is born into the world he is born unclean before God. He is then so unclean that he is not fit to associate with the sons of God and heirs of the kingdom of heaven. He is then so unclean that he can never be anything but an outcast from God until he is made clean.

Is there any way in which he can be made clean? Yes, for when he is baptized he is made a new creature; he is cleansed from the stain of original sin, made a child of God and heir of the kingdom of heaven. He is then so pure and holy that if he die immediately he will go, to a certainty, straight to heaven. For baptism applies the Blood of Christ to his soul, and he is become truly clean. But suppose he does not die immediately after baptism, how is it with him then? If he keep his baptismal innocence, so far as never to commit a mortal sin, he still has a right to go to heaven. He can then demand of God permission to enter heaven.

Can he, however, demand this permission to enter heaven immediately after his death if he has committed only venial sin? That depends entirely upon his contrition at the moment of death. If he is not so sorry for all his sins that his contrition is [not] perfect, then he can't enter heaven immediately, but must go to purgatory to be made perfectly pure, so that he can be taken into heaven.

I have said that baptism applies the Blood of Christ to the soul and makes man pure and innocent. Now, baptism is a sacrament. It is the first one and is necessary to salvation. Without it no man can enter heaven, nor even purgatory, for the purgatorial state is the first and lowest state of blessed and holy souls who must go to heaven in the end. But the blood of Christ is applied to the soul of man in other ways, although baptism must come in in the first place.

In what other ways is the Blood of Christ applied:

First, by the Sacrifice of the Mass. For by the Mass we repair our sins, get grace to keep from sin, and make our purgatory shorter in consequence. He who hears Mass daily makes the best prayer that a man can make, and he is more certain to have his prayer answered. He also helps the living and the dead, and brings down upon himself and his own special graces from God.

Secondly, the Blood of Christ is applied to our souls by the Sacrament of Penance. Men defile their souls by sin, by mortal sin after baptism. He who receives the Sacrament of Penance worthily—that is, with true sorrow for all mortal sin, with a firm determination to lead a good life and repair the wrong he has done—that man receives again the grace of God that restores his soul to eternal life.

Thirdly, in Holy Communion we receive the Body and Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ in a hidden manner, but in deed and in truth. The consecrated Host is the eternal and ever-living God himself. You know, my dear brethren, the strength of this divine food. How it gives new energy to the soul, destroys the power of concupiscence, banishes, or at least weakens, temptation, always giving us the grace to hold our own against the world, the flesh, and the devil. And there are Catholics who refuse to make this Communion once a year!

But there is one thing that ought to be said here. A Catholic ought never to consider as useless, or as almost useless, any one of the sacraments. This too many do as regards confession. They underrate it. They think, therefore, it is no good unless they receive Communion every time they go to confession. Now this is a grave error. One is not obliged to go to Communion every time he goes to confession. Those who cannot go to Mass nor Communion, on account of their business or employment or work keeping them away, can at least go to confession very often during the year. All such an one has to do is to prepare himself carefully, step into the rector's house, make his confession, and go on to work again. If he but make an arrangement with some one of the priests he can always be heard at once. Frequent confession is a wonderful help to a good life and a happy death.

Sermon LVII.
Christ's Passion.

Which of you shall convince me of sin?
—John viii. 46.

To-day, dear friends, is Passion Sunday, and our long Lenten pilgrimage is nearing its end. Heretofore our thoughts have been on ourselves, our own shortcomings, our own sins. Now we stand, as it were, on the hill overlooking the Holy City, and see before us, as a map unrolled, the scene of our Redeemer's agony: Bethany, the olive-garden of Gethsemani, and, further on, the barren mount of Calvary, with its three crosses standing forth, black and cruel, against the fair blue sky.

Now our thoughts turn from ourselves to our Lord. We have seen what the effect of sin has been on us. Now we look and see, and our shame should deepen as we see, what sorrow and tears and agony it has brought on the eternal Son of God.

To-day the cross is veiled, the pictures are shrouded in mourning, the "Gloria" ceases to be sung. So our sins covered our dying Lord as with a garment, and sorrow chokes the voice of holy church, fills her heart to overflowing, and stills all her songs of praise.

What is this veil which obscures the cross of Jesus Christ and makes his Passion of no effect? O dear brethren! is it not our sins? What platted the crown of thorns, and drove those sharp spikes deep into his sacred head? Our selfish pride. What sent those nails through his hands and feet, fixing them to the tree of shame? Our wicked deeds and our wanderings from the path of duty. What parched his tongue with such burning thirst? Our shameless indulgence in drink. What pointed the spear of the impious Roman soldier, and hurled it deep into the Sacred Heart, whence issued the red torrent of the Precious Blood? Our inordinate appetites and sinful lusts. As often as we sin we crucify our dearest Lord afresh.

"Which of you shall convince me of sin?" What more could I have done for my vineyard which I have not done? I came down from heaven; took upon myself the form of a servant, the likeness of sinful flesh; set you a perfect example how you should walk; was led as a lamb to the slaughter; was scourged, spit upon, mangled, crucified; what could I have done more? Which of you shall convince me of sin? Which of you, my brethren? How many graces and blessings do you not owe to that crucified Lord? In how many sore temptations have you not been defended and strengthened? In how many bitter sorrows have you not been comforted? From how many shameful falls have you not been raised up? O Christian soul! for whom Christ died, look upon that bleeding, suffering, dying Saviour, and, if nothing else will move you, let those ghastly wounds, which your sins have made, plead with you. Acknowledge your transgressions: abase yourself in the very dust. Let that sacred Passion plead with you, that infinite love plead with you, that Precious Blood plead with you, those last tender words plead with you, and teach you, for their sake and your soul's sake, to love the Lord more dearly, to dread sin more effectually, and never, as long as you live, to add to that heavy burden by any wicked deed of yours.

So shall, a few days hence, the veil be lifted from the cross, and our sorrow be turned to joy, for when the Lord of Glory shall arise we too shall arise with him, and reign with him in glory for evermore.

Sermon LVIII.
Dangerous Companionship.

Walk circumspectly; not as unwise, but as wise.
—Ephesians. v. 15-16.

To-day, my dear brethren, I propose to make a few remarks on the dangerous occasions of impurity, so common in these times.

The danger of which I wish specially to speak is that which comes from the familiar acquaintance which now exists to such a great extent, and is taken so much as a matter of course, between young persons of different sexes. This undue familiarity is too common everywhere in this country; and more than anywhere else in a city like that in which we live. Young women here with us, even though they be Catholics, and good enough Catholics in some respects, seem to forget, or rather never to begin to realize, the laws of decorum and modesty which well-instructed persons, even though not professing to be specially religious, have hitherto rightly taken for granted.

To take a flagrant instance. A priest, being a man educated according to the rules of respectable society, is unspeakably surprised when he for the first time hears some young woman, apparently of a careful conscience, ask him if it is a sin to flirt. For what is this which is called flirting? It is simply deliberately and wantonly acting in a way to attract the attention of particular persons of the opposite sex, to make signals which are to be understood as marks of preference for, or of desire of acquaintance with, some young man or men whom she may chance to see on the street. A sin to flirt! How can you ask such a question? Why, outwardly and at the first appearance, the act is not very different from that of an abandoned woman seeking to attract those whom she thinks will notice her. The intention, of course, in your minds is often comparatively harmless, it is true; but by outward standards the act is simply disreputable. Furthermore, it shows a feeling which any lady, really worthy of the name, would hesitate to show even to one whose character she well knew to be good, and who had for a long time given to her respectful and proper attentions. A woman or girl who flirts seems to be, if she is not in reality, lost to all sense of decency; and those are almost as much so who shamelessly walk at night up and down the avenues in the hope of attracting attention.

This seeking to form unknown acquaintances of the opposite sex or to attract special attention among them is, then, a thing which no Catholic girl should think of, if she has any sense of shame. But when such acquaintances are formed by an introduction in itself proper, they should be very carefully considered. For a young woman to make one of the other sex her friend or familiar companion, as she well may one of her own, is a thing which should be unheard of. She should have but one such friend, and he should be one who has acted honorably to her by proposing to her to take the honorable part of her husband, and whom she has before God and in her conscience felt to be worthy, and accepted by a binding engagement. Before that, and to all other men, politeness with proper and modest reserve should be the constant rule, affection and familiarity out of the question. And yet we find girls keeping company, as it is called, and that without any sort of serious guarantee of the purposes of the other party, not only with one after another, but even with more than one at once.

For the reasons, plain enough, on which these directions rest, promiscuous assemblies of both sexes, such as those to be found at certain gatherings, now unfortunately so popular, are full of danger, and had far better in all cases be avoided. A freedom of manners prevails in them—to say nothing of direct temptations to the senses—and an ease of making acquaintance, which opens a free door to sin. I do not wish to be too severe, but, as a rule, I do say, leave such places alone. Young women, respect yourselves; demand the respect of others. There is the moral in a nutshell.

Palm Sunday.

Epistle.
Philippians ii. 5-11.
Brethren:
Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus: who being in the form of God, thought it not robbery himself to be equal with God: but debased himself, taking the form of a servant, being made to the likeness of men, and in shape found as a man. He humbled himself, becoming obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. Wherefore God also hath exalted him, and hath given him a name which is above every name: that in the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those that are in heaven, on earth, and in hell. And that every tongue should confess that the Lord Jesus Christ is in the glory of God the Father.
Gospel.
St. Matthew xxvii. 62-66.
And the next day, which followed the day of preparation, the chief priests and the Pharisees came together to Pilate, saying: Sir, we have remembered that that seducer said, while he was yet alive: After three days I will rise again. Command therefore the sepulchre to be guarded until the third day: lest his disciples come and steal him away, and say to the people, He is risen from the dead: so the last error shall be worse than the first. Pilate said to them: You have a guard; go, guard it as you know. And they departing, made the sepulchre sure with guards, sealing the stone.

Sermon LIX.
Hardness Of Heart.

To-day if you shall hear his voice,
harden not your hearts.

These words, my dear brethren, are taken from the beginning of the office recited by the clergy on this and the following days, up to Holy Thursday. They entreat us not to let this time, precious above all others, go by without making the use of it which our Lord means that we should make; not to let him show his love for us without giving him love in return.

"Harden not your hearts." How is it that we harden our hearts? It is by putting off our repentance; by clinging to the world and its pleasures, to the gratification of our sinful passions, and waiting for some time to come when it will be more convenient to give them up, or when we shall feel more strongly moved to do so. We think that this time will surely come, that the stream of God's graces will be uninterrupted, and that when necessity urges we can avail ourselves of the one that happens to be then within our reach as easily as we could have done of the many that went by long ago.

But, my brethren, this is a great and a terrible mistake. It may be, indeed, that God in his goodness and mercy has many graces yet in store for us equal in themselves to those which we have had; but if we have despised and neglected the past ones they will not be the same for us as those were which went before, A word of warning, a single prayer, the sight of the crucifix or of our Blessed Mother, a pious picture, an Agnus Dei, is enough to move the innocent soul of a child to the love of God; the most powerful mission-sermon often fails to make any impression on one who has spent his life in sin. It is not the grace that is wanting on God's part. No, he is there in his power; his arm is not shortened; he is still mighty to save. But his voice seems to the deaf ear of the sinner faint and indistinct; his message is the same old story. Yes, it is the same old story; it must be the same, for there is but one. There is but one name under heaven whereby we can be saved, only one Gospel which we can preach, and the sinner has heard it so often with indifference that its interest is gone.

