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SERMONS AND DISCOURSES

Rev. JOHN McQUIRK, D.D., LL.D.

RECTOR OF ST. PAUL'S CHURCH
NEW YORK CITY

Volume I.

FR. PUSTET

PRINTER TO THE HOLY SEE AND THE S. CONGREGATION OF RITES

FR. PUSTET & CO.

NEW YORK

52 Barclay Street

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Copyright, 1S96, by
JOHN McQUIRK

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MICHAEL AUGUSTINE

Archbishop of New York

PREFACE.

The Discourses contained in this Volume are
a few of those preached by the Author in the
course of his ministry. He publishes them, some-
what against his own judgment, in deference to
the urgent request of some whose opinion is en-
titled to his regard. The reception accorded to
a few of them, issued in pamphlet form, would
seem to justify their advice.

These Sermons were not written before their
original delivery, but carefully prepared as to,
thought and matter ; the moment of speaking was
trusted to for the language and manner of expres-
sion. They were afterward reduced to writing,
although without any intention of publication,
but only as a means of preserving what had been
the fruit of much reflection and some research.
They were written, as far as memory served, as
spoken. They are published as then written,
with such verbal corrections as were necessary.
This will account for what may be defects, per-
haps, in a book, but not always such in dis-

vi PREFACE.

courses meant to be spoken and heard. Faults
in the one may be merits in the other.

It is hoped that the idea, borrowed from the
custom of the Church at all times, and formerly
more in vogue in religious books than at present,
of impressing Divine truths and lessons by illus-
tration, may be found acceptable.

Trusting that the Collection may further the
end for which the Discourses were spoken, and
that, with God's blessing, it may do good to
many, I leave it in the hands of the reader

St. Paul's Church, New York,
Festival of Sts. Peter and Paul, 1896.

CONTENTS.

I. Mortal Sin

II. Death,

III, The Particular Judgment, .

IV. Heaven

V. The Punishment of Hell, .

VI. The Delay of RErENiANCE,
VII. The Last Judgment,
VIII. On the Greatness of God, .

IX. Almsgiving,

X. The Immortality of the Soul, .
XI. The Example of the Saints,
XII. On Prayer,

XIII. Motives to Humility, .

XIV. The Love of God our True Interest
XV. The Incarnation, ....

XVI. The Birth of Christ, .
XVII. Love of our Neighbor, .
XVIII. The Forgiveness of Injuries,

3

19
33
51
69

85
105
123

139
157
173
191
207
221

237
251
265

277

Vlll CONTENTS.

PAGE

XIX. The Love of Jesus in the Blessed Sacra-
ment, 291

XX. Necessity of a Teacher in Religion, . 313
XXI. The Immaculate Conception of the

Blessed Virgin Mary, .... 329
XXII. The Holy Ghost in our Souls, . . . 353

XXIII. The Passion of Christ — the Lessons of

the Cross, 379

XXIV. The Passion of Christ — Continued, . . 397
XXV. The Existence of Hell, . . . .417

THE NEW YORK

PUBLIC LIBRARY

ASTOR, LENOX A*,0
TILOEN FCUNfiATiu-.-.

MORTAL SIN.

•* And a j^eat Battle was in Heaven : Michael and his antjels
fouj^ht with tlie drai^on. and the draj^on fou;<ht. and his angels,
and they prevailed not. neither was their place found any more
in Heaven, and that ijreat drav^^on was cast out. tiie old serpent
which is called the Devil, and Satan, that seduccth the whole
world, and he was cast unto the earth, and His angels were cast
forth with him. And I heard a great voice in Heaven saying,
• Now salvation is accomplished anil strength and the kingdom
of our Ciotl. and the power of His Christ, because the accuser of
our brethren is cast out, who accused them before our (iod. day
and night.' "—Apocalypse xii. 7 -lo.

" For if God spared not the angels who sinned, but with
ropes cast them tlown into Hell and delivered them unto chains
of darkness to be t<»rmentetl. to be reserved to judgment; and
spared not the old world, but preserved the eighth man. Noe, a
preacher of justice, bringing in the lluud on the world of the
Impious."- II. Teter ii. 4-5.

To realize the nature and enormity of mortal
sin, we have but to consider wiiat it is in itself.
It is rebellion against God ; it is that which, if it
were possible, would cause the Lord and Maker
of all thin.crs to cease to be ! It is the usurpation
on the part of the creature of the ri«;ht and rank
of the Creator. Theolo<rians tell us that to esti-
mate the i^ravity of the offence we must consider
the dignity of Ilim to whom the ofTcncc is offered
and the condition of the offender.

A man who offends his fellow-man commits an

4 MORTAL SIN.

offence ; but yet not so great one because they
ai-e of the same rank. A man who offends his
superior commits a still greater offence, because
of the greater importance of him offended. A
man who offends a king, commits an offence
which men will not hesitate to avenge by the
taking of the life of the offender, because of the
heinousness of affronting so exalted a personage ;
and so the gravity increases as the dignity of the
ofTended personage increases. What then are we
to think of the gravity, the enormity of an of-
fence offered to the Lord of Lords ; the King of
Kings ; the Maker and Ruler of all things, com-
pared with whom all human dignity and majesty
is as nothing ; of an offence by which the creat-
ure usurps the throne of God and bids defiance
to His divine authority.

The gravity of an offence is measured by the
dignity of the offended and the condition of the
offender.

Now as God is of infinite majesty, of infinite
greatness, sin, which is an insult to Him, partakes
of this infinite character, and becomes infinite in
its malice. And who is man that presumes to of-
fend God ? As God is infinitely great, man is in-
finitely vile, a worm of the earth, the creature of
an hour ! Who then can comprehend the deadly
hate, the intense malignity of mortal sin? God,
boundless in His perfections, power, wisdom, jus-
tice, mercy, at whose awful presence the angels
hide their face, and earth and heaven do flee
away — God supreme in majesty, and unutterably
to be adored, is insulted by a vile creature, the

MORTAL SIN. 5

work of His hands, a worm of the earth, who has
nothing he can call his own, and owes everything
he possesses to the munificence of the Lord he
offends, and whose mandates he tramples under
foot !

In this the offence becomes aggravated — that
in offending this God of infinite majesty, he rises
against his Creator, and abandons his last end.
It is God that created the sinner, drew him forth
from inexistence, bestowed upon him life, body,
soul, immortal hopes, all that he has. Had it not
been for God, he would forever have remained in
the state of possibility ; never known what life is ;
never have beheld the splendors of creation ;
never have known the great gifts with which
God has endowed him, — making him little less
than the angels ; never have known the glorious
destiny which awaits him ! When then he sins
it is the creature rebelling against the Creator,
the creature rebelling against the hand that fash-
ioned it into being, striking the God who drew it
forth from nothinsf, and the oriver of all his irifts.

Ingratitude among men is held to be detestable ;
ingratitude to a friend unpardonable. What are
we to think of the black ingratitude of the sinner
to God, his first Author and sovereign Benefac-
tor? We cannot fathom the wickedness and in-
gratitude of the creature when it says to the
Creator, '' I will not serve."

He departs from his last end. Man feels him-
self born for God ; he feels himself transported,
by an impulse he cannot resist, to perfect happi-
ness. He seeks it in all he does. He is not free,

6 MORTAL SIN.

not to seek it. He knows that God has implanted
this desire in his soul to direct him to his last end.
He feels that this happiness is not to be obtained
here below ; that it is in God alone it is to be
found. When he commits mortal sin he knows
that his eternal salvation is involved in the act,
and for sake of a petty gratification that can last
but a moment, he abandons the happiness for
which he feels he has been created and which
alone can satisfy his soul. He prefers the creat-
ure to the Creator, his passion to the law of God,
a momentar}^ pleasure to a happiness that endures
forever. He spurns the eternal bliss God holds
forth to him, and wise in all other things, he be-
comes a fool in that which supremely and eter-
nally concerns him. What folly, what madness,
what infatuation ! How comes it that so thick a
darkness should obscure the mind of God's no-
blest creature, and of one so prudent and pains-
taking in all that concerns the affairs of this per-
ishable world.

No ! we shall never understand the folly of man
in preferring the vanities of life to the glorious
destiny that revelation discloses. We shall never
fathom the ingratitude of man in offending his
Lord and Maker and Benefactor. We shall never
comprehend the full nature, the deadly malice of
mortal sin while in this life ! It will need the
eternal sun of justice to illuminate us on this
subject. God is infinite ; sin is therefore infinite
in its malice. As we cannot comprehend God,
neither can we comprehend sin ; we cannot
measure what is boundless ; we cannot, therefore,

MORTAL SIN. 7

grasp what is meant when sin is said to be of in-
finite malice. Never in this life shall we do it.
Not until our disembodied spirits shall stand in
the presence of God and there behold the limitless
perfection and loveliness, and the dazzling splen-
dor of the God-head — not until then shall we at
all realize the intense malignity of mortal sin and
the hatred that God bears it !

Let us then despair of forming any adequate
conception of sin. Yet from this very difficulty,
nay impossibility, of comprehending it, we can
best understand what it must be. As it is from
the very mysteriousness that surrounds the God-
head we derive our best idea of the infinity of
God, so it is from the incomprehensibility of sin,
we can best feel what it must be. It is so
great that we cannot comprehend it ; how great
then must it not be ! No consideration could give
us a better idea of the inherent malice, the incon-
ceivable deformity of mortal sin !

It is not alone from considering the nature of
sin in itself that we can form some imperfect idea
of its enormity. Revelation has disclosed to us
certain facts from which better than from any
reasoning we are permitted to know something
of its dread character.

We are told that long before this world was
made it pleased God to surround Himself with
myriads of angels, pure spirits, who were to minis-
ter around His throne. They were superior in-
telligences endowed with wondrous gifts. Their
knowledge was greater by far than that which
any creature has since possessed. They were

8 MORTAL SIN.

God's own handiwork. He poured upon them a
profusion of His choicest gifts and graces. They
were in the closest communion with God. It
was their privilege to sing His praises, to glori-
fy His name. They were created to last for-
ever.

Yet a time came, a temptation came, and through
pride they rebelled against God. It was but a
thought of pride, and in that instant they were
cast down from their high estate to bottomless
perdition, there forever '' to dwell in adamantine
chains and penal fire." There was no time given
for repentance, there was no ransom promised,
there was no further trial, no awaiting of a second
offence, no hope of any future alleviation or cessa-
tion of their misery. They sinned in thought, a
mortal sin indeed, but yet only a sin of thought,
and in that same moment '' were cast down in
darkness and everlasting chains until the day of
judgment."

Here we have an awful illustration of the enor-
mity of sin. God is a God of justice and of mercy.
He loves all the works of His hands. He must
have had a special love for the angels because of
their sublime office, and the divine gifts of which
He had made them the recipients. He could not
inflict upon them a punishment out of proportion
to their sin. What then are we to think of their
sin ? How are we to comprehend its magnitude ?
What must be this gigantic evil so loathsome to
Almighty God, that for its punishment He con-
demns the noblest work of His hand, without a
moment's warning, down to the lowest depths of

MORTAL SIN. 9

hell, there to suffer everlasting torture, '' unres-
pited, unreprieved, ages of hopeless end ? "

But to come nearer ourselves. We read that God,
to fill the void occasioned by the fall of the angels,
created man. And in the gifts that He bestowed
upon him made him but little less than the angels.
He gave him not only a nature perfect in the nat-
ural order, but raised it to a supernatural plane,
and assigned to it an immortal destiny — made it
the heir of endless glory. There was no warring
of the flesh against the spirit ; there was no want
of conformity between the will of man and that of
God. Our inferior nature was held in subjection
to reason, and reason in perfect harmony with the
will of God, by the sovereign power of the grace
with which man's soul was filled. There was no
sorrow in the heart of man because he knew not
sin. Pain, sickness, death, and all the other ills to
which our poor flesh is heir, were exiled from
man's happy state. He lived in God's holy pleas-
ure and found the bliss which he has ever since
sought in vain, and will forever seek in vain until
he repossesses it in God, his beginning and final
destiny. He was endowed with wondrous knowl-
edge, with enlightenment of mind, and rectitude
of will. Placed in the midst of a paradise, filled
with every delight, given absolute dominion of all
things, all nature was eager to do his bidding,
all creatures acknowledged his authority. The
world and all that God had made was for his use
and benefit as means or instruments of his eternal
good. He was created immortal, to be translated
alive to the presence of God, if he remained faith-

lO MORTAL SIN.

ful. There was but " one restraint, lord of the
world beside." He could not be God's creature
without owing submission to Him. God Himself
could not create a creature without this necessary
law of his being. It is an intrinsic necessity
founded in the very nature of things. A thing
created, from the very fact that it is created, can
never, without sin, divest itself of the relation of
subordination to its Creator.

Accordingly a restraint was imposed upon
Adam to test his obedience. He was told that in
whatever day he would eat the forbidden fruit, in
that day he should die. He knew that on him
depended the destiny of his posterity ; that his
fidelity would be meritorious for all ; that his dis-
obedience would entail the ruin of all.

Yet in an evil hour the woman was tempted,
did eat, and gave to Adam, who did eat. In a mo-
ment all was lost; the glory of Paradise faded
forever. ''AH nature gave sign through all her
works that all was lost." Adam's past pleasure
seemed but a dream. He was driven out of Par-
adise, the prospect of immortal happiness closed
upon him ; the certainty of unending woe stared
him in the face. He was condemned, with all his
posterity, to death and everlasting punishment.
Thus we were all eternally lost.

It was from this estrangement from the Creator
that has flowed all the evil and misery, sin and
suffering, that has since afflicted our race. It was
the sovereign power of the grace of God in man,
that repressed his violent inclinations and har-
monized his whole nature. This grace lost, his

MORTAL SIN. II

passions rebelled against reason ; and reason ob-
scured and weakened was no longer in accord
with God. As it is the strong arm of the law that
holds the discordant elements of society in sub-
jection, and when this law is suspended, riot, blood-
shed, tumult, and disorder prevail ; so, when the
grace of God was withdrawn from man, then
pride, cruelty, envy, lust, and all evil passions
burst forth, turning human society into that state
so fearfully described by St. Paul as without God,
and without hope. Soon man forgot God and
his duties to Him, and gave to the creature the
glory due to God. Yes, it is to Adam's fall, as its
source and cause, are to be traced all the sin and
miser}', all the wars and pestilences, hunger, thirst,
and nakedness, cruelty and licentiousness, dis-
cord, hate, and bloodshed, — all the physical pain
and moral evil that has since deluged and afflicted
humanity.

How dreadful then must be this evil of sin,
which was capable not only of condemning our
race to everlasting punishment, but also of entail-
ing upon us all so many and such irremediable
evils. Let us say again, that God is a God of Jus-
tice. He cannot inflict a punishment greater than
the offence. , What then must be the mysterious
nature of sin, on whose account He condemns to
everlasting death, not only those who had commit-
ted it, but us, their posterity, who had no personal
participation in it, and inflicts upon all Adam's
posterity all the temporal evils that man has
ever suffered, is suffering, and will forever suffer !
How infinitely displeasing to God must be sin

12 MORTAL SIN.

when He visits upon it such condign, such incon^
ceivable punishments ! A whole race damned
for one sin ; for a sin committed thousands of
years before our birth ! Adam condemned to a
temporal punishment of nine hundred years ; the
whole race involved in the misery and sin and
suffering of which all history is but the record,
and of which we ourselves have daily experience.
What are we to think of that which brings with
it such consequences ?

From what has been said it is manifest that
mortal sin must be a sovereign evil, unutterably
offensive to God ; of its own nature unpardonable
and irremediable in its effects. The facility with
which sin may be forgiven to those who have the
required dispositions must not be regarded as due
or belonging in any sense or by any right or neces-
sity to sin itself. The remission is made possi-
ble by the redemption of Christ and by the merits
of His blood applied to our souls. It is He who
cancels our sins and takes upon Himself our trans-
gressions. Without this ransom there had never
been forgiveness for sin. Sin once committed is
everlasting. Of its own nature it is irremissible.
Nor can any valid reason be adduced to evince
that God is bound to pardon the sinner, or to ac-
cept any atonement for sin, or be propitiated with
any repentance. We see this in the case of the
•angels, whose sin was without remission.

As sin is in itself unpardonable, so its effects are
of themselves irreparable. The}^ have not yet
ceased. They flow on from generation to gener-
ation, like wave after wave, to the remotest pos-

MORTAL SIN. 1 3

terity. The effects of Adam's rebellion are still in
our souls. His sin is renewed by all his children.
Age succeeds age ; it has the same story of hu-
man passion, misery, and iniquity to narrate. It
is true that we have been redeemed with a won-
drous, a copious, a superabundant redemption.
Christ's blood was sufficient to atone for the sins
of ten thousand worlds. But in spite of Redemp-
tion the effects of Adam's sin remain.

The sacrifice of Christ, all sufficient though it
is, remains to be applied to individual souls. And
how few are they who apply it ! Not the indiffer-
ent, the sinful, and those who never think of salva-
tion ! What difficulties, what dangers in the sal-
vation of everyone! What pains required, what
diligence in the use of grace ! What fidelity in
avoiding sin ! How many have never known the
truth and salvation of Christ, or have abandoned it
and fallen into heresy, indifference, or even infidel-
ity. See the superstition, idolatry, immorality,
skepticism, infidelity that prevail among men !
What is human society but a seething mass of sin,
unbelief, and corruption !

How great, how incomprehensible, I ask, must
not sin be, which is capable of introducing into the
world such horrid, intense, widespread, everlast-
ing evils? — evils which endure after the shedding
of the blood of the Incarnate God ! — evils which
shall only cease when He shall come to judge the
world !

And now, my brethren, this is that with which
we are so familiar ; which we commit with so
little scruple. Whatever may be said of the

14 MORTAL SIN.

greater malice of sin, because of the greater knowl-
edge of the angels and of Adam, yet in the light
and understanding that comes from experience we
know more of sin than they did. Had we then
sinned but once we were far more guilty and
more deserving of punishment than they. They
had no previous experience of sin. But we have
seen its enormit}^ in the fall of the angels, in the
fall of our first parents, nay, Ave even partook in that
fall and still feel its effects. Seeing the irreparable
ruin all around us caused by their sin and with its
evil effects yet festering in our souls ; seeing the
wide and general devastation of that one withering
sin; seeing that it brought death into the w^orld
Avith all our woe, seeing the millions that have been
lost in consequence of it, seeing the plan of redemp-
tion that was had recourse to, to redeem us from
it; seeing that in spite of this redemption these ef-
fects still remain ; seeing that all this is the conse-
quence of Adam's sin, what must be our guilt in
renewing that sin even once ? Have we not seen
the sins of men washed away by a flood that de-
stroyed all men with a few exceptions, have we
not known of fire coming down from heaven and
destroying cities on account of their sins. We
then in the light of experience realize better than
they the consequences of sin ; and as a result we
are far guiltier when we commit even one sin.
Who can say that he has committed but one sin,
how many hundreds, nay, how many thousands
of mortal sins have many of you committed?

But what ought to make sin in a manner un-
pardonable in man is, that it is done after the

MORTAL SIN. I 5

shedding of Christ's blood ; after the unutterable
sacrifice offered on the cross for the cancelling of
our sins and the salvation of our souls. It is
committed in defiance of that priceless ransom ;
it re-crucifies the Son of God and makes a mock-
ery of him. it grieves the Holy Spirit and puts
Him to an open shame. Who then will describe
the magnitude of sin? Who will conceive the
black ingratitude of the sinner ?

Better far than in the example of the angels, and
in the fall of our first parents, are we taught the
hatefulness and malignity of sin, when we estimate
the price that was paid to redeem us from it and
to restore us once again to God's favor. In the
Incarnation, sufferings, and death of Christ, viewed
as the necessary ransom of sin, can we compre-
hend its rank malice, the burning hate that God
bears it ; the injury it does our souls, and the woe
and suffering and punishment it must entail upon
us. Call to mind then that the Eternal God be-
came man, lived a life of suffering, and died a death
of shame and torment. Why ? For sin. It was
for the sins of men that he became man. It was
the sins of men that made Him suffer; that nailed
Him to the cross. " He was wounded for our in-
iquities, and bruised for our sins." Had He not
died, we would have been all lost; irretrievably
and forever lost. Man should suffer or some in-
finite satisfaction should be offered. We were all
condemned in Adam. He had committed an of-
fence of infinite malice. It was not in the capacity
of his finite nature to atone for such a transgression.
An infinite offence calls for an infinite satisfaction.

1 6 MORTAL SIN.

What could man, finite man, do to appease
the anger of an infinite God. If an atonement
was to be made, if a ransom was to be offered, that
atonement should be of infinite merit, that ran-
som should be of priceless value. The Eternal
God became incarnate and died for our sins. Ver-
ily are we bought with a great price.

If God, for the expiation of sin, had required the
sacrifice of one man, it would have been a great
ransom and would have made us conceive of sin
as something of horrid deformity. If He had- re-
quired the sacrifice of all men it had been an aw-
ful punishment ; and yet it would have been in-
sufficient to atone for sin. If he had required the
incarnation, sufferings, and death of all the angels
and archangels, it surely had been a sacrifice of
incalculable value ; and it would have taught us
something of the gravity of sin, yet it would
have been insufficient to exhaust its malice. But
what are we to think Avhen we know that God,
for the expiation of sin, required the sacrifice of
His only begotten Son ; the figure of His sub-
stance and the splendor of His glory ! What are
we to think of the deep guilt, foul enormity, hell-
dyed blackness of sin, which crucified the Eternal
God. How are we to estimate the justice of God
that was content with nothing less than the shed-
ding of the blood of His Incarnate Son ?

Yes, my brethren, it is here that we are to de-
rive our best notion of mortal sin. It is in medita-
ting on the awful agony of Christ in the Garden of
Gethsemane, when the vision coming before Him
of all the sins of men, past, present, and to come,

MORTAL SIN. 1 7

overcome by their wickedness and black ingrati-
tude, the blood burst from every pore ; and His
heart would have broken but for the greater sac-
rifice He had still to make ; it is in contemplat-
ing the stern justice of the Father which per-
mitted Him to drain the chalice of affliction to
the dregs; it is in contemplating the excruciat-
ing torments, the untold agony of His passion ; it
is in beholding Him nailed to the cross for our
sins ; it is in the thorn-crowned head, the nail-
pierced hands, the opened side, in the torrents of
blood that drenched the hill of Calvary, which the
sin-smitten earth, greedy for its ransom, drank up
as they fell from His sacred wounds, it is in all
this that we are to understand the true nature,
the deadly malice of mortal sin, the hatred God
bears it, and the eternal punishment with which,
if unrepented, we may expect, it shall be visited
in us.

How hateful must sin be to God when He pun-
ished it so awfully and so mysteriously in His
only Son, hearkening not to the prayer uttered
by Him in the dreadful agony in Gethsemane:
'' Father, if it be possible, let this chalice pass
away," permitting all the horrors of the passion
and crucifixion, suffering, without compassion,
the awful cry to pierce the heavens, '' Lord, God,
why hast thou abandoned me ? " And all this in
whom there was neither sin nor the shadow of
sin ; but who was the heaven-ordained and ac-
cepted sacrifice for sin.

Oh, well may we despair of ever comprehend-
ing the nature of sin ! Yet let us draw this lesson.

2

1 8 MORTAL SIN.

If God SO punished His Son, how will He pun-
ish us ? If He spared not His only Son, who was
without sin, what will He do to us, covered '' with
as many sins as there are hairs on our heads ; with
as many iniquities as our hearts have conceived
thoughts." If He has done so in the green wood,
what will He not do in the dry ?

Let us tremble at our peril. Let us tremble at
the punishment that awaits us. Let us think what
it is to fall into the hands of an angry God. If
He spared not the angels, if He spared not Adam,
if He spared not His only begotten Son, the fig-
ure of His substance and splendor of His glory !
If He spared not the Creator infinitely great will
He spare the creature infinitely vile ?

If it were as easy to make men hate sin, and to
deter them from it, as it is to convince them that
sin is the greatest of evils, the preacher would
not have so often to lament the fruitlessness of
his ministry. But it is one thing to be convinced
of a truth and quite another to act upon the con-
viction. We may be persuaded that sin is the
greatest of evils, and yet cling to it. It needs the
grace and light of God to enable us to overcome
sin.

Pray then to the Giver of every good and per-
fect gift, that He may pierce your souls with a
vivid perception, an intimate realization of sin.
Pray Him to touch your hearts, and strengthen
your wills, that you may rise without further de-
lay from the grave of sin to a life of sinlessness
and Christian virtue that will be a pledge of your
eternal life hereafter.

THE NEW YORK

PUBLIC LIBRARY,

DEATH.

A PRAYER OF MOSES THE MAN OF GOD.

Lord, thou hast been our rcfui;c from c^cneration to genera-
tion.

Before the mountains were made, or the earth and the world
was formed ; from eternity and to eternity thou art God.

Turn not man away to be brought low : and thou hast said :
Be converted. O ye sons of men.

For a thousand years in thy sight arc as yesterday, which is
past.

And as a watch in the night, things that arc counted nothing,
shall their years be.

In the morning man shall grow up like grass, in the morning
he shall Hourish and pass away : in the evening he shall fall,
grow dry and wither.

For in tiiy wrath wc have fainted away and are troubled in
thy indignation.

Thou hast set our iniquities before thy eyes : our life in the
light of thy countenance.

For all our days are spent ; and in thy wrath we have fainted
away.

Our years shall be considered as a spider : the days of our
years are three-score, and ten years.

But if in the strong they be fourscore years : and what is more
of them is labor and sorrow.

For humiliation is come upon us : and we shall be corrected.

Who knoweth the power of thy anger, and for thy fear who
can number thy wrath }

So make thy right hand known : and teach our heart wisdom.

Return. O Lord, how long ? and be entreated in favor of thy
servants.

20 DEATH.

We are filled in the morning with thy mercy : and we have
rejoiced, and are delighted all our days.

We have rejoiced for the days in which Thou hast humbled
us : for the years in which we have seen evils.

Look upon Thy servants and upon their works : and direct
their children.

And let the brightness of the Lord our God be upon us : and
direct Thou the works of our hands over us ; yea, the work of
our hands do Thou direct.— Psalm lxxxix.

All nature is in a state of continual transition.
Look where we may, everything is perpetually
changing. The least of God's works is not any
more exempt from change than the greatest.
From the most contemptible insect that crawls
the earth to the magnificent heavenly bodies, in
all things above us, around us, and within us we
see change, never-ceasing change, and perpetual
renovation. And yet, in the midst of this uni-
versal and never-ending process, not one atom of
matter is lost. Everything is endowed with an
essential virtue, which preserves it through the
multiform changes it undergoes.

If things are continually dying, they are con-
tinually coming to life again. If they are under-
going change, it is but assuming new forms of
organization, new modes of being. Nations rise,
flourish, and decay, and from their ruins spring
new forms of government; one civilization con-
tains within it the germs of a newer and higher
advancement. The trees of the forest, the flow-
ers that fill the earth with fragrance, the myriad
forms (^f vegetable life, all in due time languish
and perish and die ; but they provide for their

DEATH. 21

resurrection in the teeming abundance of seed
which they cast upon the earth. The sun disap-
pears to-day, to re-appear to-morrow ; spring is
overtaken by summer, dies in autumn, is buried
in winter, and returns with undiminished fresh-
ness and beauty in April ; so throughout the
moral and physical world there is continual
death and continual resurrection, unceasing dis-
solution, and yet continual permanence.

Is man any exception to this law of mortality
written on all things ? Does he escape the law of
corruption to which all things are subject, and if
he changes is he renewed as all things else ?

Yes, my brethren, man changes, changes con-
tinually. When he begins to live he begins to
die. With the principle of life, which sustains
him in being, there is a principle of dissolution by
which he dies daily, and to which he shall alto-
gether eventually succumb. Generations of men
rise, flourish, decay, die, and are forgotten with
the regularity of the crops of the earth. Man is
born, lives for a little while, is subject to much
misery, and then dies ; this is the life of every
man. New beings are continually coming upon
the stage of life, as others disappear to make way
for them. Compare the world of to-day with the
world of twenty or thirty years ago. How com-
pletely changed ! New men, new events, new en-
terprises, new ambitions ! The children of men
pass with fearful rapidity from time to eternity.
Others disappear to make way for us. We, too,
shall disappear to make way for those who will
come after us.

22 DEATH.

We are changing continually ; we are dying
continually. We are told that so universal and
complete a change is unceasingly going on with-
in us that but a few years serve for the entire
renovation of our bodies ; that nothing preserves
their identity but the gradual nature of the change
and the permanence of the soul, whose nature is
unchanging.

Of the 1,500,000,000 of human beings that cover
this habitable globe, we are told that not a mo-
ment passes but witnesses the death of some one.
If men are continually coming into life, they are
also continually going out of it. Even now while
I speak some are dying ; some, who in health,
and while death was at a distance from them,
thought as little of it as you do now. The world
is indeed a stage on which we fret our busy
hour, soon to make our exit and then die and be
forgotten.

This life that we call time has been compared
to a bridge connecting two great oceans — that of
the eternity that preceded our birth, with that of
the eternity that begins with death. If we could
in imagination ascend some lofty eminence we
would see the multitudes that are continually
going out of life, falling through the trap-doors
that fill this bridge, some at the very beginning
of their career, some almost before they have
touched the bridge, some in the middle, some
further on ; but all somewhere.

Yes, my brethren, we must die ; nothing is more
certain. ** It is appointed for all men once to die."
This is the solemn lesson I would teach you. You

DEATH. 23

must all one day die. Perhaps you smile at the
novelty of the news and ask me who ever doubted
it, who ever did not know it, is it not to be seen on
every side? Why proclaim with so much solem-
nity that trite saying so generally admitted and
so incontestable that no one has ever called it in
doubt ? Yes, you know it, you have heard it a
thousand times, it is to be seen every day, it is
written on all God's works. But withal you know
it, notwithstanding you are taught by God Him-
self that *' Dust thou art and into dust thou shalt
return," notwithstanding the abundant evidence
with which it is brought home to you daily, per-
haps, by the loss of a father, or mother, or sister,
or brother, or dear friend, in spite of your intimate
persuasion and certain knowledge that you are all
one day to die, how many realize this belief, how
many infuse it into their actions, so as to make it
the governing principle of their lives ? Our faith
is only a speculative one ; we live as if we were
never to die ; because we are not sure of the mo-
ment, we act as if it were not to come at all. The
uncertainty lulls us to sleep. We are standing on
the verge of a frightful precipice, all unconscious
of our danger ; we only feel it when we miss our
foothold and are dashed into the terrific abyss that
lies yawning beneath.

We believe in God. How few act as if they
believed in Him ! We acknowledge Christ, His
Church, His Sacraments. How little of this belief
is infused into our lives ! Yes, my brethren, again
and again I say, we must die ; and no more sol-
emn lesson can be taught by the minister of Christ

24 DEATH.

than that, " It is appointed for all men once to die
and after death be judged."

And what is it to die ? Have you ever reflected
on the agony that must accompany death ? Re-
member death is the separation of soul and body.
Who can measure the keenness of the pain this in-
volves ? How great must be the pain of the
separation of soul and body bound together by a
union so close and incomprehensible that not even
the greatest philosophers have been able to under-
stand it ! Remember the soul is made for the in-
dividual body — " a body thou hast fitted to me,"
so that the soul of one man will not suit any body
but its own. Imagine, then, the agony inseparable
from such a sundering ! It is true that this agony
is not always manifested ; that, however, is because
the dying man has not strength enough to show
it ; the agony is yet felt ; the body, worn by some
long sickness, has not the energy to exhibit the
throes of its separation from the soul. But see
death approach the strong, well-built frame of a
man struck down in his vigor, and behold the
fearful agony of his dissolution ! Even the saints
trembled at the thought of the natural sundering
of soul and body.

There is not one of us, even the bravest, who
does not tremble at the thought of the pain of
death. There may be those who can exclaim at
the hour of death — the vision of God overcoming
the intensity of the pain of dissolution — *' O Grave,
where is thy victory ? O Death, where is thy
sting?" But it is only the just who have died be-
fore death comes upon them ; died to the world,

DEATH. . 25

died to the desires of the flesh ; separated soul and
body by continual mortification of the latter. It is
only the just man who looks upon the body as a
prison, who feels that his death will be the ter-
mination of his trials and temptations — the begin-
ning of his reward and glory ; it is only he who
can exult at the approach of death ; it is not the
wicked, who at the hour of death, in addition to
his bodily pain, is tortured at having to abandon
those pleasures and vanities for which alone he
has lived and in which he has placed his happiness,
and with the awful thought that he is now about
to receive his reward ; that no sooner will that
soul be separated from the body than it will be
cast down into eternal misery and woe !

But the spirit has this moment fled, the lifeless
corpse lies there before us. See what the body is
without the soul ! Approach and lay your hand
upon that brow, cold in death. Feel the shudder
that runs through you as your hand is met with
the cold and clammy touch of death. See that
head which but a short time since was filled with
great enterprises of business, with maturing vast
worldly speculations, or with plots and plans to
circumvent his fellow-man in the affairs of life !
Of what avail now is all that energy and duplic-
ity shown in the world's affairs ? See those eyes,
closed with a darkness which will never be dis-
pelled till the light of the judgment-day; then to
open, perhaps only to behold the eternal loss of
body as well as soul. See the tongue, but a little
while ago so eloquent in defamation, so ingenious
in calumny, and which was the cause of so much

26 DEATH.

uncharitableness and sin ! See the ears, which
so recently drank in the sound of revelry and dis-
sipation, deaf to the wailing and lamentations of
sorrowing friends, standing around his corpse be-
moaning their loss, commending his good quali-
ties, and throwing the mantle of charity and for-
getfulness over, his evil ones! See that manly
form, that vigorous frame, stiff and stark and cold
in death — utterly helpless and beyond the reach
of all human skill and assistance! Remember
that it is but in the condition to which everyone
of us shall one day come.

But the body must be clothed in the habili-
ments of the grave ; shroud and coffin, costly as
may be, must be had, to show proper respect to
the departed ; but more frequently to pander to a
miserable vanity, which is not lost sight of even
in the presence of death. The prayers of the
Church are asked for the departed by those who
never moved a step for the conversion of the
dead man during his life, when mercy was ob-
tainable. A few days pass, the funeral takes
place, crowds of friends gather to partake in his
obsequies, the body is placed in a vault or grave,
the last look is taken, all return home, and resume
their parts once more in the play of life.

Return to that vault in a few days ; raise the
lid from the coffin and behold the hideous specta-
cle that greets your eyes ; endure, if you can, the
horrid stench that issues forth from the remains
of your friend ! Approach and behold ! Listen to
the questions that rise spontaneously to the mind
while contemplating that sight so suited to show

DEATH. 27

forth in the most vivid manner the nothingness of
man, the emptiness of life, the vanity of all things
human ! The eyes, so lately ftUed with lust, and
which so often conveyed poison to the soul and
to the souls of others, where are they? See
the sockets filled with worms. The nose, where
is it? The most delicate organ of the body has
been the first to succumb to the terrors of the
grave. The ears, what sound hear they now, or,
could they hear, what would it be but the sound
of i^rnawing rats? The mouth, see the hideous
ancrmocking grin that it assumes ! Where is the
beauty of feature and grace of form of which you
are so proud and which you seek so sinfully to
decorate to the loss of untold souls? Where is
it now? Lost in corruption. See how the mus-
cles and bonds that hold the body together are re-
laxing, limb separating from limb, head dropping
from the body, joint from joint, the whole frame
in the process of disintegration and corruption !
Where are those talents, that comprehensive
mind that raised its owner among his fellows, giv-
ing him an influence and respect that he ought to
ha^'ve employed for the glory of God, but which
he centred upon himself? Where are now those
graces and accomplishments that made their pos-
sessor the ornament of society, the life of conver-
sation, and the pride of his friends? Where is
now the reputation he enjoyed, where is now that
immense property, those blocks of houses that he
acquired, the immense fortune he saved during
those fifty years he lived ? Have they followed
him to the grave ? Alas ! all that he has is what

28 DEATH.

covers his carcass — a coffin, a shroud, and a
pocketless one too. This is all that he has been
able to take with him from the untold Avealth
which he spent his life to accumulate.

Yes, my brethren, it is standing beside the fast
corrupting remains of our departed friend that
we can best understand how supremely con-
temptible man is ! It is by looking down into
the grave and pondering what we shall be, that
we can best understand what we are ; by feeling
our misery and wretchedness, we best learn our
real value. At the same time it is there, too, that
we can best understand how supremely noble,
how God-like in the destiny that awaits him, is
man ; for we know that from that mass of cor-
ruption, all hideous as it is, shall one day arise in-
corruption. From those ashes shall the just man
one day come forth, all glorious and immortal, to
enjoy God forever more.

Death, too, is a separation from the world.
When we look out upon the world and behold
the marvellous energy that men exhibit in its pur-
suit, we are almost tempted to believe that they
believe not in a future life ; else why not show a
fraction of the solicitude to attain that life which
they show to obtain the goods of this.

But death reverses all this and shows us the
truth of things. Ask the ambitious man at the
point of death what now he thinks of all the hon-
ors which he enjoyed and aspired to, when he
is about to enter that bourne where prince and
subject, millionaire and beggar, pontiff and priest
shall be reduced to the same common earth? Ask

DEATH. 29

the proud man what now it avails him to have
thought so well of himself, or to have been es-
teemed by others, when he is going- before a
judge who sees the secrets of hearts and judges
all things justly ? Ask the rich man what now
he thinks of his riches, when he has to abandon
all and be content with that which is not denied
to the meanest beggar — six feet by two of mother
earth ? x^sk the voluptuary what now he thinks
of his past excesses and disorders, when he sees
hell yawning to swallow him the moment the
soul leaves his body? Ask, in general, the sinner
at the last hour what he thinks, when he sees
nothing in the past but the sins and the pleasures
which he must now abandon, sees nothing in the
present, but the agony of having to leave all that
his heart craves, and in the future nothing but
everlasting misery and despair ! But ask the just
man at the hour of death and he will tell you
that he has little terror of death ; for he long
since died in the world ; that he has accustomed
himself to the thought of death ; that he has long
since prepared for it ; that it is but the fulfilment
of his hopes, the end of his trials, the beginning
of his glory. Death then enlightens us as to the
world and its delusions.

The time of death is uncertain. We know not
the day nor the hour. This is what makes us
thoughtless of death. The uncertainty lulls us to
sleep. Because we know not when we shall die,
we live as if we were never to die. As we advance
in years, death seems as distant as in youth. While
we all speculatively admit that we must die, we

30 DEATH.

would seem, practically, to believe that we were
never to die. It may come at any moment. Ten
thousand causes are at work, within us and around
us, that may in an instant bring on death. We
are organized with a skill and delicacy which beg-
gars the proudest efforts of human ingenuity.
The slightest cause may derange, or destroy, this
divine workmanship.

A blow on the head, touching the brain, is
enough to send angelic reason into howling mad-
ness. A slight affection of the heart, stopping
the pulsations of that faithful organ — and death
at once ensues. A few days' pneumonia will
bring the man of stalwart frame and giant
strength to the bed of death. I forbear to speak
of the uncounted accidents on water and land
that in every conceivable and always unlooked-
for way are continually befalling untold multi-
tudes.