Then—most dangerous delusion of all—he comforts himself with the hope that at least he will die in the grace of God; that somehow or other he will, as he passes from life to death, be brought from death to life. He forgets that the sacraments were not given to give repentance to the sinner; no, they have for their object to give pardon and grace to those who have repented. Do you think it is of the slightest use to anoint with oil the senses of a man who lies unconscious, and who has not, while he had the use of his mind, turned really and truly away in his heart from his sinful life? The priest does it, indeed, in hopes that he may have repented; but how faint is that hope for those who have suddenly been stricken down! And even if there is more time; even if some sort of confession can be made, is it so sure that the hardened heart, which has all its life loved and clung to its sins, will now love God and hate sin? God's mercy is great, it is true; he may now give extraordinary graces, but he is not bound to do so; and if the ordinary ones have failed before they may also fail now.

Yes, my brethren, now is the time—a better time than your last hour. Now in this Passion season the Precious Blood of Christ is flowing more freely for you than you can expect ever to find it again. Listen to his voice now; do not wait till it becomes fainter. If you have not spent Lent well so far, come now and make the most of the help so abundantly given you in these holy days. Harden not your hearts any longer; it is a dangerous game to play.

Sermon LX.
Spirit Of Holy Week.

Think diligently upon him that endured such opposition
from sinners against himself.
—Hebrews. xii. 3.

The week which we this Sunday enter upon, my dear brethren, is called Holy Week; and of all the many sacred seasons which the church has set apart, this is by far the most solemn and sacred. Everything which it is within the power of external rites and ceremonies to do has been done by the church in these services, in order to bring home to her children the great lesson which this holy season should teach. And while it is true that the church has not made attendance obligatory under pain of mortal sin, yet it would argue a very poor and ungrateful spirit, and one but little in accordance with that of the church, if any one should without good reason neglect to be present.

Now, what is the truth which these services have it for their object to impress upon our minds? No other than that fundamental, distinctive truth—the Passion and death of Christ, its reason and effects. The church this week excludes from commemoration everything else, and applies herself exclusively to tracing the steps of her Lord and Founder from his entry into Jerusalem in the midst of acclamations and rejoicings, to the entombment of his dead and blood-stained body in the sepulchre of Joseph of Arimathea. Now, every one must have, necessarily has, in these events the greatest interest—an interest which surpasses every other.

And, first, as to those who are in the habit of going frequently to the sacraments, who understand their great value, and find in these means of grace their chief consolation in the midst of the troubles and cares which surround them. For these the commemoration of the Passion and death of Christ can not but be profitable. The author of "The Following of Christ" tells us that we ought not to consider so much the gift of the lover as the love of the giver. And we all know that we esteem the trifling present made by a dear friend more than much more costly things which we have ourselves bought or earned. Now, the sacraments are not merely inestimable treasures in themselves; they are also tokens and pledges of the love of Him who instituted them, bought by him at the cost of his own most Precious Blood, given to us to show us his love to us. Every time a man goes to confession, every time he receives Holy Communion, he is receiving that which was instituted and established and bestowed upon him out of love; and if he wishes to know how great that love was he ought to have a lively sense of what it cost our Lord to merit those graces for us—namely, his bitter Passion and death.

But there are many who neglect the sacraments, who come to them but seldom, perhaps only to their Easter Communion; perhaps not even to that. What is to be thought of those who act in this way? Certainly, however smart and keen and intelligent they may be, or fancy themselves to be, in lower matters which are nearer to them and fall beneath their senses—in money-getting, in trade, in art, in literature—such men show but little sense and understanding about things which are of real importance and value. In what way may these duller and obtuser minds learn to appreciate these higher things? Certainly the price given for a thing by a prudent man is a good means of learning what it is worth. Now, if those who neglect the sacraments, who make but little of them, would during this week apply themselves to the consideration of the price paid by our Lord for those sacraments, I have but little doubt that they would be led to form a truer notion of their value and importance.

I wish I could conclude without alluding to another class which, though I trust it is not numerous, yet does exist—I mean those who do not neglect the sacraments, but those who do worse: who profane them. Those who make bad confessions, who conceal mortal sins, who have no sorrow for their sins and no purpose of amendment, who make the infinite mercy and goodness of God a reason and pretext for wallowing in vice and sin—what shall be said of these? We know that our Lord is reigning now gloriously in heaven; that nothing which we can do can cause him loss or pain; yet it is also true that those who act in this way do all that lies in their power to trample under foot that Precious Blood which was shed for them. But while there is life there is hope, and if even those would devote this week to meditation on the Passion of our Lord, they might form a just estimate of what their souls cost our Lord, and turn to him while there is yet time.

Easter Sunday.

Epistle.
1 Corinthians v. 7, 8.
Brethren:
Purge out the old leaven, that you may be a new mass, as you are unleavened. For Christ, our pasch, is sacrificed. Therefore let us feast, not with the old leaven, nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.
Gospel.
St. Mark xvi. 1-7.
At that time:
Mary Magdalen, and Mary the mother of James and Salome, bought sweet spices, that coming they might anoint Jesus. And very early in the morning, the first day of the week, they come to the sepulchre, the sun being now risen. And they said one to another: Who shall roll us back the stone from the door of the sepulchre? And looking, they saw the stone rolled back, for it was very great. And entering into the sepulchre, they saw a young man sitting on the right side, clothed with a white robe: and they were astonished. And he said to them: Be not affrighted; ye seek Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified: he is risen, he is not here; behold the place where they laid him. But go, tell his disciples and Peter that he goeth before you into Galilee; there you shall see him as he told you.

Sermon LXI.
Easter Joy.

Hæc dies, quam fecit Dominus:
Exultemus, et lætemur in ea.
—Psalm cxvii. 24.
[USCCB: Psalm cxviii. 24.]
"This is the day which the Lord hath made:
Let us be glad and rejoice in it."

So sings the Psalmist. So sings the church today in Holy Mass, and every Christian heart beats with the response: "Let us be glad and rejoice."

A happy Easter, then, to you all, my dear brethren! A happy Easter to the old, to whom, in the natural course of things, many returns of this blessed day cannot come! A happy Easter to the young, rejoicing in all the freshness and vigor of youth, and confidently looking forward to many renewals of Easter joys! A happy Easter to the rich, upon whom God has bestowed an abundance of worldly goods! And a thrice happy Easter to God's own special friends, the poor! Thus holy church bids all be glad and rejoice, for to-day Christ is risen, the Saviour of us all.

The joy of Easter, my dear brethren, like that of Christmas, is all-pervading. We feel it in the air we breathe, we see it in the sparkling eye and radiant countenance of the child. The quick and hearty salutation of our friends, "A happy Easter to you!" increases our own joy, for we perceive that all about us are sharers with us in this great gift of the risen Christ.

But the joy of Easter differs from that of Christmas in this: that the latter brings to us the glad tidings of the coming of the true King, the strong and valiant leader of the mighty host of Israel, and our hearts leap with joy as we go forth, with buoyant step and strengthened arm, and fight the great battle of life. Easter joy is the joy of victory, for our gallant Leader, the strong Son of God, has gone before; he has overcome the enemy, and death is swallowed up in victory.

Yes, Christ has fought the battle and won. But there remains for us a battle to be fought, but not an uncertain one; for we have received virtue from the victory of Christ, and by following him faithfully, by keeping our eye fixed steadily on the banner of Christ—the banner of the cross—our victory, too, is certain.

This, then, is why Easter time gladdens the heart of every true Christian, for it brings with it the assured hope of final victory over sin, which is the sting of death, by a glorious resurrection.

But, my dear brethren, mid all these rejoicings may there not be some poor soul among us who does not participate in the joys of Easter time? Some soul for which Christ on Good Friday poured forth the last drop of his Sacred Blood, but which to-day finds itself estranged, nay, even in a hostile attitude towards its only true friend? Oh! would to God there were not even one such ungrateful soul in the whole world. But, alas! I fear there are many upon whom our loving Saviour, the risen Christ, must look this day as his declared enemies; some wretched souls over whom hangs the thick, black cloud of mortal sin, unrepented and unforgiven, and through which the bright rays of God's infinite love cannot penetrate. Yet even these need not despair; the joys of Easter time may still be theirs, for the same loving and sword-pierced Heart of Jesus is still ready to be reconciled with them. Oh! if there be such a one present here this morning let him take courage, come at once to the tribunal of penance, become one of the friends of the risen Christ, and share with us the joys of Easter.

And those who have been, but are no longer, strangers to God's grace, persevere, I exhort you, during the short space of this life in the friendship of our crucified Lord, and yours, too, will, like his, be a glorious resurrection.

Let us, then, my dear brethren, on this happy Easter day elevate our hearts to God in humble thanksgiving for all his benefits, and let us unite with the holy church in the prayer of the office for to-day. God! who, through thine only-begotten Son, hast on this day overcome death and opened unto us the gate of everlasting life, we humbly beseech thee that, as by thy special grace preventing us, thou dost put into our minds good desires, so by thy continued help we may bring the same to good effect. Through the same our Lord Jesus Christ, thy Son, who liveth and reigneth with thee, in the unity of the Holy Ghost, one God, world without end. Amen.

Sermon LXII.
Easter And The Love Of God.

This is the day which the Lord hath made:
let us be glad and rejoice therein.
—Psalm. cxvii. 24.
[USCCB: Psalm cxviii. 24.]

Familiar words these, my brethren, and for ever associated in our minds with this greatest of all Christian festivals. Frequently on this day and through its octave does the church repeat them to us; they sound now continually in our ears. And no doubt they find some echo in our hearts. Yes, we are glad, we do rejoice; surely no one who can call himself a Christian could hear unmoved the outburst of our triumph and exultation yesterday as the "Gloria in Excelsis" was intoned in the Mass, telling us that the lion of Juda has conquered, that God has arisen and that his enemies are scattered, that he has put death and hell under his feet. For the moment at least we would say with St. Paul: "O death! where is thy victory? O death! where is thy sting? Thanks be to God, who hath given us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ."

But as the newness, the freshness of the Easter joy and triumph passes away, does not another feeling come and mingle with it? A feeling of awe, almost of dread, comes upon us, like that terror which came upon the guards at the sepulchre as they saw the angel who rolled away the stone, of whom St. Matthew says that his countenance was like lightning, and his raiment white as snow; like that fear which came even on the holy women as they saw the two angels in shining apparel standing at the empty tomb; and upon the Apostles themselves when Jesus stood in their midst soon after; for the evangelist tells us that they were troubled and frighted, in spite of his words giving them peace and telling them not to be afraid.

Indeed, I think there was no one of those who saw our risen Lord, except his glorious and Blessed Mother, whose love was so perfect that it quite cast out this fear. And still more is it in our poor and imperfect hearts; we cannot shake it off. How many are there of us, unless, indeed, those innocent ones who have not yet known what sin is, who, if this were really and truly the morning of the resurrection, and the risen one could be seen by those who should seek him, would arise gladly and run to meet him, and fall in loving adoration at his feet?

If we can in our inmost heart feel that we would, we have reason indeed to be glad and rejoice to-day. But to feel so there must be something in us besides that thrill of triumph and of victory which overpowers us as the splendor of the resurrection first breaks upon our souls. There must be a true, fervent, and deep love of the God who to-day comes so near to us; a hatred from the bottom of our hearts and souls of all that in the least degree separates us from him; there must be, beside faith, also hope and charity, such as the saints have had—that hope which knows that he loves us and has forgiven us, that charity which would make us die sooner than offend him again. And these we have not because of our sins.

Yes, it is sin which casts the shadow on our Easter; it is the love and affection for it which still remains in us; it is that compromising spirit which is even at our best times holding us back, keeping us from fully loving, trusting, and giving ourselves up to God, for fear that we might lose something by doing so; it is this that makes us afraid to approach him and to share in his joy. As for mortal sin, that, of course, takes the happiness of Easter away altogether; to one who is in its darkness the thought of meeting God brings, and can bring, no thought of joy. But even venial sin brings its dread with it, too. And what is the remedy for this dread? It is very simple. It is only to try now to begin to love with our whole hearts him who has loved us, and given his life for us; whose delight is to be with us and to have us come to him; to keep nothing back from him—in short, to live here in our feeble measure the life we hope to live in heaven. This is the way, and the only way, for us to enter now as we would wish into the joy of our Lord.

Sermon LXIII.
The Triumph Of Christ.

This is the day which the Lord hath made:
let us rejoice and be glad in it.
—Psalm. cxvii. 24.
[USCCB: Psalm cxviii. 24.]

The festival of Easter is, above all things, my brethren, a day of joy. Just as we love the sunshine more after days of cloud and tempest, so also is our joy keener and more intense when it follows sorrows.

It is for this reason that the joy of Easter is greater than that of Christmas, or of any other season of the Christian year. For we have been passing through a time of sorrow. We have beheld in Passion-tide our dearest Lord in suffering. We have beheld him as the King of Martyrs, worthy of the title, because his pains were so far in excess of anything that mere man has ever suffered or could ever suffer. We have seen him in his agony in the garden, when the sins of the whole world and of all time were presented to his vision and pressed heavily upon him, filling his Sacred Heart with deepest grief. We have called to mind his betrayal by his trusted friend and disciple; his arraignment before impious and unjust judges; his cruel condemnation and death. Despised and rejected by his own chosen people whom he had come to save, a robber and murderer preferred before him, we have beheld him abandoned to the tortures of the heathen soldiers, scourged, and spit upon, and crowned with thorns, and finally led forth to die a malefactor's death upon the cross.

And worse than all is the thought that he was forsaken by those whom he held most dear, those whom he had chosen to be his special friends and disciples, and who had been his constant companions in his public ministry. They all forsook him and fled, leaving him to die.

Then we have followed him along the sorrowful way of the cross; we have meditated deeply upon his three last hours of agony; we have almost heard his deep, expiring groan as he rendered up his soul to the hands of his Father.

Now, if we have thus learnt well the lessons of Passion-tide, the joy of Easter will come to us in all its fulness. If we have pondered well the depth of humiliation to which our Lord subjected himself in his death upon the cross, we shall well realize the greatness of his triumph to-day. The joy that filled the hearts of the Apostles, of the holy women, and, above all, the Immaculate Heart of our Blessed Lady when they knew that the Lord had risen indeed will be ours to-day, and we shall cry out in the words which the church puts into our mouths: "This is the day which the Lord hath made: let us rejoice and be glad in it": for "the Lord is my strength and my praise, and is become my salvation." Therefore, to-day the voice of praise and of salvation "is in the dwellings of the just throughout the world."

"For the right hand of the Lord hath wrought strength"; the right hand of the Lord—that is, his almighty power—has raised up Jesus from the dead. He has risen glorious and triumphant, and in his glory and triumph all mankind are sharers. For by his resurrection he has overcome death and opened unto us the gates of everlasting life. He has triumphed over sin, which brought death into the world, and which was the cause of his death. His resurrection, therefore, means our deliverance from sin and death, and is a pledge to us of that life which he will give to his faithful ones.

Surely, then, we can have no greater cause for rejoicing than this. Pray, then, my brethren, that your hearts may be filled with the true spirit of Easter joy. "Ask and you shall receive, that your joy may be full; and your joy no man shall take from you."

Low Sunday.

Epistle.
1 St. John v. 4-10.
Dearly beloved:
Whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world; and this is the victory which overcometh the world, our faith. Who is he that overcometh the world, but he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God? This is he that came by water and blood, Jesus Christ; not in water only, but in water and blood. And it is the spirit that testifieth, that Christ is the truth. For there are three that give testimony in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost. And these three are one. And there are three that give testimony on earth: the spirit, the water, and the blood, and these three are one. If we receive the testimony of men, the testimony of God is greater. For this is the testimony of God, which is greater, because he hath testified of his Son. He that believeth in the Son of God, hath the testimony of God in himself.
Gospel.
St. John xx. 19-31.
At that time:
When it was late that same day, being the first day of the week, and the doors were shut, where the disciples were gathered together for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood in the midst, and said to them: Peace be to you. And when he had said this, he showed them his hands, and his side. The disciples therefore were glad when they saw the Lord. And he said to them again: Peace be to you. As the Father hath sent me, I also send you. When he had said this he breathed on them; and he said to them: Receive ye the Holy Ghost. Whose sins you shall forgive, they are forgiven them; and whose you shall retain, they are retained. Now Thomas, one of the twelve, who is called Didymus, was not with them when Jesus came. The other disciples therefore said to him: We have seen the Lord. But he said to them: Unless I shall see in his hands the print of the nails, and put my finger into the place of the nails, and put my hand into his side, I will not believe. And after eight days his disciples were again within, and Thomas with them. Jesus cometh, the doors being shut, and stood in the midst, and said: Peace be to you. Then he saith to Thomas: Put in thy finger hither, and see my hands; and bring hither thy hand, and put it into my side; and be not incredulous, but faithful. Thomas answered, and said to him: My Lord, and my God. Jesus saith to him: Because thou hast seen me, Thomas, thou hast believed; blessed are they that have not seen, and have believed. Many other signs also did Jesus in the sight of his disciples, which are not written in this book. But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God: and that believing you may have life in his name.

Sermon LXIV.
How To Use God's Gifts.

If ye be risen with Christ,
seek those things which are above,
where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God.
—Epistle to Colossians. iii. 1.

The feast of to-day, my dear brethren, brings to a close the solemnities of Easter; and it was the practice, in the early ages of the church, for those who had been baptized on Holy Saturday to put off, on this day, the white garments which they then assumed, and to resume again their accustomed occupation. The white garments were but an external sign of that internal purity and cleanliness which the soul received in the waters of Holy Baptism, and the soul, thus purified and strengthened by God's grace, went boldly forth to the battle-field of life, to meet again its three great and deadly enemies: the world, the flesh, and the devil. So we, who, during the penitential season just closed, have faithfully observed the laws of holy church, and, by fasting, have brought the flesh under subjection to the spirit; by foregoing our accustomed pleasures and amusements have brought the world under our feet, and, by a good confession and Communion, have again enlisted in the ranks of Christ, and thus declared ourselves eternal enemies of sin and the devil, start again to-day with renewed strength to follow our Leader, the risen Christ, to certain victory.

St. Paul, in the Epistle from which the text is taken, reminds the Christians at Colossa that, if they be risen with Christ, their thoughts must now be turned to where Christ is—sitting at the right hand of God. "Mind the things that are above," he continues, "not the things that are upon the earth; for you are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God."

O brethren! would that Catholics did but realize this great truth! Would that their thoughts and affections were directed towards their eternal destiny! Absorbed, as they are, in the sordid pursuits of this life, they cannot be too often reminded that we are here only on trial. An almighty and merciful God has, with a lavish hand, surrounded us with the means of gratifying our reasonable desires and appetites. But, alas! the very gifts of God serve not unfrequently to make us forget the Giver. Look around you and see what is the object for which this noisy, bustling world is striving; what the end for which most men seem to exist. The fact is, brethren, that Mammon, the heathen god of riches, has disputed Christ's sovereignty over the hearts of men, and has actually erected his altar in those very hearts where the grace of Christ once reigned. The only conception men seem to have of this present life is this: that it is a place where we are to strive to become wealthy in the shortest possible time, without being over scrupulous as to the means, and then to retire from active pursuits, the better to indulge our sensual appetites. They thus invert the order of Divine Providence, and make an end of that which was intended only as a means to enable us to attain our eternal destiny.

Everything in this world, my dear brethren, was intended by God for our happiness here and as a pledge of an eternal and infinitely greater happiness hereafter. It is a great mistake to suppose that Christianity requires us to ignore these wonderful gifts of a kind Providence, and to forego all the pleasures of this life. No, not at all! Indeed, we are absolutely obliged to make use of many of them if we would maintain our very existence.

God acts towards us as a kind and affectionate father acts towards his child. The father knows that his child loves him, and he feels confident that the little presents he makes the child from time to time will only serve to strengthen the fond affection which nature has implanted between them.

But what would you think if those gifts of the kind father served only to estrange from him the heart of his child? You would, undoubtedly, say that such a state of things was unnatural. Well, so it is, my dear brethren, with us, who, after all, are only children of an older growth. God, our Creator and Father, has given us life and all the things in this beautiful universe to enjoy. And all he asks in return is our love—our hearts. But, remember, he is not satisfied with an imperfect and partial love. He is a jealous God, and will allow no one to share our hearts with him. So that when men fix their affections on the things of this world without referring them to God, and use these gifts without regard to the Giver, they too are acting in an unnatural or, at least, in an irrational manner. Give your whole heart to God, brethren, and then you will enjoy his gifts, and, as St. Paul says, "When Christ shall appear, who is your life, then you also shall appear with him in glory."

Sermon LXV.
The Christian's Peace.

Jesus came, and stood in the midst, and said to them:
Peace be to you. And when he had said this,
he showed them his hands and his side.
The disciples, therefore,
were glad when they saw the Lord.
He said therefore to them again:
Peace be to you.
—Gospel of the Day.

He stood in their midst. To-day he stands in the midst of us and utters the self-same words, "Peace be unto you." And he shows us his hands and his side, and we are glad. And again he says, "Peace be unto you."

To be at peace with the world is the aim of many men. But to have one's life run smoothly on, to be hindered neither here nor there, to be always in the sunshine and never in the shadow, may bring us peace and gladness, but not the peace and gladness that our Lord would impart. For after his words of gentle salutation he showed them his hands and his side impressed with the wound-prints of his Passion, as if to say: "The peace which I wish you is that which comes after strife, conflict, and sorrow; that peace which is the rest and the reward for labor and endurance."

Yes, dear friends, ours is to strive, to contend with self, with a nature that is fallen, with a proneness to evil, with desires that are selfish and carnal. To contend with the world, to disavow its principles, not to listen to its temptations; to realize and to confess that pleasure, success, ease, money, fame, are not the objects for which a noble soul must seek, but that God is our true end, and that mortification and self-denial, the cross, are the true means to arrive at that end, the way to come to union with God.