Death is abroad everywhere. We know not
when we shall fall before it. Our only safety is
to be prepared to meet it. Thus armed, we have
no reason to fear. It cannot harm us. It can
destroy only the life of the body ; the soul it can-
not reach ; and even over the body its dominion
is but temporary.

We know not where or when or how we shall
die. We know that we shall remain forever in
the state in which death will find us. Everyone
expects to die the death of the righteous, even
though he lives the life of the reprobate. He
continually looks forward to a season of pardon
and repentance, which he keeps before his mind.

DEATH. 3 1

but which recedes as age advances, until at
length he is struck down by death, when repent-
ance is no longer possible, and justice begins its
sway. The son follows in the footsteps of the
father, looking forward to a repentance that
never comes until he joins his father in misery.
And so generation succeeds generation, age suc-
ceeds age, God's love and" mercy are trampled
on, thousands are daily plunging into everlasting
misery, cursing, when too late, the recklessness
and folly that made them delay their conversion.

We all would wish to know the kind of death
we shall die ; we know that it is to be followed
by our eternal happiness or eternal misery. The
fear of something after death, this it is that makes
us tremble at the thought of death. Yet how few
ever try to think of the kind of death they shall
die? Would you know it? The question is of
easy solution. Would you know how you shall
die ? The Scripture answers you, " As you live."

" As you live, so shall you die." Do you live a
life of godliness ? Your death shall correspond
thereto. Do you live the life of the wicked ?
Such shall be your death.

There may be, there are exceptions ; but you
have no right to count yourself among them.
The conversion of a soul from sin is as great a
miracle as the raising to life of one dead. You
who pass your life in contemning God's law and
abusing His grace, have no right to expect this
priceless mercy at the hour of death. " As you
live, so shall you die ; " that is the character of
your death. You may say, that this being true,

32 DEATH.

few shall be saved. I am not going to argue this
question. Rash indeed would the man be, who
would base his hope of salvation on the fact of his
belonging to the majorit}^ who, he thinks, must
be saved because they are the majority. We are
told that *' Narrow is the way that leads to life,
and few there are who find it ; " that " Many are
called, but few chosen ; " that of six hundred
thousand Hebrews, but two entered the Prom-
ised Land ; that of the human family all per-
ished in the deluge save Noah and his family.
Reflect on all this and see if you see much to en-
courage you in the delusion of the most of men
being saved ! Let us not try to improve on the
doctrine of Jesus Christ.

" As you live, so shall you die." The proper
preparation, then, for a good death is a good life.
How few believe this in their actions ! How
thick the darkness that obscures the mind ! How
strange the perversity of the heart of man ! But
no words of mine can do aught ; it needs the
light and grace of the Holy Ghost.

Deign then, O God, to illumine us with this
light, to pour down upon us this grace. Grant
us to think of death now, as we shall when Thou
wilt be pleased to send it ; grant us to know and
perfectly to understand that we only live to learn
to die, that we only live well, when we so live
that we are always ready to die. Grant us to
look upon earth and all things here below as we
shall when, for the last time, we close our eyes
upon them, to open them to those of eternity.

THE NEW YORK

PUBLIC LIBRARY

ASTOR, LENOX A*10

^^v..

THE PARTICULAR JUDGMENT.

But why JLidgest thou thy brother ; or thou, why dost thou
despise thy brother ? For we shall all stand before the judgment
seat of Christ.

For it is written : As I live, saith the Lord, every knee shall
bow to me, a?id every tongue shall confess to God.

Therefore every one of us shall render account to God for
himself.

Let us not therefore judge one another any more. But judge
this rather that you put not a stumbling-block or a scandal in
your brother's way. — St. Paul's Epistle to the Romans, xiv. lo-
13-

For Jesus is not entered into the holy places made with hands,
the patterns of the true ; but into heaven itself, that he may ap-
pear now in the presence of God for us.

Nor yet that he should offer himself often, as the high-priest
entereth into the Holies, every year with the blood of others :

For then he ought to have suffered often from the beginning
of the world : but now once at the end of ages, he hath appeared
for the destruction of sin, by the sacrifice of himself.

And as it is appointed unto men once to die, and after this the
judgment.

So also Christ was offered once to exhaust the sins of many ;
the second time he shall appear without sin to them that expect
Him unto salvation. — St. Paul's Epistle to the Hebrews, ix. 24-
28.

From Scripture and from our own experience
we know that man's life upon earth is a warfare.
The life of every one of us, from the cradle to the
3

34 THE PARTICULAR JUDGMENT.

grave, is but the record of a conflict, severe and
unceasing, of our virtuous with our sinful inclina-
tions ; of the struggle of the flesh on one hand,
alluring us to sin, and the law of the mind on the
other, forbidding it. The world is but a great
battle-field, where all men are enrolled under
either of two banners: that of Jesus Christ or
that of the prince of darkness. And it must be
owned that the greater part of men, avowedly or
not, are fighting under the standard of the evil
one. And, what is worse, it must be acknowl-
edged, that, if the final issue of this terrible, deadly
encounter going on between God and the devil
is to be sought within the limits of this life, vice
is victorious, the devil gets the better of it, and is
to be proclaimed the victor.

But fortunately this battle ends not here below ;
its final triumph is not to be had within the nar-
row limits of this life. This life is but the scene
of the conflict, the bloody arena where the heat
and burden of the fight are to be sustained, where
limb is to be maimed, and life lost, and blood
shed, if it be needful, for the cause in which we
are engaged ; but it is in the great hereafter that
we are to seek the laurel wreaths of victory.

Human life begins here, but ends not here.
Have you ever thought what a great thing hu-
man life is? How infinite in its nature! How
immortal in its duration ! It seems a little thing
for a man to be born into the world, and yet,
every soul born into the world adds to God's cre-
ations something that shall never die. It begins in
time, but shall pass through time to eternit}^ and

THE PARTICULAR JUDGMENT. 35

partake of the immortality of God Himself. The
human soul once created is deathless forever-
more ; it shall inherit undying torture or unend-
ing bliss. Its history is divided into two great
periods — one ending with death and the other
beginning thereat. It is placed here in this life
to prove its worthiness for an eternal one here-
after. At the hour of death a judgment shall be
pronounced by its great Captain, on the wav it
shall have fought His fight, on the bravery and
success wuth which it shall have defended His
cause. " It is appointed for all men once to die,
and after death be judged." If found worthy, we
shall receive the reward due to the brave ; if we
shall have proved ourselves cowards and traitors,
we cannot but expect their punishment.

It is my purpose to speak to you to-day of the
particular judgment; as the general will be but
the reaffirming of the first without change, except
that the body will be consigned to the soul's pun-
ishment or made to share the soul's glory, the
first is for all of us the more important as irrev-
ocabl}' decisive of our eternal condition.

As there is no alarm or apprehension concern-
ing the death of the just; as he who judges him-
self God will not judge; as his whole life is a
continued preparation for judgment spent in the
mortification of the passions, in dying to the
world to live to God, in the practice of every vir-
tue, there can be no doubt that a holy confidence
will fill his soul when he comes to judgment, as
the judgment of the just will be but his entrance
into the kingdom prepared for him — we shall

36 THE PARTICULAR JUDGMENT.

confine our remarks to the consideration of the
sinner brought before the tribunal of Christ the
moment after death. Nor shall we take our sin-
ner from among pagans and those who have not
so much as heard of Christ, nor from heretics,
who, perhaps, more from misfortune than fault,
have not known the whole truth ; but we shall
take him from our everyday Catholics, born in
the faith, reared in it, who have sometimes even
received its sacraments, and, perhaps, regularly
attended at the divine sacrifice ; from those whom
the world believes good, and who are even so re-
garded by their fellow-religionists.

But let us say a word about the life of this man.
He is a man, who, although born in the true faith,
lives not up to it. He is content with a dead,
speculative faith. He lives for the world, not for
the end for which he has been made. He is intent
on accumulating a fortune, not on the sanctifica-
tion of his soul. His life is one of pleasure and
gratification, not of penance and self-denial. He
is solicitous for the praise of men, not for the ap-
proval of his conscience. He makes little or no
scruple of violating God's law, if it will serve his
purpose. He seldom thinks of God or raises his
thoughts heaven-ward. From his mode of life
you would think he was to stay on earth forever.
He regards it not as a battle-field, he feels not the
conflict going on between man and the devil, be-
cause he makes no resistance to temptation ; the
attacks of the devil are not attacks to him, but
embraces which he covets. He has already vir-
tually abandoned the cross and made himself over

THE PARTICULAR JUDGMENT. 37

to its enemy. He lives on in mortal sin without
purpose of change ; he seldom or never approaches
the sacraments. Perhaps he goes to mass ; if he
does it is the sum of his piety. He does it be-
cause it is respectable, and because his wife goes,
and he would otherwise lose caste with the world
(which regards a little religion as respectable).
He hears the priest utter the truths of religion,
but they affect him not ; he serves them out to his
neighbor as inapplicable to himself. He stifles
the voice of conscience calling him to repentance.
He chokes the inspirations of God, or, most fatal
of all delusions, he eases his conscience by prom-
ising himself that he will repent before he dies ;
that he must take his salvation into serious ac-
count at no distant day ; but that nozv he has too
much to do, that, of course, he could not think of
being damned, and looks forward to a season of
repentance, that, alas, never comes I

At length he is prostrated on what shall prove
his death-bed. At first it is but a cold accom-
panied with a cough, a slight affection of the
nerves or heart, or some other trifling ailment.
By and by he grows weaker and weaker, blood
comes from the lungs, his heart is still more pain-
fully agitated ; vet his friends and doctors assure
him it is nothing, it will pass away in a few weeks,
and he will be himself again. -Ask him to have
the priest. " The priest ! " he will exclaim. " Why,
no, there is no need! I am not going to die!"
And of course, he does not want him until then.
Time passes on, the disease ripens, weaker and
weaker he becomes ; he is dissatisfied with the

38 THE PARTICULAR JUDGMENT.

doctors, others are consulted but with no better
success. He begins to think that his aihiient is
really clinging to him a long time ! Strange
thoughts flash across his mind. Sometimes a
light, as from the other world, illumines it, and he
begins to look upon the world differently from
ever before. It is but delirium, he thinks, the
fever mounting to the brain. He checks the
course of his thoughts, brings back his wandering
imagination. He knows not what it is that brings
such strange thoughts into his mind ; he is sorely
perplexed ; he begins to feel that something is
about to happen. Like Balthasser he knows the
hand-writing on the wall portends some strange
calamity, but knows not what it is. Or, if it
should occur to him that the hand of death is
upon him, and that it is the light of eternity break-
ing upon his soul that perplexes him, his friends
are careful to remove so annoying a thought, by
telling him of his greatly improved condition, and
of the bright hopes the doctors have that he will
soon be out of danger. Finally a few days pass
away. Death shows itself by signs not to be
mistaken ; the death-rattle is heard in his throat,
his breathing grows fainter and fainter, light van-
ishes from his e3'es, his friends scarcely realize
that he is dying ; hastily the priest is sent for, and
a mock repentance is gone through with — a mock
one, I say, for how can the sinner then be recon-
ciled to God by a true repentance when he is
scarcely conscious, or, if conscious, convulsed as
he is with the agon}- of death, he can think of
nothing but his tortures.

THE PARTICULAR JUDGMENT. 39

He dies. The soul, separated from the body,
hastens that moment before the tribunal of Christ.
Although the sinner is judged the instant the
soul leaves the body, yet we may imagine the soul
to tarry for a little while, exhausted after the
death agony, before being ushered into the pres-
ence of his judge, and to cast a glance back at
where it has just left and forward to where it is
just going.

The soul will at first glance at the body in which
it has been s(^ recently encased. There it is sur-
rounded bv bereaved and mourning relatives, who
do their utmost to honor the lifeless clay. They
speak the praise of the departed, the evil is not
mentioned. He was a good father; he has left an
ample provision for his wife and children (the less
said about how it was gotten the better). All care
must be given to his obsequies; a few masses are
requested for him, and in a few days the body is
consigned t(^ the grave. The soul looks back on
the fortune which he spent his life in accumulat-
ing, often with so little scruple as to the means,
and with so evident a disregard of honesty and
of the rights of his fellow-men. Of what avail is
it to him now, trcml)ling at the prospect of the
examination he is about to undergo? The pleas-
ures which he enjoyed in the body, with what
remorse does he regard them as being the sins
which give him the greatest anguish and torture,
because he knows they will be the surest to call
forth God's unsparing justice.'* His reputation or
fame among men — of how little worth is it now
that he is about to appear before Him who reads

40 THE PARTICULAR JUDGMENT.

the heart, and who will see how little he deserved
the good name he may have had on earth, who
will see that all was filth and abomination where
men thought all was pure and righteous? His
companions, faithful to him at all times, ready to
assist him in every emergency, where are they
now? Can they assist him in the greatest of all
his trials? now, when his eternal destiny is trem-
bling in the balance ? They are in the world pur-
suing, as he once pursued, their worldly objects,
thinking little of the sad condition of their some-
time friend and companion.

Will all these worldly conditions inspire -him
with confidence in that hour, or give him grounds
to hope for mercy from the Lord who is about to
judge him ? Will they not rather confound him
and drive him into despair, or consume him with
withering fear, seeing that they have been the
means of his damnation ?

He looks forward. Before whom is he about to
appear ? Before an all-righteous God, who searches
all hearts and knows all their secrets ; before a
God of infinite justice who has declared that we
shall render an account of every idle word. But,
you will add, before a God of boundless mercy
too. No, I answer, no longer a God of infinite
mercy. It is finished with mercy, the reign of
justice has begun. Mercy was very suitable and
much needed on earth, where the passions were
strong, where the fascinations of the world were
many, where the contest was hot, and there, it was
to be had in abundance. Mercy extends over the
whole period of human life : it ends at death, and

THE PARTICULAR JUDCiMENT. 41

then justice, severe and inexorable, begins its
sway. It is no longer before Jesus, the mediator,
but before Jesus, the judge and avenger, that
the sinner seeks pardon. It is not before Jesus
stretched upon the cross, with arms outstretched
to embrace all men, with the streams of blood that
wash away the sins of the world falling from His
sacred wounds, that the sinner is to appear, but
before Jesus sent into the world to execute jus-
tice, to wreak vengeance, to reject them who
have rejected Him.

We may imagine how the conscience of the
sinner will smite him in that hour! Those of vou
who know what remorse is, how it eats the soul,
how it is intense in proportion to the good we
have lost or the evil done, and to the difficultv or
impossibility of remedy, may imagine how the sin-
ner will be torn with its stings, seeing that he has
lost his soul when he might have so easily saved
it ; how he has, for a pleasure that has ended, lost
a happiness which will be eternal, and how his mis-
fortune is utterly beyond remedy or hope of re-
covery. His misery will be heightened when he
calls to mind how easily he might have avoided
the dreadful state to which he has brought him-
self. Had he employed a thousandth part of the
care for the salvation of his soul, had he em-
ployed a fraction of the energy in the service of
God, which he employed in the service of the
devil — in business enterprise, in accumulating
money, in gratifying passion — he would not now
be about to approach God, shivering and wasted
with fear, knowing of his sure damnation ; but

42 THE PARTICULAR JUDGMENT.

filled with a holy confidence, because in the days
of the flesh he performed the deeds of righteous-
ness, he would now be about to receive his re-
ward ; because he had fought well and vaHantly
under his Master's standard in the day of conflict,
he would now be about to receive the crown of
victory which the Lord, the just Judge, will render
in the day of retribution to his faithful followers.

He will consider what is at stake in the trial
which he shall in a moment undergo. Eternal bliss
or eternal woe hangs trembling in the balance of
that scale which the Divine Judge will hold in His
hands. The estate of his soul through never-
ending ages — the loss of God, his Creator and
Redeemer, his supreme felicity, and who should
have been the final end of his heaven-destined soul.
Condemnation to the pain and misery of hell, in-
finitely intense in its nature and everlasting in its
duration, without hope of cessation or alleviation,
unrespited, unrepricved, ages of hopeless end ! A
sorry exchange, he will think, to have bartered
heaven for hell, God for the devil, eternity's hap-
piness, pure and unalloyed, for time's sinful pleas-
ures so ujisatisfactory in themselves, so miserable
and lamentably irreparable in their effects.

At length the soul puts an end to these woful
and useless regrets, and is ushered into the pres-
ence of its Judge. He sees Him not as He is.
The sinner is not permitted to look upon the glory
of God. God is covered with indignation, in
which the sinner reads his doom. His presence
speaks terror to the soul and fills him with dis-
ma3\

THE PARTICULAR JUDGMENT. 43

We may suppose that his guardian angel will
not desert him in that hour ; but, as the faithful
lawyer, who stands to his client, even to the last
when there is no hope, except against hope,
as he stands by to sustain him with his sym-
pathy, when there is nothing else, when the sen-
tence is to be pronounced against him — so the
Angel Guardian will, with downcast look, betok-
ening his despair, take his place by the side of the
sinner. But he has no good inspirations for him
now, no words of cheer. His gloom adds but
another misery to the sinner, who sees that he who
knows him best after God has no hope for his
acquittal. Nor will his old friend, his former
chieftain, under whose banner he fought so val-
iantly in the days of the flesh, to whose cause he
brought so man}^ raw recruits, be absent. No ; the
devil will be there to claim as his own the soul of
his old soldier, scarred and blackened with wounds
received in his service. Although the sinner may
have never seen him visibly before, yet he will at
once recognize him. The recognition will be mu-
tual, although despairing to the sinner.

The trial begins. On what will the examination
turn? What will be its subject-matter? Every
thought, word, work, and omission ; the whole his-
tory of his life from the first moments of reason
to its last hour; sins of commission, sins of omis-
sion, benefits, spiritual and temporal, graces vouch-
safed, inspirations neglected, talents given for
God's honor turned to his dishonor, riches given
for the poor perverted to wrong purposes, all gifts,
natural and supernatural ; his heart and mind will

44 THE PARTICULAR JUDGMENT.

be turned inside out ; nothing shall escape the all-
seeing eye of God. '' He shall render an account
of every idle word."

A formidable inquiry and one that will take a
long time, you may think. No, not for God who
sees all things at a glance and to whom are open
our most secret thoughts and actions.

This history of the sinner's life shall be in an
instant immensely narrowed down ; a great blank
will suddenly cover and hide from view every-
thing in his life that has not a bearing upon the
question at issue ; everything shall be expunged
from that record, which concerns not the sinner's
conduct as a soldier of Christ fighting against the
devil for the salvation of his soul. The epochs of
his life shall be his victories over hell — his baptism,
communions, confirmation, confessions, tempta-
tions overcome, acts of self-denial, in a word, every
duty which rested upon him as an armed soldier
of the Lord Jesus. There will be no account of
his business enterprises, of the fortunes he made,
of the stations he filled, of the reputation he en-
joyed, and of all those other vain pursuits in which
men engage, and in which they seek to find their
happiness. This will be contracting the sinner's
life within very narrow limits, you may think.
Yes, my brethren. The sinner will be examined
only as to the manner in which he has fulfilled
those orders which, as a soldier, his Divine Cap-
tain has given him to fulfil. What are these com-
mands? ''Thou shalt love the Lord, thy God,
Avith thy whole heart, soul, mind, and strength."
'' Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself." These

THE PARTICULAR JUDGMENT. 45

two commands include all our duties and obliga-
tions. The ten commandments are but a develop-
ment of them. They include whatever is obliga-
tory in the beatitudes and counsels which Christ
has given us.

The questioning begins. " Hast thou loved the
Lord thy God with thy whole heart, soul, and
mind?" the sinner is asked. The devil smiles
with a sarcastic jeer when he hears such a ques-
tion put to his old follower. The sinner is con-
vulsed with terror, and would fain wither away at
the terrible earnestness of outraged justice with
which the question is put. What will he answer?
Let us answer for him. He love God ! who never
thought of God ; who lived as if there was no
God^ who laughed at the thought of God's ret-
ributions; who ridiculed the fears of those who
spoke of God. He may not have called in ques-
tion the existence of God ; he may not have been
an atheist professedly ; but he has been such
practically. He lived as if he had no account to
render, as if there was no hereafter, as if to enjoy
himself and gratify his passions Avas the sole end
of his being; he regarded not- the world as a
place of trial, but as his fixed and permanent
abode. He may not have fallen into the worship
of idols, but has he not made an idol of himself
and his passions? What has he ever done but
gratify himself— to seek riches, pleasures, honors,
and whatever else might minister to his self-love ?
Has he not made himself the centre of all his
thoughts, the object of all his solicitude, the final
end of ail his labors? He love God! whose holy

46 THE PARTICULAR JUDGMENT.

name was continually on his lips, the emphasis of
his language, the spice of his conversation ; that
name at which the angels bow their heads and
hide their faces, w^hich the Jews would not men-
tion for reverence. He love God ! who did not
hesitate to perjure himself, to give false testimon}^
when his interest seemed to I'equire it, or wdien
he could thereby accomplish some wicked pur-
pose or secure some passing gain. He love God !
who seldom or never, by frequent, devout, fervent
prayer, acknowledged God's supreme dominion
over him and all creatures, rendering Him thanks
for His benefits, praising His holy name, asking
for a deliverance from all evil ; who failed to at-
tend at the great meed of public worship on Sun-
days which God's Church accounts God's due.
Or who, if he did attend, did so from human re-
spect to accompany his wife, and who, while phy-
sically before the altar, in mind was engaged in
worldly thoughts and sinful desires. Or perhaps
he was of the multitude of those who make at-
tendance at mass the sum of their religious duties,
who never receive the sacraments, who spurn or
neglect those great channels through which the
blood of Christ is to be applied to the souls of
men. He love God ! indeed, who failed to have
frequent recourse to the heavenly means of re-
ceiving pardon for sin and strength for amend-
ment. He love God ! What is it to love God ?
To prefer Him to all things, not with a speculative
preference, but with an habitual resolution to lose
all things, the world and all in it— to la}^ down life
itself rather than once offend Him b}' mortal sin.

THE PARTICULAR JUDGMENT. 47

He love God ! who was habitually in mortal sin,
who sinned, in a manner, as often as he breathed,
who sinned when he could obtain the least tempo-
ral advantage thereby.

But perhaps he will be able to give a better ac-
count when he is examined on the second count.
'' Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself."
Hast thou assisted thy neighbor in his spiritual
needs ? Hast thou given him the edification and
encouragement in the pursuit of virtue which
every Christian should give another? It is not
likely that the sinner, who has been so care-
less of his own salvation, has been at all anxious
for that of his neighbor. Hast thou assisted
him in his temporal needs? What use didst thou
make of the superabundant means which I gave
thee? Didst thou live sumptuously every day,
while the poor were content with the crumbs that
fell from thy table ? Wast thou clothed in soft
raiment, while vou saw the poor in rags hanging
at thy gate? Did'st thou see me hungry and not
feed me, naked and not clothe me, in prison and
not visit me ? When did we see Thee hungry or
naked or a prisoner? But didst thou do it to the
poor who represented me ? Didst thou cause my
providence to be blasphemed by the impatient
poor, who, seeing the unequal distribution of tem-
poral goods — so much given to the wicked who
deserve so little, and so little to the poor who de-
serve more — not infrequently cursed such a dispen-
sation of my wisdom ? Didst thou think that it
was ever my intention that the rich should revel
in affluence, while the poor should perish from in-

48 THE PARTICULAR JUDGMENT.

digence ? Was I not their father as well as thine ?
Didst thou not know that I made thee the posses-
sor of wealth only that thou shouldst give it to
the poor; that you were its recipients only to be
its almoners? Perhaps the sinner may be able to
say that he has not been entirely wanting in this
respect — he may have given an alms now and then.
But what was thy motive? Human praise to
sound a trumpet before thee? Amen, thou hast
received thy reward ; for your natural virtue, if
such you had, you have received recompense in
the temporal prosperity I sent you. Thou hast
not murdered. But hast thou not wished the
death of thy neighbor ? Didst thou not wish
great evil to befall him? Not only he commits
murder who does it in act, but he that harbors
the thought or cherishes the purpose. But hast
thou not murdered his soul by scandal? by teach-
ing him the sins of which he was ignorant? by
counsel, command, or provocation? How many
shall in that hour arise and demand their souls
on your head. Didst thou not commit that most
dreadful of crimes — sundering the bonds of the
holiest of unions — the union of two hearts knit
together by the closest ties and cemented by the
blessing of Christ's Sacrament? Didst thou not
ruin the good name, blast the hopes, and damn
the souls of the young, the thoughtless, the con-
fiding, the unsuspecting ? A fearful account will
many have to give on this score. Didst thou not
calumniate and detract thy neighbor, injuring him
in profit and in the esteem of his friends?

Found guilty on so man}' counts, on w^hat will

THE PARTICULAR JUDGMENT. 49

the sinner rely ? Has he nothing to offer in ex-
tenuation, nothing with which to appease the
anger of God ? May he not say that he had the
faith, that he was born a Catholic ! But this, far
from improving his case, will only serve to make
his sentence the surer — his damnation the deeper;
for, having known better, he has not acted up to
his knowledge. He has sinned against light.
Less culpable- is he who sins through ignorance
than. he who sins through malice. No; his being
born in the faith will not avail him. Little thanks
to him that he had the faith ; he received it as a
family inheritance ; he was baptized, we may say,
in spite of himself ; for as soon as he could, he
tried to render nugatory the promises made for
him at the holy fount. If he had not been born
in the faith, he would have been as careless for its
acquirement as, born in it, he has been faithless
to it. All precious is faith. Without it, it is im-
possible to please God. It is the beginning, the
source of justification. Yet we must remember,
that by it alone it is impossible to please God ;
that it is but the beginning, but the source of jus-
tification. The faith that God requires is faith
animated by charity ; a living faith that shows it-
self in the observance of God's law.

Nothing remains but to pronounce sentence.
He has been weighed in the balance and found
wanting. " Depart from me, your Creator and
Redeemer, your first beginning, and your last end,
into everlasting fire prepared for the devil and
his angels ! " What can the sinner do but curse
himself ; curse the day when he was born ; curse
4

50 THE PARTICULAR JUDGMENT.

the folly and blindness which has entailed upon
him such misery and woe. The devil, mocking
him, takes charge of him, glad that he has de-
frauded Christ of another soul bought with the
shedding of his blood. He is received in hell
with the shouts of derision of the damned rejoic-
ing, that, if they must suffer, there is still another
to suffer with them.

Think not, friends, that this picture is over-
drawn, as it might seem to you from the detail
with which we have dwelt upon it. This was
necessary. Many w^ords are required to describe
what the eye, at a glance, takes in, or what may
be but the work of an instant. This trial is con-
tinually going on — it follows every death.

I end as I began by assuring you that this life
is a conflict ; we must fight under either of two
standards — that of Jesus or that of the prince of
this world. Ever since the fall of the angels, the
world is filled with them ; the devil goes about
like a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour.
We contend with principalities and powders ; the
devil is called the prince of this world and the
prince of darkness; he tempted Jesus Himself, he
tempts us all. There are those who have no ex-
perience of this conflict; they are not tempted be-
cause the evil one is already sure of them ; they
know not what temptation is, for they yield at
once and without resistance ; yet if we could but
penetrate into the invisible world, we would find
a sharp line of demarcation drawn between those
enrolled under the standard of Jesus and those
under that of the prince of this world.

THE NEW YORK

'UBLIC LIBRARY,

HEAVEN.

After this I saw a great multitude, which no man could
number, of all nations, and tribes, and peoples, and tongues,
standing before the throne, and in sight of the Lamb, clothed
with white robes, and palms in their hands :

And they cried with a loud voice, saying : Salvation to our
God, who sitteth upon the throne, and to the Lamb.

And all the Angels stood round about the throne, and about
the ancients, and about the four living creatures ; and they fell
before the throne upon their faces, and adored God,

Saying: Amen, Benediction, and glory, and wisdom, and
thanksgiving, honor, and power, and strength to our God for
ever and ever. Amen.

And one of the ancients answered, and said to me : Who
are these that are clothed in white robes ? and whence are they
come ?

And I said to him : My lord, thou knowest. And he said
to me : These are they who are come out of great tribulation,
and have washed their robes, and have made them white in the
blood of the Lamb.

Therefore they are before the throne of God, and serve
him day and night in his temple ; and he that sitteth on the
throne shall dwell over them.

They shall not hunger nor thirst any more, neither shall
the sun fall on them, nor any heat.

For the Lamb, which is in the midst of the throne, shall
rule them, and shall lead them to the fountains of the waters of
life, and God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes. —
Apocalypse vii. 9-17.

We all desire to be happy. We seek perfect
happiness in all that we do. We are not free not

52 HEAVEN.

to seek it. It is an inborn tendency of the soul
implanted there by Almighty God. We may seek
it under various forms, and in places where it is
not to be found, yet seek it we always do. Free in
all other things, man is not free to act against the
in-esistible impulse of his nature, and to resolve
on his misery. Even in the commission of sin he
seeks that which seems to him good or convenient
in some respect. Of course he is mistaken ; but
that only proves the misdirection of his tendency,
not that the tendency does not exist.

Consult your hearts ; ask yourselves what de-
sire is there uppermost? You will answer that
it is the thirst of happiness, that there is nothing
nearer, or dearer, or more natural to you, than the
desire of something to satisfy the longings of your
soul for perfect content ; that for it you live, that
for it you labor, and that for it you are ready to
die. From the cradle to the grave, the life of man
is but the record of labors undertaken, of suffer-
ings endured, and of sacrifices made in the pursuit
of happiness.

The student seeks happiness in the pursuit of
knowledge, the scientist in the investigation of
science, the politician in the intrigues of diplo-
macy, the rich in the accumulation of wealth, the
lustful in the gratification of passion, the world-
ling in the fashions of life, the laboring man in his
daily toil, the debauchee in his nightly revel. No
matter how high or low, how cultured or illiterate,
every one seeks to be happy. He tells you that
he is urged to it by a necessity far above his con-
trol.

HEAVEN. 53

The life of nations, from the first moment of
their existence to the last of their downfall, is but
the record of unceasing efforts to advance in hap-
piness. And those mighty revolutions that are
continually taking place, overthrowing one gov-
ernment and substituting another, are but the fruit
and manifestation of this tendency to its hap-
piness which is inseparable from our nature.
The history of the race itself is made up but of
the conflicts, successes, and reverses, in search of
the happiness for which it has been made, and to
which it feels itself impelled with the whole en-
ergy of its nature.

Yes, we have been made for perfect happiness.
Our hearts crave a felicity which knows no evil,
which includes all good, and which we can never
lose. Who enjoys it ? Who has ever enjoyed it?
Do nations enjoy it ? Why, then, this continual
endeavor to better themselves ? If they have all
they desire, why seek for more? Do individuals
enjoy it ? Answer for yourselves. Is there one of
you so happy, that he seeks nothing more? Ask
the rich man, if he is perfectly happy in the enjoy-
ment of his wealth? He will tell you that his
riches enkindle in him desires and needs which
the poor man knows not of; that, even if he were
happy, the thought of one day having to lose all,
would itself be enough to destroy all true felicity.
Ask the lustful man, if he finds the pleasure, pure
and unalloyed, which his soul seeks, in the grati-
fication of passions which bring on death and
premature decay ? Ask the student, if his mind is
perfectly content with the researches he makes?

54 HEAVEN.

He will tell you that, the more he learns, the
better he understands how little he knows, and
that life is too short to learn all that he would
fain know. Ask the king, the pontiff, the priest,
the statesman, and they will all tell you that,
though they may enjoy as much as anyone can
expect of happiness in this life, yet there is some-
thing which they have not, and which they must
have to be happy. Solomon, after the enjoyment
of all that men hold to be necessary for happiness,
exclaimed, '' Vanity of vanities and all is vanity."
No, my brethren, the goods of this life cannot
satisfy the soul. They are the viands whose ex-
quisite flavor may excite, but cannot quench the
appetite. Our hearts seek a boundless happiness.
Nothing limited can fill them. We pass our lives
seeking to be happy, and it is only at the end
of our da3'S that we realize our mistake, and find
that we have not possessed happiness, because we
sought it not where alone it was to be found.
We are continually picturing it to ourselves, in
the distance, but no sooner does it seem within
our grasp, than it eludes us ; it fades at our ap-
proach ; the nearer we come to it, the further it
recedes from us, withering at our touch, like the
apples of the Dead Sea. We are in the wilderness
of this life, surrounded, as we imagine, with mis-
ery ; and, discontented with our situation, we look
ahead, and think we see happiness far in the fut-
ure. We push on, straining every nerve, to find
nothing but chagrin, disappointment, and mis-
ery, where we had promised ourselves a millen-
nium. We look upon the past, and think we see

HEAVEN. 55

happiness where before we had experienced but
want and misery.

This is the life of man. Born for happiness, he
never enjoys it, and dies, convinced that all is
vanity and vexation of spirit. Why is this? Has
not God implanted this desire in the heart of
man? This desire is not like so many others that
find their place within us, — lust, avarice, pride,
and envy ; but it is the principal and supreme ten-
dency of man's rational nature. God could not
have put it there, if it were never to be satisfied.
He could not place before man the prospect of per-
fect happiness and urge him to it with an impulse
which he cannot resist, if that desire were never
to be realized. Why then are we not happy? It
is, my friends, because we seek not happiness
where alone it is to be found. If we would be
happy, we must seek it in the heavenly Jerusa-
lem— that happiness purchased for us by the blood
of Jesus Christ. We seek an infinite and eternal
happiness. God alone is infinite, God alone is
eternal ; in God alone, then, can our souls find
rest. " Thou alone, O God, hast made our hearts.
Thou alone canst fill them."

In vain will we seek to satisfy the spiritual crav-
ings of our souls, with the material pleasures of life ;
but this is our mistake. We think to fulfil the
desires of our soul^, all spiritual, with pleasures
all material. We are so gross and carnal, we are
so immersed in the things of sense, that in them
alone we seek our happiness. It is the soul alone
that seeks happiness ; all our other desires are
-but the outlets of this supreme tendency of our

56 HEAVEN.

nature. As it is the soul alone that desires happi-
ness, it is the soul alone that is capable of enjoying
it, that is susceptible of the sensations of pleas-
ures. Even gross pleasures must be experienced
by the soul in order to give delight; they must be
carried on through the senses and body to the
seat of sensation and intelligence. As the soul
must be the recipient of pleasure, it is the soul
alone that seeks it. Our souls are spiritual.
They cannot then be satisfied with material pleas-
ures. Our souls know and desire and can onl}^
be satisfied with a pleasure suitable to their nat-
ure— spiritual, infinite, immortal. No gross ma-
terial pleasure is of this kind. God alone can
satisfy the cravings, and fill the boundless capac-
ities of our souls. To be happy, then, it is the
soul that we must satisfy. And God alone is cap-
able of doing this, because it is for Him alone we
have been made. In vain will we satisfy the in-
born cravings of our soul with the perishable
things of time — glory, honor, power, pleasure,
magnificence — empty names. We must raise our
hearts heavenward, and contemplate the celestial
Jerusalem, that city of God, of which such glori-
ous thinijs are said. It is there that we can ob-
tain the boundless happiness which we seek, and
which earth does not contain ; that uncreated
happiness which contains all good, excludes all
defect, and lasts forever. It is in beholding the
ravishing beauty of God that our hearts shall be
made happy. It is in beholding the illimitable
perfections, the unfathomable abysses of divine
loveliness, the dazzling splendors of the God-head,

HEAVEN. 57

that we shall realize the happiness that we seek in
vain here below. In that glorious sight, man shall
be transported out of himself, and in the ecstasy
of delight with which it shall hll his soul, he will
forget his proper nature and become as God.
**Ye shall be as God." As a cloud, transfused
with the rays of the sun, becomes all luminous,
so man's soul in the splendor of God shall be
all glorious and like unto God Himself.

The angels and saints possess this glory now,
and find in it bliss ineffable and joy supreme.
They are so ravished with the all-absorbing
beauty of God, they are so transported with the
ever-increasing weight of glory which belongs to
Him, that they find their only and eternal hap-
piness in singing glory, honor, praise, and bene-
diction to the God who liveth and reigneth for-
ever ; — not by word of mouth, not by empty
sound, but filled to overfiowing with the worship
and pleasure and love and gratitude that His
presence inspires, — by internal and heartfelt ado-
ration !

It is hard for us to understand this, because,
. filled with the corrupt things of time, immersed
in sense, we cannot lift our hearts to comprehend
the unimaginable glory of God and the perfect
happiness that His presence confers. We cannot
understand what the beauty of God is. Let us
try to get some glimpse of it. We admire the
beauty of this world. Our spirits expand, — we
are transported in feeling when we look upon the
earth in springtime, — everything clothed in verd-
ure and breathing freshness. Our eyes delight to

58 HEAVEN.

look Upon the crystal stream, or mighty cataract
rushing clown the mountain side, leaping from
rock to rock, till it empties itself in the clear take
beneath. Our ears drink in the gladsome notes
of the birds jubilant at the resurrection of all nat-
ure from the death of winter. Our nostrils are
filled with the fragrance which the flowers are
sending up, as an incense of praise to the great
Creator. We ascend some lofty mountain when
the sun casts its splendor upon the boundless
ocean, and there before that vast expanse of wa-
ter, lit up, as it were, with the glory of heaven, we
are transported out of ourselves, and fall down in
ecstatic homage to God, because we seem to catch
a glimpse of His own glory. But what is all this
to the uncreated glory of the Creator Himself?
Contemplate nature in its most glorious aspect,
what is it all to the glory of its Lord and Maker?
The world is surely an awful manifestation of the
beauty, greatness, and power of God, so illimi-
table that light, travelling as light only travels,
sent to us untold ages ago, has not yet reached us ;
— so stupendous, so vast, so complicated, and yet
so harmonious, that it bewilders the imagination
and distorts the mental vision to try to compre-
hend even the most insignificant of God's works.
And yet God could have created a world incon-
ceivably more perfect and more worthy of Him-
self. He could have created a countless number
of worlds, each incomparably more glorious than
the other ; and even then His power would not
be exhausted.

What, then, must be the beauty of God Himself,

HEAVEN. 59

who is capable of communicating so much to His
works! If we are so enraptured with the beauty
of this world, what wonder that the angels are so
enamoured of the beauty of God as to find their
sole enjoyment in singing His praises, in glorify-
ing His name, in casting themselves before Him
in transports of love and homage.

Again ; the angels have beheld God from their
creation. They have been permitted close com-
munion with Him. They have seen more of Him
than we can imagine. Yet they have not begun
to comprehend Him, — have not begun to know
the limits of His glory.

The Blessed Virgin surely has seen more of
God than all other created beings ; yet even she
has caught but the veriest glimpse of His beauty-
Now put together all that angels and saints have
perceived of God, add to it what the Blessed Vir-
gin has beheld, multiply it ten thousand times, and
even then God is as far beyond our comprehen-
sion as ever. You might multiply it an infinity
of times, and you would be as far from reaching
the limits of Divine Beauty as you were at the
beginning. What wonder, then, that the happi-
ness of the saints is the presence of God ! What
wonder that the happiness of heaven is the vision
of God, — all beautiful and glorious !

Yes, my brethren, the happiness of heaven is
not the beauty of the city, with the walls of ivory
and gates of gold, paved with precious stones,
watered with the crystal stream, brilliant as the
sun, fair as the moon, or any of the other mate-
rial representations under which the Scriptures

6o HEAVEN.

seek to bring it home to us. The beauty ol
heaven and its happiness is the beauty of God.
It is to see, love, and enjoy God forever.