To be at peace with the world; yes, I admit that it is a thing to be desired, but only so that we are at peace with Almighty God, too. And how is that peace gained? Only by the keeping of his law. At peace with the world, because the world cannot disturb one at peace with God; this is the Christian's life. But so great a boon is not gained without a strife, as the joy of Easter is not till the sorrow of the Passion has passed.

Our duty, then, dear brethren, is to strive, and to keep the law of God, that first law written on our hearts, that law which he has given to us both by his words and by his life on earth, and which he still repeats to us through his holy church.

Foolish, indeed, are we above all others if our Easter joy is only that of the worldling, and our peace that which the world gives. This is not the peace that comes after looking at his hands and his side; not the joy that the disciples felt as they gazed on the risen Saviour, who stands to-day here in our midst, as he did among those his first followers, and says to us, as he said to them, "Peace be to you."

We may have that peace, my brethren, if we are willing to obtain it and to deserve it as they did. We shall have it descend upon us, if, while we gaze at his hands and his side, we are conscious that we have indeed shared his Passion and cross. May indeed be ours this peace of God, which shall keep our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.

Sermon LXVI.
True And Lasting Peace.

Jesus came and stood in the midst, and said to them:
"Peace be to you."
—From the Gospel of the Sunday.

Peace be to you! This is our Lord's Easter blessing, thrice repeated in the Gospel of to-day; and a blessing which all his faithful may obtain. And it is the one for which we are continually seeking, each in his own way, but which we can find nowhere but with him who to-day offers it to us.

What is this peace? Is it freedom from conflict? Is the Christian to have no battle to fight, no enemy to overcome? No, surely our Lord does not promise us such an easy road to heaven as this. "Do not think," he says, "that I came to send peace upon earth; I came not to send peace, but the sword." We must make up our minds, for the sake of the Christian faith, to sustain not only the assaults of the devil and of our own evil passions, but also the opposition of those who should be our friends. "A man's enemies," our Saviour goes on to say, "shall be they of his own household."

In this sense, then, we cannot hope for peace in this world. No, our lot must be, if we have really enlisted in Christ's army, that of all soldiers: war, and its turmoil. As St. Paul says it was for himself so must it be for us: "combats without, fears within." Struggles for our temporal life; for God has said to Adam our father, and in him to us his children: "In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread "; struggles far more terrible and momentous for our spiritual life, against flesh and blood, also "against principalities and powers, against the rulers of the world of this darkness," in which a single slip may mean eternal ruin, a single wound instant death.

Where, then, is our peace in this inevitable war, this contest which demands all the energies of our body and soul? What peace can we have while its issue is still uncertain, its events yet unknown? Surely it seems a mockery for our Lord to say, "Peace be to you," when he sends us not peace, but war and its alarms.

But it is not a mockery; he who cannot be deceived also cannot deceive. His words are faithful and true. He has really peace to give us—peace in the midst of combat, calm even in the storm.

When the storm arose on the sea of Galilee, and he was asleep in the boat, his disciples came to him, saying: "Lord, save us, we perish." But he answered: "Why are you fearful, O ye of little faith?" Was there not reason for them to be fearful, to lose their peace of mind, when death was staring them in the face, and all their efforts to save themselves were vain? No, not if they had faith to show that God was with them.

This, then, should have been their peace; this should be ours: the possession of God. He has given himself entirely for us and to us in the battle in which he has placed us. He fights on our side. What, then, have we to fear if we will only keep close to him? We are sure of the victory if we call him to our aid. As St. Paul says, "If God be for us, who is against us? He that spared not even his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how hath he not also with him given us all things?"

Peace, then, we should have in our spiritual combat; but how in the battle for our temporal life? Here we are not promised success; no, it must be defeat, at least in the end. We must lose at last by death all that we seek of the goods of this world. The peace which the world gives is then a delusion; it lasts but for an hour; the shadow of death is upon it. "O death!" says Holy Scripture, "how bitter is the remembrance of thee to a man that hath peace in his possessions!" Here again, therefore, our true peace is in the possession of him who is eternal; this is the peace which the world can neither give nor take away. All the storms of this world will not shake or disturb him whose house is built on this rock. "Who," again says St. Paul, "shall separate us from the love of Christ; shall tribulation, or distress, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or persecution, or the sword?"

This, therefore, is the true peace of the Christian: confidence in God, indifference to all that is not God. It is the peace of our Lord himself. "My peace," he says, "I give unto you." Let us ask him indeed to give it to us, now and for evermore.

Second Sunday after Easter.

Epistle.
1 St. Peter ii. 21-25.
Dearly beloved:
Christ has suffered for us, leaving you an example that you should follow his steps. "Who did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth." Who, when he was reviled, did not revile: when he suffered, he threatened not: but delivered himself to him that judged him unjustly. Who his own self bore our sins in his body upon the tree: that we, being dead to sins, should live to justice: by whose stripes you were healed. For you were as sheep going astray: but you are now converted to the pastor and bishop of your souls.
Gospel.
St. John x. 11-16.
At that time:
Jesus said to the Pharisees: I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd giveth his life for his sheep. But the hireling, and he that is not the shepherd, whose own sheep they are not, seeth the wolf coming and leaveth the sheep, and flieth; and the wolf snatcheth and scattereth the sheep: and the hireling flieth, because he is a hireling: and he hath no care for the sheep. I am the good shepherd: and I know mine, and mine know me. As the Father knoweth me, and I know the Father; and I lay down my life for my sheep. And other sheep I have, that are not of this fold: them also I must bring, and they shall hear my voice, and there shall be one fold and one shepherd.

Sermon LXVII.
The Good Shepherd.

For you were as sheep going astray;
but you are now converted
to the pastor and bishop of your souls.
—1 St. Peter ii. 25.

To-day is the Sunday of the Good Shepherd, and the church sings in joyful strains: "The Good Shepherd, who laid down his life for his sheep, yea, who was contented even to die for his flock, the Good Shepherd is risen again—Alleluia!" It is in this tender, loving, and, to us, most winning character that our Lord presents himself in the Gospel of to-day—the Good Shepherd, who knoweth his sheep, and acknowledges them as his own, whose tender care for them is so great that he is willing even to lay down his life for their sake, yet with the power to take it again for his own glory and for their eternal good. We are those sheep for whom he died, and for whom he rose again, for they are in the truest sense his sheep who believe in his name, and are gathered into his one fold, the holy Catholic Church.

But it is not enough to believe; we must also hear his voice. How have we done this in the past? Have we hearkened to his voice as he spake to us through the offices of the church, through the words of our pastors, through the still, small voice of conscience? Alas! we have been as sheep going astray. We have been deaf to his voice, as it has so often spoken to us, bidding us follow him. And, having strayed away from our Shepherd, we have refused to listen to the loving tones of that same sweet voice, calling us back to our place in the flock, but have wandered still further away into the pleasant pastures of sin, where all seemed delight for a time, but where the wolf, the great enemy of our souls, was lurking, waiting for his chance to seize us as his prey for ever. Oh! into what danger have we run by thus wandering from the right path! But now, during the holy season of Lent that is passed, the church has been appealing to us through her solemn offices, and through the earnest words spoken by her ministers, to forsake our evil ways, to leave the deceitful pleasures of sin, and return to where we can alone find pasture for our souls, to the sacraments of the church, wherein the Good Shepherd gives himself to his sheep. Many have hearkened to the call of the Saviour's voice, many have come during this holy time to the green pastures and the still waters, where the Good Shepherd feeds his flock, and, with souls restored and renewed, are prepared and determined to walk hereafter in the paths of righteousness, where he leads the way. Even when at last they shall walk through the Valley of the Shadow of Death they will fear no evil, for he will be with them, his rod and his staff shall comfort them.

But there are also many, far too many, who have not listened to the voice of Jesus, as he calls them in this blessed Easter-tide. Poor, wayward sheep, they still wander in paths of their own choosing, which can only lead them into danger and into death. O foolish, wandering ones! take heed ere it is too late to the gentle voice that calls you. Your souls are soiled and sin-stained, and you have need to be washed in the stream which flows from your Shepherd's side, his Precious Blood shed for you when he laid down his life for your sake. Come, wash and be made clean in the Sacrament of Penance which he has ordained for your cleansing. You were as sheep going astray; be now converted and return to Jesus, the pastor, the shepherd, the bishop of your souls. You have been famishing for the food you need for your spiritual sustenance. Come, then, to him who so graciously and tenderly invites you to the table which he has prepared for you. Draw nigh with joy to the heavenly banquet of his Sacred Body and the goodly, overflowing cup of his Precious Blood, that your souls may be fed and have life eternal. Then will you be strong in the presence of your enemies, his mercy will follow you all the days of your life, and you will dwell in the house of the Lord for ever, even in that house of many mansions which he has prepared for those who love and follow him. For he has said of those who hear his voice and follow him: "I give them life everlasting, and they shall not perish for ever, and no man shall snatch them out of my hand." And remember that other promise of his: "He that eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood has everlasting life, and I will raise him up at the last day." Yes, poor, lost sheep though we have been, if we now turn from our wayward paths to hear his voice and follow him, he will raise us up at the last day, and place us among his favored sheep upon his right hand, to be glad for ever in the light of his countenance.

Sermon LXVIII.
Dead Faith.

That Christ may dwell by faith in your hearts.
—Ephesians iii. 17.

Holy Writ teaches us in many places, my brethren, that God dwells in our hearts by charity, and here we are taught that he dwells by faith also. Of course, the meaning is the same. For an elect soul to know Christ is to love him. And even for a reprobate soul to know the truth of religion is that indescribable boon which makes a possible salvation capable of becoming quickly real. How terrible the misfortune of the Calvinist who believes that a bad life necessarily means absence of faith! How consoling to know that our sinful friends, if they have but the true faith, have a seed of eternal life which may yet spring up into a fruitful tree!

Yet it is terrible to think of how some men trifle with their faith. Brethren, look at the end and judge the beginning by it. The end of wicked men is damnation, hopeless and eternal. Now, what is the faith in hell? Something that makes the Christian's torment altogether peculiar. There the name of Christian, now so noble, now entitling its bearer to pardon for every sin if but breathed forth with an act of sorrow—there the name of Christian will be a nickname. In one way he will have more faith then than now; he will know more of revealed truth, have a clearer knowledge of heavenly things. But then the hand wounded by the nail, and which now is never out of reach, will be withdrawn finally and for ever. Imagine the agony of a soul in hell, whom each article of faith will cause for ever to wail and weep only this one sentence: "It is all my own fault." Brethren, you may complain that this sort of preaching does not provoke to much mirth. But there are those who should know that for them this ought to be a time of weeping and not of being merry: persons who have faith in their hearts, but not Christ. For see how men in Italy, holding fast to the truth with one hand, have with the other set up the abomination of desolation in the holy place. And see how, in France, men who deem themselves insulted if called anything but Catholics, yet deliberately rob the children of the people of the bread of life by establishing paganism in the schools. And see how many there are among us whose faith, instead of being a rule to live by, an irresistible attraction towards our Lord in a true grief for sin and strict union with him, sealed by frequent Communion, is but something handed down from father to son, like name and color and race—a traditional faith—and this proved by their vicious lives.

But happy are they in whose hearts faith has prepared a dwelling for our Saviour. Our Lord is surely present within us if we are in the state of grace. Hear what he says: "If any one love me, he will keep my word; and my Father will love him, and we will come to him, and will make an abode with him." He comes, indeed, silently; he hushes the festive greetings of the angels who escort him; he hides the dazzling glory of his ascended triumph, for now it is faith and not sight. But there in the heart he none the less dwells. We live with him. The Christian feels his presence. He has an interior life whose very breath is that presence. He is stamped with our Lord's character. Such a soul is truly and literally called faithful—faith-full. And once you are intimately acquainted with him you perceive in his ways and actions that our Lord lives with him. Better yet, he perceives it himself. How different he is from one whose knowledge of religion is mere persuasion of the mind and empty talk! With the true Christian knowledge is power. To know the true faith is for him to know how to live: better yet, to know how to suffer, how to wait, how to love, how to die.

Brethren, this congregation is divided into two parts—those who are to be saved and those who are not. Those of you who are to be saved are those in whose hearts Jesus Christ actually dwells by faith. Those who are to be lost are those whose faith means that Christ has a claim against them, payment of which they will postpone till it is too late.

Sermon LXIX.
Suffering False Accusations.

He delivered himself to him that judged him unjustly.
—Epistle of the Day.

I suppose, my dear brethren, that there is no grievance to which we are subjected more common, and certainly there are few more distressing, than that of being judged unfairly by others. As Catholics we are all specially liable to this; we all know how Protestants, even those who profess to be quite friendly to us personally, and who sometimes will say a good word or two for our religion, still calmly assume, as a matter of course, that we believe and practise many things which we and all intelligent and honest men detest and abhor. They say, for instance, that we worship images; that we pay money not only to have our sins forgiven, but even for permission in advance to commit new ones; that we believe the pope to be Almighty God; that we maintain that the end justifies the means; and so on to any extent. It was only a few days ago that it was unblushingly stated in an assembly of one of their sects that the Catholic Church was more guilty in the matter of permitting divorce than other denominations. There seems hardly to be a falsehood about us so gross or so absurd that some of them will not be found to believe and to assert it.

And we of the clergy are more exposed to these slanders than any one else. They say, they take for granted, that we are hypocrites and deceivers; that under a cloak of sanctity we practise all kinds of vice; that we do not believe a word of what we teach; that our only object in our profession is to exercise power or to make money; these things and many others pass current in the world about us, so we are looked upon by many as detestable wretches not fit to live. In us, especially, are our Lord's words fulfilled: "You shall be hated by all men for my name's sake."

But it is not only from outsiders, or in matters where religion is concerned, that we have to put up with false charges and unjust suspicions. In our own private character and actions we all find ourselves liable to them; we find our neighbors and acquaintances judging and even speaking unfairly about us. Priests suffer in this way sometimes from their own parishioners; the laity perhaps from the priest, and often certainly from each other. How frequently we hear people complain of slander or belying from those whom they supposed to be their friends; one would think that it was not the exception, but the rule.

Now all this is certainly very hard to bear. And yet as we go through life we cannot expect to be free from it; and we must try to find a way of bearing it as well as we can. What is the best way?

One way, and a very good way, of putting up with this trouble is to make allowances for the unavoidable prejudice, ignorance, and imperfection of those who say about us what we know to be false, who do to us what we know to be unjust. They may not, they do not, know this as well as we do. "Father, forgive them," said our Lord on the cross, "for they know not what they do." We think others are slandering or injuring us through malice; ten to one they think they are in the right. Probably we ourselves should act just the same way in their place.

Make allowances, then; give our neighbors more credit for good intentions; that is one way to put up with this suffering which we cannot altogether avoid or put a stop to. But a better and perhaps an easier way is the one recommended by St. Peter in to-day's Epistle. "Dearly beloved," he says, "Christ suffered for us, leaving you an example that you should follow his steps. Who did no sin, neither was guilt found in his mouth. Who, when he was reviled, did not revile; when he suffered he threatened not, but delivered himself to him that judged him unjustly." He, the holy, the innocent one, was more wickedly and unjustly accused and judged than any of us sinners have been, or ever can be; shall we not then bear, if need be, the same treatment for his sake? To be spoken evil of falsely is to be like him; it is the mark, the badge of the Christian. This is the example he has left us that we should follow his steps; shall we refuse to profit by it?

Third Sunday after Easter.
Feast of the Patronage of St. Joseph.

Epistle.
1 St. Peter ii. 11-19.
Dearly beloved,
I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims to refrain yourselves from carnal desires, which war against the soul; having your conversation good among the Gentiles; that whereas they speak against you as evildoers, considering you by your good works they may glorify God in the day of visitation. Be ye subject therefore to every human creature for God's sake; whether it be to the king as excelling, or to governors as sent by him for the punishment of evil doers and for the praise of the good; for so is the will of God, that by doing well you may silence the ignorance of foolish men: as free, and not as making liberty a cloak of malice, but as the servants of God. Honor all men; love the brotherhood; fear God; honor the king. Servants, be subject to your masters with all fear, not only to the good and gentle, but also to the froward. For this is thankworthy, in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Epistle Of The Feast.
Genesis xlix. 22-26.
Joseph is a growing son, a growing son and comely to behold; the daughters run to and fro upon the wall. But they that held darts provoked him, and quarrelled with him, and envied him. His bow rested upon the strong, and the bands of his arms and his hands were loosed by the hands of the mighty one of Jacob: thence he came forth a pastor, the stone of Israel. The God of thy Father shall be thy helper, and the Almighty shall bless thee with the blessings of heaven above, with the blessings of the deep that lieth beneath, with the blessings of the breasts and of the womb. The blessings of thy father are strengthened with the blessings of his fathers: until the desire of the everlasting hills should come; may they be upon the head of Joseph, and upon the crown of the Nazarite among his brethren.
Gospel
St. John xvi. 16-22.
At that time:
Jesus said to his disciples:
A little while, and now you shall not see me: and again a little while, and you shall see me: because I go to the Father. Then some of his disciples said one to another: What is this that he saith to us: A little while, and you shall not see me: and again a little while, and you shall see me, and because I go to the Father? They said therefore: What is this that he saith, a little while: we know not what he speaketh. And Jesus knew that they were desirous to ask him; and he said to them: Of this do you inquire among yourselves, be cause I said: A little while, and you shall not see me: and again a little while, and you shall see me? Amen, amen I say to you, that you shall lament and weep, but the world shall rejoice: and you shall be sorrowful, but your sorrow shall be turned into joy. A woman, when she is in labor, hath sorrow, because her hour is come: but when she hath brought forth the child, she remembereth no more the anguish, for joy that a man is born into the world. So also you now indeed have sorrow, but I will see you again, and your heart shall rejoice; and your joy no man shall take from you.
Gospel of the Feast.
St. Luke iii. 21-23.
At that time it came to pass:
When all the people were baptized, that Jesus also being baptized and praying, heaven was opened: and the Holy Ghost descended in a bodily shape as a dove upon him: and a voice came from heaven: Thou art my beloved Son, in thee I am well pleased. And Jesus himself was beginning about the age of thirty years: being (as it was supposed) the son of Joseph.

Sermon LXX.
Devotion To St. Joseph.

Go to Joseph, and do all that he shall say to you.
—Genesis xli. 55.

It is Joseph's nearness to Jesus and Mary during his life that leads us now, when he reigns with them in heaven, to confidently call upon him for succor in our needs, and especially do we go to him because to his patronage the whole church has been commended, that by his intercession he may do for her and each of her members what he did for Jesus and his Mother when he was in the flesh.

Wisely has the church made him her protector, for his power with God must be very great. Of this we can have no doubt, when we remember that to his care were entrusted the purest and the best who have ever walked this earth—Jesus and Mary—Jesus, the Son of God; Mary, his stainless Virgin Mother, whose chaste soul the Holy Ghost made his dwelling-place, delighted with its beauty.

Above the seats of all the bright angels who serve in the courts of the Most High Mary's throne was raised, and one day she would be the angels mistress and queen; Jesus was their Lord, their Maker, before whom they bowed in lowliest reverence. And yet Mary was Joseph's spouse, and Jesus rendered him the obedience a son should give a father. Very worthy must he have been who held so high an office.

Joseph was a necessary member of the family. He served as a veil to screen from the vulgar gaze the deep mysteries of the Incarnation and Nativity; he led the way into Egypt, and his faithful arm supported the Mother and the Babe during the journey; he brought them back to their own land and provided shelter for them; their daily bread was the fruit of his labor—in a word, during the boyhood and youth of our Lord they were entirely dependent upon him.

Such, then, was Joseph's position in the Holy Family; he was the master and guardian of the household; and this is what the church would have him be in every Christian family. It is you, Christian fathers and mothers, who should be especially devout to St. Joseph, for he is your patron in a particular manner. You, like him, have the cares of the household upon you; you must provide for the life and health of the children God has given you; it is your duty to see that they are instructed in the faith and attentive to their religious duties, and that they study their school lessons; you should guard them against the dangers they must meet with in a great city like this, and keep them away from those who may lead them to evil; and, above all, you should give them good example in the practice of virtue. To fulfil your duties well you need divine assistance. Go to Joseph—go to the foster-father of Jesus Christ; he will intercede for you, and obtain the many graces of which you stand in need. Go to him and tell him all your troubles; you will find him very gracious.

But St. Joseph is the patron not of heads of families alone. The church would have you all, dear brethren, "go to Joseph and do all that he shall say to you." From him she would have you learn a tender love to Jesus, a love manifesting itself in deeds, not simply in words. Joseph devoted himself to the service of our Lord, and so should we. But how can we presume to say that we love or serve Jesus if we do not keep his commands; if we neglect our duties as Catholics and as members of society? Let us show how much we love him by doing something for him, as St. Joseph did, and let us, like him, be constant in our well-doing, permitting no day to pass without some acts of love to God. And if we would hope to make progress in the ways of God, let us daily "Go to Joseph and do all that he shall say."

Sermon LXXI.
Christ And The Church.

I have yet many things to say to you,
but you cannot bear them now.
—St. John xvi. 12

These words were spoken by our Lord in his last discourse to his disciples. What were those things which he had yet to say to them, but which they could not then bear?

They were things pertaining to the kingdom of God—that is, his church, his kingdom upon earth. He was about to leave the world and go to the Father, but he would leave behind him an organized body to represent him. During these forty days, then, he sketched out the plan of the Catholic Church, which the Apostles were to bring to completion, under the guidance of the Holy Ghost, who was to teach them all truth.

These were the many things he had yet to say to them, but which they could not understand till then, because of their former imperfect and even erroneous notions of the nature of his kingdom upon earth. He had spoken of his church before, as it were, in hints; now he speaks no longer in parables, but plainly. Listen to the few recorded words of those which he spoke during these forty days, and you will find in them an outline of the Catholic Church.