Have you ever thought that God's perfection
is so great that in the Divine Nature it is the origin
of the Third Person ? We are told that the Son is
the image of the Father, the '' Splendor of His
glor}^ and figure of His substance." The Father
knows Himself. The expression of this knowl-
edge is the Son. From the mutual love which is
engendered by the Father for the Son, and by the
Son for the Father, proceeds the Holy Ghost, the
infinite and personal expression of the love of
the God-head. God finds His own happiness in
the contemplation of Himself. What wonder,
then, that the happiness of heaven is the presence of
God ! If He is sufficient for His own happiness,
if the contemplation of Himself satisfies the exi-
gencies of His own infinite nature, will He not be
able to satisfy ours? Will He not be able to fill
the void in our finite hearts ? Well might the
Scripture say, '' That which the eye hatix not seen,
nor the ear heard, nor hath it entered into the
heart of man to conceive hath God prepared for
those who love and serve Him."

Some may think that this pleasure arising from
the beatific vision will be to them but little ; — will
not be that which their hearts at present desire.
1 can imagine the rich man, who places his happi-
ness here below in the amassing of wealth, and who
thinks that it alone can make him happy, will have
but little appreciation for the glory that I have
been attempting to place before you. I can imag-

HEAVEN. 6l

ine the lustful man, who tries to make himself be-
lieve that his sovereign happiness consists in the
gratification of passion, will have but little taste
for the joy, pure and holy, which comes from
serving God. There may be those among you
who think that they would be happier, in the en-
joyment of this world's goods. But this arises
from what I have already alluded to. We are
made up of soul and body. The soul would soar
heavenward ; but the body with its concupiscence
drags it down to earth. We are so immersed
with things of sense, that we can scarcely imagine
our happiness outside of them. We can scarcely
realize a happiness in which they will have no
part. We place our happiness in them here below,
because, here below we see no other, because they
agree with our present conditions as gifted with
material bodies and material sense ; we cannot
rise to the lofty vision of God. We understand
not His marvellous fascination. This obstacle will
be removed when our souls are separated from
our bodies. Then they will seek their happiness
in a different sphere and among different objects.
Our souls then freed from their bodies of corrup-
tion, will aspire to God, their last end, and in
Whom alone they will then feel that their perfect
happiness can be found. As the steel freed from
restraint, flies to the magnet, so shall our souls,
freed from the restraint of body, fly to God, their
eternal attraction and their final happiness.

These passions which we call pride, lust, avar-
ice, and all other desires, are but the outlets of
our inborn appetite for felicity, are but the means

63 HEAVEN.

we employ to gratify that one great, supreme, and
dominant tendency for perfect happiness, which
fills our souls and absorbs all our faculties. Al-
mighty God will gratify all these passions. How ?
By filling the soul, their source and fountain, with
the fullest happiness, by pouring into it such a
torrent of delight, by so inebriating it with His
love, that it can know no other or greater, and de-
sire no other or greater happiness. Thus shall
God satisfy the unconquerable thirst of the human
soul. Absolutely one in Himself, He is manifold
in the fecundity with which He communicates
Himself to His creatures. This truth may be put
in another way. We look upon a picture, say of
the Blessed Virgin, by one of the great masters.
In beholding this picture we are so enraptured
with the heavenly purity and mildness and holi-
ness to be seen in every feature, that every un-
worthy feeling dies within us, every unbecoming
thought goes out. We are lifted above earth and
absorbed in heavenly thoughts. So shall it be
when our disembodied spirits will stand in the
presence of God. The happiness of this life will
be forgotten ; all thoughts of riches, honors, and
human pleasures, will perplex the soul no more,
because it shall already have been made happy
by the enjoyment of the beatific vision. The apos-
tles, surrounded with the glory of Divinity on
Tabor, wished to return no more to the Avorld, but
to build three tabernacles and dwell there for-
evermore.

What is necessary to make man supi'emely
happy, but to satisfy fully all his faculties ? What

HEAVEN. 63

is the happiness of any faculty or creature but the
attainment of its end. God has made everything
for an end. He has endowed it with capacity
and virtue to reach this end. It can never rest
till it attains it. It receives from God an impulse
which it must obey, and which only ceases when
its end has been reached. When, then, man and
all his faculties shall have attained their ends,
they will be happy and at rest. What are man's
faculties? Intellect, heart, and will. What are
their objects ? Truth, content, love.

Truth is the object of the intellect. The pos-
session of truth, then, will constitute its beatitude.
So long as the intellect possesses not truth, or but
imperfectly, it cannot be happy. In this life it
can never possess truth fully, hence it is never
fully happy. Although capable of knowing truth,
yet outside of that which has been revealed, how
little do we know ! How the human mind seeks
truth, and how happy it is when it comes by it,
only those can tell who, born in ignorance of it,
have afterward, by the grace of God and their
own efforts, obtained it in the Church ! But in
God we shall see the truth and our intellects will
be in perfect rest. We shall understand clearly
and perfectly what now at best we know but dark-
ly. We shall be forever rid of the bondage of
ignorance. We shall indeed know the truth, and
the truth shall make us free.

The object of our hearts is contentment. Their
beatitude will be found in its attainment. Here
below we cannot find true content. It was on
earth before Adam sinned. Since that time it has

64 HEAVEN.

been exiled from earth. Some little may, perhaps,
yet be found left to make life bearable ; but of
how few is it the portion, and with how much al-
loy is it mixed ? In heaven our hearts will be in
perfect peace. None of the ills that we are sub-
ject to at present will then afflict us. Pain and
sorrow shall be no more. Death shall be no more.
The vanities of life will no longer obscure the in-
tellect and perplex the will. All these evils shall
be banished forevermore. All the good that we
enjoy here below, we shall possess there in a more
eminent degree. Whatever Joy there is on earth
is but a foretaste of the joy of heaven.

The object of the will is love. Its beatitude
will be in possessing an object which it can love
with an infinite love. We love a thing because it
seems to us good. The more of its goodness we
see the better we love it. An infinite love we
can have only for something whose goodness is
infinite. Nothing infinite exists outside of God.
This is why we never perfectly love anything.
We know the strength of love, the strongest pas-
sion of the soul, capable of great good or great
evil. No wonder we are unhappy here below,
since we have no object to fix this passion upon,
or if we love, it is but for a while ; we soon see the
defects of the object of our love ; its goodness is
at an end, and we love no more. But in heaven
we shall love God with a boundless and undying
love. We shall see a good, boundless in perfec^
tion, whose loveliness will be as infinite for us
throughout eternity, as it was in the beginning ;
and for whom, accordingly, our love can never

HEAVEN. 65

wane, and shall be as strong at the end of untold
ages, as at the moment of its entrance into heav-
en. As the Father, contemplating His infinite
perfection and beauty mirrored forth in the Son,
loves this Son with an infinite and immortal love,
so shall we, in some analogous way, contemplate
ilig the ineffable beauty and majesty of God, be
inflamed with a love as intense as our souls can
endure, and as undying as the God that excites it.
But are we all called to this happiness oi
heaven ? We are. Only one condition is re-
quired, namely, sanctity, the keeping of God's
law. Are we on the road that leads thither —
that narrow road that so few find ? Or are we
pursuing the beaten path that most pursue ?
The road that leads to heaven, is the road of
suffering — the royal road of the Cross. Are we
leading lives of sacrifice and self-denial ? If not,
in vain do we hope to enter heaven. Jesus as
man purchased the right to enter heaven by His
sufferings and death. *' It behooved Him to suffer
and so enter into His glory ; " and He thought
not the sacrifice too great to purchase the glory
of heaven. The martyrs shed their blood, and
sacrificed life itself to purchase heaven ; and they
did not esteem the price an exorbitant one. Holy
hermits and religious abandoned the world, and
gave themselves up to incessant prayer and mor-
tification among the beasts of the desert, far re-
moved from the abodes of men ; and they thought
the exchange an advantageous one. Are we un-
willing to buy heaven by the keeping of God's
commandments? Are we unable to deny the
5

66 HEAVEN.

flesh and its concupiscence to the extent of keep-
ing within God's law ? We are the children of
the saints. But are we worthy of them? Do we
walk in their footsteps ? Are we but living on
their great name? Have their merits only come
down to us as a family inheritance, unincreased
by any addition of our own ? I fear it ; I fear it.

We love to think of the martyrs ; we are moved
with compassion in reading of their sufferings for
Christ and His Gospel ; and we say that, had we
lived in those days, we would have done the
same. We condemn with no measured bitterness
the recreancy and baseness of those who in per-
secution abandoned Christ. But, are we imitat-
ing the martyrs or the apostates ? The contest in
which they spilled their blood has not yet ended ;
it continues from age to age ; it is going on to-
day. The conflict of right and wrong, of God
and the devil, is as hot to-day as in former times ;
it never ceases ; it was scarcely more visible
then than it is now. Are we then doing now
what we say we would have done in those times ?
I fear not. There were many in those days for
whom the fascination of the pagan world was too
great. There were those who thought that Christ
required too much : who abandoned His standard
and enlisted under His enemy ; who enjoyed the
world, and were lost. We have the same among
us to-day: those who are overcome by the allure-
ments of the age and by the threefold concupis-
cence of the world, and who deliver themselves to
sin and Satan and unbridled passion. Is it not so?
Look around you ! See the votaries of the world

HEAVEN. 6^

on every side ; see them even among Christians,
Catholics !

Who is in earnest about salvation? who shows
the slightest concern for his soul? It is not by
saying Lord, Lord, that we shall enter heaven. If
we are to be saved, we have a work to do, a duty
to perform. If we are faithless now, we would
have been faithless in the beginning and would
have betrayed Christ. The saints gave them-
selves no repose until they secured heaven. We
expect it as a matter of course. But God is as
just now as He ever was. He exacts as much
from those who would enter into life. He does
not widen His mercy as iniquity increases.
'' Nothing defiled can enter heaven." *' He who
does not take up his cross and follow me, is not
worthy of me."

All the expressions of Scripture denouncing
woe against the sinner, and declaring the fewness
of the elect and the difficulty of salvation, are as
true to-day as they were when uttered.

Some do not aspire to a very high place in
heaven. Such will scarcely enter it at all. He
who would run along the brink of a precipice
must allow himself some margin lest he stumble
and fall into the chasm. He who would keep
God's law must allow himself some vantage-
ground, must make allowances for the wear and
tear of the conflict, for the power of temptation,
for his own weakness, for the inroads that sin
makes upon the best of us; he must aim at avoid-
ing all deliberate sin. He who proposes avoid-
ing mortal sin, yet committing venial with im-

68 HEAVEN.

punity, will ultimately fall. The marksman aims
high that he may strike the mark. He who
wishes to be saved must aim at a high rank in
heaven in order that he may secure an ordinary
place, or even enter at all.

TME new YORK

PUBLIC LIBRARY,

ASTOR, LENOX A*D
TILDE N fOhr,K '

THE PUNISHMENT OF HELL.

'• And I saw the dead, the great and the small, standing before
the throne, and the books were opened, and another book was
opened, which is of life, and the dead were judged by these things
which were written in the books, according to their works. And
the sea gave up the dead that were in it, and death and hell
gave up their dead that were in them : and they were judged
everyone according to their works. And hell and death were
cast into the lake of fire, this is the second death. And whoso-
ever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the
lake of fire." — Apocalypse xx, 12-15.

" But for the fearful, and unbelieving, and abominable, and for
murderers, and debauchees, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all
liars, their portion shall be in the lake burning with fire and
brimstone, which is the second death." — Apocalypse xxi. 8.

The punishment of hell is revealed to us as
fire, '' The vengeance on the flesh of the ungodly
is fire and worms," Ecclesiastes, vii. " So shall it
be at the end of the world : the angels shall come
forth and separate the wicked from the just. And
shall cast them into the furnace of fire : there shall
be weeping and gnashing of teeth," Matthew, xiii.
49-50. *' And if thy hand scandalize thee, cut
it off: it is better for thee to enter into life
maimed, than, having two hands, to go into hell,
into unquenchable fire, where the worm dieth not
and the fire is not extinguished. i\nd if thy foot
scandalize thee, cut it off: it is better for thee to

70 THE PUNISHMENT OF HELL.

enter lame into life everlasting, than, having two
feet, to be cast into hell, into unquenchable fire,
where the worm dieth not, and the fire is not
extinguished. And if thine eye scandalize thee,
pluck it out: it is better for thee with one eye to
enter into the kingdom of God, than, having two
eyes, to be cast into hell fire, where the worm
dieth not and the fire is not extinguished, for
everyone shall be tortured with fire, and every
offering shall be salted with salt," Mark, ix. 42-48.
" Depart from me, you cursed, into everlasting
fire, prepared for the devil and his angels," Mat-
thew, xxv. 41.

Every word of the sentence to be pronounced
on the damned, indicates the awful nature of the
punishment inflicted. The command to leave
Him of whom they are not worth}^, and to go to
their due abode, the curse, upon which follows, as
an effect, everlasting punishment, the specifying
of the punishment, namely, that inflicted upon the
devil and his angels — all this sufficiently mani-
fests that it is fire, and everlasting fire. A judge
does not make use of tropes or figures when in-
flicting the gravest penalty known to the law.
Our Lord speaks literal language when He pro-
nounces sentence on the most momentous of
trials. When He awards eternal happiness to
the just, He speaks literally. Why should He
speak a metaphor, when He completes the sen-
tence by condemning the wicked to their just
punishment? He speaks a verity, when He bids
the elect enter into the bliss prepared for them
from the beginning. Does He utter a falsehood,

THE PUNISHMENT OF HELL. 7 1

when He bids the reprobate enter into the fire
which, He adds, was prepared for the devil and
his angels? — and not alone for these; but for
you who, by your works, have made yourselves
his slaves and servants.

Everywhere in the Scriptures, new and old, is
the punishment of the damned spoken of as fire.
If this were but a figure, the figure would at
times betray itself, and we would learn its literal
meaning. But universally are the sufferings of
the damned spoken of as fire, and as such tor-
ments as preclude the possibility of tropes and
figures. Was it a figurative fire that was pre-
pared for, and which the devil and his angels are
still enduring? The fire of the fallen angels, is
the fire of the reprobate souls of men. During
life those souls found their delight, to the con-
tempt of God, in pleasures forbidden by His holy
law. They now endure pain and sorrow and tort-
ure, even hell fire for their forbidden delights,
and thus their contempt of God is avenged and
serves to show His justice. Human souls en-
dowed with the sovereign gift of free will, may
defeat God's purpose of mercy in their regard,
and refuse to be saved, and thus to be eternally
happy, but they cannot frustrate the general pur-
pose of the manifestation of His glory for which
He made all things.

The real fire of hell is proclaimed in '' the
lake burning with fire and brimstone," in " the
everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his
angels," in ''the fire that is not extinguished," in
" the flame in which the damned suffer," in the

72 THE PUNISHMENT OF HELL.

*' which of you can dwell in everlasting fire ? " in
'* the fire taking vengeance on those who have
not known God," and in so many other places.
The very name of Gehenna, being the valley in
which children were burned to death as holo-
causts to Moloch, " horrid king, besmeared with
blood of human sacrifice and parents' tears," and
which may be taken as a figure of hell, intimates
the character of hell fire. The visitation of fire
upon Sodom and Gomorrah may be regarded as
a foretaste of hell fire.

Because hell fire may differ in many respects
from that with which we are familiar, it does not
cease to be a real fire. We have no means of
knowing that it is the same as that of this life.
But it is real, since it produces in the soul the
burning and torture of ordinary fire. Fire in this
life proceeds from physical nature, and serves the
purpose for which it is ordained. There is no
reason why we should make this one identical
with hell fire, which is called forth by God, and
serves a purpose in the supernatural order. As
we need not hell fire for our physical well-being,
so we need not physical fire for hell's punish-
ment of sin and the sinner. The fire of hell is
not figurative or ideal, but actual and an instru-
ment of torture.

If we are permitted to use the words of the
great poet, who, in language not unworthy the
subject, has lamented the fall of the race, hell
may be described as ''A dungeon, horrible on all
sides round, as one great furnace flamed, yet from
those flames no light, but rather darkness visible

THE PUNISHMENT OF HELL. 73

served only to discover sights of woe, regions of
sorrow, doleful shades, where peace and rest can
never dwell ; hope never comes that comes to all,
but torture without end still urges, and a fiery
deluge, fed with ever -burning sulphur uncon-
sumed."

The fire of hell will be endowed with the vir-
tue of reaching even the soul directly, and not
through the body only. It shall also preserve
the body while it tortures it ; '' It shall be salted so
as by fire." Other fires destroy ; hell fire will pre-
serve and yet torture, will preserve forever, that
its torture may last forever ; '' The smoke of their
torment.ascended forever and ever ; " it shall suffer
no diminution or extinction. Which of you can
dwell with devouring fire? The rich glutton
calls it a place of torments. We cannot endure
material fire even for a moment ; what if God, in
His indignation, should blow it into tenfold rage ?
We cannot touch fire, cannot endure the too
scorching heat of the sun. No wonder the saints
have declared the pains of liell to be incompara-
bly greater than all the torments we can imagine.
Job says that, *' Hell is a land which is dark, and
covered with the mist of death, a land of misery
and darkness, where the shadow of death and no
order but everlasting horror dwells." St. Au-
gustine says : " The bare sight of the devils excites
sufficient terror to cause the death of all the
damned, if they were capable of dying." There
will be no light save what suffices to torment the
damned by the sight of their associates and the
devils.

74 -THE PUNISHMENT OF HELL.

Think of the pain of thirst ; all the waters of the
earth would not be sufficient to quench the pains
of the damned, yet they shall not have even a
drop. The rich glutton cried out, '' Father Abra-
ham, have pity on me, and send Lazarus that he
may dip the tip of his finger in water to cool my
tongue, for I am tormented in this fire." And
Abraham said to him : '' Child, remember that
thou didst receive good things in thy lifetime,
and Lazarus, in like manner, evil things ; but now
he is here comforted, and thou art tormented."

Consider the compan}^ of the reprobate in hell.
They would constitute a hell, even without fire ;
what shall be the misery of the damned when they
will have to endure such companionship, not for
a limited time, but for eternity, without hope,
without chance of possible liberation, condemned
to dwell in the congregation of all the wicked, and
to converse forever with everlasting groans, " un-
respited, unpitied, unreprieved, ages of hopeless
end." If a man were to give way to the bad pas-
sions within him, if pride, lust, cruelty, envy, and
all the other evil instincts of the human heart
were to obtain freedom and mastery in him, what
a hell would run riot in his soul? If human so-
ciety were to cast aside all restraining influences,
the fear of punishment, the hope of reward, if it
were to act as if there were no God, to what a hell
would human society be reduced? Yet this is the
state of the damned. God being eternally lost to
them, no longer hope, no longer fear, nothing but
blank despair stares them in the face. Even here
in this life, with all the restraints of future retri-

THE PUNISHMENT OF HELL. 75

bution, the laws of society, the esteem of men, the
fear of shame, the sacredness of holy obligations,
the suggestions of natural sympathy, the dictates
of friendship and love, yet society is, in a manner,
but a hell ; virtue is everywhere trampled under
toot ; iniquity is exalted to high places ; there is
nothing but deceit, duplicity, hypocrisy, among
men. Society is seething in corruption, flooded
with unmentionable crimes ; all flesh has corrupted
its ways ; there is no fear of God under heaven.
What then will be the misery, intense and univer-
sal, of all the reprobate spirits gathered together
in hell? Could we endure such companionship
for a moment? How suffer it for eternity ?

Remorse. Who has not felt its power? Who
is ignorant of how it preys upon the mind, of how
it consumes the soul ? It sets men mad. It is the
greatest misery of the soul. If not a hell in itself,
it is a foretaste of hell. So true is this that you
will sometimes hear denied the existence of a
future hell, and maintained that hell is to be
found in the conscience of the sinner, in the an-
guish with which he is filled, in the self-reproach
with which he is tortured. The poet says, '' The
mind is its own place, and in itself can make a
hell of heaven, a heaven of hell." '* The children
of the kingdom shall be cast out into exterior
darkness, there shall be weeping and gnashing of
teeth, where the worm dieth not, and the fire is
not quenched."

Whether the reprobate looks back upon the
past and considers how easily he could have saved
his soul, or looks up to heaven possessed by his

'J^ THE PUNISHMENT OF HELL.

friends where he, too, might so easily be, or looks
forward to the future with the prospect of unend-
ing misery, he finds nothing to console or en-
courage him, but everything to make him miser-
able and to fill him with blank despair.

He looks back upon the past ; he remembers the
opportunities he had of saving his soul, the many
good inspirations he received, the good intentions
he formed, the sermons he listened to, the occa-
sions of well-doing which he allowed to pass
away unimproved. How easily he could have
mortified his passions and restrained his sinful
habits, how little effort he ever made to observe
the commandments ! St. Thomas says that, ''The
damned soul will find its greatest misery in the
thought that it is lost for nothing ; it could so
easily have been saved." This will constitute a
supreme agony. He will remember the tepidity
and listlessness with which he heard the word of
God, that word which admonished him in time
of his present misery, and which, if followed,
would have saved him from irreparable ruin.
Still he must do himself the justice that he never
purposed to go to hell, that nothing was farther
from his mind ; he intended to repent ; he did not
look for so sudden a taking off; he had made up
his mind to restore those ill-gotten goods which
his children are now enjoying, and to make good
the reputation of his neighbor, who is still suffer-
ing, among men, from the effects of his calumny.
It never entered his mind to leave the world with-
out approaching the sacraments and making his
peace with Almighty God. He always intended

THE PUNISHMENT OF HELL. //

to die the death of the righteous ; he shuddered
when he thought of the death of the unrepentant;
he Avas, in a word, full of good intentions. He has
received their reward ; hell is paved with them.
There is not a damned soul that intended to be
damned.

He looks up to heaven, which, he remembers,
was his inheritance ; he sees it possessed by friends
and associates. St. Peter Chrysologus says, '' To
the damned the voluntary loss of paradise is a
greater torment than the very pains of hell."
The sinner considers its never-ending joys, its su-
preme felicity, the presence of God, the society
of angels and saints ; he beholds his companions
now in the enjoyment of the reward due to a few
years of virtue ; he feels that even out of hell the
loss of heaven would itself be a hell ; he remem-
bers that so little was required to put him among
the elect. Conscious that the fault is all his own,
he upbraids himself and turns upon himself; will-
ingly would he annihilate himself, as the just
punishment of his folly and the only escape from
his misery. But he is held in existence in spite of
himself. He looks to the future ; he reflects upon
the eternity through which he must live and suffer,
without hope or prospect of alleviation or cessa-
tion of his misery. Who will describe, who can
imagine the anguish of his soul ?

Loss of God. In this life we understand not
what it is to lose God ; we are darkened by sin ;
we are held down by earthly affections ; we are
dominated by objects of sense. We are made for
God and for infinite happiness. Man, free in all

^'^ THE PUNISHMENT OF HELL.

things else, is not free not to choose what he es-
teems good. He may be mistaken in Avhat or
where he places it. Yet in all that he does he
seeks his happiness. In this life we are engrossed
with the sensible world around us, we try to satis-
fy our souls with the small reflex of God's beauty
which creatures possess. As breathing is a vital
necessity to the body, union with God is a vital
necessity to the soul. *' Thou alone, O Lord, has
made us, in Thee alone can we find rest." The
soul is made for God. A being can only be
sovereignly happy in the attainment of its end ;
everything has been made for God, and tends to
Him in a manner proportionate to its nature.
The soul has an inborn inclination, an inherent
and invincible tendency to be united to God. He
is its last end, as well as its first beginning. As
the steel turns to the magnet, as the eye is made
to see, as the arrow makes for the mark, as the
exile longs for home, as the lover sighs for the
object of his love, as the son seeks the embrace of
his mother, as the law of gravitation draws all
things to the earth, so by the very nature and law
of our being does the soul aspire to be united to
God. In that union, and in that union alone, shall
it find its true happiness and final glory. Outside of
that union, even in time, it is unhappy ; in eternity,
it must be forever miserable. In this life we feel
not this loss of God. His place is, in a manner,
taken, and our hearts, in a degree, filled by the ob-
jects of life which we are forever seeking, and in
which we fain would place our contentment. If
we could see God, we should no longer seek the

THE PUNISHMENT OF HELL. 79

sensible world around us and the objects that fill
it. If we were not encased in a body of sense, we
should seek higher and holier and diviner objects.
Nothing less than God Himself would satisfy us.
But when these veils of sense will be with-
drawn, when the earth will sink beneath our feet,
when our spirits will be emancipated from these
bodies, then shall our souls rush with all the
energy of their nature, with every fibre of their
being, to God, their final end and supreme beati-
tude. But the damned soul shall be repelled by
Almighty God forever, and cast down to hell.
Infinite purity and holiness cannot unite with de-
filement and sin. Eternally drawn to God and
eternally repelled — this will be the hell of the
soul. It is this disappointment of the soul's aspi-
rations, this loss of the soul's glory, this depriva-
tion of God, this exile from heaven, this forfeit-
ure of its inheritance, this sacrifice of its last end ;
it is all this that constitutes the supreme misery
of the soul, and the most essential pain of hell.
Damnation is the loss of all the joys of the elect
augmented by all the pains of sense. The soul
will become demoniac by its bitter hate of God
and dire despair. St. Thomas says, '' The pain
of the damned is infinite because it is the loss of
the infinite good." The greatest agony of the
sinner will arise, not from the fire, nor the remorse,
nor the company, but from the loss of God. The
greatest torments could not equal the loss the
soul feels in being deprived of Him. Consider
the keenness of our pain when rejected by one we
love ; how if the object of our love were one of

80 THE PUNISHMENT OF HELL.

infinite beauty and loveliness, how if we were
created for no other purpose than to eternally
love that object, and yet to be eternally repelled.
St. Antonine says, '' The soul separated from the
body understands that God is its sovereign good
and that it has been created for him." St. x\ugus-
tine says that, '' If the damned saw the beauty of
God, they should feel no pain and hell itself should
be converted into a paradise." Let the heart
place its bliss and content in any object ; what sus-
pense and anxiety till it reach it, what suffering, if
it be forever precluded from it. Such disappoint-
ment is known to make men mad.

God of the soul ! its maker and final destiny,
its only bliss, whose loss is eternal misery !
Never to behold the glory of the God-head !
Never to know the wisdom of the Son ! Never
to share the love of the Holy Ghost ! To be sep-
arated, and forever, from union with God, from
the company of angels, and spirits, and the elect
of the sons of men ! To be excluded forever
from the enjoyment of heaven ! To endure for-
ever this privation made even more dreadful by
the physical torments of hell ! To hunger and
thirst for the Supreme Good, and never to be
satiated ! To pass eternity in self-reproach and
soul-piercing regrets ! To be forever the victim
of unavailing remorse and withering despair !
Annihilation would be a boon.

As no happiness is infinite but what is everlast-
ing, so no punishment is as great as it can be, un-
less eternal. Hell would not be so frightful, if its
horrors were one day to end. It is the duration

THE PUNISHMENT OF HELL. 8l

of hell that gives its tortures the character of in-
finity.^ We may submit to a painful operation,
because we know it will soon be over, and we will
enjoy good health. It is the continuance of pain
that makes it unbearable ; the continuance of
even pleasure becomes painful ; to lie in the same
posture for a long time becomes excruciating. Yet
the damned must suffer forever the same fire, the
same company, the same remorse, the same pri-
vation of God ; willingly would they die ; death
would be a mercy ; annihilation would be a para-
dise beyond comprehension. " And in these days
men shall seek death and shall not find it ; they
shall desire to die and death shall flee from them."
We cannot comprehend eternity — duration
without beginning, without end ; we are over-
powered in trying to measure it." In it, better
than in any other attribute, can we obtain an idea
of the impenetrable mysteries of God's nature ;
if one divine perfection could be greater than an-
other, his eternity would be the greatest. Rea-
son reels, the imagination is bewildered, in its
eiforts to comprehend eternity. Time and space
are among the most inexplicable of the mysteries
that surround us, and of which we have the least
adequate comprehension, but in the effort to com-
prehend eternity all our faculties collapse, and we
fall prostrate to the earth. If the damned soul
knew that when its tears formed an ocean, that
if at the end of as many ages as there are stars in
heaven, as there are atoms in the earth, or drops
in the sea, there would be an end of his suffer-
ings, he would still have hope. If he thought
6

S2 THE PUNISHMENT OF HELL.

that when the echoes of his sighs would have
travelled through infinite spaces and untold ages,
and returned to him, there would be hope of sal-
vation, he would feel consoled. Take the years
of human life or the years of a century — but what
are they ? — take five hundred years, or one thou-
sand years, the measure is yet small; take the
years that have passed since Christ, the years that
elapsed from Christ to the flood, from the flood
to creation, let it be six or sixty or six hundred
thousand years, it is yet but a brief measure for
eternity ; multiply it till the power of numbers is
exhausted, and you have not yet a unit with which
to count the days of eternity. Let this world of
ours, so great and yet so small ; so great when
viewed by our intelligence ; so small when viewed
in the light of a loftier being; let this universe of
worlds be unbuilt at the rate of the removal of
one particle every ten thousand years, and then
be rebuilt from its foundation at the rate of one
particle every ten thousand years. This process
of destruction and construction would have con-
tinued through ages, which human calculation
cannot declare, before you would have realized
one hour, nay, one moment of eternity. Let the
vast mighty ages, which geologists tell us were
necessary for the development of physical nature
from its primal germs, be multiplied by immeasur-
able periods throughout incalculable times, and
you have not yet begun to count the days of
eternity ; you have not yet lighted upon the first
moment of that infinite duration ; you have not
yet begun to know the meaning of eternity. Who

THE PUNISHMENT OF HELL. 83

can stand an hour's agony, who can stand an
hour's burning-, who could lie for a week in the
same posture without feeling as if it would never
end? A night spent in a fever seems intermin-
able, and to the sufferer the light of day would
seem to never come ; hours become days, days
become years to him who bears the fearful pains
of some dreadful malady. How if these torments,
unrelieved by death, were to last for years, for
centuries, till the end of the world ! But we sink
beneath the thought of suffering even such pains
as this life can inflict, for eternity. And yet these
pains are not to be compared with the torments
of the damned. When shall all this be ? Perhaps
this very year, perhaps this very week, perhaps
this very day, nay, my God I it may be this very
hour. We know not when ; we may be even this
moment upon the very brink of hell.

Eternity ! Eternity ! Be thy thought ever with
us to remind us that this human life is but a point,
compared with the eternal duration that follows
it. Eternity of pleasure, be thou ever present to
the mind of the saint as an incentive to his per-
severance in virtue. Eternity of suffering, be
thou never absent from the mind of the sinner
to intimidate him from sin and to lead him back
to the path of pardon. Eternal hell, be thy re-
membrance ever with us to remind us of divine
justice when less constraining motives shall have
lost their effect.

If, then, we would escape the vengeance of an
angry God, let us seek Him while He may be
found, and call upon Him while He is near. Do

84 THE PUNISHMENT OF HELL.

now what the damned soul would do if it could
return to life. You may imagine what such a
soul would do; the innocent life it \vould lead;
the anxiety with which it would avoid sin ; the
penance it would practice to blot out its former
transgressions ; the vigilance it would employ in
shunning sin and its occasions; the frequency
and assiduity with which it would approach the
sacraments ; how, in a word, it would avoid even
the shadow of sin ; how the thought of salvation
would be ever present in its mind. Do ye now
the same. You have received even a greater
grace than the damned soul would in being al-
lowed to return to life from hell. To be saved
entirely from an evil is greater goodness than to
be rescued from it. God is now patiently wait-
ing for you, anxious to show mercy, and inspiring
you with good resolutions. Turn not away from
His entreaties ; be not deaf to His inspii-ations ;
this is the acceptable time ; this is the day of sal-
vation. You have no security of the future. Be
not content with forming resolutions, but seek at
once to put them in practice. Remember that no
damned soul intended to be lost; it lived on in
hope of a time which it was never destined to
see, delaying from day to day its conversion until
at last the measure of its iniquities was filled, and
it was snatched away by a sudden and unlooked
for death. If, then, you would not share the fate
of the damned, be careful not to imitate their ex-
ample. If you would receive the eternal reward
which they have lost, pursue the life of virtue
which they contemned.

THE NEW YORK

PUBLIC LIBRARY.

ASTOrt, LENOX A*iD

THE DELAY OF REPENTANCE.

Then he began to upbraid the cities, wherein were done the
most of his mighty works, because they had not done penance.

Wo to thee, Corozain, wo to thee, Bethsaida : for if in Tyre
and Sidon the mighty works had been done that have been done
in you, they would long ago have done penance in sack-cloth and
ashes.

But I say unto you, it shall be more tolerable for Tyre and
Sidon in the day of judgment, than for you. "

And thou Capharnaum, shalt thou be exalted up to heaven ?
thou shalt go down even unto hell. For if the mighty works had
been done in Sodom, that have been done in thee, perhaps it
would have remained until this day.

But I say unto you, that it shall be more tolerable for the land
of Sodom in the day of judgment, than for thee. — Matt. xi. 20-
24.

And there were present at that very time, some that told him
of the Galileans, whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sac-
rifices.

And he answering, said to them : Think you that these Gali-
leans were sinners above all the men of Galilee, because they
suffered such things ?

I say to you. No : but unless you do penance, you shall all
likewise perish.

Or those eighteen upon whom the tower fell in Siloe, and slew
them : think you that they also were debtors above all the men
that dwell in Jerusalem.

I tell you : No : but unless you do penance, you shall all like-
wise perish. — Luke xiii. 1-5.

There are but two ways by which a man can
be saved ; by innocence never lost, or b}^ sincere

86 THE DELAY OF REPENTANCE.

repentance. This we all admit. Of this there
can be no doubt. " Nothing- deftled can enter
heaven." If the soul has been stained by sin, it
must be cleansed and made innocent again by
true repentance. Heaven is open only to the in-
nocent or the repentant.

Who is the man that expects heaven on the
ground of never having lost his baptismal inno-
cence; of never having committed grievous sin?
You will have to search through thousands to find
him, if he is to be found at all. We are all sinners.
We deceive ourselves, if we believe we are with-
out sin. We have all incurred the anger of God,
and deserve His justice for the manifold sins of
which we have been guilty. We may bid fare-
well to salvation on any other ground than that of
deep and abiding repentance. This is our only
hope. This is the only plank that remains to us
after the fatal shipwreck we have long since made
of the purity and innocence received in baptism.
This divine instrument of salvation is necessary
for every man ; be he high or low, rich or poor,
prince or subject, pontiff or priest.

Now, how few pursue this repentance by which
alone they can be saved ? Very few indeed are
actually doing this necessary penance. We find
no one who does not intend to do it. All delude
themselves with the prospect of doing it at some
future time. Of course, no one sins with the pur-
pose of sinning always. No one wishes to die the
death of a sinner. No one, be he ever so hard-
ened in iniquity, but looks forward to the time
when he imagines he will cease to do evil, and be

THE DELAY OF REPENTANCE. 8/

restored to God's favor. In the midst of all his
excesses, the sinner cannot quench the graces of
sacraments once received ; he cannot uproot from
his soul the principles of virtue received in his
early Christian education. Hence to extinguish
the keen remorse which continually pursues him,
if he be not altogether dead to the influences of
grace, he tries to speak peace to his soul by prom-
ising himself to do penance hereafter ; that in the
future he will forsake his evil ways, he will culti-
vate virtue, and will wash away his sins by tears
of repentance. Thus, he thinks, he will atone for
the sins he is now committing, and save his soul.
It is this fatal delay that is the greatest danger
to the sinner, that sends multitudes daily to ever-
lasting misery — it is the cause of the damnation
of almost all who are lost.

The causes that induce this sad infatuation of
deferring repentance, from the present time to
some period in the future, are many. If we give
our attention to the subject, we shall find them to
be principally those which I am about to expose
for 3^our instruction.

A certain torpor or sloth gains possession of
the soul, leading the sinner to defer his repentance
from time to time. The soul is less sensibly af-
fected by the truths of religion, than by the af-
fairs of this life. Hence, he shows not the activity
or energy in the care of his eternal salvation, that
he does in the pursuit of some temporal end. It
is not that he is ignorant of, or disbelieves the
great truths of religion ; his faith may be un-
shaken, but he does not keenly realize them ; he

88 THE DELAY OF REPENTANCE.

does not think of them often enough, and serious-
ly enough, to bring them home to his heart and
mind. The faculties of his soul are benumbed
with a sloth which hinders him from giving ear-
nest thought to but what directly affects his
senses ; or, if at times, the subject of his salvation
may occur to him, he at best defers it till some
future period when he flatters himself he will
be less disinclined to think of such matters. Of
course, inspirations of God'^ grace come to him
warning him of the dreadful peril in which he is
placing his soul ; but he speaks peace to himself
by some excuse ; sometimes one thing, sometimes
another. Now it is that the confessor is too se-
vere, or perhaps too just ; now it is that he feels
he is. not as well prepared as he would wish to be
before going to confession ; now he fears the self-
denial which he will have to practise after con-
fession. It matters very little whether it be a
good or a bad reason, anything that may quiet
his conscience. Overcome by his sloth and by
the apparent difficulty of doing penance, he falls
into a sort of spiritual lethargy, defers his conver-
sion from time to time, looking forward to a sea-
son when he imagines it will be easier and his
repugnance not so great. The year passes around,
the great festivals and fasts and penitential
seasons of the Church come and go, always
finding our sinner in the same state, never pre-
pared and always deferring. It goes on for five
or ten or twenty years, or perhaps throughout
his whole life until the hand of God falls upon
him in the shape of a sudden death, or until, pros-

THE DELAY OF REPENTANCE. 89

trated upon his last sick-bed, he feels the icy
hand of death, and that he has but a few days
more to spend on earth.

Why, my brethren, it is the blindest of delu-
sions to give way to this spiritual sloth and to
defer your repentance from the present hour. Do
you imagine that this sloth will diminish with
time and habit? Do you imagine that indulgence
in vice is the means of overcoming it? Would
you overcome your passions by gratifying them ?
Would you cultivate chastity by impurity, tem-
perance by drunkenness ? Will you acquire ener-
gy by languor ? Are not vices to be overcome
by their opposites ? He who wishes to be chaste,
must he not cultivate the virtue by repeated acts
of purity and by abstaining from everything im-
pure? He who would be temperate, must he
not practise abstinence? How then will you
overcome your spiritual sloth? — by indulgence
which feeds it, or by energetically rising from
your torpor and shaking off the mortal lethargy
that oppresses you ?

Yes, my brethren, this is the hour to rise from
sleep ; this very hour, no future time. It is far
easier now than it will be when habit and indul-
gence will haye increased your insensibility a
thousandfold. Make but the effort, and all your
repugnances and the apparent difficulties that
appall you will vanish. Make but the effort, and
you will be surprised and confounded, as others
have been, that such delusions and seeming ob-
stacles could have withheld you so long from
doing penance. Make but the effort, and the

90 THE DELAY OF REPENTANCE.

severity of the confessor which you now fear will
become sweet ; your apprehension of the lack of
the due dispositions will be the best token of
your contrition; the self-denial that you dread
will be acts of virtue that you will cheerfully im-
pose upon yourself ; all your pretexts will dis-
appear; your only regret will be that you allowed
yourself to be imposed upon so long by such un-
founded difficulties and frivolous excuses. En-
danger not your eternal salvation by giving way
to this torpor. Delaying your repentance from
day to day will bring you to final impenitence.
The time is short. This is the acceptable day,
this the day of salvation. Delay not 3'our con-
version from day to day ; for His wrath shall
come of a sudden, and in the time of vengeance
He will surprise you. Awake, arise, walk no
longer on the brink of hell. Be about your salva-
tion lest God's justice overtake you. This is the
hour to rise from the sleep of sin in which you
lie ready to fall into hell.