He first asserts his authority to found a kingdom in this world, saying, "All power is given to me in heaven and on earth"; and then declares that he commits this same authority to his Apostles and their successors in the church: "As my Father hath sent me, I also send you." And, lest any one should say that this power and authority were given to the Apostles alone and not to their successors, he bids them go forth into all the world to preach the Gospel to every creature, and promises them his continual abiding Presence even to the end of the world. One of the Apostles he invested with a special authority over the others. The Good Shepherd would not leave his sheep in this world uncared for, so he gave to St. Peter and his successors the office of pastor of the whole church in the words, "Feed my lambs. Feed my sheep." He also set forth the means of obtaining entrance into this earthly kingdom of his namely, faith and holy baptism—"He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved "; and he declared the blessedness of those who would accept the faith upon the authority of his church: "Blessed are they that have not seen and yet have believed." He provided a means by which those who should sin after baptism might find pardon and remission of their sins by instituting the Sacrament of Penance, giving to his Apostles and their successors the power to forgive and retain sins: "Whose sins you shall forgive they are forgiven them, and whose sins you shall retain they are retained." He had already instituted on the night before his Passion the Sacrament of the Holy Eucharist, and during those forty days he undoubtedly gave his Apostles the necessary instructions concerning the rest of the sacraments of the new law. The Gospels do not pretend to give us all our Lord's doings and sayings, as St. John expressly tells us at the end of his Gospel. But in these recorded sayings of Jesus, during this last brief time that he spent on earth, we have the written constitution of the Catholic Church, though but in outline. The office of the pope as supreme pastor, the plenary authority of the church, and the necessity of faith upon that authority as a means of obtaining eternal salvation—all this is clearly set forth in the words that I have quoted to you.

"Go, teach all nations," said our Lord to his church; and he added, "teaching them to observe whatsoever I have commanded you." On our part, then, is required faithful submission to his teaching, as it comes to us through the voice of his church. It is only by faith in this teaching and by a diligent observance of the commandments of God and his church that we can hope to save our souls and attain to the blessedness which he has promised.

Fourth Sunday after Easter.

Epistle.
St. James i. 17-21.
Dearly beloved:
Every best gift, and every perfect gift, is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no change nor shadow of vicissitude. For of his own will hath he begotten us by the word of truth, that we might be some beginning of his creatures. You know, my dearest brethren, and let every man be swift to hear, but slow to speak, and slow to anger. For the anger of man worketh not the justice of God. Wherefore casting away all uncleanness, and abundance of malice, with meekness receive the engrafted word, which is able to save your souls.
Gospel.
St. John xvi. 5-14.
At that time:
Jesus said to his disciples:
I go to him that sent me, and none of you asketh me: Whither goest thou? But because I have spoken these things to you, sorrow hath filled your heart. But I tell you the truth: it is expedient to you that I go: for if I go not, the Paraclete will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you. And when he shall come, he will convince the world of sin, and of justice, and of judgment. Of sin indeed: because they have not believed in me. And of justice: because I go to the Father; and you shall see me no longer. And of judgment: because the prince of this world is already judged. I have yet many things to say to you: but you cannot bear them now. But when he, the Spirit of truth, shall come, he will teach you all truth. For he shall not speak of himself: but what things soever he shall hear, he shall speak, and the things that are to come he shall show you. He shall glorify me: because he shall receive of mine, and will declare it to you.

Sermon LXXII.
Evil Conversation.

And he said to them:
What are these discourses
that you hold one with another? …
And they said: Concerning Jesus of Nazareth.
—Luke xxiv. 17-19.

Brethren: Suppose our Lord should stand in our midst to-day and demand from each one of us, as he did from these two disciples, What are these discourses that you hold one with another? Do our conversations, like theirs, contain nothing reprehensible? Would our answer be as pleasing to God as theirs was? If so, brethren, we have reason to thank God, and go on our way rejoicing. But of what do the majority of men most readily converse? It is sad that we have to confess it, but God and his works, the soul and its wants are topics anything but agreeable to most of the men of our day. And so every legitimate means must be resorted to in order to make the things of God and spiritual conversation at all palatable.

And you, fathers and mothers of families, what are these conversations which you hold one with the other? What are the topics most commonly treated of in your Christian homes? Is it the virtues of your neighbors that are spoken of and recounted for your own edification and your children's imitation? Would to God it were always so! But there are homes supposed to be occupied by Christians where God's holy name is never mentioned save to be blasphemed, where the neighbor is never spoken of except to recall his follies, his vices, or even his atrocious crimes. Christian parents, beware of the scandal your conversations may give to your family, but especially to your innocent children. Remember that many a soul to-day steeped in vice received its first sinful impulse from some unguarded word, some improper topic of conversation heard in the home that should have been the nursery of every virtue.

And from you, young men and women, an answer might be profitably demanded to this important question: What are the conversations which you most readily indulge in one with the other? Are they in any way improper, or such that you would be ashamed to have them repeated in the presence of your parents? If so, then your discourses are not concerning Jesus of Nazareth, and you are not following the example of his disciples. But if in your conversations, following the Apostolic rule, the things that savor of uncleanness are not so much as mentioned amongst you, what is to be said about the precious time you squander in idle, frivolous talk? Remember that time is but the threshold of eternity, every moment of which is of the highest value to you now; and this is why on the last great day we shall be held to account for every idle word. Young men and women, never admit into your company those whose conversations are unworthy of a Christian, and especially let your own language be always in harmony with your high calling.

Indeed, brethren, to all of us this question of our Lord brings home an important lesson. For if we would lead good Christian lives we must not only abstain from all that is unbecoming or scandalous, but we must also regulate with all diligence our ordinary commonplace conversations. Let them be always such that we would not hesitate to repeat them before God or his most virtuous servants. If we would have our conversations agreeable to God and men, we should make it a rule never to speak disparagingly of those absent, and never take advantage of their absence to say anything which we would not dare say in their presence. And the other rule we should follow is this: never to say in the presence of others anything which could give scandal or leave a bad impression.

Brethren, if we think often of this question of our Lord, if we are diligent in following these rules, our conversations will be always edifying to our neighbors and useful to ourselves. Then, if called upon at any moment by our Lord, we can answer with his disciples, Our conversations are "concerning Jesus of Nazareth."

Sermon LXXIII.
Temptation.

Blessed is the man that endureth temptation;
for when he hath been proved,
he shall receive the crown of life,
which God hath promised to them that love him.
—St. James i. 12.

These words, my dear brethren, are from the Scripture read in the Divine Office for to-day. They also, and very appropriately, have a prominent place in the Office read on the feasts of martyrs through the year.

"Blessed is the man that endureth temptation." "Yes," you may say, "certainly, if a man does endure and resist temptation, it is a good thing, and one for which he has reason to be thankful; but for my part, I would rather get along without being tempted." This is a thought which is very likely to occur to those who are in earnest about saving their souls, and are therefore afraid that they may give way to temptation, commit mortal sin, and be lost. They are inclined to envy others who seem to have a good and innocent natural disposition, and sometimes they may, perhaps, wish that they themselves had died in their baptismal innocence, before temptation and sin were possible.

Now this wish is not altogether wrong; it is certainly pleasing to God for us to desire that it might be impossible to offend him, and that our own salvation might be made secure. But it is a mistake, when he does allow temptation to come on us without our fault, to think that it would be better for us if he had not done so.

It is a mistake, and why? Because far the greater part of us cannot acquire supernatural virtue in any high degree, give much glory to God, or be entitled to much reward at his hands, without a good deal of temptation. If it would please God to infuse all the virtues into our souls without any trouble or labor on our part, it might indeed be very well; but this he is not bound to do, and generally he does not choose to do it. He prefers that we should obtain our virtues partly by our own exertions. And as we will not pray or meditate, do penance or mortify ourselves enough to accomplish this end, there is no way to make any virtue strong and hardy in us except by forcing us to oppose its contrary vice. It is quite easy to seem very pleasant and good-natured when one has no crosses or provocations; but let a sharp or insulting word be said, and it will soon be seen how much real patience there is in this seeming good-humor; perhaps passion will flame out all the more violently for being long in repose. But if one's patience is often tried, and stands the test by means of our own earnest struggles, it will become after a time something which we can really count on.

This, then, is one good in temptation, that it makes our virtue really strong and solid for future use. But another value of it is to enable us to make acts at the very moment which will have an eternal reward and merit, and which we should never make were we let alone. Let one be tempted by impure thoughts for a day, and faithfully resist them; in that day he will perhaps have done more to please God and obtain merit and glory in heaven than in a year of ordinary life.

So if temptation comes without our own fault, we may indeed rejoice and count ourselves blessed, as St. James says; for it is indeed an earnest of the crown of life which our tried and strengthened souls shall win, and which shall be decked with the innumerable gems which our battles with sin have merited. But let us not allow it to come by our fault, for then we cannot hope for a blessing with it. "Lead us not into temptation," we say every day; profitable as the contest may be to us, it would be presumption to offer ourselves to it, or to ask from God an opportunity for it. Let us wait till he chooses to call us to the strife, and then thank him for the trial which shall give us, with his help, the crown of life which he has promised to those who love him, and for his love hate and resist sin.

Fifth Sunday after Easter.

Epistle.
St. James i. 22-27.
Dearly beloved:
Be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves. For if a man be a hearer of the word, and not a doer, he shall be compared to a man beholding his natural countenance in a glass. For he beheld himself, and went his way, and presently forgot what manner of man he was. But he that hath looked into the perfect law of liberty, and hath continued in it, not becoming a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work: this man shall be blessed in his deed. And if any man think himself to be religious, not bridling his tongue, but deceiving his own heart, this man's religion is vain. Religion pure and unspotted with God and the Father, is this: to visit the fatherless and widows in their tribulation; and to keep one's self undefiled from this world.
Gospel.
St. John xvi. 23-30.
At that time Jesus said to his disciples:
Amen, amen I say to you, if you ask the Father anything in my name, he will give it you. Hitherto you have not asked any thing in my name. Ask, and you shall receive: that your joy may be full. These things have I spoken to you in proverbs. The hour cometh when I will no more speak to you in proverbs, but will show you plainly of the Father. In that day you shall ask in my name: and I say not to you, that I will ask the Father for you. For the Father himself loveth you, because you have loved me, and have believed that I came forth from God. I came forth from the Father, and am come into the world; again I leave the world, and I go to the Father. His disciples say to him: Behold now thou speakest plainly, and speak-est no proverb. Now we know that thou knowest all things, and that for thee it is not needful that any man ask thee. In this we believe that thou camest forth from God.

Sermon LXXIV.
Sins Of The Tongue.

And if any man think himself to be religious,
not bridling his tongue, but deceiving his own heart,
this man's religion is vain.
—St. James i. 26.

My dear brethren, we see by these words that we have a rule by which to find out whether or not we deserve to be called sincere Christians or hypocrites. In order to be a sincere Christian, what has a man to do? He has to get control of himself; to get his soul and all that it can desire subject to the law of God; to get all pride, covetousness, lust, anger, envy, gluttony, and sloth under the control of his own will; to get that will subject to and one with the will of God; and, what is more, he must keep himself in this state of mind at least so far as to restrain himself from committing mortal sin and the graver venial sins if he desire sincerely to keep his soul well out of danger. He who acts thus is a truly good man, and that man's religion is not vain.