There is another class who defer their repent-
ance, because they are so much engrossed with
the world and its affairs that but little time re-
mains to them to think of God and their soul.
When we look out into the world and see the
wonderful energy that men exhibit in the pursuit
of the goods of this life, when we see them give
their undivided attention to their pursuit, during
forty or fifty years, or even during their whole
life-time, when we reflect how little men think
of their eternal destiny — the only end for which
they have come into being — we are almost

THE DELAY OF REPENTANCE. 9I

tempted to think that they believe not in a here-
after, that this is the only world for which they
have been made. Look at men ; what is their
history from generation to generation, from age
to age? Every one is engaged in the pursuit of
some temporal end, and he pursues it with an
energy and perseverance such as we should im-
agine an intelligent being would bestow only on
what concerns his immortal destiny. One man
is occupied in quest of riches ; in them he places
his whole happiness. He stops not when he has
accumulated more than he will ever be able to
spend. He must leave something to his children
to quarrel about after his death. He would seem
to have come into the world for no other end than
to pile up a mountain of wealth. Of course, such
a man thinking of nothing but of hoarding money,
has no time for repentance. Another man spends
his days in the acquisition of fame. He thinks to
satisfy his soul's craving for happiness by this
phantom — so unreal, so easily had and often with
so little deserving. He seeks not the praise of
God which would indeed be his true bliss, but
prefers that of men ; and to obtain it, he will not
hesitate to trample on God's law, and, it may be,
persecute His church. Another man spends his
life in acquiring knowledge, in delving into the
secrets of nature. Certainly, of all, he is the
noblest. Yet what a fool is he, if, in the pursuit
of human knowledge, he neglects God, the source
of all true wisdom ! How often is this human
learning sought to show the unwisdom of God
and to destroy religion ! A man spends a few

92 THE DELAY OF REPENTANCE.

days in the study of science, and when he has
learned a few of the secrets of nature, puffed up
with intolerable pride, he imagines that he could
have improved very much on the works of God,
had he only been the creator. Or, with impu-
dence unpardonable, he proclaims that religion
must be thrown overboard, because, forsooth, its
tenets are not compatible with the discoveries of
his puny mind. Or, it may be that he spends the
best part of his life in undermining belief in the
Divinity of Christ, or in questioning the holiest
truths of religion.

Thus it is the world goes on, thus it is that men
pass their days in the pursuit of objects as trifling
and contemptible as the toys with which chil-
dren amuse themselves. No one thinks of God
or of his soul. Men come into the world and go
out of it, without once casting a serious thought
on why they have come into it or whither they
are going. Warnings are neglected, the truths
of revelation are mocked at, he who talks de-
voutly, or gives evidence in his conduct of fear-
ing God, is laughed at as a fool or derided as a
hypocrite. Generation succeeds generation, son
follows father, all are engaged in the same frivol-
ities, all show as little fear of God. Thousands
are daily plunging headlong into hell. So it is,
so it has been, so it will be until God in His just
indignation shall come and consume the world.
It is unnecessary to say that all those who are en-
grossed in the fortunes of this life expose them-
selves to the danger of final impenitence.

Of course, if you ask the man intent on riches

THE DELAY OF REPENTANCE. 93

or fame or learning-, if he never intends to give
thought to his soul, he will answer, Yes ; but
there is yet time enough ; just now he has too
much else to do ; wait until he has provided for
his old age and gained something for his children ;
wait till he has made a name ; wait till he has
learned something more of the truths of nature ;
he is yet young, he has his three score and ten ;
but in his old age his passions will not be so
strong ; and then his worldly ambitions being
satisfied, he will give his exclusive attention to
his soul. But, my brethren, this is the sheerest
nonsense that a man could utter. Do not all
these engrossing cares increase with time and in-
dulgence? As I have said before, the passions
increase and are intensified by gratification. De-
sires for wealth or fame or pleasure or learning
increase by what they feed on. The more wealth
a man gathers, the greater the desire for wealth
becomes; the more he becomes famous, the more
he desires to be yet further known and honored ;
the more learning he acquires, the better he
understands how little he knows and how bound-
less the domain of knowledge is ; and accordingly
his thirst for learning becomes more and more
insatiable. This is all in the very nature of things.
But look around you and verify it by experience.
See those who are now at that period of life to
which you look forward as the time when all
worldly cares shall cease and you will give your-
self to God and } dur salvation ; it is the period to
which these people themselves looked forward
as days of penitence, when they were as you are

94 THE DELAY OF REPENTANCE.

now. What is the fact ? Are they engaged in
the work of salvation? Have all earthly cares
ceased for them ? Do they give themselves more
to God than they ever did ? Have the concerns
of life, the thirst of gain, the pursuit of fame, the
acquisition of knowledge, less charms for them
now, in their old age, than they had in their
youth and manhood ? Why, my brethren, we
have but to look around us to see the reverse.
The rich man pursues, in his old age, the passion
for money which held him captive, in his man-
hood and youth. Even on his death-bed, his last
thought is solicitude for his wealth, and the pain
he feels at leaving it. The man who sought fame
in his manhood, will seek it till the day of his
death. The man who sought knowledge is as
fresh in his pursuit at seventy or eighty, as he
was at twenty. These passions exercise as des-
potic a sway over the soul in old age as in youth.
They leave as little time and as little relish for
God and salvation as in the time of youth. If,
then, we neglect God and salvation in youth and
manhood, we shall neglect them in old age. We
gain nothing by delay, we endanger all. Far
easier now to do penance, than it will be when
these passions have increased and been strength-
ened by time and habit. It is clear, then, that
those who put off their salvation are likely to die
impenitent. What are we to do ? This is the
hour to rise from sleep ; this hour, not to-morrow
or the next day. This is the day of salvation.
We have no guarantee of any but of the present
moment. Let us not expose ourselves to immi-

THE DELAY OF REPENTANCE. 95

nent risk by remaining a single instant in hostility
to God. Let us not die impenitent, by delaying
our repentance. This is the hour to work ; a time
Cometh when no one shall work.

There are others who endanger their eternal
salvation, by delaying their conversion, because
their love for sin is so great that they are unwill-
ing to give it up. They find in it a pleasure
which they are not prepared to sacrifice. They
prefer the gratification of sin to the consolation of
keeping God's holy law. They cannot think of
doing violence to their sinful inclinations. God
and His law find little place in their hearts. They
find their only happiness in iniquity. Without it,
life for them would have but little charm. It
never enters their mind that their only business on
earth is to declare and carry on an unceasing war
against the flesh and its concupiscence ; that for
this only have they been born, for this only do
they live. They give up sin ! They cannot think
of it. They restore their ill-gotten goods ! What !
strip themselves of what may be the greatest part
of their fortune ! They are not beside themselves.
Restore the reputations they have destroyed by
detraction or calumny ! That is asking too much
of human nature. Part with those persons, sever
those affections, that lead them into sin ! You
might as well tell them to pluck out their eye, or
cut off their right hand. You ask too much, they
will tell you. We ask nothing but what the
Gospel requires under pain of eternal damnation.
Ask these people, if they propose to save their
souls. They will fire with indignation, and answer.

96 THE DELAY OF REPENTANCE.

with the greatest confidence, that they do. If you
remonstrate with them, and point out that they
are not now in the way of salvation, they will admit,
if they are not wholly blinded to their miserable
state, that they know their souls are not now in
the state in which they would have them when
God will call them ; but that they mean, before
they die, to seriously take in hand the work of
their salvation. By and by, when they have en-
joyed the world a little more, when they have
acquired a competency, when passions shall have
grown weaker; then they will turn to God, obtain
pardon and wash away sin b}^ tears and works of
sincere repentance. Here again comes the delu-
sion which I have been trying to expose. Do you
imagine that your passions will grow weak with
gratification? Do you imagine that sin will be
less seductive after twenty years' indulgence than
it is now? No; all reasoning, all experience shows
that the passions increase and grow strong with
time and impunity. The more the soul gives way
to them, the more they tyrannize over it.

If sin has for you now a fascination which you
cannot think of denying yourselves, how will it
be when time will have augmented it a thousand-
fold ? If now you cannot think of restoring to
those whom you have defrauded what is their
due, how will you do it when your ill-gotten
goods will have become mountain high, only to
crush you down to hell? If now you cannot sep-
arate from those who are occasions of sin to you,
how will you do it when these acquaintances will
have multiplied, and when the bonds that enslave

THE DELAY OF REPENTANCE. 97

you to them will have become as adamant? If
now you cannot stoop to the duty of restoring the
good name you have destroyed, how will you do
it when age will have rendered you keener to
human respect, and less willing to perform a duty
so humiliating? No, my brethren, flatter not
yourselves with the hope that sin will exercise a
less despotic sway over you hereafter, than it does
at present. Its bonds will not relax with time.
Easier far to overcome it now, than it will be at
any future time. At all times it requires a sac-
rifice. And this sacrifice must be made. The
slavery of sin must be broken. War to the death
must be declared against the world, the flesh, and
the devil. This task is done easily now when the
chains of sin and passion are not yet firmly
forged ; when the flesh has not yet grown proud
and stubborn by frequent victories ; when the
world's vanities have not yet made those deep im-
pressions on the soul which with time will become
ineffaceable ; when as yet, you are not the trained
soldiers, but the raw recruits of the evil one.

There is still another class of people who defer
their repentance, because they realize not the
supreme importance of saving their souls. The
great truths of religion make little or no impres-
sion upon them. They listen to the priest an-
nounce, with all the vehemence of which he is
capable, the most alarming truths; Salvation,
Hell, Sin, Redemption, Death, Judgment; but
they convey no terror to their hearts. They feel
none of those compunctious feelings which other
sinners, even the hardest, frequently experience.

98 THE DELAY OF REPENTANCE.

They hear of some one's conversion ; they imagine
that he must be mad. They hear of some one
making restitution ; they account for it on the
ground that it is all pretense, only another means
of gaining more than he gives. They hear of
some one putting away an occasion of sin ; it is
because he has been found out. They hear that
such a one goes to church and receives the sacra-
ments ; it is all hypocrisy, they declare.

Now such a person cannot understand such
workings of grace, because he is spiritually blind.
And why ? It is because his understanding is
darkened, his will is made perverse, he has abused
God's grace, he has trampled under foot his
inspirations; and now God, as just retribution,
takes from him the light that would enable him
to see and to realize the truths of Religion. As
physical light is necessary to the eye that it may
see physical objects, so the light of grace is neces-
sary to the soul that it may see and realize the
importance of religious truth. It is unnecessary
to remark that such a one is exposed to the most
imminent risk of damnation. What must he do ?
Redouble his importunities: beseech God earn-
estly and unceasingly to remove the darkness
that clouds his soul, to soften the obduracy of his
heart, to rectify the perversity of his will, that he
may see the truth and follow it with a docile
mind and willing heart.

All — the slothful, those engrossed with the
goods of this w^orld, those too fond of sin to
give it up, the impenitent and hard of heart, all, I
say, flatter themselves with the prospect of doing

THE DELAY OF REPENTANCE. 99

penance at some future time. Some future time !
Will it ever come ? We cannot promise ourselves
any but the present hour. God has promised
grace to those that repent ; but has He promised
it to those who defer repentance ? How many
have been lost by deferring their conversion from
day to day? How many have been on a sudden
cut off with all their sins upon them, and, without
a moment's repentance, hurried before the judg-
ment-seat of God ? They who have been thus lost,
were once as confident of being saved as you are
now. The sad prospect of reprobation was as far
from their thoughts as it is now from yours. They
looked forward as hopefully to the time when
they would be restored to God's favor, and wash
away their sins by penitential tears. But just
as foolishly, they neglected the present moment.
They delayed their conversion from day to day
until, at length, the measure of their iniquities
was filled, and God executed His vengeance upon
them. *' Delay not then to be converted to the
Lord, and defer it not from day to day, for His
wrath shall come on a sudden, and in the time of
vengeance He will destroy thee." Taught by the
dread example of those who have been lost, the
tremendous danger of deferring repentance, nay,
of remaining one single hour in mortal sin, we
should put off our conversion no longer, but seek
the Lord and His mercy while there is 3^et time.

Putting off repentance from day to day brings
it to the death - bed. And woe to the man who
rests his chance of salvation upon a death-bed re-
pentance ! Woe to the man who begins not his

21061.0

lOO THE DELAY OF REPENTANCE.

preparation for death until, prostrated by some
mortal illness, he feels that his days are at an end
and that death is upon him ! Death - bed, did I
say? Will he have a death -bed? May not the
battle-field be his death-bed ? May not the ocean
be his death-bed? May not some of the number-
less accidents that are taking place, continually,
everywhere, be his death - bed ? Death -bed, in-
deed ! Why, there are ten thousand causes with-
in us, and around us, that, in a moment, can put
us out of life, without giving an instant to lie on a
death-bed. Death is in the food that we consume,
the water we drink, the air we breathe ; a blow
upon the head is enough to disorder the brain ; a
slight affection of the heart will cause death in a
moment. Yet talk we of a death-bed !

But let us suppose that he who has delayed re-
pentance all his life, lies upon a death-bed. What,
if, at that hour, the brain be all on fire with some
burning fever ! What, if the poor intellect sink
into utter unconsciousness ! will repentance then
be possible ? Is it an unusual case ? Ask any
priest, how often he is called to attend someone,
whom he finds unconscious. Frequently. He
may anoint him ; it will do no harm, if it can do
but little good. He leaves strict orders to send
for him again, if the sick person recovers his rea-
son. How often is it that reason has taken its
last farewell of the body ? How often does
the poor sinner pass from unconsciousness to
death? But he retains his reason. He is fur-
nished with whatever consolations his friends can
afford. Think you that the difficultj^ the sloth

THE DELAY OF REPENTANCE. lOI

that has always been a hindrance to his confession,
leaves him at that hour? On the contrary, does
not this reluctance increase a thousandfold, now
that he is tortured with pain, that the mind is
delirious with agony, that the whole system is
breaking up ? In health, confession requires no
small application of mind. Few would think of
preparing for it, while suffering from a severe
headache or toothache. How will the poor sinner
apply his mind, now, when the shades of death are
gathering, thick and fast, about him ; when his
will is weakened by the deadly anguish he suf-
fers? How little capable of preparing for con-
fession will he be, at that hour ? Even then, he
will be faithful to his habit of delay, and will sug-
gest that it be put back until the next day, when
the fever shall have abated and he will be more
recollected.

The next day rises upon him a corpse. Or, it
may be that the difficulty of confession will then
seem so great that, with the aid of the devil sug-
gesting that it is now too late, that he should
have repented long ago, that such sins cannot be
wiped out by a moment's repentance, he will give
way to despair and die impenitent.

Thus it is that God abandons those who abuse
His mercy, who spend their 3'outh and strength
and manhood in the service of the devil, reserv-
ing for Him the dregs of their old age, when they
have no longer the power to offend him. '' Be-
cause I called and you refused to hear ; I stretched
out my hands and there was none that regarded ;
you have despised all my counsels and neglected

I02 THE DELAY OF REPENTANCE.

my reprehensions ; I also will laugh in jour de-
struction. When sudden calamity shall fall upon
you, and destruction, as a tempest, shall be at
hand ; when tribulation and distress shall come
upon you ; then shall you call upon me and I will
not hear."

Even if the sinner should not despair, his death-
bed repentance will not be such as can be relied
on. To rise from the death of sin to the life of
grace, is a miracle far greater than to rise from
physical death to physical life. As no one can
come to life again, by his own power, so no man
can, of his own strength, rise from sin to grace.
We cannot make one effort towards our salvation,'
unless it be given us by the Holy Ghost. No
ordinary grace will suffice to move the sinner's
heart, at the hour of death. Proof against every
feeling of compunction, dead to every good in-
spiration of grace, during life ; great, indeed,
must the grace be that can move it at the hour
of death. Will he receive it ? Can he expect it,
who has drained the cup of iniquity to the dregs,
and who turns to God, only because he has no
longer the power to offend Him ? What can he
expect but to be abandoned in that hour ?

There can be no sincere repentance, without a
firm purpose of amendment, without repairing
the evil effects of sin, without severing the bonds
of sin, without giving up everything that is to us
an occasion of sin. Think you, the sinner will
be able to do this at the hour of death? that he
will be able, in a moment, to separate' his heart
from affections which held him captive, even in

THE DELAY OF REPENTANCE. IO3

health when he was fully master of himself ?
Such attachments are not easily sundered. Pas-
sions cherished from infancy, habits of sin which
have become part of his nature, are not van-
quished but by extraordinary grace and unceas-
ing- efforts. They are not overcome at the hour
of death. Their purpose of amendment cannot
be relied on. " Ease soon relaxes vows made in
pain as nugatory and void." If they recover,
they are apt to return to sin, just as if they had
made no such purpose. '' His bones will be filled
with the disorders of his youth, and his sins will
sleep with him in the grave."

What is it that the Holy Ghost, in the New
Testament and the Old, most frequently gives
warning of? What is it that Jesus Christ so
often and emphatically declared during His mis-
sion on earth? What is it that the apostles,
saints, and martyrs most earnestly and continu-
ally inculcated upon the faithful? What is it
that the Church unceasingly puts before us in the
Gospels and Epistles of the Sundays of the year?
It is the suddenness of death, and the necessity
of being always ready for it. '' He will come as
a thief in the night." " You know not the day,
nor the hour, when the Son of man will come."
'* Watch ye and pray, for you know not at what
hour the Lord will come." " For know you not
that, if the master of the house knew at what
hour the thief would come, he would watch and
not allow him to enter? " " So be you always pre-
pared ; for you know not when the Son of man
will come."

104 THE DELAY OF REPENTANCE.

You know, then, from Jesus, from the Apostles,
from the Scriptures, from the Saints, from the
Church, from your own observation, that death will
come when you least expect it. What are you to
do? Be ready to meet it; put yourself in a state
of grace. Do penance ; for the kingdom of heaven
is at hand. Do penance ; or ye will all likewise
perish. Do penance ; for now the ax is laid to the
root, and every tree that bringeth not forth good
fruit, will be cut down and cast into the flame.

As I began, I conclude, by saying that there
are but two means under heaven by which we
can be saved : Baptism and Penance. Baptism
is for us all a fountain closed. We have been
washed in its waters ; we have received its grace,
and we have forfeited it. Penance alone re-
mains. This is the salient, living spring of life
eternal, which fertilizes the Church of God, and
purifies the hearts of the faithful. Here we can be
washed, without stint or measure, as often as we
approach it with the necessary dispositions. It
is always open. We have not to wait for any
angel to touch its waters, nor for anyone to carry
us to them, when they are moved, as at Beth-
saida of old. We have but to draw near, and we
shall at all times find Jesus in this Sacrament dis-
pensing the priceless merits of His blood, apply-
ing to our souls, through the ministry of His
priest, the fruits of His Passion, continuing the
work of cleansing, not from the leprosy which
afflicts the body, but from that worse and more
fatal leprosy Avhich destroys the soul and casts it
into everlasting misery.

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PUBLIC LIBRARY.

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THE LAST JUDGMENT.

And I saw, when he had opened the sixth seal ; and behold,
there was a great earthquake, and the sun became black as
sackcloth of hair, and the whole moon became as blood.

And the stars from heaven fell upon the earth, as the fig-tree
casteth its green figs when it is shaken by a great wind :

And the heaven withdrew as a book rolled up together ; and
every mountain, and the islands were moved out of their places.

And the kings of the earth, and the princes, and the tribunes,
and the rich men, and the strong men, and every bondman, and
every freeman hid themselves in the dens, and in the rocks of
the mountains :

And they say to the mountains and to the rocks : Fall upon
us, and hide us from the face of him that sitteth upon the
throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb :

For the great day of their wrath is come ; and who shall be
able to stand? — Apocalypse vi. 12-17.

And therefore we labour, whether absent or present, to please
Him.

For we must all appear before the judgment-seat of Christ,
that every one may receive the proper things of the body, accord-
ing as he hath done, whether it be good or evil.

Knowing therefore the fear of the Lord we persuade men ;
but to God we are manifest. And I trust also that in your con-
sciences we are manifest.

We commend not ourselves again to you, but give you occa-
sion to glory in our behalf, that you may have somewhat to an-
swer them who glory in face, and not in heart. — St. Paul, IL
Cor. v. 9-12.

Whether we consider ourselves, our bodies so
fearfully and wonderfully made, our souls gifted
with divine attributes ; or the universal order and

I06 THE LAST JUDGMENT.

harmony of the physical world; whatever we
consider or wherever we turn our eyes, we see
the most abundant evidences of the existence of a
Supreme Being, and of one, too, of infinite power
and boundless perfection.

But when we turn our eyes from the physical
to the moral world ; when we behold the cause of
virtue, which is necessarily the cause of God,
trampled in the dust ; when we see the prosper-
ous impunity which iniquity enjoys ; when we see
that it is not the God-fearing, but the God-defy-
ing, that, for the most part, possess the earth ;
when we see the virtuous poor piercing heaven
with their cries against the wrongs they suffer
from the tyrant rich ; we find nothing, indeed, to
invalidate the proof of the existence of God,
which all things afford ; but we find much to per-
plex the mind, much which we can, but with dif-
ficulty, reconcile with the existence of a God, all-
wise and all-good.

Of course, this is because we take too con-
tracted a view of things ; all this is because we
shut off from our minds the light of Revelation ;
all this is because we are not in a position to take
in from end to end God's eternal designs.

But, if we expand our mental vision, if we let
the light of Revelation fall upon our minds, if we
trace the course of God's mysterious providence
to its final consummation, in the day when He
shall judge the world in justice,— when every man
shall receive his deserts, when the wicked shall be
covered \vith shame and confusion and the just
shall receive glory before the assembled world, —

THE LAST JUDGMENT. 107

when the moral order, subverted during this life,
shall be readjusted in the heavenly balance ; then
all perplexity ceases, and we find no difficulty in
reconciling with God's gracious providence the
permission of the grievous wrongs and black
crimes which we see so frequently in the world.
His ways are cleared up. His providence is jus-
tified before all men. The moral world, no less
than the physical, bespeaks the wisdom and good-
ness of God.

Behold, in what we have said, the reason, why,
in addition to the judgment wliich each one
undergoes at the hour of death, a general judg-
ment still awaits all men at the end of the world.
On that great day, when an all-just God shall re-
ward the just, and punish the wicked, we shall
understand the mysterious dispensation which, in
this life, so often permitted the good to suffer, and
the wicked to prosper.

We ma}^ perchance, tliink that divine provi-
dence is sufficientl}^ made known, and justified, by
the sentence pronounced on each one, at the hour
of death. We must remember that this sentence
is hidden from all, save him upon whom it is
passed. It is not published to all men. At the
general judgment, this sentence shall be re -af-
firmed before the whole world.

Besides; the purpose of the final judgment is
not so much the trial of individual men, as the
manifestation, before the whole human race, of the
accomplishment of God's mysterious providence,
in the midst, or, rather, in spite of human pas-
sions and human perversity. It will also serve

I08 THE LAST JUDGMENT.

to show, why divine goodness allowed the enor-
mous evils which we see everywhere in human
society.

When will this great investigation take place ?
" No one knows ; not even the angels, not even
the Son of God," says St. Luke. Of course, he is
to be understood to mean, that the Son knows it
not, in order to reveal it. For every thing that
the Father hath, the Son hath. They are the
same God. It is one of these things the knowl-
edge of which God has reserved to Himself. We
know that certain great signs will precede it. The
Gospel must first be preached to all nations as a
testimony, and then will come the consumma-
tion. The Antichrist must first come: '* If, in that
day, they say to you, lo ! here is Christ, or there,
believe it not, for the Antichrist must first come,
the son of perdition ; and then will come the
end." Faith will have grown faint in the hearts
of men : '' Think you that the Son of Man, on his
coming, will find faith upon the earth ! "

Of one thing, however, we may rest assured.
When it comes, it will come suddenly, and there
will be no mistaking it : " The day of the Son of
Man will come as a thief in the night." For
what other purpose has God made it one of those
things which no one knows, not even the angels,
if it is not that it should come when we least ex-
pect it? *' Be ye ready, for ye know not the day
nor the hour, when the Son of Man will come."
There will be no mistaking it : " For even as the
light rises in the East, and sets in the West, so
will the coming of the Son of Man be." It will

THE LAST JUDGMENT. IO9

be preceded by such signs, as will leave no doubt
of its being at hand.

After all, it is a matter of no great practical im-
portance, when it will come. It comes to every
man at the hour of death. The day of our death
is the day of our judgment. As we fall, so we
shall remain. The sentence pronounced upon
the soul, at the moment when it leaves the body,
will never be reversed.

"Where will this great assize be held?" the
curious may ask. This, too, is a matter of little
moment. Yet, if wc are to answer, we would say
that it will be held, not in the different places
where men may find themselves, but in some par-
ticular spot or locality. The very object of the
general judgment, — the manifestation to all men
x)i the glory of the just, and the shame of the rep-
robate,— would seem to imply the necessity of
gathering together all men, in one place. It would
appear, that the gifts of a glorified body do not
include ubiquity, or the power of being present
everywhere at once. Nor can a glorified body
be cognizant of what is taking place elsewhere,
than where it actually is. Yet, that the purpose
of the general judgment may be fulfilled ; that the
wicked may be put to shame and exposed to the
scorn of mankind, and that the just may be held
up to the admiration of the world; it is necessa-
ry, either, that glorified bodies be endowed with
ubiquity ; or, that they be brought together in
one place, to be made cognizant of all that will
happen on that day. Even if a glorified body
possessed ubiquity, we should still have to believe

no THE LAST JUDGMENT.

that men would be judged, not in the spot where
they happen to be, but in some particular local-
ity. For the bodies of the damned, for whose
punishment the general judgment is especially
destined, will not be glorified : " We shall all, in-
deed, rise again, but we shall not all be changed."
Hence, we conclude that all men will be assem-
bled together, according to the words of Script-
ure : " Then will men be gathered together from
the four quarters of the world." Many are of
the opinion, that the place destined for this great
event, is the Valley of Josaphat.

But, let us hasten on to consider the words of
our text: "We must all appear." Who will be
judged ? You and I and all of us ; the young, the
old, every rank and condition of life ; those who
die in the flower of youth, and in the vigor of
manhood ; those who go down to the grave laden
with years. The king, the subject; the philos-
opher, and he who knew not his letters ; the gift-
ed, the giftless ; the bondman, and the freeman ;
he who revelled in luxury, he who toiled in indi-
gence, shall all be reduced to the same level, and
stand before the same tribunal. All men ; all
races, tribes, peoples ; Catholics and infidels and
pagans; Jews and heretics ; those who have never
heard the name of Christ ; those with whom it has
been the first lisp and the dying sigh ; the men
who lived before the flood ; those whose bones
have lain within earth's bosom thousands of years;
those who are born at the sound of the iVrchan-
gel's trumpet; all who have ever trod the earth,
or hereafter will appear upon it, till time shall be

THE LAST JUDGMENT. Ill

no more, must all, one day, stand before the judg-
ment-seat of Christ.

A fearful multitude will this surely be ; a mul-
titude more numerous, by far, than the angels
who fell from heaven ; a multitude so vast, that
the earth would seem insufficient to contain it.
Yes ; on that mighty day, decisive of the eternal
destinies of our race, at the sound of the Arch-
angel's trumpet, the graveyards of the earth will
open, and yield forth the uncounted millions who
lie beneath its surface ; the earth itself will give
back the untold multitudes, which it has, in all
ages, in its horrible convulsions, swallowed up ;
the great ocean shall roll back, and disgorge from
its horrid abyss, all those who have therein found
an untimely grave.

While all this is going on ; while men are has-
tening from their last resting place where death
has laid them in the four quarters of the world,
to the Valley of Judgment ; while the vision of
the prophet is, to the letter, fulfilled ; and the
bones of men are once more united together, and
again clothed with the flesh, and reanimated with
the spirit, the other words of Scripture are veri-
fied : '' The sun is darkened, the moon is changed
into blood ; " the stars rush from their spheres, and
fall from heaven ; the powers of earth are shaken ;
the elements are in dissolution ; the earth is con-
vulsed to its very centre ; continent is torn from
continent ; islands are submerged ; the mighty
ocean, partaking in the general disturbance, ris-
ing from its bed, mountains high, falls upon the
earth, sweeping away the cities, and every other

112 THE LAST JUDGMENT.

vestige of the pride and pomp and magnificence
of man. The whole world is in the throes of dis-
solution. Already appear the lurid flames of the
conflagration destined to consume the world and
reduce it to eternal ashes. A dread, uniform si-
lence, unbroken save by the sound of the Arch-
angel's trumpet, and the noise of the warring
elements, pervades all nature. Even irrational
nature, the wild beasts of the forest, beside them-
selves with the terror inspired by the scene
around them, start from their haunts, and seek
the companionship of man. Then shall the tribes
of the earth mourn ; then shall the nations be dis-
tressed ; then shall men wail and wither away
with terror, at the sight of Divine Justice.

And yet this confusion, and these death-throes
of an expiring world, are but a feeble image of
the wild confusion, the bitter anguish and blank
despair of every human breast. What idle re-
grets, what unavailing remorse will then fill
the souls of men ! I know not what, on that day,
will be the feelings of the man, who has passed
his days in acquiring, with infinite industry, his
vast possessions, — ^in piling up mountains of gold,
when he sees them all involved in the common
ruin of all things. I know not what, on that day,
will be the sentiments of the unbeliever who tort-
ures his ingenuity to justify his unbelief ; when
he beholds, before his eyes, the very event which
he has so often laughed to scorn. I know not
what the satisfaction, on that day, the remem-
brance of the forbidden pleasures, enjoyed in this
life, will give the sinner, when he realizes that they

THE LAST JUDGMENT. II3

have caused the loss of the immortal pleasure of
seeing God, and brought upon him unending woe.
What then shall be thought of the bauble, which
men pursue so eagerly, of human fame and glor}- ;
when every human soul shall undergo the rigid
scrutiny of an all-seeing God who sees the secrets
of hearts, and who will judge all things not ac-
cording to the corrupt maxims of this life, but ac-
cording to the eternal maxims of right and truth.
How many of the judgments of this world shall
then be reversed ! What will be the bitter an-
guish of the man who feels that he has lost his
soul! what profit will it then be, to have gained
all things else, and to have failed in the one thing
necessary ! Loss it is, which eternity alone can de-
clare, to have lost one's immortal soul. But who
can measure the height, and depth, and breadth of
the crime of having caused the loss of the souls
of others. Then, will thousands arise, and de-
mand vengeance upon the murderers of their
souls. Nor will their demand pass unheeded by
Him who has declared that it is better for a man
never to have been born, or to be cast into the
sea with a millstone around his neck, than that
he should become a rock of scandal to souls pur-
chased at the price of His all-holy blood.

He who can imagine the feelings of the human
breast, at one of those awful moments which
paralyze the hearts of a population, and which
bring home to him, in accents which preacher
never uttered, the vanity of all things human;
when the earth reels and totters, in some terrible
convulsion, and opens, in a yawning abyss, ready

114 THE LAST JUDGMENT.

to swallow a whole people, can, perhaps, picture
to himself the sentiments of the reprobate at the
last day. They will call upon the hills to cover
them, and the mountains to annihilate them, from
the face of an angry God.

Do not think, for a moment, that I have exag-
gerated any statement, or that I have, in the least,
overdrawn the picture. Bear in mind, that I
have hardly departed from the words of Script-
ure. There may be those who, because they
have sinned with impunity, all their lives long,
and have experienced so little of Divine Justice,
have become unmindful of it. There may be
others, who delude themselves with the thought,
that God is too merciful to visit His creatures
with so searching a judgment. They may think,
too, that He can not be so inexorably just, as to
punish eternally. But the past history of our
race supplies but little encouragement to this
thought, so gratifying to human passion and sin.
His attributes can not war with one another. His
mercy can not exclude His justice. It is, indeed,
above all His works ; yet. He must ever remain,
essentially, a God of justice.

Call to mind that day of judgment, when all,
save those who were in the Ark, perished in the
flood. Remember the one hundred and eighty-
five thousand Assyrians put to the sword, in one
night, by the Avenging Angel. Reflect upon the
fate of Sodom and Gomorrah, and the other
cities of the plain, which, together with their
crimes, lie buried at the bottom of the Dead Sea.
These are but a few of the signal instances of di-

THE LAST JUDGMENT. II5

vine vengeance, which the holy Scriptures afford.
Yet, from these, we may learn something of God's
swift and fearfid justice.

Then will appear the sign of the Son of Man
in heaven : " And you will see the Son of Man
coming in the clouds of heaven, with great power
and majesty." He will come, seated upon a
great white throne, surrounded with the powers
and principalities of 'heaven. No human imagi-
nation can picture the unearthly grandeur, the
awe-inspiring character of that tribunal ; and the
wild confusion of the sinner, at that presence, be-
fore which the angels tremble, and heaven and
earth would fade away. How different from His
first coming, will be that second glorious ad-
vent of the Son of Man ! This difference is deter-
mined by the different character of the mission
on which He will then come. On His first com-
ing into the world, He came on a mission of love
and mercy. When He comes again, He will
come on a mission of justice and vengeance. He,
then, came to ransom, at the price of His blood,
a world of immortal spirits condemned to death.
He came to teach them, that detachment from
this life is the only hope and assurance of eternal
happiness in the next; to teach this lesson, by
His own high example ; both, in the manner in
which He came into the world, and the life which
He led while in it. He exhibited the loftiest supe-
riority to all human weakness ; the most utter de-
tachment from all human things ; the sublimest
contempt for the ways, and maxims, and wisdom
of men.

Il6 THE LAST JUDGMENT.

But, on His second coming, it will be no longer
on an errand of mercy. He will come, sent into
the world by His Eternal Father, as the judge of
the living and the dead. He will come not as the
mediator, not extended upon the cross, as on a
throne of mercy, offering Himself as victim, be-
tween the uplifted anger of God, and the sins of
men ; but as the avenger, charged with the inter-
ests of Divine Justice against those who, during
life, have despised His mercy, made void His
atonement, and put Him before men to an open
shame.

The chaos and confusion of the physical world,
will be but a feeble image of the bitter agon}^ the
intense anguish of every sinful breast. The sin-
ner shall look upon Him whom he has crucified;
upon His thorn-crowned head ; His nail-pierced
hands ; His opened side ; and, filled with the con-
sciousness of his base perfidy and black ingrati-
tude, he will wish the rocks to fall upon him and
annihilate him ; he will curse the day in which
he was born. He will not need any word of re-
proach from Jesus his Saviour. The repetition
of the look which He cast upon Judas, will be
enough to remind him of his treachery and base-
ness. Then, will come rushing upon his mind
the remembrance of all that Jesus has done to
save him ; yet, in spite of all, he is lost ; lost, in
defiance of the priceless ransom of Christ's pre-
cious blood, shed so lavishly for his sake ; lost,
when a hundredth part of the time and care given
to the world, and the gratification of passion, em-
ployed in the work of salvation, would have num-

THE LAST JUDGMENT. II7

bered him among the saints, who stand around
the throne of God. The load of his sad misfort-
une shall crush him to the very earth.

Many things which now, we little understand,
because we so little reflect upon them, and be-
cause they are so far removed from the sphere of
our ordinary thoughts, in the light which will,
on that day, fill the world and illume the souls of
men, will present themselves to us, with an evi-
dence and reality which we never before dreamed
of. Then, shall we understand the mystery of
Christ's redeeming love. Then, shall we realize,
for the first time, the unfathomable depth of
meaning contained in this, the most unsearchable
of the mysteries of God. Then, in the light which
this great mystery sheds upon all things, in heav-
en and on earth, we shall understand the nature
of sin, the fall of Adam, the eternity of reward
and punishment, God's wondrous providence, and
all those other truths which, here below, we so
poorly comprehend. Then, finally, will men learn
and keenly feel, what before they would never
learn and never felt, that, in all this wide world,
with all its countless enterprises and manifold
cares, with which men amuse themselves, and
lose the time given them for a nobler purpose,
there were four, and only four, facts of sovereign
interest, of undying importance, and alone worthy
the attention of immortal beings : God, the hu-
man soul, the Blood that was shed for it, and the
soul's fidelity to God's holy law. Of all things
else, except in so far as they will bear upon these
supreme issues, no account will be made, on that

Il8 THE LAST JUDGMENT.

day. They will form no part of the investiga-
tion of that final judgment.

And then will come the investigation of the
hearts of men ; the showing forth of the glory
of the elect, and the shame of the reprobate.
For we must all be manifested before the judg-
ment-seat of Christ. Nor will this investiga-
tion be necessarily a lengthy one. For, as I
have just said, the subject matter of this exami-
nation will be contracted to the very narrow lim-
its of what the soul has done and suffered for
salvation. Besides, our conscience, on that day,
will be our worst accuser. It will bear its testi-
mony ; the thoughts of our hearts mutually ac-
cusing, or even defending one another.

Moreover, no man will need to learn his eter-
nal doom. From the moment of his death, he
knows that the general judgment will not reverse
the sentence then passed upon him, but will be
to him a re -affirming of that sentence, and the
increase of his woe. For then, his body will be
condemned to share the eternal sufferings of his
soul.

Although not lengthy, this examination will be
most searching. In the emphatic language of the
Scripture, our hearts will be turned inside out.
The light issuing from the throne of G(k1, will
penetrate into the inmost recesses of our hearts,
and souls, and minds ; and show, to the assembled
world, our deeds of darkness, our works of shame ;
our fidelity as soldiers of Christ, fighting the
l^attle of salvation against our sworn enemies, the
tk'sli, tlic world and the devil, following our great

THE LAST JUDGMENT. 1 19

captain along- the narrow and rugged and blood-
stained path that leads to life ; or, our perfidy in
abandoning the standard of salvation, and enrol-
ling ourselves under the prince of this world, and
treading that broad, and easy, and luxurious path,
so easily found, and so generally pursued.