What is the first thing to be done to begin to live in this way? It is to examine and see in what way a man commits the greater number of sins. One will soon find that the tongue of man is the means by which a man sins most frequently and in the most devilish manner. For, says St. James, "The tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity, … defileth the whole body, … being set on fire by hell." We see from this how dangerous to the soul is the tongue of man. As we do see this, are we not bound to keep in check, at all costs, this source of evil? Any one can see that, if he does not bridle his tongue, his religion is vain indeed. In fact, it is nothing but a merely outward show. It is hypocrisy of the worst kind. But what are the sins of the tongue we most often hear? They are blasphemies, curses, and oaths; the retailing of our neighbors faults with delight and evident pleasure; quarrels, bickerings, constant reproaches for faults that are past, gone, and even sincerely repented of long ago; immodest and impure conversations, with jokes and stories a heathen feels ashamed of; hints and little words that seem almost nothing, yet injuring seriously the reputation of some one, separating friends, and making even those near and dear to each other by every tie cold and distant for a long time, if not for the rest of their lives. God deliver us all from the evil tongue! It works in our very homes. The husband becomes by it bitterness and gall to his wife and family. The wife becomes a torture to husband and children. Both by it make home a curse instead of a blessing, and separate those of whom the word of God declares, "Whom God hath joined together let no man put asunder." Too often do we see sad examples of this kind. Too often do we find such a husband, who is like a roaring wild beast in his home, and a wife whose tongue once set going, even for a slight cause, is like a clock running down, or like the mill-clapper, so often used as a figure of an unruly tongue. The bad tongue of a child is the ruin of all in the house. That child is a tale-bearer and a traitor against those who begot him. A detestable habit of the evil tongue is what the world calls "damning our neighbor with faint praise," or, in other words, praising him highly, even to the skies, and putting in a little word of evil that destroys him all the more surely. One will excuse himself by saying: "But, after all, I spoke well of him. It can't do any harm!" Yet he knows in his inmost soul he has ruined or seriously injured his neighbor. How would I feel if I were spoken of in this manner? is the question one should have asked himself before he said a word.

How common is it to find persons the moment they see anything wrong done by another or hear of it hurry in great glee to tell it at once! Do we not know, my dear brethren, that such a one is a scandalizer of men, and that the Christian rule requires us to be silent then under pain of sin? But the greater the evil done the more delighted are they to tell it. It should be just the other way. Never reveal to any one the sin of your neighbor, unless to save an innocent person or another from damage of some kind. This damage must be serious to oblige one to tell, even then, the sin of another, for he is equally obliged by God not to tell it under ordinary circumstances.

Remember, then, that no one can be a true Christian unless he keeps from these sins by bridling his tongue. Otherwise, as the text declares, "this man's religion is vain."

Sermon LXXV.
Perseverance In Prayer.

Yet if he shall continue, knocking, I say to you,
although he will not rise and give him,
because he is his friend;
yet because of his importunity he will rise;
and give him as many as he needeth.
—St. Luke xi. 8.

Many people complain that their prayers are not heard. Again and again they have made some special requests for temporal, or it may be even for spiritual, blessings, and nothing seems to have come of these petitions. Others get what they ask for, but they are not so favored; and they almost make up their minds that it is of no use for them to pray. They think, perhaps, that they are too great sinners for God to hear them; or that they do not know how to pray right; or they are even tempted to believe that prayer is a mistake altogether; that God's will is not moved by it; that, if any one does seem to get anything by it, it is only by chance, and would have come without it just as well.

Now what can be the reason of the failure of these good people in prayer? Is it, perhaps, because what they asked was really an evil for them, and so God could not in mercy grant it, but had to give them something better instead, which they have not noticed? Or is it that they did not strive to do their best to win what they wanted also by their own exertions as well as by prayer; that they would not put their own shoulder to the wheel? If it was some virtue, such as charity or patience, that they were asking for, and meanwhile took no real pains to cultivate and practise it, no wonder that God would not give it to them. Or, lastly, is the reason for their disappointment that they were praying for others whose will was obstinately set against their prayers? A mother prays for her son, and her prayers are heard, though they may not seem to be. Graces are granted to him, but he resists them. God has not promised to send them, in such a torrent as to sweep away and break down all opposition, though he may yet do so, if she will only persevere.

Persevere! Ah! that word suggests what may be the real difficulty, the true reason for the seeming uselessness of so many good prayers. They are good as far as they go, but there are not enough of them. The effect that is to come of them is to come all at once; it is like the fall of a tree in the woods under the blows of the axe: the tree will come down, but not at the first, the second, the tenth, or perhaps even the hundredth stroke.

Yes, my brethren, our Lord could no doubt grant our prayers as soon as we made them, but he does not wish to do so. And I think we can see at least two reasons why he does not. First, if he grants what we ask at once we will go off with what he has given us, and hare no more to say to him. And, strange to say, he enjoys our society; he has himself said his delight is to be with the children of men. So he keeps us around him, though it be only to tease, as a father would the children he loved, if he could not keep them any other way. And, secondly, he knows that it is good for us to be with him; and that every time we pray in earnest we come nearer to him, and our souls become stronger. So it is that, both for his own sake and for our good, he sometimes will not grant our prayers unless we persevere in them for a very long while.

Our Lord has given us to understand this importance of persevering in prayer very plainly in the Gospel read on these days, called Rogation Days, between to-day and the Feast of the Ascension. He represents to us in the parable of this Gospel a man who has gone to bed, and is roused at midnight by a friend who wants to borrow some bread to set before an unexpected guest. He at first tells the disturber to leave him alone; he says that he cannot be bothered to get up at such an inconvenient time; he pretends to drop off asleep, and keeps his friend outside knocking and pounding for so long a time that he almost gives it up as useless. "Yet," says our Lord, "if he shall continue knocking, I say to you, although he will not rise and give him because he is his friend, yet because of his importunity he will rise and give him as many as he needeth."

This is the lesson, then, it may be, for those who have had no success at their prayers. They did well to begin, but they did not keep at it long enough. Let them go at it once again, and keep on. Let them ask, and keep asking, and they shall receive; let them seek long enough, and they shall find; let them keep knocking and making a disturbance, and at last the door shall be opened, and they shall obtain what they desire.

Sunday within the Octave of the Ascension.

Epistle.
1 St. Peter iv. 7-11.
Dearly beloved:
Be prudent, and watch in prayers. But before all things have a mutual charity among yourselves: for charity covereth a multitude of sins. Using hospitality one towards another without murmuring. As every man hath received grace, ministering the same one to another, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God. If any man speak, let him speak as the words of God. If any man minister, let it be as from the power which God administereth: that in all things God may be honored through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Gospel.
St. John xv. 26-xvi. 4.
At that time:
Jesus said to his disciples:
When the Paraclete shall come whom I will send you from the Father, the Spirit of truth, who proceedeth from the Father, he shall give testimony of me. And you shall give testimony, because you are with me from the beginning. These things have I spoken to you, that you may not be scandalized. They will put you out of the synagogues: yea, the hour cometh that whosoever killeth you, will think that he doeth a service to God. And these things will they do to you, because they have not known the Father, nor me. But these things I have told you, that when the hour of them shall come, you may remember that I told you.

Sermon LXXVI.
After A Mission.

There is nothing, my dear brethren, which can give more joy and consolation both to pastor and people than a mission such as that which was closed last Sunday.

Thank God, there were many who had been living previously in sin, but who really turned from it then with their whole hearts, and who now have a happiness in those hearts to which they had long before been strangers. This happiness ought to last all their lives. God means that it should; they can make it do so if they will.

But how will it be in fact; how is it too often, after such times of grace and fervor? We have had missions before, which really seemed as if they marked a new era in the history of our parish; but we look for their fruits now and find them only few and far between. Too many of those who made them went back a month or so afterward to the old ways of sin.

What was the reason that they did not persevere? Why was it that they had the same sad story to tell when they came back this time that they had a few years ago?

Was it that they never expected it to be otherwise? Perhaps so. Some Christians—shame to say it—seem to think that mortal sin cannot be avoided. Such do not really try to avoid it; how can they? How can any one seriously attempt what he believes to be impossible? No wonder that such as these fell; the question is if indeed they ever arose. For how could they have made the purpose of amendment which a good confession requires? Let them understand, at least now, that it is possible to abandon mortal sin at once and for ever.

But was it, perhaps, that they thought they could keep the grace they had got by their own unaided strength; that they could fight the devil single-handed, or even that he would never trouble them much again? Ah! my brethren, if any of you thought that he made a terrible mistake. Satan does not give up the souls which he has once possessed so easily. He knows the advantage which all habits of sin give him, and he is going to make the most of them. He will surely attack you, and you are weak, while he is strong. If you undertake to fight him alone, you will go to the wall. You cannot conquer him unless God helps you.

But, after all, there are not many Catholics who do not know that it needs God's help to persevere. Oh! yes; almost every one will say, when asked after confession if he is going to avoid sin for the future, that he will, "with the help of God."

Well, then, what is the matter? If we know that we are in danger, and that we can escape from it, but only by God's help, why does not that help come and save us?

I will tell you why it does not. And to do so I have only to turn to the first words of to-day's Mass: "He shall call on me, and I will hear him; I will deliver him and glorify him."

That is the whole story. If we want God to deliver us, we must ask him to do it. In other words, if we wish to persevere, we must pray. If we do not go to God to get the strength which we need, we must be without it.

The sinner who repents, and does not pray often and fervently afterward to keep the grace he has, being especially careful of his morning prayers; who does not, above all, make often the best of all prayers—that of again coming to the sacraments—is a fool, and the devil's laughing-stock.

The great majority of those who have been leading a bad life, and who abandon it at a mission, or at any other time, will not persevere unless they are willing to take the trouble to make frequent and earnest prayers, and to come to confession again within a month. That is simple fact; it is the teaching of experience, not mere guess-work. Are you, my friends, willing to take that trouble for your soul's sake, or do you prefer to fall as you have fallen before?

Sermon LXXVII.
Bearing Witness For Our Lord.

And you shall give testimony,
because you are with me from the beginning.
—St. John xv. 27.

It might be asked, dear brethren, what need God has of our testimony, or why the creature should act the part of witness for the Creator? Certainly Jesus Christ needed not the testimony of men, but in his infinite goodness and wisdom he has seen fit to commit to each one of us a sublime and holy mission, none other than that of giving testimony of him before the world, for the sake of our fellow-man. "You are," says St. Peter, "a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, that you may declare the virtues of him who hath called you out of darkness."

This, then, is our mission, to be witnesses for Jesus Christ; and to-day we are going to consider how we are fulfilling it. You know, brethren, with what a keen sense of criticism the world examines the testimony of those witnessing in behalf of others, and how it values their testimony in proportion to their uprightness and integrity. Well, so it is with regard to us and the testimony we are called upon to give of our Blessed Lord. We Christians are all on the witness-stand of this great world. To-day the unbelieving world is passing judgment upon our testimony, deciding whether it be for or against Jesus Christ; but, brethren, there will come a day when Christ himself will sit in judgment upon this same testimony and reward us accordingly.