And then will come the separation. The whole
human family will, in an instant, file off into two
great divisions ; the one standing to the right, and
the other to the left of Jesus. And now, are ful-
filled the words of Scripture : '' Two women will
be grinding at the mill ; one will be taken, and
the other will be left." You are a father and a
mother: the mother is assiduous in the discharge
of her religious duties, careful, by word and ex-
ample, to imbue her children with a love of re-
ligion, and to form their minds, while yet young,
to the practice of virtue ; the father heedless of
his duties to himself, his children, and his God ;
perhaps, even a member of some forbidden so-
ciety, which has weaned his affections from the
Church, and led to his entire neglect of the sacra-
ments, leaving him a Catholic in nothing, but in
name. " The one will be taken, the other will
be left." You are two sisters: one modest, retir-
ing, carefully shunning those frivolities, and vani-
ties, and amusements which are sure, in the long
run, to lead to sin ; fearful, lest even the shadow
of sin should cross her path ; the other ; bold, for-
ward, devoted to fashion and pleasure, wantonly
exposing herself to the occasion of sin. '' The one
will be taken, the other will be left." You are
two men: both devoted to business; the one,

120 THE LAST JUDGMENT.

howev^er, keeping before him for his guidance the
law of the Gospel, careful to avoid sin, frequent
in the reception of the sacraments, and if he
seeks the goods of this life, yet seeks them in
reference to the one thing necessary, — the salva-
tion of his soul, which he makes the object of his
chief solicitude; the other; recognizing no law,
but the law of gain, stopping at no crime that
stands in the way of his interest or passion, never
once bestowing a serious thought on his final des-
'tiny, living as if there were no future life, living
as if his destiny were one with the beasts of the
field, to sink into the earth to rise no more. " The
one will be taken, the other will be left." Then
will the pagan who has never heard the name of
Christ come and take the place of the baptized
Catholic ; because, although not possessing the
Faith, he was faithful to the natural law written
in his heart, and corresponded with the grace suffi-
cient for salvation, which is given to every man ;
while the Catholic having, as a birthright, a faith
that would do credit to an angel, yet had char-
ity so little, that of it a pagan would have been
ashamed.

The separation made ; what remains but that
the eternal sentence be pronounced. Turning
to the vast multitude at His right, Jesus will
say : " Come, ye blessed of My Father, possess
the Kingdom prepared for 3'Ou, from the founda-
tion of the world ; for I was hungry, and you gave
me to eat, thirsty, and you gave me to drink,
naked, and you clothed me, in prison, and you
visited me. Even as you did it unto one of these

THE LAST JUDGMENT. 121

little ones, so did ye it likewise unto me. Enter
into the joys of the Lord." Turning to the rest
of mankind, He will utter the eternal curse : " De-
part from me, ye wicked, into the ev^erlasting fire
prepared for the devil, and his angels. For I was
hungry, and you gave me not to eat; thirsty, and
you gave me not to drink, naked, and you clothed
me not; in prison, and you visited me not. So
long as ye did it not unto one of these little ones,
ye did it not unto me."

Thus, will all things come to an end. Thus,
will be the final consummation of the dread con-
flict between good and evil. Thus, will God's
providence in this world be cleared up. Thus,
will His ways be justified before all men. Thus,
will be the end of time ; the beginning of eter-
nity.

I have placed before you the general judgment.
It is appointed to each of us, one day, to undergo
this judgment. What have we done, what are we
doing, that we may receive the favorable sentence?
what are we doing for our eternal salvation ?
Seventy years is the time allotted, in Scripture,
to a virtuous and well-spent life. Few of us can
hope to reach it ; few of us actually do reach it.
Yet, even if, in God's providence, we are destined
to reach it, there are few who now hear me, who
have not already passed one half, and, it may be,
two thirds of it ; while many of you are already
in the decline of life. Take the few years that yet
remain to any one of you, and reduce them to
days, and you will find that but a few thousand
days of life yet remain, even to the youngest

122 THE LAST JUDGMENT.

among you. Yet what are you doing for your
souls ? Youth given to passion, finds but little
time, and less inclination to think of salvation,
and defers it to manhood. Manhood comes, and
finds even less time and less inclination to attend
to the one thing necessary, and postpones it to
old age. Look around you, and you will see
old age as eager in the pursuit of this world's
goods, and with as little care of salvation, as in
the bloom of youth. And thus, from youth to
manhood, and from manhood to old age, and
from old age to the grave, is the one thing
needful neglected, in man's eager pursuit of the
phantoms of this life. Not until the shadows of
death are gathering, thick and fast, about our last
sick-bed ; not until we feel its mortal chill cours^
ing through our veins and paralyzing all our
faculties ; not until we see the grave yawning to
receive us ; not until then, do we feel the empti-
ness of this life, the unprofitableness of all human
pursuits, the all - importance of the one thing
necessary. So has it been from the beginning ;
so it will be until the end. Age succeeds age,
generation succeeds generation ; and it has the
same story of human blindness and wilfulness to
narrate. Be assured, that the day of our judg-
ment will be sudden and unlooked-for. As we
fall, so shall we lie. It is high time to wake from
the sleep of death; and to employ, in the work of
salvation, the few days that yet remain to us. Be
assured, that some of you shall have undergone
judgment, before you shall again hear the min-
ister of Christ announce it.

TI-iE NEW YORK

PUBLIC LIBRARY,

ASTOR, LENOX A>JD
TILOEN FOL)(V0aT/O\5.

ON THE GREATNESS OF GOD.

Get thee up upon a high mountain, thou that bringest good
tidings to Sion : Hft up thy voice with strength, thou that bring-
est good tidings to Jerusalem : lift it up, fear not. Say to the
cities of Juda : Behold your God :

Behold the Lord God shall come with strength, and his arm
shall rule : Behold his reward is with him and his work is be-
fore him.

He shall feed his flock like a shepherd : he shall gather to-
gether the lambs with his arm, and shall take them up in his
bosom, and he himself shall carry them that are with' young.

Who hath measured the waters in the hollow of his hand, and
weighed the heavens with his palm? who hath poised with
three fingers the bulk of the earth, and weighed the mountains
in scales, and the hills in a balance ?

Who hath forwarded the spirit of the Lord ? or who hath
been his counsellor, and hath taught him ?

With whom hath he consulted, and who hath instructed him,
and taught him the path of justice, and taught him knowledge,
and shewed him the way of understanding ?

Behold the Gentiles are as a drop of a bucket, and are counted
as the smallest grain of a balance : behold the islands are as a
little dust.

And Libanus shall not be enough to burn, nor the beasts
thereof sufficient for a burnt-offering.

All nations are before him as if they had no being at all, and
are counted to him as nothing, and vanity.

To whom then have you likened God ? or what image will
you make for him ?

Hath the workman cast a graven statue ? or hath the gold-
smith formed it with gold, or the silversmith with plates of sil-
ver ?

124 ON THE GREATNESS OF GOD.

He hath chosen strong wood, and that will not rot : the skil-
ful workman seeketh how he may set up an idol that may not
be moved.

Do you not know ? hath it not been heard ? hath it not been
told you from the beginning ? have you not understood the
foundations of the earth ?

It is he that sitteth upon the globe of the earth, and the in-
habitants thereof are as locusts : he that stretcheth out the heav-
ens as nothing, and spreadeth them out as a tent to dwell in.

He that bringeth the searchers of secrets to nothing, that hath
made the judges of the earth as vanity.

And surely their stock was neither planted, nor sown, nor
rooted in the earth : suddenly he hath blown upon them, and
they are withered, and a whirlwind shall take them away as
stubble.

And to whom have ye likened me, or made me equal, saith
the holy One.

Lift up your eyes on high, and see who hath created these
things: who bringeth out their host by number, and calleth
them all by their names : by the greatness of his might, and
strength, and power, not one of them was missing.

Why sayest thou, O Jacob, and speakest, O Israel : Aly way
is hid from the Lord, and my judgment is passed over from my
God?

Knowest thou not, or hast thou not heard ? the Lord is the
everlasting God, who hath created the ends of the earth : he
shall not faint, nor labour, neither is there any searching out of
his wisdom.

It is he that giveth strength to the weary, and increaseth force
and might to them that are not.

Youths shall faint, and labour, and young men shall fall by
infirmity.

But they that hope in the Lord shall renew their strength,
they shall take wings as eagles, they shall run and not be weary,
they shall walk and not faint. — Isaiah xi. 9-31.

The human heart is instinctively Christian.
When left to itself, it instinctively recognizes the

ON THE GREATNESS OF GOD. 12$

existence of God, and of but one God. When
polytheism prevailed throughout the greater part
of the world, even then, the voice of rational
nature, in times of peril, or when left to its spon-
taneous dictates, invoked not the Gods of the
prevailing superstition, but, contemning the poly-
theism of the period, gave testimony to the truth
written in its heart, by calling upon one supreme
and infinite Being. The consciousness that pro-
claims the existence of God, proclaims at the
same time His infinitude and perfection. It is to
the greatness of God, His infinite nature and
boundless attributes, that I would, this morning,
invite your attention.

It is very easy to say that we know God is in-
finite. But to know something, is not to realize
it and bring it home to the mind. We know our
souls to be immortal. We profess to believe the
great truths of religion ; yet how few realize
these truths, and bring them home to the heart
and mind, so that they enter and become woven
into the very character and texture of their lives?
It is the same when we speak of numbers. We
have no difificulty in repeating, and in seeming to
understand, a million or a million million ; but
when we try to realize or pictui-e to ourselves so
great a number, then it is, that we feel the weak-
ness of the mind, and its insufficiency to grasp so
vast a conception. It is pretty much the same,
when we speak of the infinitude of God. We
find no difficulty in uttering the word ; but when
we try to realize what is meant bv His infini-
tude, then it is, that the human mind having

126 ON THE GREATNESS OF GOD.

soared to the bosom of God, falls back to the
earth, exhausted and undone. Yet, we should
not be content with merely repeating that God is
infinite, without seeking to give a meaning to the
words we utter. It should be our pleasure, to
weigh our words, to sound their meaning, to pro-
claim to ourselves the truths they contain. We
shall never be able to conceive, even approxi-
mately, the attributes of God ; but the very effort
will impress them upon our mind. Besides, from
the inability of reason to form even an inadequate
notion of the divine nature, we shall draw the
very important lesson, suggestive indeed of His
greatness, that God must be wondrously great,
when the human mind can form no idea of His
nature.

When we apply the word infinite to God, it is
well to remark that we use it, not in the sense in
which it is generally employed, but in its strict
philosophical meaning : so great that He cannot
be greater ; not merely that the mind cannot con-
ceive a greater ; but that outside of the human
mind, and regardless of its efforts, there cannot
be a greater.

First, then, call to mind that God is self-exist-
ent; that He exists from His own nature; that
He draws existence from no external cause ;
otherwise. He were not God ; nor even from Him-
self, as from a cause; otherwise. He were the
cause of Himself, which is absurd. He exists
from the very necessity of His essence, from the
very exigence of His nature ; essence and exist-
ence are identical in God. We cannot conceive

ON THE GREATNESS OF GOD. 1 27

God, not existing. As we cannot think of a tri-
angle without three sides, so, we cannot think of
God, without conceiving Him in existence. The
human mind is utterly powerless to understand,
even in the most imperfect manner, how God can
exist, and never have come into being. We can-
not understand how anything can be without be-
ginning. Our idea is this : everything has a
beginning, and an end ; it was, once, but in a
possible state ; a cause was required to lead it
from its ideal state, and confer upon it the reality
of existence. But God was never Jn an ideal or
possible state. He always possessed the fulness
of existence.

If God is so absoluteLy sufficient for Himself,
that He is self-existent. He is necessarily an infinite
Being ; if God, in His own nature, includes ex-
istence. He necessarily includes all other perfec-
tions. Existence is the greatest of perfections ;
if He includes existence. He includes all per-
fections of inferior nature. Existence is the
choicest gift, the noblest perfection. Even the
smallest atom that God has made, by the mere
fact that it exists, is a more perfect creature than
the most beautiful world God's mind can con-
ceive, if such a world is not in actual existence.
Existence is, then, the greatest of all perfections.
God, having existence, has all other perfections.
It is only because God is infinite, that He is self-
existent ; self-existence is but the consequence of
His infinite nature. If we establish that God is
self-existent, we establish that God is infinite, as a
consequence, and we also establish that He is in-

128 ON THE GREATNESS OF GOD.

finitely perfect, with every manner of perfection,
in His nature and attributes. He that is self-ex-
istent must, by the very impulse, the very ten-
dency, the very force, of his being, (if we may so
speak) be infinite in his nature and perfections.

Having shown you that God is self-existent ;
that he is independent of all things else ; that He
is not the cause of Himself ; that He could not
withdraw Himself from existence ; and having
shown you that God's self-existence is the proof
and consequence of His infinite perfection, let us
consider some of the effects that flow from this
unspeakable prerogative of the Divine Nature.

First; if God is self -existent, He has always
been in existence. There never was a time, when
He was not. Go back in thought as far as you
may ; go back before man was created ; before
the foundations of the world were laid ; before
the heavenly spirits were summoned into being ;
reckon the uncounted ages of the past, as so many
moments ; travel back until your reason staggers
and your imagination reels with your efforts to
grasp the eternity of God ; as far as you can go,
you will find God in being ; you will be as far
from finding anv beginning of Him, at the end of
all your efforts, as at first. Surely, here is -mys-
tery greater than any that religion makes known
to us ; here is something that is enough to abash
all human pride, and make it confess the all mar-
vellousness of God, and the utter insignificance
of all things else.

Again; travel forward to the time, when the
world will cease to be; when the mountains will

ON THE GREATNESS OF GOD. 1 29

fade away, and the great seas dry up ; when all
nature will be reduced to its original nothing ;
when time will be no more ; when eternities of
eternities will have rolled around the throne of
God, He, the Ancient of days, will be as young
and as immortal, as in the first dawn of the
aurora. This, surely, is a vast conception ; infi-
nitely greater than any our minds have yet con-
ceived.

And now, I will make a remark in which, per-
haps, our reason distressed by its efforts to grasp
God's eternal duration, will find some relief. But,
I fear, that if reason can find any comfort in it, it
will be the comfort of despair; it will be because
the thought is so absolutely beyond all human
power of comprehension, that we cannot, at all,
begin to comprehend it. It is this; that in God
there is no such thing as past eternity, nor future
eternity ; no such thing as ages or thousands or
millions of years. These are but the puny ef-
forts of reason, to comprehend God's eternal be-
ing. God's eternity is but one indivisible mo-
ment. God foresees nothing. He sees all things.
Eternity admits of no past or present or future.
It is one uninterrupted day ; no continuation, no
succession, no change. It is the complete and
simultaneous possession of all duration. Time is
not a part of eternity. Time or succession is
found only where there is change. There is no
change in God. Time is confined to man. Time
is but succession or mutation. In God there is
no succession or mutation. Here is a thought,
even greater than that which I suggested in car-

I30 ON THE GREATNESS OF GOD.

rying you back before the world was made to all
eternity ; and then carrying you forward to that
period, when the world shall cease to be, and
God shall continue to exist, even as before the
first dawn of creation.

God is a being who is absolutely sufficient for
Himself. We sometimes imagine that God's hap-
piness depends, in some manner, upon us ; that it
was even some regard for His own felicity that
induced the Lord to die for us. This is a great
error. God is infinitely sufficient for Himself.
He is independent of us ; we are not necessary to
His happiness or glory ; our perdition would not,
in the least, disturb His imperturbable tranquil-
lity, His supreme bliss, His perpetual joy. Before
the world was made, before time began, before
He had balanced all things in the palm of His
hand, " Before He had measured the waters in
the hollow of His hand, and meted out heaven
with a span, and comprehended the dust of the
earth in a measure, and weighed the mountains
in scales, and the hills in a balance," — from ever-
lasting, God existed by Himself. He was su-
premely happy with Himself. He found unin-
terrupted occupation, supreme felicity in the
contemplation of Himself. He found in the con-
templation of His Divine Essence, work enough
for the tireless energy and inexhaustible activity
of the Divine Intellect. We see then how little
necessary Ave are for God ; how little we are ca-
pable of marring, even for a moment, the course
of bliss and glory which He has enjoyed from all
eternity.

ON THE GREATNESS OF GOD. 131

God is immutable. This we cannot under-
stand. Everything that is limited is changeable ;
therefore everything is changeable but God. St.
Thomas says, " Life is motion ; " and we ma}' add,
life is change. There is change within us, around
us; change in all things that God has made. But
in God there is no change, nor the shadow of
change. What changes, loses that which it had,
or acquires that which it formerly had not. If it
loses what it had, it is no longer what it was; if it
acquires what it had not, it shows its capacity of
further increase ; and in either case is finite. All
that God has made, either, gets something it had
not, or, loses something it had ; hence everything
is changeable. But God, alone, remains immutable
amidst all-changing things. In Him there is not
the slightest mutation. His counsels are from
everlasting. The creation of the world was de-
termined before all time. The incarnation and
death of His Divine Son was ordained, before the
foundation of the world. Nothing that God does
is a mutation. It is but the fulfilment of what,
from all eternity. He proposed at a certain period
to do.

If, my friends, we pass from the consideration
of God's nature in itself, to the works He has
done ; we find everything to fill us with wonder,
to manifest to us, in the most vivid manner, His
omnipotence and the infinite perfection of His
divine nature.

God then at a given period created the world.
Have you ever reflected on what it is to create ?
The word is so often used to designate that which

132 ON THE GREATNESS OF GOD.

is, properly, but formation or production, that we
seldom give it its due meaning. To make, is to
form or produce something out of that which
already exists ; to give something a form or shape
which it had not already possessed. To create, is
to produce not the form or shape, but the very
material or substance ; and that, too, out of noth-
ing. To make is Avithin the power of man. To
create is the attribute of God alone. Between
something conceived as possible, and that some-
thing in existence, there is an infinite distance ;
an immeasurable interval ; an impassable gulf.
None but infinite power can cross that distance,
can measure that interval, can span that gulf. No
human will can give us any idea of the creative
power of God. We know what the human will is,
and what it is capable of. We know the marvels
it has accomplished among men, in science, in
literature, on the field of battle and elsewhere. It
is indeed man's divinest endowment, and that in
which he most resembles his Creator. But the
human will in its highest type, can give us no
illustration of, nor explain the mysterious nature,
and still more mysterious operation, and infinite
fecundity of God's omnipotent Will; for this
world, and all that God has made is the result of
His Creative Power. Do our best, we can never,
at all, understand the resistless energv, the all-
mighty, all -effecting power of the Divine Will.
The all-powerful Will of God has this preroga-
tive: that it commands, and it is at once obeyed.
He can say, let there be light, and, at once,
there is light ; let the seas be gathered together,

ON THE GREATNESS OF GOD. 133

and, in the same instant, the mighty oceans are
formed. By this Will, inconceivable and irre-
sistible, God has made all things. He has not
been content to create this little earth on which
we tread ; He has made the universe, so vast,
so stupendous, so illimitable ! — the universe so
boundless, that light travelling at the portentous
rapidity of 186,000 miles in a second of time, sent
on its mission ages ago, has not yet reached this
planet of ours ; — the universe n;ade up of count-
less multitudes of worlds, and of systems of
worlds, that roll in the distant realms of space.

It is when we consider some of the facts of as-
tronomy, that we begin to catch some glimpse of
the boundless power of God, and the all-marvel-
lousness of His creations. When we reflect that
the sun is one million times greater than the
earth ; that it would take a missile, sent with a
velocity which the human mind cannot con-
ceive, twenty-four years to reach the sun ; 750,000
years to reach the nearest fixed star; 100,000,000
years to reach the farthest fixed star that we
know of ; we cannot but exclaim with the psalm-
ist who fostered his piety with considerations
such as I have been making use of: *' When, O
Lord, we consider the heavens which Thou hast
made, and the sun and moon which Thou hast
set ; what is man, that Thou shouldst be mindful
of him, or the son of man that thou shouldst visit
him ! " Well may we fall down before this God
of power and majesty, and adore Him from the
inmost recesses of our being, with every feeling
of humility and ever}' sentiment of reverence !

134 ON THE GREATNESS OF GOD.

Well may we join in the unceasing adoration
paid Him by the blessed spirits, and proclaim all
praise, power and glory to this God who lives
and reigns forever. He alone is great. All things
else are nothing.

When we look upon some piece of mechanism
devised with rare skill, say a watch or steam-en-
gine, in which human genius is conspicuous, we
marvel at its organization ; how elaborately it is
contrived ; how harmonious in all its movements ;
how simple, yet how complicated ; how multitu-
dinous in its parts and joints ; yet not one un-
necessary. And we, deservedly, form a high
idea of the wondrous intelligence required to con-
ceive, and of the masterful ability to form, so ex-
quisite a specimen of skill.

And yet, what is all this, compared to this
mighty world that God has made! What is all
this, to the divine workmanship exhibited in the
heavens ; to the mysteries of intelligence there re-
vealed to our contemplation ! What are all the
works of man and all the contrivances of human
ingenuity, to that work of God ever before our
eyes ; — worlds unnumbered in multitude, revolv-
ing in supreme order and harmony ; by their
mutual influences sustaining and controlling one
another ; some giving light to those dark of them-
selves ; others nurturing and supporting life and
fertility upon those distant millions of miles ; their
amazing size, perfect shape, dazzling splendor ;
resplendent mirror, in which are reflected the
beauty, wisdom and power of God, their Maker.

M}' dear friends, we seldom reflect upon the

ON THE GREATNESS OF GOD. 1 35

glory of God, as manifested in His works. We
see them from childhood ; we grow familiar with
them, and heed them not. If the wonderful
phenomena of nature did not take place every
day ; if they were but of rare occurrence, they
would impress us with an awful idea of God's in-
finite power and greatness. The sun that rises in
the east and sets in the west, and has done so for
thousands of years ; let this occur but once, and
all men would fall down and adore the Being
who created such a glorious body, and gifted it
with such marvellous motion. Let the moon
with her tranquil glory appear but once ; and it
would force from us the homage of our admira-
tion. Let us be told that this earth of ours,
which revolves upon its axis around the sun, will
do this but once, or, for the first time, in a thou-
sand years ; we would realize so great and por-
tentous a fact. If a man, full-grown should come
into the world and see those wonders for the first
time ; the mild glory of the moon, or the glorious
splendor of the sun, or the azure vault of heaven
bespangled with the myriads of worlds, which
the darkness discloses, he Avould be filled with
the sentiments of awe, and reverence, and praise,
and homage which they justly inspire ; he would
be impressed with a sublime idea of the nature
and omnipotence and perfection of the Almighty
Being, whom they bespeak.

It is not only in the distant realms of space,
that we look for the manifestation of the great-
ness and power of God. On this earth of ours ;
in the smallest atom of matter, or in one of the

136 ON THE GREATNESS OF GOD.

countless insects disclosed by the microscope, we
find fearful evidence, of the exactness and minute-
ness of God's omniscient, all-pervading intellect.
The vilest insect which is swept from the floor of
the noblest temple that man has ever built, is a
far greater manifestation of power and wisdom,
than the temple itself. That insect is afar greater
creation than the loftiest conception or highest
triumph of the human intellect. The smallest
atom of matter contains secrets which the wit of
man will never know ; betokens a genius and wis-
dom before which pales all human genius and wis-
dom ; discovers a divine workmanship and skill,
Avhich beggars the proudest efforts of human in-
genuity.

These are considerations which should lift our
hearts and minds in devout contemplation to
Him, of whose omnipotence all these wonders are
the result; whose glory they show forth. All the
wisdom and power and glory and magnificence,
that we see everywhere in nature; all the beauty
and loveliness that has been so copiously poured
upon it, are but the emanation and reflection of
God's own uncreated goodness and perfection.
There is no endowment in the creature that is
not contained, in a higher and fuller sense, in the
creator. All things good, all things beautiful, all
things true descend from Him, the source of
all beauty, light, and truth ; the Author of every
good and perfect gift.

The lessons to be drawn are these. Teaching
us God's infinite majesty, it ought to teach us our
own insignificance ; and, at the same time, our

ON THE GREATNESS OF GOD. 1 37

own importance and rank, seeing that we have
such a Being, for our first beginning and last end.
If God is as great, as we say He is, we should
be slow to offend this God of infinite majesty and
boundless power. If He is so great: the consid-
eration that His mercy is still greater, and above
all His works, should inspire us with the most
filial confidence and unshaken hope.

When we reflect, that even unaided reason dis-
covers greater mysteries in God, than any revela-
tion discloses ; we can, with greater facility, be-
lieve the truths which tlic Catholic Church
proposes to us. When we reflect upon His Di-
vine perfection and absorbing beauty ; we can
easily elicit the love of God, which consists in
preferring Him to all things, because He is infi-
nitely good and perfect and loveable in Himself;
and, therefore, necessarily deserving our love.

TflE iNEW YOPK

PUBLIC LIP^^ARV,

ALMSGIVING.

You shall tell my father of all my glory, and all things that
you have seen in Egypt : make haste and bring him to me.

And falling upon the neck of his brother Benjamin, he em-
braced him and wept : and Benjamin in like manner wept also
on his neck.

And Joseph kissed all his brethren, and wept upon every one
of them : after which they were emboldened to speak to him.

And it was heard, and the fame was abroad in the king's
court : The brethren of Joseph are come : and Pharao with all
his family was glad.

And when they had brought them, he gave them food in ex-
change for their horses, and sheep, and oxen, and asses : and
he maintained them that year for the exchange of their cattle.

And they came the second year, and said to him : We shall not
hide from our lord, how that our money is spent, and our cattle
also are gone : neither art thou ignorant that we have nothing
now left but our bodies and our lands.

Why therefore shall we die before thy eyes ? we shall be thine,
both we and our lands : buy us to be the king's servants, and
give us seed, lest for want of tillers the land be turned into a
wilderness.

So Joseph bought all the land of Egypt, every man selling his
possessions, because of the greatness of the famine. And he
brought it into Pharao's hands. — Genesis xlvii., 13-20.

The following sermon was preached in St. Pat-
rick's Cathedral, in 1881, on occasion of a collec-
tion to relieve the people of Ireland then stricken
with famine.

I40 ALMSGIVING.

The appeal which is made this day suggests
to me the fitness of speaking to you on the
duty of almsgiving ; the duty of relieving the
poor.

There may be those who think that there is no
strict obligation of giving alms ; that it is good
and praiseworthy and the evidence of a feeling
heart ; but, yet, a work of supererogation ; that a
man's goods are his own, and he is free to retain
them, or dispense them, as he pleases. This is a
great mistake. There is an obligation of giving
alms, I do not say, to every one ; but when the
case is such as entitles it to our help. This may
sometimes, not as a rule, however, become of
strict obligation. That surely must be of grave
obligation, upon which our Lord places the al-
ternatives of salvation or damnation. He tells us
that, on the last day. He will say to those who
have fulfilled their duty in this respect to their
fellow-men : '' Come, ye blessed of my Father,
possess the Kingdom prepared for you from the
foundation of the world. For I was hungry, and
ye gave Me to eat ; I was thirsty, and you gave
Me to drink ; I was a stranger, and you took Me
in ; naked, and ye covered Me ; sick, and ye vis-
ited Me ; I was in prison, and ye came to Me.
Then will the just answer Him, saying : Lord,
when did we see Thee hungry, and did feed
Thee; thirsty, and did give Thee drink? and
when did we see Thee a stranger, and did take
Thee in? or naked, and did cover Thee? or when
did we see Thee sick, or in prison, and did come
to Thee ? And the King will answer and say to

ALMSGIVING. I4I

them : Truly, I say to you, as long as ye did it to
one of the least of these my brethren, ye did it
to Me. Then will he say to those also on His left
hand : Depart from me, ye cursed, into the ever-
lasting fire which was prepared for the devil and
His angels. For I was hungry, and ye gave Me
nothing to eat ; I was thirsty, and ye gave Me not
to drink ; I was a stranger, and ye did not take
Me in ; naked, and ye did not cover Me ; sick,
and in prison, and ye did not visit Me. Then
they also will answer Him, saying: Lord, when
did we see Thee hungry, or thirsty, or a stranger,
or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not minis-
ter to Thee? Then He will answer them, saying:
Truly, I say to you, as long as ye did it not to one
of the least of these, neither did ye do it to Me.
And these shall go into everlasting punishment :
but the just into life everlasting." Indeed, our
Lord seems to attach a peculiar emphasis, a sur-
passing importance to this duty of almsgiving, in
seeming to make it the only matter on which the
issues of the last day shall turn. Of our other
obligations and of our accountability for them,
He seems to make no account.

However, it is not my intention to entertain
you with the explanations and distinctions of the-
ologians, touching this duty of almsgiving to the
poor. They are very useful in their place ; but
are not called for in a discourse such as the pres-
ent. If I can succeed in infusing into you a char-
itable spirit ; if I can impress upon you the duty,
in general, of being charitable to the poor ; if
3^our hearts feel aright on the subject, you will

142 ALMSGIVING.

not fail to share charity, when a suitable occasion
arises and a deserving object presents itself.

Men say that they have a right to their prop-
erty. I admit it. It is inviolable. But I contend
that with that right, they have received a duty ;
that the duty, in a manner, limits the right; that
often the duty becomes more sacred than the
right ; that, in extreme cases, the right of men
to what will save them from starvation, is greater
than the right the rich man has to his property.
In the beginning, the earth and all things were
given to men in common. But, as society pro-
gressed, its existence and welfare required that
the right of the first possessors of the land should
be held inviolable. You have then a right, an in-
defeasible right to your property ; whether you
have received it by inheritance, or it be the fruit
of your industry. Your right in this matter re-
sembles nothing more, as has been advanced by
a great writer, than one of the great growths of
nature. It is planted by God. It cannot be de-
feated by any human law or convention. It does
not depend upon any human reasoning. It is not
the result of any human compact.

The welfare, nay, even the existence of society
requires that there be grades in the condition of
men. This is necessary to extinguish sloth, to
stimulate energy, to foster and sustain human en-
terprise, to call into requisition men's abilities, and
to develop the resources of nature. They are as
necessary to society, as the varied levels of the
earth are to the fertility and productiveness of
nature. But we have only to look around, and

ALMSGIVING. 143

we shall often find that the disparity in the con-
dition of men is greater, b}^ far, than that which
is required for the well-being of society. We
shall find some revelling in luxury, with ever}^
gratification which caprice can suggest or wealth
procure. While others are reduced to utter des-
titution ; often crying for the food whereby to
support life. Can God ever have intended such
a state of things as this? Is He not the Father
of all, but especially of the poor? Does He not
make His sun to shine and His rain to fall upon
all, just and unjust? Can He who tempers His
wind to the shorn lamb, without whose high per-
mission, not even a sparrow falls; who has counted
the hairs of our head ; who clothes the lilies of the
field, which to-day are, and to-morrow are not, with
a raiment more glorious than that of Solomon ;
who feeds even irrational beings, with so plente-
ous a profusion ; — can He have ever meant that
man, the noblest work of His hands, should per-
ish from want of food to support the life which
He has given him?

How, then, are we to justify His providence, to
vindicate His goodness, seeing the appalling des-
titution of some, and the limitless resources of
others ? Has He supplied no means for the relief
of the poor? Yes, my Brethren, He has. He has
supplied such means in the superfluity of the rich.
The superfluity of the rich, is the sustenance of
the poor. The rich are His ^almoners to the poor.
The rich are the divinely appointed custodians
and guardians of the poor ; the channels through
which He wishes to communicate His abundance.

144 ALMSGIVING.

And thus, in the inscrutable wisdom of God, the
inequality which we see here below in the con-
dition of men, subserves His final providence in
the affairs of this life ; subserves the glory of the
elect. It becomes a source of merit to the rich
man, in affording him an opportunity to practise
that charit}^ to the poor which is the first of vir-
tues. It becomes a source of merit to the poor,
b}^ giving them an opportunity to bear with pa-
tience and resignation that state of life, in which
it has pleased God to cast their lot. And, as it is
the highest duty of the poor, to bear with patience
their lot ; so, it becomes the highest duty of the
rich, to see to it, that God's providence be not
cursed, nor His goodness called in question by
the impatient poor.

This duty of almsgiving to our fellow-man, is
taught us by the very best feelings of our nature.
God Himself has made the human soul; and
made it in His own image and likeness. He has
communicated to it something of His own divine
goodness. It is God Himself who speaks in the
heart through the emotions and voice of pity.
Who does not sympathize with the suffering ?
Who will not relieve the needy ? Who that is true
to the best instincts of his nature, does not fire
with indignation at the wrongs inflicted upon the
innocent, the fatherless, the destitute ? The hu-
man heart left to itself, instinctively expands and
goes out in feelings of Christian sympathy and
active benevolence.

With what honest pride and just complacency,
do we look upon the acts of generosity of our an-

ALMSGIVING. 145

cestors in the Faith or in the state ; when, some
"great calamity, hunger or pestilence falling upon
society, the great heart of our common humanity
was stirred to its lowest depths, and there welled
forth a generous supply of the holiest sympathy
and abundant charity ! It is at such times, one
learns of what great things human nature is capa-
ble ; how much nobleness is united in it with so
much meanness ; how, with all its downward ten-
dencies, it can still lift itself heavenward, and is
capable of such divine instincts.

This same duty is taught by our conscience.
We find in our hearts an intimate persuasion of
the duty of assisting our fellow-men. It is not
the result of any reasoning. It seems to be one
of the original intuitions of our being. We find
it in the applauding voice of conscience, when we
have done an act of well-doing. We find it in its
condemning reproaches, when we have been want-
ing to the just needs of our neighbor.

The somewhat slower conclusions of reason con-
firm the same duty. Reason in proclaiming the
common origin, the common nature, and the com-
mon destiny of all men, proclaims the common
duties of mutual love and help which should exist
between them. It were the height of selfishness,
the basest cruelty, the rankest crime, to hoard our
substance; and see our fellow-man, our equal in
all respects save the accidental one of riches, per-
ish from want.

Yet, my brethren, this duty of charity to our
fellow-men made known to us by the feelings of
our nature, the dictates of conscience, and the

146 ALMSGIVING.

voice of reason, is not Christian charity. It is but
pure natural goodness ; the noblest product of the
human heart, it is true ; but yet only a natural
virtue ; natural in its origin, natural in its motives,
and, like all things merely natural, limited in its
scope and influence. Besides, it is mixed up and
its beauty, in a measure, marred with the human
frailty and imperfection with which it is com-
monly found. But, take this human goodness in
its highest and purest form ; take the pure gold
of human goodness, separated from the alloy of
imperfection and selfishness, in which it generally
lives buried in the human heart ; raise it to the
rank of a supernatural virtue, by making its an-
imating principle, the love of God — the love of
man in God, and for God ; let it be compassion-
ate, bringing balm to every wound and solace to
every grief; let it be active and efihcacious, dwell-
ing not merely in the heart, but going forth in
deeds of active benevolence and inexhaustible
generosity ; let it be constant, abiding while there
is human sufferinof- to be relieved, or human want
to be supplied ; let it be universal, bringing aid
to every form of want, spiritual and corporal, and
knowing no limits to the sharers of its bounty, but
the limits of our common humanity ; let it be dis-
interested, and if it seek a reward, let it be the
reward of one day gaining God ; in a word, let it
be an unfailing fount of divine charity springing
up in active benevolence ; do all this with human
goodness, and you have Christian charity, the
most sublime of virtues ; first brought on earth
from heaven by Jesus Christ. Christian charity !

ALMSGIVING. 147

the sacramental bond in which He has united all
men together and to God ; the mysterious union
which binds all men, as the common creatures of
the same Creator, and sharers of a common des-
tiny ; the sacred duty which prompts man to see
in his fellow the image of God, washed all pure
in the blood of Christ ; and, as such, worthy of
our love and assistance. Jesus was the author of
this divine virtue. It could have none other. He
alone of all men has made the one supreme, com-
plete act of love of God and man, which this
world has ever seen. It was sealed in His blood.
It was ratified by His own great sacrifice for its
sake.

Of this charity the pagan world never dreamed.
They who worshipped not a common God, could
have no bond to unite them in a common brother-
hood. It was reserved for Jesus Christ, as intro-
ducing men to a knowledge of the true God, to
make known to them the bond which could hold
them together. It was the new commandment
which he brought into the world. '' Heretofore
it hath been said : thou shaft love thy friend and
hate thine enemy ; but I say to you, love your
enemy, pray for them that persecute and calum-
niate you." In the New Testament, the rich
glutton is condemned to hell, because of his in-
sensibility to the wants of Lazarus, the type and
representation of the poor and needy. The good
Samaritan is not far from the kingdom of God,
because of his charity to the sick and needy.
*' Give and it shall be given to you." *' Religion
before God and man is to visit the widow, the

148 ALMSGIVING.

fatherless, and the orphans in their distress." But
why give passages? The New Testament is one
continued lesson of charity and beneficence to the
poor. It is written in every passage ; it breathes
in every sentiment. It is the new mandate given
to all Christians. It is the characteristic feature
of the Gospel. It is the mark by which all men
were to recognize His disciples.

Human goodness and Christian charity are
often so blended together that it is hard to dis-
criminate between them ; even as reason with
faith in religion. It is wonderful what mere hu-
man goodness has done and is doing for the
world. The deeds of generosity, disinterested-
ness, and self-sacrifice prompted by human good-
ness, throw a lustre upon the history of our race.
•Wherever, then, we find it, let us congratulate
ourselves that our nature still possesses so much
of its original and inherent goodness. Wherever
we find it ; in whatever race or nation, religion or
sect, community or person, let us pay to it the
tribute of admiration and praise, which is its due;
and thus render homage to God, the author of
the human heart.

Yet, in giving philanthropy its due, let us not
forget the claims of truth, by calling goodness,
Charity ; and Charity, mere goodness. One is
all human ; the other is all divine. As Christ has
exalted the passion of love, anointed it with His
grace and made it the foundation of the sacra-
ment of marriage; as He has founded Penance
upon the natural inclination of the heart to dis-
close its sinfulness ; so has he raised human good-

ALMSGIVING. I49

ness to a supernatural virtue, by infusing into it
the love of God, as its animating principle.

Real human goodness involves self-denial and
self-sacrifice. Far from seeking self, it destroys
self. Human benevolence which gives only from
abundance, and brings with it no act of self-denial,
is scarcely worthy of the name. No great mercy
is seen in him who gives of that only which is not
required, either for his well-being or comfort. It
argues no great virtue to give that which, other-
wise, must perish. He who gives that which may
be conducive to his luxury, does a little ; he who
gives that which is useful for his well-being, does
more ; he who gives that which he cannot part
with, except with injury to himself, rises higher
in the rank of goodness ; he who, for the sake of
his fellow-man, parts with what is necessary to
his life, or who even is prepared to sacrifice life
itself, would possess goodness in a supereminent
degree, and such as is never found among those
in whom Christian Charity does not flourish.
There is very little sacrifice to be seen in good-
ness as it is practised among men. Who gives
but of his abundance ? who gives that which is
useful for even his luxury ? who thinks of self-
denial in order to practise generosity ? who de-
nies himself the smallest pleasure, in order to re-
lieve the needs of others ? who would deprive
himself of one meal out of three, that his suffering
fellow-man may have the one? And in giving
even out of his abundance, who is willing to over-
come the repugnance created by the defects, and
shortcomings, and ingratitude of the objects of his

I50 ALMSGIVING.

bount}^ ? How many excuses do we find for dis-
continuing our beneficence, in the personal char-
acter of those we assist ? How seldom does hu-
man goodness expose itself, by hanging over the
poisonous breath and pouring into the ear of the
dying, words of comfort and consolation ?