Since, then, this our mission is so important, brethren, how are we to fulfil it? It seems to me in no better way than by leading truly Christian lives, and thus forcing the world to acknowledge that we are animated by the spirit of God. The early Christians brought the light of faith to thousands, not by preaching, but by the holiness of their lives; and so, when the pagans and infidels came in contact with them, they were forced to admire and exclaim, "Behold how these Christians love one another!" Would to God that the life and conduct of every Christian to-day could force a similar confession from the unbelievers of our time.

Indeed, brethren, all Christians of our day have a great mission to fulfil in this regard; but we especially, for the reason given by our Lord himself—"because you are with me from the beginning." You, beloved brethren, who have had the faith from the beginning—from your earliest childhood—have a special reason why your testimony for Jesus Christ should never be failing. Has it ever been so? Have your virtuous lives and edifying example brought home the truths and beauties of the Catholic faith to those outside the church? I fear, brethren, the conduct of bad and negligent Catholics has kept back many from inquiring into the true faith. Such Catholics, wearing the livery of Satan, have given false testimony of God, and will have to render an account for it.

We can all of us, brethren, give testimony of Jesus Christ by every action of our lives. Parents can and should render this testimony by the good example they give their families, and the Christian solicitude they have for their spiritual welfare. Young men and women should give this testimony by the profession and practice of God's law and the church's precepts. Let the consideration, dear brethren, of this our high mission, our being called to give testimony of God, be the means of animating us to renewed fervor in the service of Jesus Christ.

Sermon LXXVIII.
The Indwelling of the Holy Spirit.

Watch in prayers.
—1 St. Peter iv. 7.

To-day is the Sunday of expectation, and it brings to our minds that upper chamber in Jerusalem, where the little band of the chosen disciples of the Lord were gathered together waiting for the coming of the Holy Ghost. There were the eleven Apostles and the faithful women, and Mary, the Mother of Jesus, and his brethren. "All these," says the sacred chronicler, "were persevering with one mind in prayer." Hence the Epistle of to-day urges us to imitate them, and begins with the exhortation: "Dearly beloved, watch in prayers."

We too must watch and wait for the coming of the Holy Ghost. He has, indeed, already come into our souls in Holy Baptism, cleansing them from original sin and making them his temples. He has come again in Confirmation, with all the fulness of his sevenfold gifts, to make us strong and perfect Christians and soldiers of Christ.

Yet he comes to us continually every day, knocking at the door of our hearts and begging for admittance. Every impulse of what is known as actual grace is from the Holy Ghost, and such graces we are receiving all the time, every hour of the day. We must therefore prepare ourselves for his coming, and when he has entered into our souls we must strive to keep him there. The Holy Ghost is the life of our souls. It is his constant presence and indwelling which is the state of grace which makes us pleasing to God. To obtain and to preserve this abiding presence of the Holy Ghost we must imitate the Apostles in their watchfulness and prayer. We must watch lest the time of temptation should find us unprepared and off our guard; we must pray that the Holy Ghost may come into our hearts, bringing with him ever richer treasures of divine grace; that he may take possession of our souls and make them all his own; that he may guide our minds, and with the fire of his love inflame our hearts to do his holy will in all things.

But we must first of all prepare for the Holy Ghost by cleansing our souls from sin. Where sin reigns the Holy Ghost can never dwell. The Apostles prepared for his corning by penance. To that upper chamber in Jerusalem came St. Peter, who had denied his Lord, St. Thomas, who had doubted his resurrection, and the others who had wavered in their faith, and, in the time of trial, had forsaken their Master and fled. But now they had been convinced of their error, and they came together with sorrow for their past unfaithfulness, and a full determination to lay down their lives, if need be, for him who had died for them. This is the spirit in which we should prepare for the Holy Ghost. If your hearts are defiled with mortal sin, delay not the time of penance. The Holy Ghost is ready to descend upon you. He only waits for you to do your part. Make ready, then, a place in your heart, that he may enter in and dwell there.

"O my dearly beloved brethren!" exclaims St. Gregory the Great, "think what a dignity it is to have God abiding as a guest in our heart! Surely, if some rich man or some powerful friend were to come into our house, we would hasten to have our whole house cleaned, lest, perchance, when he came in he should see anything to displease his eye. So let him that would make his mind an abode for God cleanse it from all the filth of works of iniquity."

"And they were persevering with one mind in prayer." Our prayer must be persevering if we would gain that which we desire. This is what our Lord meant when he said that we ought always to pray and not to faint. Unless we persevere in prayer we shall without doubt faint by the way in the journey of life. And let us do as the Apostles did, join our prayers to those of Mary, the Mother of Jesus, and we shall have a sure hope of obtaining what is most needful for us. Then, as the Holy Ghost once descended upon her, and wrought within her the Incarnation, so also will he come into our hearts, and make them the abode of the Holy Trinity. Then, if we listen to his blessed voice within us, we shall grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, for the Holy Ghost will teach us all things, according to the promise.

Feast of Pentecost, or Whit-Sunday.

Epistle.
Acts ii. 1-11.
When the days of the Pentecost were accomplished, they were all together in the same place: and suddenly there came a sound from heaven, as of a mighty wind coming, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting. And there appeared to them cloven tongues as it were of fire, and it sat upon every one of them, And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and they began to speak with divers tongues, according as the Holy Ghost gave them to speak. Now there were dwelling at Jerusalem Jews, devout men out of every nation under heaven. And when this voice was made, the multitude came together, and were confounded in mind, because that every one heard them speak in his own tongue. And they were all amazed and wondered, saying: Behold, are not all these who speak Galileans? And how have we every one heard our own tongue wherein we were born? Parthians, and Medes, and Elamites, and inhabitants of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphilia, Egypt and the parts of Lybia about Cyrene, and strangers of Rome, Jews also, and proselytes, Cretes and Arabians; we have heard them speak in our own tongues the wonderful works of God.
Gospel.
St. John xiv. 23-31.
At that time Jesus said to his disciples:
If any one love me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him, and make our abode with him. He that loveth me not, keepeth not my words. And the word which you have heard is not mine, but the Father's who sent me. These things have I spoken to you, remaining with you. But the Paraclete, the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things, and bring all things to your mind, whatsoever I shall have said to you. Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you: not as the world giveth do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, nor let it be afraid. You have heard that I have said to you: I go away, and I come again to you. If you loved me, you would indeed be glad, because I go to the Father: for the Father is greater than I. And now I have told you before it come to pass: that when it shall come to pass, you may believe. Now I will not speak many things with you. For the prince of this world cometh, and in me he hath not anything. But that the world may know that I love the Father: and as the Father hath given me commandment, so I do.

Sermon LXXIX.
The Holy Ghost In The Church.

The Holy Ghost,
whom the Father will send in my name,
he will teach you all things,
and bring all things to your mind,
whatsoever I shall have said to you.
—Gospel of the Day.

On the day which we now commemorate, my brethren, the Holy Ghost came down, as you know, on the little company of Christians assembled in the upper room at Jerusalem, to prepare them for the great combat in which they were about to engage against the devil for the conquest of the world. He came down upon them to make of them the church of God; to establish them in the truth, and to bring to their remembrance, as our Lord had promised, the faith which they had received from his lips. He came to give them not only the knowledge but also the courage and strength which would be necessary for them to persevere, to resist and overcome all the attacks of the enemy, and to weather all the storms which heresy, infidelity, and worldliness were about to raise against the one true faith.

And he was to come, and has come, not only on them, but on those who have followed them as well, and for the same purpose. We have received him, and he abides in the Catholic Church to-day as he did in the times of the Apostles. The Holy Ghost is the life of the church; it is his presence which distinguishes her from the human institutions which have appeared in the world with her and have one by one sprung up and passed away. It is his abiding with her that makes her life perpetual, ever the same and ever new.

But how is the Holy Ghost in the Catholic Church? How is it that he is her life, and that he keeps now, as of old, in the one true body which all who will but clear the mists of prejudice from before their eyes can see is the one which Christ promised to form, and to which all his promises were made?

In the first place, the Holy Ghost is in the Catholic Church by the gift bestowed on the successors of the Apostles in the Apostolic See, of infallibility in teaching the faith. In this way the truth is sure to be kept in the world; it cannot fail to be taught, while the Vicar of Christ remains to teach it.

But it is not only in the Holy See that the Spirit of God abides. The bishops throughout the world also teach the faith by his help and guidance; and this help is also given to the clergy who assist them. Nor does the work of the Holy Ghost stop here; he is also with the body of the faithful, enabling them also to recognize the truth when they hear it, and to distinguish it from error. "You have the unction from the Holy One, and know all things," says St. John; "I have not written to you as to them that know not the truth, but as to them that know it."

Yes, the Holy Ghost is throughout the church; he is her life, and is not only in her head, but also in her members. Were he not in the members, though the pope indeed should remain to teach the truth, the faithful would not have remained faithful or attentive to the truth which he would teach.

What a blessing, then, my brethren, is this light of the Holy Ghost, which is given in its measure to each one of us; which keeps us in the one fold, and which makes us, out of many, one body in Christ; which brings his words always to our minds, and which preserves us from the ever-changing doubt and confusion which is the lot of those who arc separated from the one true church in which he dwells! Let us, then, preserve this unspeakable gift; let us not quench the Spirit of God within us. And how is it quenched? How do we lose the light of faith which he gives?

By sin, and never except by sin. Though instruction be indeed good and salutary, it is not the simple and the unlearned who lose the faith, but such as give ear to their passions, specially those of pride and impurity. All the heresies which have torn multitudes from the church of Christ have had their roots not so much in ignorance as in sin. "Keep yourselves," then, my brethren, as St. John warns you, "from idols"; this is the only sure way to keep in yourselves the light of God.

Sermon LXXX.
The Guidance Of The Holy Spirit.

If any one love me he will keep my word,
and my father will love him,
and we will come to him and make our abode with him;
he that loveth me not, keepeth not my word.
—Gospel of the Day.

To-day, dear brethren, the church sends up her voice of praise for the coming of the Holy Spirit. On this day the Holy Ghost, the personal love of the Father and the Son, came upon the disciples in that upper chamber in Jerusalem, where they were gathered together in prayer awaiting the promise of the Father. He came upon weak and timid men, but when he had poured himself upon them behold we have the great Apostles, the teachers of the divine word, the fearless and untiring searchers after souls, the founders of the church.

Ah! what a change had been wrought in these timid followers of Jesus, who had fled from him in the hour of his need, and who, after his resurrection, lay hid with barred doors for fear of the Jews! Their fear and their weakness have disappeared, and the whole world is not large enough for the exercise of their zeal, nor less than the conversion of all nations the end of their noble ambition.

But, dear brethren, the self-same Holy Ghost, who brought about this change in the Apostles, comes to us, nay, abides in us, if we fulfil the condition our Lord lays down—namely, that we love him. And he makes the test of our love the keeping of his word. If we love him the Father will love us, and the Father and the Son will come to us and make their abode with us through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit.

The Holy Spirit is our sanctifier. It is he to whom are ascribed the works of love. He dispenses the graces which the merits of Jesus Christ have won for us. He purifies from sin and unites our souls to God. He dwells in every one who is free from grievous sin, and by his light and strength he gives us help to overcome the temptations which assail us.