All this, because human goodness springs only
from human motives. It is destitute of a princi-
ple, which can sustain it in the sacrifices and
compensate it for the losses, which it necessarily
involves. Not so with Christian charity ; it is
based upon a principle which supports it under
all circumstances ; which it feels is more than
compensation for the sacrifice of worldly goods
of our ease and convenience, nay, even of life
itself. The assurance of possessing God eternally,
is enough to stimulate to loss of comfort and
pleasure ; to all acts of self-denial and self-sacri-
fice ; to unbounded generosity to the poor ; to
even personally assuming their hardships and suf-
ferings ; it even makes it a profitable exchange,
to lay down life itself for our neighbor. This is
what lifts charity above all human motives, and
makes of it a heavenly virtue. This is what
enables it to overcome all defects in its objects,
even ingratitude ; ministering to every want, and
bringing balm to every suffering. This is what
urges the Christian hero to strip himself of all
worldly goods for the poor; to expose himself to
contagion and death for the relief of his fellow-
man. It was this, that nerved the martyr's heart
to meet death in its most appalling forms. It is
this, that gives the missionary courage to leave

ALMSGIVING. 151

home and kindred, and go forth to preach the
Gospel to the heathen and barbarian. It is this,
that gives constancy to the virgin, in her life-long
martyrdom of the flesh with its lusts, that keeps
alive and fresh in her heart the vestal fire of
angelic purity. It was this, that made St. Paul
wish to be an anathema from Christ, for his
brethren ; that made St. Francis Xavier content
to risk salvation, so as to remain longer on earth
for souls ; that made the monk Telemachus rush
into the amphitheatre, to separate the gladiators,
and to be crushed to death by the showers of
stones hurled at him ; thus purchasing with his
blood, the law that forever abolished those cruel
sports. It was this, that made St. Vincent de
Paul sell himself into bondage, as a ransom for a
captive. This it was, that inspired all the marvel-
lous acts of self-denial and heroism which history
records. It is this principle that discriminates
charity from every other virtue, making it im-
measurably superior.

The Church has inherited the spirit of her Di-
vine Master for the poor and destitute. He has
breathed it into her, in its fulness. She renews
His life among the poor, continually. Daily is
she going among them ; preaching the gospel to
them, sympathizing with them in their sufferings,
and relieving their wants. Her history teems
with benevolence in their regard. From the
beginning ; from the day when all things were in
common at Jerusalem, when the faithful of Cor-
inth beggared themselves to relieve the poor,
her whole history has been one long apostleship

152 ALMSGIVING.

of God-like charity towards those whom she is
to have always with her. It was only His spirit
dwelling in her that could have inspired such
charity. Innumerable have been the Apostles of
Charity, whom this mystical spouse has brought
forth to Christ. They were not content with
spending their lives in the service of their fellow-
men ; but sought to perpetuate their usefulness,
by the orders and institutes which they estab-
lished. Through them, they have continued
their mission of charity, and transmitted their
spirit to generations untold, and will so transmit
it till time is no more. This, true of all found-
ers of religious societies, is conspicuously true of
him whom the Church esteems as the Apostle of
Charity in these latter times, St. Vincent de Paul.
His spirit is still preserved in the community,
which he founded and which bears his name.
Though dead, he lives; lives, by his example;
lives, because his spirit is still among his chil-
dren. They carry on the great work of their
Father. They are to be found on the battle-
field, in the slums and hospitals of our great
cities, by the side of the plague-stricken bed;
wherever affliction needs a solace, wherever des-
titution needs relief, wherever the soul seeks to
see and to hear something of the charity of Christ,
there they are to be found. No plague is too
pestilent, no misery too abject, no sinner too
loathsome, to deter them, to intimidate them.

Now, if ever, you have an opportunity of show-
ing charity to your fellow-men. To-day, the peo-
ple of Ireland appeal to you, by our common

ALMSGIVING. 1 53

humanity, our common Christianity, and for
sake of the blood of Jesus Christ shed for us all,
to rescue them from the jaws of famine. Such an
appeal has been seldom made. But very few of
you have ever heard such an appeal before. God
grant, that need for such an appeal may never
again arise.

It is, my brethren, no ordinary appeal. It is
not the appeal of one, or of a few particular cases.
It is the cry of millions ; it is a nation that stretches
out its hands for bread ! Sad ; sad, indeed, it is to
think that, in the teeming abundance with which
God has blessed the earth, even one creature
should perish from want. But, how oppressive to
the heart and to every feeling of nature, to think
of millions reduced to utter starvation ; threatened
with a death, the most awful the human mind can
conceive.

It is no ordinary appeal ; for it is the cry of
hunger. And of all the calamities and miseries
which beset the life of man, there is none that
appeals more powerfully to the human heart, than
the cry of man for bread with which to support
life. And if there be one thing more than another,
which can pierce the heavens, and call down God's
vengeance upon the human avarice that permits
it ; it is the cry of the starving victim sent up to
heaven, in the midst of the pangs of hunger — of
that creature for whom Christ did not hesitate
to shed His blood. This is not so much a cry
for charity, as it is a cry for justice. For
every human being — every being into whom God
has breathed the breath of life — has a right,

154 ALMSGIVING.

an absolute, an indefeasible right to what will
save him from death.

Besides ; in the case of Ireland, there are special
claims upon us ; claims of race, claims of blood
and kinship, claims of religion, claims which I
forbear to dwell upon, because I know they are
present to the heart of every one of you, this
morning. Nor shall I stop to tell you, what you
so well know, of the history of Ireland : her stead-
fastness in her religion, her long-continued suffer-
ing for the preservation of her faith. Her faith is,
indeed, spoken of in the whole earth. She has,
indeed, filled the world with the sacrifices which
she has made, and the persecutions which she has
undergone for its sake.

It is for you, to-day, by your generous offerings,
to lighten, and, in a great measure, to avert the
curse which now hangs over her, blasting her fair
fields, and hastening to a premature death her
gifted children. Let not the scenes of 1847 be re-
newed ; let not the red graves of those countless
multitudes be reopened ; let not the details of that
famine, so loathsome, so degrading, so revolting,
that their mere recital makes the blood run cold,
and forces shame of our human nature that could
permit it, be re-enacted ! Let not the victims who
have already fallen, or who will hereafter fall,
ascend to the throne of God and accuse us before
His tribunal, of having hoarded our substance
when we saw His creatures perish ! Let all hasten
to the assistance of Jesus Christ, in the person of
the starving people of Ireland ; and, at the last
day, we shall hear these words, " Come, ye blessed

ALMSCilVING. 155

of My Father, possess the kingdom prepared for
you from the foundation of the world ; for I was
hungry, and you gave me to eat ; thirsty, and you
gave me to drink ; naked, and you clothed me.
Amen, I say to you, so long as you did it to one of
these starving people in Ireland, you did it unto
me ; enter thou into the joy of the Lord."

THE l^EW YORK

PllBUC LIBRARY

TtLO

.N F3"J

irrrr.T-™,-"!)-.. - »-.!?rnSi!\.T

THE IMMORTALITY OF THE SOUL.

Rut some man will say : How do the dead rise again ? or with
what manner of body shall they come ?

Senseless man, that which thou sowest is not quickened, ex-
cept it die first.

And that which thou sowest, thou sowest not the body that
shall be ; but bare grain, as of wheat, or of some of the rest.

But (iod giveth it a body as he will : and to every seed its
proper body.

All flesh is not the same flesh : but one is the flesh of men,
another of beasts, another of birds, another of fishes.

And there are bodies celestial, and bodies terrestrial : but one
is the glory of the celestial, and another of the terrestrial.

One is the glory of the sun, another the glory of the moon,
and another the glory of the stars. For star differeth from star

in glory.

So also is the resurrection of the dead. It is sown in corrup-
tion, it shall rise in incorruption.

It is sown in dishonor, it shall rise in glory. It is sown in
weakness, it shall rise in power.

It is sown a natural body, it shall rise a spiritual body. If
there be a natural body, there is also a spiritual body, as it is
written :

The first man Adam was made into a living soul ; the last
Adam into a quickening spirit.

Yet that was not first which is spiritual, but that which is nat-
ural ; afterwards that which is spiritual.

The first man was of the earth, earthly : the second man, from
heaven, heavenly.

Such as is the earthly, such also are the earthly : and such as
is the heavenly, such also are they that are heavenly.

158 THE IMMORTALITY OF THE SOUL.

Therefore as we have borne the image of the earthl3^ let us
bear also the image of the heavenly.

Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot possess
the kingdom of God : neither shall ^corruption possess incorrup-
tion.

Behold. I tell you a mystery. We shall all indeed rise again :
but we shall not all be changed.

In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet :
for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall rise again incor-
ruptible : and we shall be changed.

For this corruptible must put on incorruption ; and this mortal
must put on immortality.

And when this mortal hath put on immortality, then shall come
to pass the saying that is written : Death is swallowed up in
victory.

O death, where is thy victory ? O death, where is thy sting.?

Now the sting of death is sin : and the strength of sin is the
law.

But thanks be to (iod, who hath given us the victory through
our Lord Jesus Christ.

Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye steadfast and unmov-
able ; always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that
your labor is not in vain in the Lord. — i Cor. xv., 35-55.

We all understand very well what is meant by
tlie immortality of the soul ; not mortal, not lia-
ble to death, not tending, like all other things, to
dissolution ; endowed with such vitality that it
will live forever.

Before we go further, we may observe that
as there are but two ways by which anything
can come into existence, so there are but two
ways by which anything can go out of existence.
Something is made fi'om some pre-existing ma-
terial, by a certain disposition and ordering of its
parts ; this is properly called making or forma-

THE IMMORTALITY OF THE SOUL. 1 59

tion. This is within the power of man ; and is
all that man with all his wondrous inventions has
ever accomplished. Such a thing will go out of
existence, by a disintegration and separation of
the parts of which it is composed ; and is prop-
erly called destruction. Again ; a creature may
come into existence, formed from no pre-existing
material, the result of no combination of parts,
but springing into being by the Almighty fiat of
its Creator ; such an act is creation and belongs to
God alone. Such a being will depart from exist-
ence, not by a corruption of parts, which it has
not ; but by the same Almighty fiat which, first,
summoned it into existence. For it requires the
same effort of divine omnipotence to destroy
such a creature, as was first required for its crea-
tion. Such is the human soul ; which is created
by the almighty power of God, and which cannot
but by annihilation die. Such annihilation, we
claim, God will never inflict upon it. When He
created it, He destined it to last forever.

Man received this gift at his creation. Nor
did he forfeit it at his fall. God had conferred it
absolutely ; irrespective of man's future infidelity.
It is true the prospect of immortal happiness
closed upon him ; but there was reserved for him
the sad assurance of immortal misery and woe.
Before the fall, the knowledge of his immortality
was revealed to him. And this knowledge never
perished from the minds of men. They ever felt
a consciousness of it. It was written in the
human heart by the very finger of God. Its
promptings were felt in the aspiration of the soul

l6o THE IMMORTALITY OF THE SOUL.

after the infinite and eternal. It may have been
mixed with, or obscured, or partly effaced by
the superstition and idolatry with which it came
in contact ; but it was never wholly obliterated
from the minds of men. All the religions of the
world bear vestiges of this original revelation.
During their sojourn in bondage, the Jews found
belief in the immortality of the soul, the belief of
their pagan masters. In the East, the doctrine of
the transmigration of souls must, in its origin, have
been intimately connected with this belief. In our
own country, on its discovery, were found traces
of this same belief among its primeval inhabitants.

The Jews, of course, entertained the liveliest
faith in the immortality of the soul. It is true
that the Sadducees, not knowing the Scriptures
nor the power of God, denied the resurrection of
the body ; and by an easy consequence, called in
question the immortality of the soul itself. But
they were held as heretics for departing from the
faith of their fathers, and the universally received
belief of Judaism.

The pagan philosophers of antiquity were di-
vided in the belief of the soul's immortality; as
they were on every question that concerned man,
or his destiny. Cicero with a beauty of language
befitting the subject, represents the sentiments
which prevailed among them, touching belief in
the imperishable nature of the soul; which, he
tells us, was almost the unanimous belief of them
all. And, after discoursing on the subject in a
strain worthy of a father of the Church, he says
that even should he be mistaken in the belief that

THE IMMORTALITY OF THE SOUL. l6l

the souls of men are immortal, jet would he cling
to his pleasing error ; nor does he wish the be-
lief by which, during life, he was filled with con-
solation, to be taken from him. Then he ex-
claims : '* O blessed day ! when I shall set out for
that divine assembly and society of souls ; when
I shall depart from this misery and confusion."
Plato reasoned so well on the immortality of the
soul, that in reading him, we seem to read some
discourse of St. Augustine, on the same subject.
There is one error that stains the writings of some
of the ancients on this matter. From the reason-
ing which to their minds demonstrated the soul's
immortality, they inferred also the sou 's past eter-
nity. And it is no wonder that they fell into this
error on so mysterious a subject, as the origin of
the soul ; an error which even some of the fathers
of the Church did not escape. Even to-day, after
all the development of Christian Doctrine; after
the enlightened studies of the greatest theolo-
gians; it remains one of the darkest and most
mysterious subjects of Christian theology.

I have thus dwelt at some length, in pointing
out that the immortality of the soul was believed
before the Christian Revelation was made ; be-
cause it is for the good of religion to show that
this truth is made evident by mere human reason,
unaided by the light of Revelation.

If we come to consider the arguments which
reason by its own natural light supplies for be-
lieving in the soul's immortality ; we shall find
the first in the very nature and tendency of the
soul itself.

l62 THE IMMORTALITY OF THE SOUL.

Our soul is unlike anything else in nature. All
things are made up of parts; are endowed with
extension. So true is this, that some have
claimed that extension is the very essence of mat-
ter. But the human soul is a simple, spiritual,
angelic substance ; infinitely superior in its nature
to anything composite. The nature of any creat-
ure should proclaim its destiny. As we rightfully
conclude that everything natural has its final end
in the world, we ought, by analogy, to conclude
that the human soul has an end proportioned to
the excellence of its nature. As God has ex-
pended more of His divine power upon it, and
made it more excellent than anything else in
nature, we must believe that He has decreed to
it a destiny higher, than that of all other creat-
ures. All things else tend to dissolution and de-
cay. Made up of parts, by the very law of their
nature they tend to corruption from the first mo-
ment of their existence. But the human soul
knows no decay ; is subject to no dissolution. It
constantly renews its youth ; and is possessed of
an immortal vigor, which permits no diminution
or abatement. As the soul, then, is so superior in
the tendency of its nature to all things else, we
ought to infer that its destiny is infinitely higher
than that of corruptible matter, which to-day is
and to-morrow is not.

■ Then consider the gifts with which man has
been ennobled, and which mark his superiority
and pre-eminence to all things else ; and in con-
sequence, bespeak his destiny. His appearance;
his stature; his mien; his human face divine.

THE IMMORTALITY OF THE SOUL. 163

looking up to heaven ; the freedom of his will, —
that God-like gift which leaves him free in all his
actions, and puts it in his power, as far as con-
cerns himself, to accomplish or frustrate the de-
sign of God in his creation ; the power of his in-
tellect, which penetrates the secrets of nature and
unfolds the wonders of knowledge ; which, ab-
stracting from particulars, forms universal ideas
that embrace all things ; which lifts him even to
the bosom of God, and forms no unworthy idea
of the divine nature and perfections ; and all the
other faculties which he possesses, and which
stamp him at once as the noblest work of God,
as the masterpiece of His hands.

We may speak of man's insignificance. We
may say that he is but a worm of the earth ; and
it is true. But yet, he is God's creature endowed
with wondrous gifts, which make him but little
less than the angels. We may say that he is but
the dust of the earth ; and it is true. Yet in that
casement of dust there dwells a spirit which ex-
alts and sanctifies it, and makes of it a tabernacle
in which God Himself did not refuse to dwell.
Man is, indeed, the very combination of littleness
and of greatness ; of what is low and of what is
noble ; a very animal, by his downward tenden-
cies, an angel, by his heavenly aspirations. He
is the very point where heaven and earth do
meet ; the union of divinity with humanity.

Behold man's dominion over all things. The
earth and all therein have been made for his use
and benefit ; and they have fulfilled their mission.
He has always been their absolute master. From

l64 THE IMMORTALITY OF THE SOUL.

the day, when all animals passed in review before
our great parent, acknowledging his dominion,
and receiving from him their names, to the pres-
ent, man has shown that he is, what God destined
him to be ; the Lord and Master of all things.
Not to speak of those creatures, the most familiar
to us, and which we all know are subject to man,
and do his pleasure : — even those works of God
over which man seems to have but little power,
yet acknowledge his dominion and subserve his
purposes. What he rules not by strength of
body, he rules by the light of his gjenius and the
power of his mind. He may not ascend to the
heavens, and travel among the stars; but he calcu-
lates their distances, and describes their motions,
with such wonderful precision, that it would al-
most seem in obedience to his calculations, that
they exist where they are, and describe their
courses. Again, if he ascends not to heaven, he
calls down its lightnings, and makes them subserve
the conveniences of life. He contracts, by the
speed with which he traverses it, the broad expanse,
of the mighty ocean, and rides in security upon its
breast. He delves into the earth ; and from its
teeming womb draws forth everything required
for his comfort and support. He is, verily, the
Lord and Master of all things.

Is he, then, for whom all creatures have been
made, who is the Lord and Master of the earth
and what it contains, destined for no higher pur-
pose than those very creatures ; is he, like them,
to sink into the same common earth ; to be reduced
to the same nothingness? Could God have or-

THE IMMORTALITY OF THE SOUL. 16$

dained man — by his gifts, the flower of creation,
the masterpiece of His hands — for no other end
than that common to brute and inanimate creat-
ures ? the very instruments and servants meant
for his use and pleasure.

Why, if this were so, we ask, has God made the
world ? If all things are to find their final destiny
here below ; if man and beast and all nature, ani-
mate and inanimate, are all to sink into the grave
of corruption ; to rise no more, and to be dissolved
in the same common nothingness ; why, I ask, has
God made the world ? Was it not for the mani-
festation of His power and glory ? But ; if there
be no future life, if all end here ; how can this
purpose be accomplished? If we are to imagine
the world to end here, and man to have no higher
destiny than the brute ; we must confess that God's
design, in the making of the world, has been frus-
trated ; and that the Divine purpose is by no
means advanced, by a world constructed on such
principles.

Indeed, we must own that, if man has no other
end than that like the brute — to sink into the earth
to rise no more — the brute is far happier, and far
more highly privileged than man ; the servant
more fortunate than the master crowned with
glory and honor. In proportion as he is exalted
above all creatures, by his transcendent gifts, does
he sink below them all ; and does his misery in-
crease ; because, capable of greater felicity, and
entitled to a nobler destiny than they, he is abso-
lutely less happy, and sinks to a worse fate. For
the instincts and wants of irrational creatures are

l66 THE IMMORTALITY OF THE SOUL.

simple and natural, easily supplied and at once
satisfied. They cannot think ; hence they do not
know and cannot desire but what affects their
senses ; their desires are limited to what they feel.
They cannot, therefore, aspire to a condition other
or better than that which they at present enjoy.
Not having an intellectual memor}-, they are not
afflicted by remembrance of their past sufferings
and pains ; nor are they troubled with solicitude
for the future, nor molested with the ever-present
certainty of their death. Much less are they tor-
tured by the incessant struggle which every man
experiences of virtuous with vicious inclinations.
If man be not immortal, why this longing after
immortality ? Wh}^ this terror at the prospect of
annihilation ? Why this desire for perfect happi-
ness ? For, the desire of immortality is one with
the desire for perfect happiness ; no happiness can
be perfect, unless it be immortal. " Who is the
man," asks the Psalmist, " who desires not good
days ; who is the man that seeks not to be happy ?"
And if I were to ask you, do you desire not happi-
ness ; your hearts and every instinct of your being
would cry out, that you live and breathe for noth-
ing but happiness. It is the motive of all we do.
It is the motive of every man's endeavor to get
on in life ; to better his condition. It is the spring
of this feverish thirst for prosperity, this discon-
tent with the reality, this looking forward to the
future. It dominates the heart of every man.
No one is exempt from its sway. It is the one
tendency of our nature that is irresistible. Think
not, that it can be satisfied with the pleasures of

THE IMMORTALITY OF THE SOUL. 167

life. Ask the rich, the great, the powerful ; con-
sult all human experience, and you will find, that
the spiritual cravings of man's soul cannot be
satisfied with the corrupt pleasures of sense.

Nor can it be said, that this desire is like other
passions of the human heart ; honor, love of
power, avarice. Those, absolutely speaking, can
be overcome ; but this cannot. It is the original
instinct of our being ; the sovereign inclination of
our nature. It is the principal and supreme ten-
dency of man's rational nature, implanted in him
by an all-wise Providence, to direct him to his
final destiny and supreme beatitude.

This desire for a happiness, which includes
every good, excludes every evil, and lasts for-
ever ; this surfeit and disgust of the heart with all
human pleasures; this aspiration of the soul to
the infinite and eternal ; is but the manifestation
of our nature seeking the God from whom it
came, and to whom it must return to attain per-
fect repose and bliss. Thou alone, O God, hast
made us, and in Thee alone can we find rest.
God could never have infused this desire into
man, if He meant that it should never be satis-
fied.

What is it that consoles us in the miseries, and
trials, and disappointments of life? What is it
that, in the dark hour of adversity, bids us hope
and fills us with the promise of better things ?
What is it that, when relations and friends are
taken from us, lightens our sufferings and as-
suages our grief? What is it that animates the
expiring soul, and gives fortitude to the mar-

l68 THE IMMORTALITY OF THE SOUL.

tyr, in the midst of his torments? What, but the
hope of receiving, in a better life, that which we
lay down in this ; the hope of gaining more than
we lose ; the hope of reaching, in the next life,
the happiness we sought, in vain, in this ; the
hope, of one day, joining those relations and
friends, whom we now see grieving around our
own death-beds. These feelings of our soul are
the expressions of its nature, the manifestations
of its eternal destiny. " It is the divinity that
stirs within us, and points out an hereafter."

Look out upon the world, and behold the scene
that presents itself. See, if you find nothing that
bespeaks that future life, which we claim for our
souls. See the intense, wide-spread prevalence
of sin, impiety, irreligion ; see the disregard of
truth, the contempt of obligations, the black
treacheries, the base perfidies, the deadly hates,
the direful wrongs, the rank pride, the foul lusts,
with which the world is filled : making of human
society a seething mass of corruption. See how
piety and godliness are laughed from the face of
the earth; how iniquity is exalted; how the poor
are trampled on ; how the wicked possess the
earth ; how the just are, for the most part, in
poverty. It is not the God-loving ; but the God-
contemning that, for the greater part, flourish.
Consider all this and tell me, if you think there is
no future life; no state of rewards and punish-
ments; but, rather, that God's providence ends
here. If there is a God, He is essential good-
ness in His nature. He must be an approver and
rewarder of virtue ; a punisher and avenger of

THE IMMORTALITY OF THE SOUL. 169

vice. If there is a God, the cause of virtue must
be His cause, and the votaries of virtue must be
His chosen ones. If there is a God, the cause of
iniquity must be the cause of the prince of this
world, and the votaries of iniquity must be his
followers. If there is a God, He cannot be indif-
ferent to the fearful, deadly conflict going on, in
this life, between virtue and vice. He cannot
but reward the struggles, and patience, and long-
sufferings of just men. He cannot but punish the
iniquity, and injustices, and crimes of the wicked.
I would rather believe that there is no God, than
to believe that there is one, and yet that He is
indifferent to the sufferings and hopes of the
just; while He permits the wicked to glory in
their wickedness, and to enjoy the goods of this
life.

If, then, the soul be not immortal ; if there be
no future life, how can the order of things in this
life be readjusted? How can the heavenly bal-
ance be reset? How can the wicked be pun-
ished ? the good rewarded ? How can divine
justice be avenged ? How can God's ways be
cleared up and justified ?

Is the just man who, from early youth, has
walked faithfully in the ways of God ; who, care-
fully, throughout the years of a long life, till the
moment of death, avoided all grievous sins, to
obtain no reward ? is he to sink into the same
nothingness, as the one who never thought of
God ; who lived as if there were no God ; who
offended Him whenever caprice, humor, or inter-
est suggested ? Is the virgin, who, in early youth,

I/O THE IMMORTALITY OF THE SOUL.

plighted her virginity to God, and all the years
of life, struggled to keep burning that sacred fire,
to receive no other reward than that of the profli-
gate, who did nothing but gratify passion, and
draw to destruction the souls of men ? Is the
martyr, who paid to the truth the highest testi-
mony, which human nature is capable of; who
sealed, with his blood, his belief of God's truth ;
to sink into the same grave as the tyrant and per-
secutor who shed his blood, and caused him to
meet death, in its most awful forms ?

Perish, then, these false teachings which would
degrade man, — by his nature and endowments the
noblest work, the masterpiece of God, — to the con-
dition of the brute. Perish the philosophy, which
would confound the end of man, — the Master and
Lord of creation, — with the end of the brute and
inanimate creatures ; his servants and his in-
struments. Perish from the earth the doctrine,
that God has infused into the human heart the
desire, and impressed upon the human soul the
consciousness of immortality, never to be realized.
Perish from the minds and hearts of men a philos-
ophy, which represents God as indifferent to the
struggle going on, in this life, between Himself
and the prince of this world ; as indifferent to the
trials of the just ; as loading favors upon the
wicked ; — a philosophy which destroys virtue ; by
denying to it that future retribution, which alone
can compensate for the difficulties, and trials, and
dangers which beset its path ; — which would open
the way to every outrage and every crime, by
destroying that future life, which is the only bar-

THE IMMORTALITY OF THE SOUL. 171

rier against the deluge of immorality which would,
otherwise, overwhelm human society.

Yes, my brethren, there is a future life ; and we
are made immortal to enjoy it. The blessed Gos-
pel of Jesus Christ puts an end to all our specula-
tive reasonings ; and places the seal of divine un-
erringness upon our conclusions. '' You err, not
knowing the Scriptures or the power of God," said
He to the Sadducees, who denied the resurrection
of the body. '' For, in the resurrection there shall
be neither marriage, nor giving in marriage ; but
ye shall be as angels of God in heaven. He is the
God of Abraham, and the God Isaac, and the God
Jacob. He is not the God of the dead, but of the
living."

Yes ; existence begins in this life, but ends not
here. This life is but the bud, the spring, the
source of our eternal being. It is not for this life
that we have been made. Our true life begins,
when this ceases. We shall die ; our bodies will
sink into the grave and will be reduced to their
original dust ; but our souls will defy the domin-
ion of death, and will pass from hence to enjoy
God for evermore. Even our bodies will rise,
at the end of time, to be re-united to our souls,
and to partake of the glory and bliss of seeing
God. It is necessary that they should first perish ;
that this corruption should put on incorruption,
that this mortality should put on immortality ;
but from the grave of death and corruption, all
hideous though it be, they shall come forth, en-
dowed with gifts which will render them fit com-
panions for evermore of the immortal soul.

1/2 THE IMMORTALITY OF THE SOUL.

This world will pass away ; the great seas will
dry up, and the mountains disappear ; all that we
see will be as if it had never been. Perhaps, new
worlds and new universes will take its place, and
a new order of things begin on high. The human
soul will, alone, survive the dissolution and de-
struction of all things else ; will, alone, escape un-
scathed from the war of jarring worlds, and the
chaos and confusion of a universe hastening to its
doom. Ages will roll away ; eternities of eter-
nities will revolve around the throne of God ; yet
it shall abide, young with its immortal vigor, and
happy in the embrace of its God. This is your
destiny. This is your hope. This is the immor-
tality for which you have been made and to which
you unceasingly aspire.

It is sad to think that the soul, which of all
things is most precious ; which alone, on that day
when God will come to judge the world, shall be
deemed worthy of thought; is now accounted the
cheapest of all things, and receives the least share
of men's attention, and which they are ready to
barter for every vile advantage. Is it not wisdom,
— is it not the highest wisdom, — is it not the only
wisdom, — to live for the salvation of this immor-
tal soul ?

THE NEV/ YORK

PUBLIC LIBRARY.

A3T0N, LENOX AWO
TIL3EN FOUNnATIONS.

THE EXAMPLE OF THE SAINTS.

After this I saw a great multitude, which no man could
number, of all nations, and tribes, and peoples, and tongues,
standing before the throne, and in sight of the Lamb, clothed
with white robes, and palms in their hands :

And they cried with a loud voice, saying : Salvation to our
God, who sitteth upon the throne, and to the Lamb.

And all the Angels stood round about the throne, and the
ancients, and the four living creatures ; and they fell down be-
fore the throne upon their faces, and adored God,

Saying : Amen. Benediction, and glory, and wisdom, and
thanksgiving, honour, and power, and strength to our God for
ever and ever. Amen.

And one of the ancients answered, and said to me : These
that are clothed in white robes, who are they .^ and whence
came they ?

And I said to him : My Lord, thou knowest. And he said to
me : These are they who are come out of great tribulation, and
have washed their robes, and have made them white in the
blood of the Lamb.

Therefore they are before the throne of God, and they serve
him day and night in his temple : and he, that sitteth on the
throne shall dwell over them.

They shall have no more hunger nor thirst, neither shall the
sun fall on them, nor any heat.

For the Lamb, which is in the midst of the throne, shall rule
them, and shall lead them to the fountains of the waters of life,
and God shall wipe away all tears from \h€YC^'^^'s>.— Apocalypse,
VII., 9-17.

The Church has been often charged with giv-
ing to the saints and angels an undue honor : if

174 THE EXAMPLE OF THE SAINTS.

not placing them on a level with God, by trans-
ferring to them the honor which belongs to Him
alone ; at least, dividing this honor with Him, and
extending a part of the worship to them, which
should be simply and entirely rendered to the
Supreme Being, the Lord and Maker of all
things.

If this were true, it would expose the Church
to the charge of idolatry. But she well distin-
guishes between the supreme and absolute wor-
ship due to God, and to Him alone, and the infe-
rior or relative honor paid the saints. They are
to be honored, as God's special friends and ser-
vants ; not for their own sake, but for the sake of
God, to whom they owe all their excellence and
glory. God is to be honored for His own sake ;
because of His intrinsic and absolute perfection.
As we revere a relic or a picture, not because of
its own innate merit, but because of the saint to
whom it belonged, or whom it represents ; so we
honor the saints because they are images or re-
flections, however feeble, of God's own perfec-
tion and holiness ; His own handiwork, formed
and fashioned out of our poor nature ; the noblest
offerings we can make to Him out of this sin-
smitten world.

Even the inferior honor which the Church per-
mits us, nay, calls upon us to give the saints,
springs from the love she bears to Christ. The
glory we give the saints redounds to Him. We
but praise the Lord in His saints. The Man-God
is the exemplar the saints have followed. He is
the model, as well as the embodiment of all sane-

THE EXAMPLE OF THE SAINTS. 1 75

tity. The saints have loved Him, and from lov-
ing, they have sought to imitate Him. They
shadow forth, they are the closest resemblances
we have of Christ's uncreated holiness. They are
the medium through which we are permitted to
catch a glimpse of the splendor of God's sanctity.
Through them its dazzling brightness comes to
us, subdued and softened ; as the glorious rays of
the sun are mellowed and tinted, when they come
pouring through the stained-glass windows of
some old cathedral. Thus we are enabled to look
upon the splendor of His glory, and yet live. As
we can only bear to look upon the sun, when the
eye is protected by some medium ; so it is only
when God's sanctity is reflected in the saints, that
we can look upon its dazzling splendor.

Thus, we see that in honoring the saints, we
take away nothing from the honor due to God.
On the contrary ; His honor is our motive in
their worship. We acknowledge not only that
He is holy, but that He is capable of communi-
cating His holiness to His creatures. We but
honor those whom God Himself has honored ;
whom He has raised to His highest friendship;
on whose souls He has poured His choicest gifts,
and shed the brightest influences of His grace ;
whom He has conformed to the image of His
Son, because He has predestined them to be par-
takers of His glory.

It is not my purpose to defend the worship
which the Church renders to the saints. Neither
is it my purpose to pronounce the panegyric of
the saints. I wish only to remind you that we

1/6 THE EXAMPLE OF THE SAINTS.

are called upon not only to ask their intercession,
to honor their memory, to celebrate their vir-
tues; but also, to imitate their example. This is
one of the objects the Church has in view, in pre-
senting them to our attention and devotion.

We are apt to imagine that the saints belonged
to a nature superior to our own ; that their supe-
riority is something arising not only from grace
and fidelity thereto, but from a disposition natur-
ally prone to virtue ; in them we scarcely believe
that those passions found root, which we find so
deeply rooted in ourselves. This, of course, is an
error. The saints were men like ourselves; hewn
out of the same rock, born in the same sin, sub-
ject to the same passions, and, before their conver-
sion, probably guilty of the same sins. It was
God's grace that made them what they became ;
and, were it not for its sovereign power and their
fidelity to it, they would forever have remained
what they were. It was God's own potent hand
that elaborated and fashioned them out of the
general wreck of our fallen nature. They are the
masterpieces of His grace. They are not, then,
so far above us, that we cannot hope to imitate
them. We are called upon to be perfect. There
is not one of us who cannot, by the same fidelity
to grace and perseverance in good, attain unto
something, at least, of their perfection. We may
be forever strangers to the depth and intensity of
their charity, to the firmness and brightness of
their hope, to the steadiness and loftiness of their
faith, to their spirit of self-sacrifice, to their utter
contempt for the world ; but we can, at least, fol-

THE EXAMPLE OF THE SAINTS. 1 7/

low them from afar off, and acquire something ot
their great virtues. We are not called upon to
attain these virtues, in their most exalted degree ;
but we are called upon to possess them in their
germ or principle. The saints, then, are our
models.

In contemplating the lives of these servants of
God, we are struck by the sublimity of the mo-
tives and views which guided all their actions.
The saints lived on a plane far above that of the
rest of men. Their motives and views were in-
comparably superior to the motives and views of
those who live but for this world. They sancti-
fied the least of their actions, by directing them
to the honor of God. No sordid or unworthy
feeling found place in their hearts. Hence it
was, that they were generally misunderstood,
and even misrepresented, by the world. Men
are slow to acknowledge that anyone can be
prompted by motives, other or better, than those
which, for the most part, actuate themselves.
Men are loath to acknowledge that others pos-
sess qualities, or gifts, or attainments, or graces,
which they have not themselves. They are dis-
posed to judge of others, by themselves ; deny-
ing to them what they have not ; granting them,
at most, what they themselves have.

The principles of the Saints were immeasur-
ably above the rules of mere worldly wisdom.
Hence, the world, gauging them by its own
standard, fell into error ; and since it could not
understand them ended by calumniating them.
Compare the sublime principles and motives of

1/8 THE EXAMPLE OF THE SAINTS.

the saints, with those that actuate the world's
votaries. What the world calls the best and
noblest of the sons of men were prompted in all
their actions, by motives which the saints con-
temned. Men are thought noble-minded, if they
live to hoard treasures, to pursue knowledge, to
acquire fame that may, perhaps, live after them
and transmit their names to posterity. What
sublimity in motives which lead to that which
is, at best, but vain, transitor}' and perishable ?
Of what avail is it to hoard treasures, which
must, one day, be abandoned ? How absurd to
consume ourselves in the pursuit of mere earthly
knowledge, and neglect the knowledge that would
lead to God: the source and fountain of all true
knowledge? How ridiculous to be so solici-
tous for the immortality of our name, and to be
so indifferent to the immortality of our souls?
How criminal to wade through seas of blood, to
destroy the lives of innumerable beings, in order
to gratify ambition ? to damn countless souls for
the sake of human glory ? a passing breath, the
veriest of delusions. What sublimity is there in
principles like these ?

The saints sought not such ends ; they despised
them ; they were dead to the world and to all its
allurements. They cared not for its riches, its
praises, its distinctions, its glory. They placed
not their happiness in such toys. They opened
their minds to know, they expanded their hearts
to embrace, the infinite and eternal good. They
felt the craving of their souls for a perfect, a
boundless happiness. They felt that, as God

THE EXAMPLE OF THE SAINTS. 1/9

alone had made them, in *' Him alone could they
find rest." They knew that the vanities of this
world could never fill the void, nor satisfy the
insatiable craving- of their God-destined souls.
They looked beyond the horizon of this world,
and placed their happiness, and their hopes, and
their ambitions, where only they can be found :
in the bosom of God, in the contemplation of His
infinite and adorable perfections. Here, and here
alone, can be found true riches, true pleasure,
true wisdom, true glory, true felicity. '' I know
that my Redeemer liveth, and that in the last
day, I shall rise out of the earth ; and I shall be
clothed again with my skin, and in my flesh 1 shall
see my God, Whom I myself shall see, and my
eyes behold and not another. This my hope is
laid up in my bosom." This was the motive, the
mainspring of the lives of the saints.

In this consideration, we are to seek their won-
derful independence, — not that independence
which is born of pride and nourished by van-
ity,— but that virtue which springs from detach-
ment from the world, which contemns all hu-
man respect, which regards not what others
may do or say, and which finds a law for its ac-
tions in its conscience and its duty to God. The
saints were the most independent of mxcn, because
they were the most independent of the world's
esteem.

No wonder that the saints, animated by such
lofty principles in their daily actions, afford us
also the most remarkable examples of self-denial
and self-sacrifice. We admire the lofty courage

l8o THE EXAMPLE OF THE SAINTS.

that prompts the soldier to deeds of heroism : the
fortitude, that, in a worthy cause, hesitates not to
lay down even life itself, extorts the homage of
the noblest feelings of our nature. But after all
that can be said of the courage that stimulates to
acts of self-denial ; what is it to the courage of
abandoning the world, of denying ourselves its
pleasures, of separating ourselves from its vani-
ties, of passing life in the mortification of the pas-
sions, of living simply and utterly for the purpose
for which God has made us ? Men who are ca-
pable of the loftiest heroism, in the world's sense,
would be absolutely incapable of practicing the
apparently humbler, but really transcendently
superior courage of dying to the world to live
to God. How many are there ready to sacrifice
life itself, for the sake of courage ? How few are
they who have the courage to mortify one sinful
passion, to practice one single act of virtue for
God? ''Greater far is he that ruleth his spirit,
than he that taketh a city." Consider, what it is
to abandon the world : to forsake fortune, posi-
tion, infiuence, bright prospects, the enjoyment
of all the world's goods ; to exchange, as many
of the saints did, the luxuries of a palace, for the
privations of a cell; couches of down, for the bare
earth ; the choicest viands, for the simplest fare ;
the society of the world, for the solitariness of
the desert and the companionship of wild beasts.
Consider, how few men are willing to make such
a sacrifice ; and from their fewness, learn the
marvellous fortitude it calls for.

The noblest acts of heroism which history re-

THE EXAMPLE OF THE SAINTS. l8l

cords, were acts whose performance lasted but for
a very short time ; and then the courage that ani-
mated them was relieved. But the fortitude of
the saint must be continual and inexhaustible, to
sustain him in his unceasing warfare against him-
self, his passions, the world, the concupiscence of
the flesh, and the pride of life. No sudden,
momentary, transitory courage suffices for this.
Many are equal to impulsive bravery, but few are
equal to sustain it any length of time. The saints
had to pass years, nay, their whole lives in self-
denial and in deeds of self-sacrifice. No isolated
acts, nor sudden triumphs, were sufficient to give
them the victory over their passions, to enable
them to overcome the allurements of the world.
They had always to nourish, to keep alive, to in-
tensify the holy flame that burned in their hearts,
when first they forsook the world ; continually
wasted in the conflict, it had to be continually re-
plenished. The world never slackened in its as-
saults ; they had to perpetuate their resistance ;
until, finally, having fought the good fight and
finished their course, they received the crown
which was laid up for them in heaven. Their
sufferings may well be compared with the suffer-
ings of the martyrs. And the man who, for the
love of God, voluntarily relinquishes the world
and spends his years in privation and suffering,
may well lay claim to the martyr's crown ; for
his life is a continual martyrdom. He has to
crucify the flesh with its concupiscence, to sacri-
fice those feelings and desires which are the
strongest and most ineradicable of his nature. He

1 82 THE EXAMPLE OF THE SAINTS.

knows that the kingdom of heaven suffereth vio-
lence, and the violent only bear it away.

Even the love of power, of glory or reputation,
and of those other objects which even good men
think they may pursue without blame, can have
no place in the affections of the sajnt. He must
learn to contemn these things and to seek his
happiness in the possession of God. For Him,
alone, must he live ; in Him, alone, must he cen-
tre all his affections. Few can realize the disin-
terestedness and the heroism required for such a
sacrifice.

Far from seeking the good opinion of men,
and the glory of the world, the servant of God
must incur their odium, and bear with patience
their scorn. How lofty, how unworldly, how in-
different to human respect, must be the courage
which not only endures, but even despises hate
and contempt ? Self-love is so strong in the
human heart, that it is with difficulty we can bear
reproach, or brook insult. Hearts invulnerable
to all things else, are keenly sensitive to even the
least look of contempt. Men brave to rush upon
certain death in its most awful forms, are cowed,
and sometimes unmanned, by the slightest scorn.
In fact, fear of contempt is often the motive that
urges men to the most daring deeds. Men fear
the world's opinion, and prefer to die rather than
risk its odium. The saints were far above all
such weakness ; they minded not the judgment
of the world ; as they sought not its praises, so
they feared not its censures. The principles
which guided them, were the dictates of their

THE EXAMPLE OF THE SAINTS. 183

conscience ; not the judgments of men. It is to
be remembered that, in despising the world's opin-
ion, they were not prompted by pride ; they did
not compensate themselves for the world's con-
tempt, by the pleasure they found in despising
the world. There were pagan philosophers, who
affected to contemn the world, but their con-
tempt was the result of pride. They made amends
to themselves, for the loss of the world's esteem,
by the secret pleasure they found in contemning
its opinion. But with the saints, contempt of the
world sprang from their humility ; they pitied
the world, and lamented that men should be the
victims of its delusions. They rejoiced that they
were accounted worthy to suffer reproach for the
name of Jesus. They were made a spectacle to
the world, to the angels, and to men. They were
esteemed the refuse of this world. There are
none truly brave, but the truly humble. It is
pride that makes cowards ; it is only by tramp-
ling it under foot, by annihilating it, that we can
aspire to the noble fortitude, which enabled the
saints to endure the scorn and censures of men.

But all the virtues of the saints would be as
nothing, if they did not have goodness ; it is
the essential mark of all holiness. Goodness,
prompted by no interest, awaiting no command
of duty, looking to no reward, seeking not its
own, is the grandest prerogative of the saints ; as
it is of God Himself. No one is truly great, who
is not truly good. Men have been great, only in
so far, as they have been possessed of goodness.
God is the source of all goodness ; it is the great-

1 84 THE EXAMPLE OF THE SAINTS.

est of His attributes. It was His goodness that
moved Him to create the world, to redeem man:
the most perfect, disinterested goodness. The
saints are the images of God. The more good-
ness they possess, the more clearly do they re-
flect their great Exemplar. In contemplating the
marvellous goodness of God in Himself and in
dying for men, the souls of the saints were fired
with goodness. Next to their love of God, there
was in them nothing greater than their goodness,
or, love for men. In all their actions, we see a
goodness which was but an emanation of the
goodness of Christ ; their model and master.

We reverence the memory of those Avho are
the benefactors of our race ; who pass their lives
in the alleviation of its sufferings ; who travel the
w^orld, not to behold the evidences of its grand-
eur, nor the relics of its past greatness, nor to
gather wisdom in its schools, nor to be enter-
tained by the novelty and beauty of its lan-
guages and customs ; but in search of the fallen
whom they may raise, the destitute whom they
may assist, the suffering whom they may relieve,
the wicked whom they may reclaim. And we
should ; for these philanthropists are the best and
noblest specimens of our race. Their works of
goodness and disinterestedness are the lights that
illumine, the deeds that ennoble this dark, and
dreary, and selfish world of ours. Were not
such acts of devotion recorded up and down the
page of history, it would present but one vast
record of suffering, unrelieved by the generous
impulses of our nature.

THE EXAMPLE OF THE SAINTS. 1 85

But this goodness, after all, springs but from a
natural motive, and can exert but the limited influ-
ence of a natural virtue. What is it to the good-
ness, the supernatural goodness of the saints, pro-
ceeding from a love of God, unlimited in its
influence, and extending to all men? The saints
lived for no other purpose than to do good ;
their lives were but records of beneficence. It
was their continual study how to succor human-
ity, how to improve the condition of all. For
this, they resorted to all the means which a heav-
enly wisdom could suggest ; for this, they ex-
hausted all the energies of body and soul. No
obstacle was insurmountable, no toil too weari-
some, no prospect too hopeless, no opposition
could deter them, no fear could intimidate them.
If seas were to be crossed, if countries were to be
penetrated where life and health were exposed
to the most imminent danger, if the gospel was to
be preached among nations where its announce-
ment was sure to be sealed with their blood, the
saints hesitated not ; no danger was too appalling,
no fatigue was too insupportable, no death was
too cruel, if there was hope of gaining souls to
Christ. Their lives are but the record of what
they have done and suffered for their fellow-
beings. Not only did they spend their lives, not
only did they undergo sufferings untold, but even
their liberty and their blood were freely offered
on the altar of their charity.

We read of saints who delivered themselves
into captivity to redeem some prisoner ; of others
who offered even to die for the ransom of slaves ;

1 86 THE EXAMPLE OF THE SAINTS.

of others who would even risk their eternal salva-
tion, by preferring to live longer on earth for the
salvation of men, than to go to heaven at once.
From St. Paul, who wished himself to be an
anathema from Christ for his brethren, to St.
Vincent de Paul, who sold himself into slavery to
redeem a captive, the history of the Church is
but one series and brilliant record of enterprises
undertaken and carried out for the redress of
human grievances and the alleviation of human
suffering. The Church in her saints has been but
re-enacting the mission of her Divine Founder.
Into the saints has He infused His spirit. By
them has He perpetuated His example.

We are called the children of the saints; we
have the same mother Church. Are we really
their children, or is it but an empty name ? We
are called upon to honor and imitate, or rather,
to honor by imitating the saints. Do we so honor
them ? or does our honoring consist in saying a
few prayers and litanies in which their names are
mentioned? How stand we in this matter?
Let us look to ourselves. We may not be called
upon to practice their eminent virtues. But do
we follow them, even from afar off? have we their
virtues even in germ or root? are we even desir-
ing to tread in their footsteps? Are we pursuing
that narrow way, beset with trial and danger ;
blood-stained on every side, telling of the hard
struggles and fierce conflicts of those who have
gone before? — that royal road of the Cross,
which all the predestined must travel ; that nar-
row way, that so few find and which alone leads

THE EXAMPLE OF THE SAINTS. 1 87

to glory. Or are we pursuing that broad and
beaten path, which shows no vestiges of conflict,
which tells no tale of blood-shedding or of suffer-
ing for salvation, which suggests no lesson of self-
denial : that broad and easy and sinful way which
almost all pursue ?

You will say, that you are doing as well as your
neighbor. Then you are on the wrong path. If
you do no better than the majority you will be
lost. Most men are not in pursuit of salvation.
The saints were not like the rest of men. I wish
not to discuss the question of the fewness of the
elect. Yet, when I consider the solemn words of
Scripture, I see no justification for those who
would improve upon the Gospel ; who broaden
the way, that Christ has declared narrow ; who
ease the path, that He has declared difficult ; and
who enlarge the number, of those whom He has
declared few. Rest assured, that, if you are no
better than the rest of men, as they are found in
the present state of society, you are not of that
*' Little flock " which Christ calls His faithful fol-
lowers.

You will say that you keep the commandments
and avoid grievous sin; that you are not called
upon to be saints. True ; you are not called upon
to be saints in the highest sense of the word ;
true, strictly speaking, you are only obliged to
avoid mortal sin. But think you, that you will
succeed in so doing, while you scruple not venial
sins? He who would avoid mortal sin, must begin
by avoiding venial. He who would hit the mark,
must aim a little higher than seems necessary to

1 88 THE EXAMPLE OF THE SAINTS.

his purpose. He who rushes along a precipice,
must be careful not to run too close to the edge,
lest he stumble and be dashed to pieces upon the
rocks below. He who would keep the law in its
integrity, must not begin by shaving it. You
must make allowances for the wear and tear of
the conflict; and give yourselves some vantage
ground on which to hold your own against the
fatal assaults of mortal sin.

Think not that you will be without reward.
What is the recompense of the saints? I answer •
what is the object of creation ? What is the end
of all things, but the glory of the elect ? For this
alone did God create the world. .\ll things else
are subordinated to this one great purpose. God's
primary providence in the affairs of the world, is
the preservation and diffusion of His Church:
that, through her, may be brought forth the
saints who alone of all men subserve the final
design of God in the creation of the world. But
for the saints, and their works, the history of the
world, on the last day, would be but a universal
blank. God made the world for man, to manifest
to him His glory. Man fell: the work was
spoiled. Jesus came : all things were restored.
The saints, alone, co-operate with Him in the
work of restoration ; alone, make themselves
partakers of the benefits conferred by Him.
Only they, of all men, seek to further the pur-
pose God had in making the world ; hence, at the
last day, the history of the world, and even of in-
dividuals, will be narrowed down to what concerns
the design of God in creating the world and man.

THE EXAMPLE OF THE SAIXTS. 1 89

Let US imitate the saints, for we are their chil-
dren. We belong to the same Mother Church,
who brought them forth to Christ. We may
never reach the loftiness of their motives, the
sovereign degree of their self-denial ; we mav
forever remain strangers to their unapproachable
goodness. Yet, we are called upon to possess
these virtues, at least, in their element or prin-
ciple. If we are to share their glory in the life to
come, their virtues we must have, if not, in ful-
ness, at least in a measure proportioned to our
mediocrity. Let us, then, study our models,
imbibe their spirit, and make their virtues our
own.

The world may bugh, may think our life with-
out purpose, and our end without honor; yet it
will, at the last day, honor us, as it now honors
them. Iniquity will be forced to pay its tribute
to virtue : " These arc they whom we had some-
time in derision, and for a parable of reproach.
We foolish ones esteemed their life madness, and
their end without honor. Behold, how they are
numbered among the children of God, and their
lot is among the saints. We have therefore erred
from the way of truth ; and the light of justice
hath not shined upon us ; and the sun of under-
standing hath not risen upon us."

Not only can we expect the reward prepared
for the just ; but even in this life we shall not be
without recompense. Where are, now, those that
persecuted the saints? Where, now, is the world
of their day ? Yet, the saints are remembered
and honored by all men. The}- have inherited

I90 THE EXAMPLE OF THE SAINTS.

the glory which in life they contemned. And
those who lived but for glory and this world, are
sunk in oblivion. Like Jesus Christ, contemned,
and persecuted, and put to death, the saints have
emerged from their obscurity, and the contempt
of men, from their sufferings, and hidden holiness,
and heroic deeds of charity, all glorious ; — to be
honored, throughout all time, together with their
Master and Model. Their names are enthroned
in the hearts of the faithful, they are enshrined in
the prayers of the Church ; their intercession is
invoked, wherever, from the rising to the setting
sun, the clean oblation of Christ's body is offered
up. They are as immortal as the Church itself.

Thus it is, that virtue is rewarded ; that the
Church triumphs ; that the ways of God are justi-
fied : and that He overcomes the world.

THE NEW YORK

PUBLIC LIBRARY,

AiTOR, LENOX AWO
riLDtN FOUNPiTlONS.

ON PRAYER.

And when ye pray, ye shall not be as the hypocrites, who love
to stand and pray in the synagogue and at the corners of the
streets, that they may be seen by men. Truly, I say to you,
they have got their reward. But thou when thou prayest, enter
into thy chamber, and when thou hast shut the door, pray to thy
Father in secret : and thy Father who seeth in secret, will repay
thee. And when ye pray, gabble not as the heathen do : for
they think that for their many words they may be heard. Be not
ye, therefore, like to them ; for your Father knoweth what is need-
ful for you, before ye ask Him. Thus, therefore, shall ye pray :
Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy name. Thy
kingdom come. Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as
we also forgive our debtors. And lead us not into temptation :
but deliver us from evil. Amen. For if ye forgive men their
offences, your heavenly Father will forgive you also your of-
fences. But if ye will not forgive men, neither will your Father
forgive you your offences. And when ye fast, be not of a sad
countenance, as the hypocrites. For they disfigure their faces,
that to men they may appear to fast. Truly I say to you, they
have got their reward. But thou, when thou fastest, anoint thy
head, and wash thy face : that thou appear not to men to fast,
but to thy Father, who is in secret : and thy Father, who seeth
in secret, will repay thee. Lay not up for yourselves treasures
on earth, where rust and moth consume, and where thieves
break through and steal. But lay up for yourselves treasures
in heaven, where neither rust nor moth doth consume, and
where thieves do not break through, nor steal. — St. Matthew vi.,
5-20.

Prayer is defined to be the raising of the mind
to God, whereby we praise Him, give Him thanks

192 ON PRAYER.

for His benefits, ask for good things, and to be
freed from evil.

Prayer is the raising of the mind to God : by
this, it is clear that words are not necessary to
prayer ; that thought and meditation are its essen-
tial ingredients. We praise God because of His
intrinsic excellence and boundless perfection.
For this He is entitled to our love and worship.
By asking for good things and giving thanks for
His benefits, is implied the duty which rests upon
us of giving thanks to Almighty God for all the
blessings, temporal and eternal, that He confers
upon us. We are also taught to pray to God for
all things necessar}^ to the salvation of our souls ;
always keeping in mind the admonition of Christ :
" Seek ye first the kingdom of God and His justice,
and all things shall be added unto you." We are
to ask submissively, and upon the condition that
what we ask, it be pleasing to God to grant. We
are not to expect absolute immunity from evil ;
but that we may not be tempted beyond our
strength, that we may be led, uninjured, through
temptation. This is a short explanation of the
definition of prayer.

When it is said to be a raising of the mind to
God, we have the substance and essence of what
prayer should be. It answers those who say, that
they prav not because they know not how to pray.
Who is he, that knows not how to raise his heart
to God, to ask Him to lighten the burdens under
which he suffers, to give him light enough to know
the truth, and grace to follow it ? As we can raise
our hearts to God, we can pray. Prayer consists

ON PRAYER. 193

not in any skilful arrangement of thoughts or
sentiments, nor is it any effort of the mind, nor
any elaborate argument ; nor does it require any
profound erudition or recondite research, nor any
deep knowledge of God's mysteries, nor extensive
acquaintance with His law. It is not any lofty
speculation or logical discourse. Prayer is the
cry of the soul conscious of its miseries and trials;
it is the outpouring of our hearts conscious of
their weakness, and surrounded on every side by
temptation. It is the confession of our disrelish
and disgust with all things human, and of our own
insufficiency ; and the acknowledgment that all our
hope and reliance is in the goodness of God alone.
Prayer is not something in the heavens, that we
need to have brought down to us ; nor something
across the seas, that we should say, who shall bring
it to us. It is in the power, as it is the duty, of ev-
eryone. It is the law of our spiritual life, it is the
essential condition of our salvation. The high, the
low, the ignorant, can pray, no less than the highly
stationed or the highly gifted. The essential duty
of every man does not depend upon any external
circumstances. All can pray, because everyone
can understand his misery, and can look to God
for strength and assistance. The rustic who can
scarcely name the Trinity, may be more of an
adept at prayer than the great theologian who,
while he talks learnedly of the Trinity, may fail
to do the will of the Trinity. He who is filled
with salutary fear of God's judgments, and with
hope in His boundless goodness and mercy, and
Avho falls down in worshipping the greatness of

194 ON PRAYER.

His majesty and His adorable attributes, is better
prepared for the duty of prayer than if he pos-
sessed all human erudition expressed in language
the most embellished. The more keenly one feels
his misery, the more he realizes his own nothing-
ness and his absolute dependence upon Almighty
God, the more unreservedly he commits himself
to Divine providence and looks to it for strength :
the more perfectly he is able to pray.

Theologians tell us that there are various kinds
of prayer : the best is that, in which the soul as-
cending from virtue to virtue, from holiness to
holiness, mounts even to the bosom of God ; and
finds in the contemplation of His divine nature
and perfections, unspeakable joy and bliss su-
preme. If it were necessary to aspire to this kind
of prayer ; if it were necessary to be, like Saint
Paul, transported out of one's self to heaven, and
to hear those secrets which it is not permitted
him to utter, we might, indeed, claim dispensation
from the duty of prayer. But we must content
ourselves with the lower order of prayer ; that in
which, feeling our weakness and our dread procliv-
ity to sin, and surrounded by temptation on every
side, we beg God to grant us grace not to yield
to our enemies; or, having yielded, we implore
Him to come to our rescue, to raise us from our
misery. We can beg Him Who watches over us.
Who has counted the hairs of our head, and
Who makes His sun rise and His rain fall upon the
just and unjust, that He will supply our wants
and grant us all we need for our temporal and
spiritual welfare. As the hungry know^ how to

ON PRAYER. 195

ask for bread, and the thirsty to ask for drink, and
the naked for covering, so he who feels the needs
of his soul, can ask God in His goodness to sup-
ply them. See the entreaties, long and persistent,
with which men seek some temporal object : no
less should be our earnestness in beseeching God to
grant us the virtues and graces necessary for our
eternal salvation : even greater zeal and assiduity
should mark our prayers, because of the greater
urgency and necessity of our eternal salvation.
No man can excuse himself from the duty of
prayer, because he knows not how to pray. Let
him but feel the end for which he has been made,
and he cannot fail to have an instinctive knowl-
edge of the divine art of prayer.

The advantages of prayer are many. By it we
render to God the worship, which is His due ;
and we acknowledge His supreme dominion over
us, and all things. We recognize Him, as our
sovereign benefactor, from Whom we have re-
ceived all, and from Whom we are to expect all.
Everything has been made for His honor and
glory. Inanimate nature cannot subserve this
end, but imperfectly, except through man. Man,
then, by prayer gives the glory to God, which He
expects from all creatures. Man's adoration and
love, free and spontaneous in its nature, is alone
worthy of the Creator.

Prayer opens heaven. Prayer ascends, mercy
descends. God hears the prayer of men ; it is the
ordinary channel through which we receive all
blessings. He wishes to be asked for His gifts.
If we do not receive them, it is because we do not

196 ON PRAYER.

ask ; it is the established means of receiving
divine grace ; even the sacraments depend upon
it ; for, by prayer we must obtain the dispositions
which they require for their fruitful reception. If
it is the appointed channel of obtaining grace,
all other means are excluded. As God has or-
dained prayer as the condition of granting us
His grace, it is through prayer that we must seek
it.

Prayer improves all our virtues : increases our
faith, animates our hope, inflames our charity,
nourishes confidence in God, augments diffidence
in ourselves. Taught to have recourse to Ilim in
all our needs, and to look to Him ior light and
assistance in darkness ^and temptation; and al-
ways obtaining what we ask, or something better
in lieu thereof, we come to mistrust ourselves and
all human resources, and to place all our trust in
His goodness and mercy.

Frequent interviews are necessary to excite
love for anyone. The more intercourse we have
with God in prayer, the warmer becomes our
love ; because the clearer our knowledge of Him
is made. All things else lose, by too close a scru-
tiny ; but God gains upon us, the greater our in-
timac}^ Human society and individuals appear
happy and great : but examined closely, there is
nothing but misery and discontent, sin and
anguish. But God closely examined by holy
meditation, and sought in prayer, is full of beauty,
and of holiness, and of every perfection that can
charm or satiate the soul. He fills the soul united
to Him by prayer, with all the content, and joy.

ON PRAYER. 197

and exultation, that are the outcome of these
divine perfections. We shall never rise to a per-
fect knowledge of Him in this life ; but, in what-
ever measure we apprehend Him, the same shall
be the degree of our love. In communion with
God, we come to learn the beauty of virtue, the
hatefulness of sin, and the emptiness of all things
earthly : enamored of the divine beauty and good-
ness, we come to love holiness, and aspire to the
Eternal Good.

Fraver is a vital necessity of the soul. This
arises from the necessity of grace. By myself, I
am nothing ; by the grace of God, I can do all
things. To purchase for us this grace, Christ be-
came man. St. Thomas says that, without prayer,
we cannot be saved. Some hold that, without
prayer, there is no grace ; wherefore, without
prayer, there is no salvation. Some things are
necessary for salvation, as a means ; some, as a
matter of precept. Prayer is necessary, both as a
means and as a precept. " We ought always to
pray, and not to faint." " i\men, amen, I say to
you, if you ask the Father anything in My Name,
He will give it you. Hitherto you have not
asked anything in My Name : ask, and you shall
receive, that your joy may be full." Christ, by
His example, taught us to pray. After the fa-
tigues of the day, preaching, curing the sick, min-
istering to every want, working miracles. He
spent the night in prayer. He was in constant
communion with His heavenly Father. In His
agony, in Gethsemane, the day before He died, He
prayed. He prayed on the cross for the penitent

1 98 ON PRAYER.

thief; he pra^'ed for the Jews, for they knew not
what they did. This He did for our edification.
He did not need to pray for Himself ; for in Him
there was neither sin nor the shadow thereof.

The temptations that surround us, teach us the
necessity of prayer. Born from a corrupt source,
bearing within us an earthly, and a heavenly ele-
ment, which war continually ; feeling the law of
our members alluring us to sin ; with nothing in
the world but the lust of the flesh, the lust of the
eyes, and the pride of life ; exalted and made proud
by prosperity, cast down by adversity and disap-
pointment; what resource have we onl}- prayer?
to whom shall we have recourse in our misery ?
whither shall we repair from our enemies, except
to God, by prayer, fervent and sustained ? Christ
gave us a form of prayer, which contains all that
is necessary to our eternal salvation, and to our
temporal well-being.

Prayer is one of those duties, from which noth-
ing can dispense us. Other obligations there are,
and these, urgent; yet, there are causes that dis-
pense us from their fulfilment, or extenuate the
guilt of neglect. i\s grace is necessary to the
fruitful reception of the sacraments, and as there
is no grace without prayer ; so whatever is the
necessity of the sacraments, the same is the neces-
sity of prayer. Without prayer as a preliminary
to obtain the grace which the}^ require, the recep-
tion of the sacraments mav be fruitless, or even
sacrilegious. Few question the necessity of
prayer; but few are faithful to the duty which
the necessity implies.

ON PRAYER. 199

We frequently hear people say, that they pray,
and yet receive not; that they ask, and it is not
given to them ; that they seek, and they do not
find ; they knock, and it is not opened to them.
What, then, is the use of prayer ? Yet nothing is
better established in religion than the unfailing
efficacy of prayer. We have the assurance of
Jesus Christ that, if we ask, it shall be given to us.
Prayer, then, reaches the very heart of God.
How shall we explain this? on the one hand, there
is the word of God assuring us of the infalli-
bility of prayer ; and on the other, the unmistak-
able fact that we sometimes pray and do not re-
ceive. St. James explains the difficulty and rec-
onciles the two : " Ye ask and ye receive not,
because ye ask amiss." You ask not what you
should, or you ask what you should not, or ask-
ing what you should, you ask it not with the
proper disposition. What then should we pray
for ? What should be the subject matter of our
prayer? Reflect on the object for which we are
come into being. What is our final destiny ? Is it
riches, or fame, or passion, during life ; then to sink
into the grave and be no more? But if we have
come into the world for a destiny which ends not
here below ; if we have an immortal soul, and its
eternal welfare depends upon our fidelity to God's
holv law ; then, it is plain, that the object of our
prayers should be far above any of the interests
or objects of this life. Our petitions should be-
seech God to have mercy upon our weakness, to
grant us grace to overcome temptation, to slacken
the fire of lust ; in a word, they should concern

200 ON PRAYER.

our eternal destiny and what may be necessary
thereto. Our requests should be in harmony with
the providence of God, and with the design that
He has had in making- man and revealing to him
his supernatural destiny. The incarnation and
death of Christ are luminous facts to manifest
God's providence with regard to man. To save
the soul, and to use all things that God has given,
in so far as they may conduce to this salvation,
and to refrain from them, in so far as they may
hinder it, is the highest Christian philosophy. It
was not that we might enjoy any temporal advan-
tage that Christ died. The salvation of human-
ity was the only object worthy of that mysterious
sacrifice : that man might have supernatural life
and abundant grace to attain it, was the only fruit
and reward worthy of that incalculable price.
Put out of mind all thoughts and all the concerns
of this world ; banish from it all things of a tran-
sitory nature, or contemplate them as they will
appear to you in the day, when Jesus Christ will
come to judge the world: what are the objects
which, in that day, will seem important in our
eyes and to have been alone worthy of our atten-
tion during life? They will be our soul and its
eternal destiny : God and His eternal kingdom.
These, then, are the objects for which, now, we
should pray.

Why should we pray for anything outside of
these eternal realities ? Why should we ask God
for favors that have no relation to our immortal
destiny ? If it is true, that this body is hastening
to the grave ; that, in a few short years, it will be,

ON PRAYER. 201

as if it never had been in this world, why should
we pray to escape sickness ? If, in a little while,
your reputation shall be followed by the silence
of the grave, why give so great part of your
thoughts to its attainment ? If pleasure lasts but
so short a time, if no human gratification can en-
tirely satisfy the cravings of the soul, why pray
for human enjoyment? why pray for temporal
advantages? Why not, rather, pray for the light
of the Holy Ghost ; that it may dwell with us, and
keep our eyes open to the vanity and emptiness
of all things human ? Our soul and its salvation
should be always in our thoughts. It is no won-
der that our prayers are not heard, because we
pray, truly, amiss.

Every prayer that the Church offers is in the
name and through the merits of Jesus Christ.
Every supplication is through His blood and sac-
rifice. The prayers of the Church are to be the
models of our own. Think you to ask anything
save what concerns salvation, in the name of Him,
Who has died for no other object than to purchase
it for us? With His unspeakable sacrifice for
our sins and our redemption before our eyes, can
we dare to profane it by asking worldly gratifica-
tion, or any temporal benefit? Can we ask any-
thing except what He came to obtain for us, and
for which His blood was shed ? We should con-
fine our prayers to the model which He has
taught us ; and in it there is no mention of tem-
poral benefits, except the daily bread wherewith
soul and body may be kept together.

We have an advocate before the Father: Jesus

202 ON PRAYER.

Christ Who makes continual intercession for us.
He is our great High-priest, Who is entered into
the heavens, not one who cannot have compassion
for our infirmities; but one tried in all things in
like manner without sin. Can we imagine that He
asks the Father for anything except what regards
our eternal salvation? It is clear, then, that we
pray amiss ; that we do not obtain what we ask
for, because we forget the rightful object of
prayer.

See the man who is united to God bv continual
prayer: how calm ; how great the serenitv of his
soul ; nothing can disturb the heart where the
Holy Ghost dwells. Upon how high a plain does
he live and move. How pure and loftv an atmos-
phere does he breathe. Nothing disconcerts him.
Calamities do not cast him down ; calumny, dis-
grace, misery, death, may come: they find him
tranquil and resigned. People who know not the
grace that strengthens and irradiates his soul,
wonder at him. Such a man has solid religious
convictions; realizes that life is short, that death
is sure, that the world is nothing but deceit, that
there is but one thing necessary. It is the con-
sciousness of living for the one thing necessary,
which fills his soul with a peace that worldlings
fail to understand. They who place their hap-
piness in the objects of this life, sink into de-
spondency when worldly misfortune befalls
them. They must needs : because they lose the
only happiness for which they have apprecia-
tion. Religious convictions are not deep in their
souls.

ON PRAYER. 203

Iluw must \vc prav-' Left to ourselves and to
the prompting's of our hearts, we all are instructed
in the art of prayer. Wc may pray for the right-
ful objects of prayer, and yet we may not always
obtain what we ask, because we pray not as we
ought. When you pray, prepare your hearts and
be not as those tempting God. Our prayers
should be animated with the spirit of humility.
God resists the proud and gives grace to the hum-
ble. The proud Pharisee went down from the tem-
|)le unpardoned, because of his self-conceit and
self-sufficiency. The poor publican with sins un-
counted and black in their dye was justified, be-
cause of his humility. With what lowly entreaty
do we seek a favor from some temporal potentate;
nor do we think our pains lost, if we obtain what
we ask. The Canaan woman obtained what she
sought, because of her humble earnestness. Confi-
dence that we shall obtain what we ask, is another
(jualitv which should mark our prayers. It has
the virtue of working miracles. "Thy faith hath
made thee whole." " He could not perform any
miracles because of their unbelief." Nothing is
more essential to prayer than perseverance. It
belongs to God to say how long we shall beseech
Ilim ; and on what conditions He will grant our
rc(iuests. From the nature of prayer, as a com-
munion or colloquv with God, it is obvious, that
this duty is to be performed with due prei)arati{)n
of soul, free from all wilful distractions, with all
fervor and attention of mind, with all earnestness
and affection of heart.

For what shall we pray ? For what does the

204 ON PRAYER.

thirsty, the sick, the starving pray ? If we under-
stood our misery, we would not ask the question.
We have so much to pray for, that we scarcely
know where to begin. Are we in sin, pray to be
delivered from it. Are we in grace, pray for per-
severance. Pray for strength to overcome temp-
tation. Have you ever committed sin ? Pray for
its forgiveness. Be not without solicitude for
sins supposed to be forgiven. Thank God for
your conversion ; for enlightening and leading
you from iniquity. Pray for yourselves, for your
relations, for your friends, for your enemies.
Pray for the young, in whom passion is strongest ;
for the old, in whom time has not diminished sin-
fulness; for those who are in sin, that they may
rise from it. Pray for inhdels ; for heretics ; for
the sheep not of the true fold, that all may be
brought to see the truth. Pray for those whose
faith is a dead one, who lie in sin in the bosom of
the Church. Pray for the Head of the Church ;
for the Church's triumph over its enemies, and its
diffusion throughout the world ; for the accession
to the priesthood of priests filled with the spirit
of their vocation, men after God's own heart. If
you are in the world, pray that you be not con-
taminated ; if you are in solitude, pray ; for a
man's enemies are those of his own household, his
passions follow him wheresoever he goes. Pray
at all times, especially during temptation, that
you may not fall ; and if you fall, pray after temp-
tation that you may rise again. Peter was safe
while he prayed ; he fell when he ceased. The
sinner should never despair, until he despises

ON PRAYER. 205

prayer. " There is nothing left me," says Holy
Job, '' but the teeth above my lips." '' Much is
left to thee," says St. Hilary, " because there is
left to thee, the power of raising your lips in
prayer."

Tf^E NEW YORK

-^r,-:]C LIBRARY.

AiT'J.K. LtMO* ^^0

rii !irN founhations.

MOTIVES TO HUMILITY.

Two men went up into the temple to pray : the one a Phari-
see, and the other a publican.

The Pharisee standing, prayed thus with himself : O God, I
give thee thanks that I am not as the rest of men, extortioners,
unjust, adulterers, as also is this publican,

I fast twice in a week : I give tithes of all that I possess.

And the publican, standing afar off, would not so much as
lift up his eyes towards heaven ; but struck his breast, saying :
O God, be merciful to me a sinner.

I say to you, this man went down into his house justified
rather than the other : because every one that exalteth himself
shall be humbled : and he that humbleth himself shall be ex-
alted.— St. Luke xviii., 10-14.

Often does the Church place before us, in the
Gospels read to us, the lesson of Christian humil-
ity. In doing this, she but imitates our Blessed
Lord, who by word, and deed, and example, never
ceased to inculcate upon His followers the neces-
sity of this virtue.

Not to speak of His incarnation, which is, per-
haps, after all, a manifestation of His power and
wisdom rather than of His humility : throughout
the varied circumstances of His life, He affords a
wondrous example of lowliness. Born of a poor
virgin, having not whereon to lay His head, pass-
ing through life in poverty and obscurity, endur-
ing privation and suffering, bearing without re-

208 MOTIVES TO HUMILITY.

sentment, and even with meekness, the blackest
of outrages and most grievous wrongs ; and,
finally, for our sake, dying the death of a male-
factor, He presents to us an example of humility
of which God alone was capable\ When, during
His short-lived earthly triumph, they would
make Him king, He lied; when He performed"
miracles. He charged His disciples that they
should tell no man till He had risen from the
dead ; when He was transfigured on Thabor and
the light of the Divinity shone about Him, He
commanded that it should not be made known
till after His resurrection. He even washed the
disciples' feet, to afford an impressive example of
the spirit of humility which should characterize
them. '' Learn of me, for I am meek and humble
of heart."

And to carry on the work which He had begun.
He made not use of the means which human pride
and prudence would suggest ; but He consecrated
holy humility and sent it to convert the world.
" The foolish things of this world did He choose
to confound the wise, and the weak to confound
the strong, and the things that are contemptible
and those that are not to bring to naught the
things that are." " Father, I give Thee thanks
that Thou hast hid these things from the wise and
prudent, and hast revealed them to little ones."
" You know that the princes of the Gentiles lord
it over them, and they who are great exercise au-
thority on them. It shall not be so among you ;
but whoever will be the greatest among you, let
him be your waiter. And whoever would be first

MOTIVES TO HUMILITY. 209

among you, shall be your servant." *' Unless you
become as little children, you shall not enter into
the Kingdom of heaven. Whosoever shall hum-
ble himself as this little child, the same is greatest
in the Kingdom of heaven." The poor publican
with sins grievous and beyond number was for-
given, because of his deep sense of unworthiness.
Ths self-sufficient Pharisee with his rank conceit
and festering pride, went down from the temple
as he had gone up ; probably, even with his heart
still further hardened to the influence of grace.

Humility is the foundation of Christian virtue.
As pride may be traced in every sin, humility is
found in every virtue. As every sin is, in some
sense, an act of pride, so every act of virtue is the
result of humility. No virtue can exist without
it. From it all the virtues spring, and have their
nourishment and life. He is humble who realizes
that he is but a creature, that he has nothing of
his own, that of himself, he is but sin and misery,
that all his sufficiency is from God ; and who in-
fuses this belief into his will, giving him an abid-
ing sense of his nothingness. The more fully we
apprehend and realize, and the more fully we
impart to the will, this sense of our insufficiency
and nothingness, the more truly humble we be-
come. Humility does not consist in lowering
ourselves below that which God has made us.
Humility is founded upon truth. They cannot be
opposed. Pride as the opposite of humility, con-
sists in esteeming one's self beyond that which
God knows him to be. Humility accordingly is
found in knowing what one really is. If a person

2IO MOTIVES TO HUMILITY.

has received gifts from Almighty God, true hu-
mility will show itself, not by attempting to be-
lieve that he has not, but by im^proving, and mak-
ing them subserve the glor}^ of God ; and
acknowledging that they are His alone. As true
humility teaches us to know ourselves, it leads us
to understand and confess our relations to God.
The more profound our knowledge of these rela-
tions, the truer and deeper our humility. Thus,
the saints by the light and grace of the Holy
Ghost, had a most vivid perception, a most in-
tense realization of their nothino:ness as creatures ;
and of the all-sufficiency and greatness of the Cre-
ator. It was because of this, that they sometimes
expressed themselves in words, which in us would
simpl}^ seem affectation : that they felt themselves
to be the greatest of sinners and the most miser-
able of men.

Many are humble in their words and modest in
their exterior deportment, yet entire strangers to
the virtue of humility. Modesty usually accom-
panies true humility ; and, sometimes, even passes
for the virtue ; a counterfeit, which is not always
and at once detected. Yet the two are quite dis
tinct. The pride of Lucifer may be concealed
under the garb of modesty. Of all the virtues,
humility is the least easily discerned, and may
long remain hidden. Humility never obtrudes
itself, never seeks to be known as such. It were
but exquisite pride, to seek to be thought humble.

The man whose soul is filled with true Chris-
tian humility will place the law of God before all
things: rather than contemn it, he will suffer the

MOTIVES TO HUMILITY. 211

loss of all he holds dearest, even of life itself.
Convinced that outside of God there is no real
pleasure, no real riches, no real honor, nothing
worth living for; he will not seek these objects,
except in reference to his one great paramount
duty of loving God and saving his soul. He may
be compelled to pass his life in obscurity and pov-
erty ; he will not demur. He will see, without
envy, the elevation of those to whom he may be
superior ; but who are carried forward by the
spurrings of a higher ambition, or by more favor-
able caprices of fortune. The soul of such a man
will be filled with a blessed peace ; noble sight to
the anxieties and pains that harass the heart of
the proud ; an imperturbable tranquillity will pos-
sess him. He destroys, from its roots, and by a
blow, the network of sensitiveness, the soul's tor-
ment, whose fibres reach the heart and make life
miserable for so many. No matter what may be-
fall him, whether he be scorned, or neglected, or
calumniated, or his inferiors preferred, or he pass
his life in misery, his heart is in God : nothing
can disturb him. What bliss like this ! A fore-
taste of heaven ! It is not my purpose to give you
a lecture on humility. I wish rather to invite you
to consider some of those things that are apt to
produce sentiments of this virtue. '' It is better
to feel compunction than define it, better to do
the will of the Trinity, than to talk learnedly
of the Trinity."

To become thoroughly humble; we have but to
consider, what we are, how absolutely we are
nothing of ourselves, and how utterly dependent

212 MOTIVES TO HUMILITY.

we are upon Almighty God. We are creatures :
no word expresses a dependence more absolute, a
self-insufificiency more complete. To create im-
plies to bring forth from nothing : a thing created
has nothing of its own. Whatever it is, and what,
ever it has, it must receive from its Creator.
Whatever, then, man is, or has, all comes from
God. Our bodies, our souls, our faculties ; all
are the gifts of God entrusted to our keeping, for
our own use, and yet to subserve His honor and
glory. Of the gifts, whether of nature or of
grace, which we have received, we shall one day
be required to give a rigid account : and as of
those to whom much has been given, much will
be required, so, those who have received more
than others, will have to give a more rigid ac-
count.

As we have been created, there was a time
when we were not. But a few years since, we
were nothing; and, had it been the will of Al-
mighty God, such we should have remained for-
ever. It was His omnipotent power and good-
ness that called us forth from nothingness and en-
dowed us with existence ; that gave us our bodies,
and created our immortal souls, gifted with won-
drous faculties, and capable of achieving an eter-
nity of bliss, or an eternity of woe. And, once in
existence, we had been insufficient for ourselves :
were it not for the Almighty Power which called
us into being and continued to sustain us, we
should have fallen back into our original nothing.

This continual dependence upon God, is a sub-
ject suitable to excite the deepest humility. It is

MOTIVES TO HUMILITY. 213

obvious, too ; but, in proportion as it is obvious,
it is neglected. Why, even the elements which
surround us and are necessary for our support
and life, may become fatal to us. There is death
in the air we breathe, in the water we drink, in
the food we consume. Take air : how soothing-,
who could exist without it? Yet, let that air be-
come the hurricane ; what can withstand its de-
structive fury ? Take heat : what more necessary
for life ? Yet, let the spark fall upon an inflam-
mable substance ; and soon it is a conflagration
which will reduce to nothing the most enduring
structures of human workmanship or the noblest
efforts of human art ; burying in its ruins, it may
be, thousands of human beings. Take water ;
how useful, how obedient in its littleness ! But, let
the boundaries which Providence has put between
land and sea be removed ; and how soon will it
carry havoc and destruction through a country.
No ; man is not the master of nature, though he
seems to be : he is the creature and victim of the
elements. It is only God's conserving hand that
preserves him from ruin. This earth would
crumble and be dissolved but for God. You have
heard of earthquakes. The word carries terror to
the bravest heart. Yet this earth of ours is con-
tinually quaking ; imperceptibly to us, it is true ;
but ascertainable by the instruments and obser-
vations of scientific men. In three thousand five
hundred years, there have been eight thousand
earthquakes ; an average of about two a year. I
need not refer to history for instances of these
dreadful visitations, which reveal how utterly we

214 MOTIVES TO HUMILITY.

are dependent upon the hand of God ; how, if
that hand were for one moment withdrawn, de-
struction and nothingness would at once ensue.
How profoundly humble should we not be ! how
gladly, and with what deep thankfulness should
we not confess that, of ourselves, we are, indeed,
nothing ; that what we have, is all from God, Who
alone is good and exceedingly to be feared and
adored !

Created and sustained by Almighty God, how
miserable is man ! Born of a woman, he lives but
a short time, and has many miseries entailed upon
him ; and, notwithstanding the wonderful facul-
ties with which he has been endowed, — his form
and gifts of body, his power of intellect, the free-
dom of his will, the universality of his ideas, his
capabilities of acquiring knowledge and of prac-
tising virtue, his dominion over all things, all of
which but too clearly mark his exaltation over all
other created things, — how prone to sin, how
subject to passion, how full of misery ! With all
his great endowments, how contemptible he is!
He has heaven-born aspirations, the proof of his
destiny ; but hell-born passions, the result of his
fallen nature ; he aspires to the true and the good ;
but is deluded with error and pursues evil. How
much of nobleness, how much of meanness ; how
much of generosity, how much of selfishness ; how
much praise for virtue, how downward a procliv-
ity to vice; how emphatic an approval of the law
of the mind, how abject a slavery to the law of
the members.

See a man in his health and vigor : broad shoul-

MOTIVES TO HUMILITY. 21$

ders, powerful chest, well-knit sinews, elastic step,
no trace of sickness, a picture of health ; he walks
the earth a very king in his strength, glorying in
it, and feeling himself equal to any effort or en-
durance. How much is required to unman him?
Why, a three days' pneumonia will bring that
strong man to his death-bed. A slight blow on
the head will send him into howling madness. It
is well to feel the humbling hand of sickness, or
the icy touch of death. Then it is, that we look
at things in their right light ; for then a light as
from another world shows us how contemptible
man is. It is then, that we understand that God
is great, that man is nothing.

Well does the Psalmist say *' What is man or
the son of man, that Thou shouldst visit him ? "
What is a man to all men ? what are all men to
the world ? what is the world to the universe of
worlds ? what is all that God has made to God
Himself ? Think you that, if you were dropped
out of existence, you would be missed among
men? No more than the bud is missed in the for-
est. Think you that, if all the men now on the
earth were to perish, they would be missed be-
fore God ? No more than the leaves which strew
the earth in autumn time are missed in the fruit-
fulness of nature at the return of spring. Nay,
more ; think you that, if this atom of nature which
we call earth, the solid earth, should thaw and
melt into the elements that compose it, and the
great seas should dry up, and the laws that hold
all things together should fail, and the sun and
stars and moon disappear forever; — think you

2l6 MOTIVES TO HUMILITY.

that all these would be missed from God's works ?
No more than the ocean shrinks because of the
continual evaporation ; no more than the earth
crumbles because of the removal of an atom ; no
more than the glory and splendor of the sun
is lessened by the loss of a ray. Other suns and
stars and moons would shine, other earths would
revolve ; and, perhaps, God would be worshipped
by other and more faithful adorers. His name
would still be glorified. In such considerations,
then, we may learn how insignificant we are, — not
as much to God as the lowest creature is to us.

The termination of our earthly career, the pros-
pect of the grave, to which we are insensibly yet
continually hastening, is equally calculated to ex-
cite in us sentiments of the most unfeigned humil-
ity. The advantages of wealth, of mind, and of
body, which we at present enjoy and which are
apt to make us proud, will not be ours forever.
We have them but in keeping for a time. Every
day brings us nearer to the period when we shall
have to give them up, with a rigid account of the
use we have made of them. Soon the bodies
which you now pamper and treat with every in-
dulgence, will be the food of worms ; your beauty
of form and feature will be lost in dissolution.
Your riches will be followed by the poverty of
the grave. Your distinctions will give way to its
obscurity. Your reputation will be inherited by
another. Your very names will perish from the
minds of those by whom, you now think, you
will never be forgotten.

More eloquent, by far, than any sermon that

MOTIVES TO HUMILITY. 21/

preacher ever preached, is the lesson taught us
by the grave. There, we see how insignificant,
how truly contemptible man is. There we learn
our real value. It is there, by contemplating
what we shall be, that we can best understand
what we are. It is there that every feeling
of pride goes out, that we learn how cheap are
human treasures, how short are human pleasures,
how vain are human distinctions, how empty the
pride and pomp and magnificence of this world :
the shortness of life, the nothingness of all things
human. Carry all human pride and avarice and
pleasures and honors and power, — all that men
live for, and, sometimes, even die for, — to the
mouth of the grave ; contemplate it all in the
light which issues even from that darkness, and
what is it all worth ? Not even the dust to which
it shall one day be reduced. There we learn that
God alone is great, and that man is but misery
and sin.

The uncertainty of our eternal salvation and
the continual risk of falling from God's grace and
being lost, is another motive to preserve in the
soul an abiding sense of our weakness, and of our
continual dependence upon God's help and mercy.
With fear and trembling are we to work out our
salvation. Whatever may be our present disposi-
tions, we have no security of continuing in them
till the end. After persevering for years, we may
fall, to rise no more, to be lost forever. The just
man of to-day, may be the obstinate sinner of a
time to come. We are no better than others who,
at some period of their lives, were much holier and

2l8 MOTIVES TO HUMILITY.

gave even greater promise of being saved than
we, and v/ho afterwards fell. We should enter
into the sentiments of the great Apostle who, al-
though he had converted nations, was so inflamed
with charity that he wished even to be anathema
for his brethren ; and jet feared that after he had
preached to others, he might become a reprobate
himself. They who stand should take heed lest
they fall. How far removed should every thought
of pride be from souls, so continually and immi-
nently exposed to the danger of falling into sin
and perishing eternally.

If ever there was a time and country in which
this virtue was needed, it is now and in this, our
own land. Here, where every novelty finds its
partisans : where so many arrogate to themselves
the right to interpret the Scriptures in spite of
the admonition of the Apostle : where men who
find it as much as they can do, in the time at their
disposal, to master some knowledge of their
professions, and who spend the week in w^orldly
affairs, undertake to decide the most important
truths of religion, in odd half hours : where men
have that little learning which is always a dan-
gerous thing, and lack that deep philosophy which
will always lead to the Church : where it is ac-
counted a degradation of reason to believe ; while
it is, in fact, an exercise of the noblest reason to
prostrate our minds before the truth and author-
ity of God : here, I say, there is need of that
humility of the intellect which enables one to give
a prompt and unfaltering submission to the truths
of faith which God has vouchsafed to reveal.

MOTIVES TO HUMILITY. 219

Moreover, there is need, too, of humility of the
heart. We may not be bound to acquire the deep
self-abasement of the saints : but ever}^ man is
bound to have that degree of this virtue, which
will enable him to bring his passions into a prompt
and abiding conformity with the law of God.

Neglect no opportunity of practising this two-
fold humility. Remember you can only become
humble, by practising humility. St. Bernard says :
" If we do not exercise humiliation, we cannot at-
tain unto humility ; for humiliation is the road to
humility and produces it, as meekness in suffer-
ing tribulation and injuries, produces patience."

Frequently pray to the Holy Ghost to grant
you this two-fold humility : that of the mind, by
which we may ever know the truth and abide
therein ; that of the heart, by which we may ever
keep God's holy law.

THE NEW YORK

PUBLIC LIBRARY.

THE LOVE OF GOD OUR TRUE
INTEREST.

And one of them, a doctor of the law, asked him, tempting
Him:

Master, which is the great commandment in the law ?

Jesus said to him : Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with thy
whole heart, and with thy whole soul, and with thy whole mind.

This is the greatest and first commandment.

And the second is like to this : Thou shalt love thy neighbor
as thyself.

On these two commandments dependeth the whole law and
the prophets. — Matt. xxii. 35-40.

Jesus had closed the mouths of the Sadducees
respecting the resurrection of the dead. One
would think that from their discomfiture, the
Pharisees would have learned wisdom and held
their peace. But they, hearing that He had
silenced the Sadducees, determined to tempt, that
is, to try whether he was, indeed, possessed of the
extraordinary wisdom which the people gave Him
credit for ; or it may have been for the purpose
of having the opinion of Jesus concerning a ques-
tion agitated among themselves as to which was
the greatest commandment. Then the doctor of
the law asked Him, " Teacher, which is the great
commandment in the law ?" Jesus replied : " Thou
shalt love the Lord thy God with thy whole heart,

222 THE LOVE OF GOD OUR TRUE INTEREST.

with thy whole soul, and with thy whole mind.
This is the greatest and first commandment. And
the second is like to it: Thou shalt love thy
neighbor as thyself. On these two command-
ments hangeth the whole law and the prophets."

These two commandments are, indeed, the sub-
stance of the whole law ; the fulfilment of all jus-
tice ; the discharge of all the duties which we owe
to God, our neighbor, and ourselves. Love is the
keeping of the law. '' Little children, love one
another," says St. John, " for love is the fulfilling
of the law." Of course, the love spoken of in our
text is that supernatural love w^hich is founded on
faith and animated by hope ; and therefore neces-
sarily includes in itself the three Theological vir-
tues, which are required and which suffice for
salvation. There is no duty which is not taught,
there is no sin which is not forbidden, by this
Divine command of love.

The command of loving God and that of loving
our neighbor are so intimately connected to-
gether, the one so necessarily springs from the
other, that one cannot exist without the other.
We cannot love God unless we love our neighbor.
" If you love not your neighbor whom 3^ou see,
how can you love God whom you see not." We
cannot love our neighbor unless we love God.
There would be wanting a suiftcient motive to
animate us to the love of our neighbor. Hence^
these two commandments may be reduced to one.
If we love God, we love our neighbor; if we love
our neighbor, we love God. Thou shalt love the
Lord thy God with thy whole heart, with thy

THE LOVE OF GOD OUR TRUE INTEREST. 223

whole soul, and with thy w4iole mind ; and thy
neighbor as thyself for God's sake.

We are called upon to love. We are not called
upon to fear. God would be served as a loving
Lord. He would have us regard Him ^vith the
filial confidence, the tender love with which the
child regards his parent. God is love. Love is
the keeping of His law. He would unite us to
Himself by the closest bonds of love. The fear
of the Lord may be the beginning of wisdom ;
but it is only the beginning ; it is not the perfec-
tion of wisdom. No one should be content with
a love of God so imperfect ; he should seek to ad-
vance to that perfect love which casts out fear.
This is why the Council of Trent admonishes con-
fessors to do what they can to excite in penitents
sentiments of contrition springing from the love
of God, and from the consideration of His Divine
Goodness.

What then is it to love God ? To love God is
to prefer God to all things, to be willing to lose
all things rather than offend Him. When we
speak of preference, we are not to be understood
of any mere speculative or theoretical preference,
nor logical deduction that God is greater than all
things else ; but of the preference of the heart
and mind ; and the working of this preference
into our lives, making it to control and give shape
to our thoughts, and words, and actions ; in fine, to
our whole life. Thus it becomes a practical pref-
erence.

This love need not contain any degree of sensi-
bility or feeling or fervor. Intensity of love is

224 THE LOVE OF GOD OUR TRUE INTEREST.

not required. Such love may be had for sensible
objects, and is not always in our power. Our love
should be the highest we are capable of, not in-
tensively but appreciatively, as theologians say.
We should prize or value or appreciate God
above all other things : even life itself we should
lose rather than offend Him. The man who has
not this love, who is not in such disposition of
soul as to be willing to die rather than offend God
mortally, is not in the grace of God.

We should love God with our whole heart and
soul and mind. At first, it might seem that each
of these words did not have a direct and proper
meaning, but that they are instances of the repe-
titions which abound in Scripture for the sake of
emphasis, or to make the truth plainer to the
reader. But the Fathers of the Church attach a
distinct meaning to each. The heart is the seat
of sensible love, the dwelling-place of the emo-
tions. There is nothing more intimate to us than
our hearts: hence, the heart is the synonym for
everything sincere. Although we are not called
upon to love God with a sensible love, yet there
is a way in which it is possible for the heart to
have its place in loving Him : by allowing noth-
ing to take precedence of Him in our heart, by
restraining its affections and denying the desires
of the flesh so far as it may be required by His
holy law. In this way, we shall love God with
our whole heart. By our souls we think, reflect,
reason, will. When we are convinced that God is
the greatest good in Himself and the greatest
good to us, and when we are determined to lose

THE LOVE OF GOD OUR TRUE INTEREST. 22$

all rather than lose Him ; then we love God with
our whole soul. If the office of the mind in lov-
ing- God is to be distinguished from that of the
soul, it will be found in meditating upon Him, in
abiding continually in His thought and remem-
brance. In this continual reflection on God we
shall gain the highest wisdom. We shall not need
the aid of books. We shall find it the very source
and fountain of all knowledge.

We wish to present some motive to urge you
to the love of God. Men generally are influenced
by considerations drawn from duty, gratitude, in-
terest, or pleasure.

Whatever influence duty may have among men
in the affairs of life, it certainly has but little in
the affairs of religion. Men are not induced to
love God by the conviction that it is their duty.
It is futile to attempt to urge men to the love of
God by motives drawn from this consideration. It
is beating the air, to demonstrate that it is our
duty to love God. For it is before all reasoning
and is made known to us by the very instinct of
our nature. There is no one who is not fully per-
suaded of his duty of loving God. Yet, how few
fulfil this obligation, obey this instinct !

Gratitude may be a higher and more potent
motive. But gratitude, as a motive to the love of
God, can only find place in one who has already
advanced considerably in His love, and in appre-
ciation of what Divine Goodness has done for
him, and in a just feeling of what he in return
owes Him. It argues a sensitiveness and delicacy
of conscience which dreads to offend the Being

226 THE LOVE OF GOD OUR TRUE INTEREST.

from Whom we have derived so much, and for
Whom, in return, we ought to make any sacrifice.

We find that, as in worldly affairs, so in religion,
men, for the most part, are influenced by their in-
terest or pleasure. Men may be induced to love
God when they see that in it they will find their
advantage or their happiness. Hence, we proceed
to show how even your own interest and pleasure
call upon you to love God : how that, without the
love of God, you will never obtain that which
everyone desires and labors daily to obtain.

Think not that a love of God springing from
self-interest or pleasure may not be a true and
perfect love of God. If we exclude self-interest
from the love of God, we render love of God im-
possible. Man is created for, and is only happy
in the enjoyment of perfect happiness. He seeks
it in all he does. He places it in this, rather than
in that object, because he hopes there to find it.
What determines him to place it in God, unless
the belief that he will there surely find it ? There-
fore, it is self-interest that prompts man to elect
God as the object of his happiness. Besides, it is
a proposition condemned by Innocent XII., that
perfect love of God excludes all thought of self-
interest. When St. Augustine speaks of charity
consisting in the love of God for His own sake,
he would exclude loving God for any temporal
advantages, or for any good outside of Him; but
he never thought of excluding the motive which
urges us to elect God as our final end, as our su-
preme good, as the only source of our eternal
beatitude.

THE LOVE OF GOD OUR TRUE INTEREST. 227

It is our interest and our pleasure to love God
with our whole heart and soul and mind.

Let me ask you, what it is you are all in search
of ? What is your first thought when you awake
in the morning, and the last when you go to bed
at night ? What is the aim of the constant effort
of every man to better his condition ? What
is the meaning of the unceasing change going on
in the life of persons and of nations ? why this
discontent with what they have, and this greed
for what they have not and yet believe within
their grasp? It is that man seeks happiness:
there is nothing nearer to his heart. In all things
he seeks the purpose of his being. We are so
constituted that we shall never be truly content
except in the possession of perfect happiness.
This desire has been planted in our breasts by an
All-wise God, to direct us to our last end and final
destiny. Our intellect apprehends a happiness
which contains every good, and excludes every
evil, and which lasts forever. Our hearts follow
the guidance of the intellect and aspire after this
infinite bliss. It is the vain endeavor to satisfy
this desire with the limited and perishable goods
of earth, that causes those struggles of man of
which I have spoken.

And who has ever obtained this happiness?
Has there ever been one, the cravings of whose
soul were satisfied by the objects of this life ?
Ask the rich man who possesses everything that
most men seek ; who revels in luxury and gratifies
every caprice that wealth can suggest : he will
tell you that he is as little free from wants as the

228 THE LOVE OF GOD OUR TRUE INTEREST.

poor man; that his wealth gives birth to desires of
which the poor man never dreams. Ask the man
who seeks pleasure in passion: and he will tell
you that it is vain to seek happiness in that by
which strength is destroyed, health impaired, dis-
eases engendered, death brought on ; that his
pleasure is nothing, compared to the keen and
soul-consuming remorse with which it is followed.
Ask the man who lives for distinction and who
places his happiness in honors : and he will tell
you that he enjoys far less peace of mind than the
most obscure and despised of men ; that he has
not even the poor satisfaction of contemning the
world, by whom, even if honored, he will soon be
forgotten. No, my friends, the spiritual cravings
of man's immortal soul cannot be satisfied by the
corrupt pleasures of sense. It is a substance all
spiritual ; it can only rest in a happiness all spirit-
ual. The cry of Solomon, '' Vanity of vanities
and all is vanity," is the experience of every son
of Adam. The divine saying of St. Augustine,
*' Thou alone, O God, hast made the human heart,
and in Thee alone can it find rest," is the voice of
our common humanity. When Adam fell, happi-
ness became an exile from earth never to return.
From that day to the present, man has sought it
on earth in vain; and will in vain forever seek it,
till he possess it once more in the bosom of Al-
mighty God.

You may ask, why cannot the human heart be
satisfied with such happiness as this life affords ?
It matters little about the reason, when the fact is
evident ; yet, the reason is at hand. The human

THE LOVE OF GOD OUR TRUE INTEREST. 229

heart cannot be satisfied with this world because
it was not made for it. Its destiny is higher, no-
bler, diviner. Everything is made for an end and
can only be satisfied in its attainment. As the eye
is made to see, and is only happy in the exercise
of its function ; as the intellect is made for knowl-
edge, and is only at rest in the possession of wis-
dom ; as the will is made for love, and is only
content when loving and loved ; so man with all
his faculties is made for an infinite and eternal
felicity, and can be satisfied with nothing less.

What, then, is our interest, what is wisdom for
us ? Should we not profit by the experience of
all men ? Can we imagine that the universal dis-
appointment of humanity will be reversed in our
case ? Do we doubt our death, because we have
not yet died? What would you think of him who
could believe that he would never die ? Now,
you might as well doub\: your death, as doubt that
you shall never come by felicity in the things of
this life. Why not, then, lay the lesson to heart
at once? Since universal experience teaches the
impossibility of finding real happiness here below,
why not detach yourselves from the goods of life,
and seek your happiness where experience and
reason and religion teach that it can alone be
found ? Is it not wise to profit by the experience
of others ? Must we endure calamity before we
take measures to avoid it? Do we wait for death
to teach us that we all must die ? Why wait for
disappointment and misery to teach us, that, here
below, there is nothing but disappointment and
misery ?

230 THE LOVE OF GOD OUR TRUE INTEREST.

But go, plunge into the pleasures of life, enjoy
them to the full : amass riches, acquire honors
and rise high in the world ; seek to gratify 3'our
heart's desires with all that life affords: yet a time
will come, if no other, at least that solemn hour in
which you close your eyes forever upon this world
to open them to eternity, when you will keenly
realize, in all the bitterness and agony of an un-
availing regret, the divine truth I would to-day
teach ; when you will feel, in your heart of hearts,
that " All is vanity and vexation of spirit; " when
the sad experience of a disappointed life will
wring from your soul, " Thou alone, O God, hast
made the human heart, and in Thee alone can it
find rest."

Learn wisdom while there is yet time. Be as-
sured of this all-important lesson which you have
not yet learned. Detach 3^our hearts from this
world before it is too late. Seek happiness where
alone it is to be found. Delude not yourselves
with the broken and empty cisterns of human
felicity. Defile not your heaven-destined souls
by contact with the dross of this world. Let not
your hearts rest upon its objects, for its glory
soon passes away. Seek not its pleasures, its
riches, its honors, for they bring not peace but
rather affliction to the soul.

What is the history of every man ? What is
the history of the world? What is it but the rec-
ord of human hope and human disappointment?
of human misery and human despair ? All those
objects in which we find pleasure or place our
happiness, — youth with all its promise, manhood

THE LOVE OF GOD OUR TRUE INTEREST. 23 1

with all its vigor, old age with all the love and
respect which it inspires, talent and genius with
all the interest which they create, beauty of face
and form, grace of accomplishments, the projects
of human ambition, the enterprises of human in-
dustry, the distinction and honors which adorn
or emulate men, — all quickly pass away and leave
the soul devoid of any real or lasting content-
ment.

Is it not, I ask, your interest to love God, and
thus attain to that happiness which, with every
pulsation of the heart and every effort of your
soul, you are seeking in vain in this life ? Be wise.
What you are in quest of is not to be had here
below; in God alone is it to be found. Raise
your hearts to the Beatific Vision, if you would
attain happiness, pure and unalloyed. It will be
in the possession of God, in the contemplation of
His boundless beauty, His absorbing loveliness
that our souls will be at perfect rest. He will
fill them with such torrents of delight that they
shall neither know nor desire any other felicity.

Here below, encased in this body of flesh and
surrounded with a world of sense, we have but lit-
tle understanding and less taste for spiritual pleas-
ure. But when our souls shall have been separ-
ated from their bodies, they will seek only the
bliss proper to a spiritual substance. Even the
desires of sensible felicity which we feel are but
the outcome and expressions of the one great, sov-
ereign desire which possesses the soul of man.
God will so satisfy this desire that it can seek
nothing more. He will be knowledge to the

232 THE LOVE OF GOD OUR TRUE INTEREST.

mind, love to the will, unfailing bliss to the mem-
ory. What more can man desire? What else is
necessary to satisfy his aspirations, to consum-
mate his happiness?

And now, when I come to this part of my sub-
ject, the infinite perfection, the unutterable glory,
the illimitable goodness of the God-head, and the
bliss and the delight and the love and the trans-
port thence resulting as the eternal destiny of the
souls of the elect, I must confess that its descrip-
tion is beyond all powers of comprehension and
all reach of the imagination. It would require
words which it is not given to man to utter. This
it is that it has never entered the heart of man to
conceive.

I might reason upon the subject, and tell you
that marvellously beautiful as this world is, God
could have created a world infinitely more per-
fect. I might argue from the infinitude of the
Divine Nature, and show you that God must be
a Being of boundless goodness and sovereign per-
fection. I might remind you that, although the
angels have been in contemplation of God from
their creation, they have not yet begun to com-
prehend His infinite glory and unspeakable attri-
butes ; that the Blessed Virgin, permitted as she
doubtless is to see more of God than all the
blessed spirits together, has as yet but caught the
merest glimpse of His Divine Nature. Yet all
this would be but to reason ; we should have still
to infer what God's beauty and glory really is ;
and to infer a thing, is not to have that vivid per-
ception of it which description, when it is possible,

THE LOVE OF GOD OUR TRUE INTEREST. 233

alone can give. It would require some Saint of
God to speak worthily of the divine beauty : some
St. Theresa, who was so beside herself with the
love of God, inspired by vivid realization of His
divine goodness and perfection, that she went
about continually calling upon trees, flowers, rocks
and all nature to love Him : some St. Philip Neri,
whose love of God was so sensible that it caused
an enlargement of his side.

However, Holy Scripture supplies us with
some facts from which we can form a faint idea of
what divine beauty must be, and of the love which
it engenders in the human soul. We are told by
Scripture that '' Moses saw God," and as if aston-
ished that he could survive the vision of glory and
majesty which must have filled his soiil, it ex-
claims, '' and he yet lived." St. Peter and two
other of the apostles were permitted a glimpse of
the glory of God : when Jesus was transfigured on
Thabor the splendor of the Divinity shone about
Him. They were so overcome with delight that
they fell down in ecstatic homage and wished no
longer to return to the world ; they lost all relish
for this life ; longed there for ever more to abide,
and to build three tabernacles : one to Jesus, one
to Moses, and another to Elias. St. Paul was
transported to the third Heavens and saw things
which it is not given to man to utter. He was so
overwhelmed by the glory which he beheld, that
he knew not whether it was in the body or out of
the body ; that is, he knew not whether it was the
soul separated from the body, or the body and
soul together, that was raised to the throne of

234 THE LOVE OF GOD OUR TRUE INTEREST.

God. And ever after was he anxious, did he
vehemently long to finish his course, to receive
his crown and be united to his God. " Lest the
greatness of the disclosures made to him should
puff him up, there was given to him a sting of the
flesh, an angel of Satan to buffet him." To St.
John, in Patmos, the island of his exile, the heavens
were opened. He tells us what he saw in his
Apocalyptic vision : the glory of the Son, the an-
gels casting their crowns before Him, the pres-
ence of all the heavenly hosts. So transcendent
was the glory of the God-head revealed to him
that he exclaims : " Eye hath not seen, nor ear
heard, nor hath it entered the heart of man to con-
ceive what God has prepared for those who love
and serve Him."

We read of saints, who, being permitted a mere
gleam of the glory of God, were so ravished out
of themselves that they were lifted from the earth
and remained suspended in mid-air ; of others,
who, similarly divinely favored, became insensible
to all around them, unmindful of their human con-
dition, and whom, neither raging heat, nor fiercest
cold, nor the most cruel torments could recall from
their fond ecstacy. How else can we conceive
the sufferings of the martyrs ; how can we believe
that they were ever able to meet death in such
awful forms ; how endure the frightful cruelties
which for the most part attended their martyr-
dom, except that their torments were lightened,
and their pain and agony assuaged, by the glory
of God filling their hearts and rendering them in
part, at least, insensible thereto. Is it too much

THE LOVE OF GOD OUR TRUE INTEREST. 235

to believe that that was granted to the martyrs
which we knew was vouchsafed to St. Stephen
the First of Martyrs? He, when he was stoned
to death by the Jews, saw the heavens open and
the Son of God standing at the right hand of
the Father.

In view of all that 1 have said, I ask, is it not
our interest, our highest, our only interest to love
God? Can any acquisition compensate for the
loss attending the want of the love of God ? Can
any happiness be compared to the happiness of
loving God? What matters, then, how it fares
with us in this world? What matters it to
lose this world, if we gain the next ? What profit
will it be to gain this, if we lose the next ? Should
we not be willing to take up our cross and deny
ourselves, and follow Jesus along the narrow path
ensanguined with the blood and tears of martyrs
and penitents that leads to heaven, in view of the
eternal reward there awaiting us? or should we
rather choose the broad and beaten and luxurious
path so easily found and trod by the multitude of
men which leads to eternal misery ? What mat-
ters it how the short years of life be spent, if the
unending years of eternity shall be passed in the
glory of heaven ? what matters it if we pass time
in obscurity and in the contempt of men, if we
shall be known and rewarded by God forever-
more ? The misery and poverty of this life can-
not be weighed against unfailing riches in the life
to come : the pleasures of this life cannot be an
equivalent for the immortal pleasure of possess-
ing God hereafter.

236 THE LOVE OF GOD OUR TRUE INTEREST.

If, then, you would enjo}^ this undying happi-
ness which comes from the presence and the pos-
session of God, begin your eternal union with
Him here below ; bind yourselves to Him in the
bonds of love so closely, that nothing can separate
you from Him : be able to exclaim from your
heart with St. Paul, " Who then shall separate us
from the charity of Christ? tribulation? or dis-
tress? or famine? or nakedness? or danger? or
persecution ? or the sword ? For I am sure that
neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principali-
ties, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to
come, nor might, nor height, nor depth, nor any
other creature, shall be able to separate us from
the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus, our
Lord."

THK NEW YORK

PUBLIC LIBRARY.

ASTOR. LENOX AND

THE INCARNATION.

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God,
and the Word was God.

The same was in the beginning with God.

All things were made by Him : and without Him was made
nothing that was made.

In Him was life, and the life was the light of men.

And the light shineth in darkness, and the darkness did not
comprehend it.

There was a man sent from God, whose name was John.

This man came for a witness, to give testimony of the light,
that all men might believe through him.

He was not the light, but was to give testimony of the light.

That was the true light, which enlighteneth every man that
Cometh into this world.

He was in the world, and the world was made by Him, and
the world knew Him not.

He came unto His own, and His own received Him not.

But as many as received Him, He gave them power to be made
the sons of God, to them that believe in His name.

Who are born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of
the will of man, but of God.

And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we
saw His glory, the glory as it were of the only-begotten of the
Father) full of grace and truth. — St. John i., 1-14.

There are truths supreme in their character
and of the mightiest import which become the
tritest. We learn them in infancy, we grow up in
their knowledge ; we hear of them continually and
on every side, until we become so familiar with

238 THE INCARNATION.

them that, by reason of our very familiarity, we
never reflect upon them ; we are content to think
and to talk of them by rote and custom without
weighing the meaning of the words which we em-
ploy. Many of these truths are of so surpassing
a nature, so unfathomable in their depth, that re-
flection, serious and long-sustained, would be nec-
essary to obtain even the most imperfect and
superficial knowledge of them.

Of these truths that of the mystery of the Incar-
nation of the Second Person of the Blessed Trin-
ity stands pre-eminent. To say that the Incarna-
tion is the most stupendous fact that has ever
taken place on this globe of ours, is to say nothing :
to say that it is greater than the creation of the
world or than all that God has made, greater than
even the creation of ten thousand worlds, would
be but to declare the truth without at all giving
any just idea of the greatness of the Incarnation :
to say that it is the utmost limit to which God
could exert His omnipotence, is only to repeat
what St. Augustine has already declared. Yes ;
in the Incarnation, Divine power no less than
Divine love is exhausted. .

The Incarnation is the foundation of all relig-
ion : the fulfilment of God's promises ; the accom-
plishment of the prophecies ; the reversal of the
doom of our race ; the only source of our hope. It
is the keystone in the arch of heavenly truths,
which, if displaced, would involve all the other mys-
teries of religion in hopeless confusion and inex-
plicable disorder. It gives meaning and harmony
and consistency to the truths of revealed religion,

THE INCARNATION. 239

clearing up what is dark, and harmonizing what
otherwise would seem discordant. It is the focus
where converge all the rays of light which illu-
minate the moral world. As well might you ex-
tinguish the sun and see the physical world, as to
understand the moral world, shutting off from
view the mystery of the Incarnation.

Fix, then, the great fact of the Incarnation in
your mind. Try to realize what we mean, when
we declare that God has become man. Mind that
these words are to be taken to the letter. When
we say that God became man, we are not to be
understood to speak figuratively or symbolically,
as if we meant that the man Jesus was overshad-
owed by the spirit of God ; nor as if He was called
the Son of God, as were many holy men in the
Old Law. Nor must we think of the Incarnation
in that dreamy, misty way, which so many do out-
side of the Church, and excuse themselves from
expressing any definite opinion on the subject, as
too high or mysterious. We must assent to and
believe in the simple truth that the Eternal God
became very man, and prostrate ourselves before
Jesus Christ as He walked on earth and adore
Him as the Eternal God. Dwell upon this
thought, and let it sink into your hearts.

Think, then, of God, in whatever view gives
you the most exalted idea of Him and His great-
ness. Contemplate Him as a Being, self-existent,
drawing existence from nothing external to Him-
self, nor from Himself as from a cause: as a Being
Who has existed from everlasting : Who when
the world and all things will have passed away

240 THE INCARNATION.

and been forgotten, yet will remain as immortal
and as young as in the first dawn of the aurora :
as the infinite Creator in Whose mind was formed
the type of all things, and Whose infinite power
called them into existence : as the ever-watchful
Conserver, without Whose all-sustaining arm ev-
erything would at once relapse into its original
nothingness : Whose far-reaching and efficient
providence directs all things to an end worthy
of His divine intelligence : — contemplate God in
whatever light you can form your most exalted
idea of Him, and then consider that it was this
same, self-existent, eternal, all-knowing, all-power-
ful God Who came down upon earth and became
man. Yes, it was the Eternal God Incarnate Who
was conceived in Mar3's womb, Who was fondled
in Mary's arms and nourished at Mary's breast;
Who reduced Himself to the condition of a helpless
babe ; Who grew as other children grew, Who
suffered as others suffer, Who was subject to pain
and want as others are ; Who worked at a lowly
trade, receiving no defilement therefrom ; Who
disputed with the doctors in the temple, Who
went down to Nazareth and was subject to human
parents ; Who walked pensive along the blue lakes
and banks of Judea, Who lived in poverty and
suffering, and died in agony and torments. This
is the stupendous, amazing fact which we must
seek to realize. Fix it well in mind, and keeping
in remembrance all that I have told you, over-
powered by the thought that it is the Eternal God
Who is born into the world, draw close to His
lowl}' crib; and in |)rayerful recollection and de-

THE INCARNATION. 24I

vout contemplation, receive into your hearts some
of the lessons and the lights which are to be
drawn from the earnest contemplation of God be-
coming man to save mankind.

Why did Jesus come into the world ? Alas, the
story is an old one and a familiar one. It was to
save us from the effects of Adam's sin, and from
the effects of our own. Adam had sinned, and
had entailed irreparable consequences upon all his
descendants. He was the moral head of the race :
in him we stood : as his obedience would have
brought us eternal happiness, so his disobedience
involved us in eternal misery. In strict justice,
God could have allowed us all to perish ; even as
the angels who fell and are suffering unending
woe. But He determined to show mercy to man.
The angels understood better than man the mal-
ice of sin. Man was circumvented and surprised
by the devil. No angel fell but through the act
of his own will. The sons of Adam could have
had no personal participation in his sin. There
were circumstances then which mitigated the sin
of man, and softened the anger of the Almighty.

Was the Incarnation absolutely necessary for
man's redemption? Could he have been re-
deemed by no other way known to Divine wis-
dom ? If a condign satisfaction was to be made,
of course, nothing short of the Incarnation would
have sufficed. But God could have been content
with something less than a condign satisfaction.
He could have accepted even an inadequate expi-
ation. For, even the sacrifice of Christ, full and
exhaustive even to overflowing as it was in every

242 THE INCARNATION.

respect, yet needed to be accepted ; — and, there-
fore, supposed some indulgence on the part of
God the Father. A less ransom, then, than that
which was actually offered, could have been ac-
cepted by Him. It was only because from eter-
nity an adequate atonement had been decreed,
that it became necessary for Christ to become
man. But, since man could have been saved by
something less, why had it been determined that
a full and perfect satisfaction should be required?
Why did God foreordain a sacrifice of so great
price, when one of inferior value would have
served the purpose of redemption ? It was to
manifest His infinite love, and to manifest it in the
infinite manner which His infinite nature required.
The Incarnation may have been, and was, the fit-
test, the most congruous manner for the redemp-
tion of mankind. Yet, it must ever remain true
that the desire on the part of God to manifest His
infinite love was its principal cause. You may
meditate upon the subject until the mind grows
weary, until the imagination is bewildered ; you
may consult the inspired writings, you may seek
relief in the productions of the illuminated minds
of the saints and doctors of the Church ; and, so
far as it is permitted to mortal to penetrate into
this great mystery, you will never find any ade-
quate cause for the Redemption other than that
which St. Thomas, following St. John Damascene,
gives : the infinite love of God, manifesting itself
in the infinite manner proper to the infinitude
of His nature.

God becomes man to manifest His infinite love .'

THE INCARNATION. 243

This would seem, surely, enough to stagger
human credibility. It would seem almost trifling
with human reason ; a far-fetched effort of fancy.
Our minds are so limited, our little hearts are so
filled with themselves ; we are such utter stran-
gers to disinterestedness, so self-seeking in our
every feeling and every action ; we so measure all
things in heaven and on earth by the narrow rules
of our philosophy, that it seems little short of
preposterous to talk of a man dying for another ;
much less, that the Eternal God should stoop to
our low condition, become man, and suffer and
die out of love for us !

How few are there who give even of what is
superfluous of their temporal goods, to relieve the
needs of their fellow-men? How fewer still give
of what is necessary, to them? How seldom will
a man give that highest test of love, the laying
down of his life for his friend ? Here we see that
God's ways are not as our ways, nor His thoughts
as our thoughts. There is no proportion between
the goodness of an infinite Being, and the little
ray of that same goodness which is shed abroad
in our poor hearts.

No human illustration can convey to us any
idea of the depth and intensity of Divine love : of
the vehement, mighty longing of God for every
human soul. Not the pelican, striking open her
breast and nourishing her young with her heart's
warm life-blood, which is so often used to symbol-
ize the love of the Saviour of our souls ; not the
love of the Roman matron who fed her famishing
father with the milk from her own breasts ; not

244 THE INCARNATION.

the maddest love of the most frenzied lover ; not
the burning love of the bounding heart of the
fondest mother at the return of her long-lost son,
can give us even the faintest conception of the
height, and depth, and breadth, and infinite ten-
derness of the love of God for the souls of men,
redeemed and purchased at the price of His
blood. Holy Scripture tries to declare this love
to us under images, the most expressive of
passionate, burning human love : ** Can a mother
forget her infant, so as to be unmindful of the
fruit of her womb?" "Jerusalem, Jerusalem,
how often would 1 have gathered thy children to-
gether, even as the hen gathers her chickens un-
der her wing ; but thou wouldst not." '' Even as
the bridegroom waiteth for his bride, so will God
wait for thee."

Consider the nature of God. What is it but
simple, ineffable, infinite goodness ? Goodness is
His very essence ; it is not merely the most glori-
ous attribute of all, but it is the very source of all.
It is hard to describe those truths which we have
by intuition, rather than by reasoning, — truths
with which God Himself has lighted up our souls.
It is hard to lift our minds to the contemplation
of things so far above us, and so far removed from
the ordinary sphere of our thoughts. But, lift
your hearts, contemplate God as He is in Him-
self. What is He but goodness? What has His
life been from the beginning ? upon what has He
spent the activity which is inherent in His nature,
or, rather, which is at once His nature and His
life ? upon what, but in the contemplation of His

THE INCARNATION. 245

infinite goodness ? Behold the mysterious rela-
tions of the Three Adorable Persons ! the Everlast-
ing God-head ! the Eternal Generation of the Son !
the Eternal Spiration and Procession of the Holy
Ghost ! and you have the life of God from all eter-
nity. The goodness of God is His very nature,
when from it is generated the Second Person,
coeternal, coessential, consubstantial with the
Father; when the Second Person is the Infinite
and Personal Expression of the Eternal Goodness
of the Father. How infinite is this goodness
and how infinite the loveliness of its nature, when
from the mutual love which it engenders in the
Father and in the Son, })roceeds the Third Per-
son, coeternal, coessential, consubstantial with the
Father and the'Son ; when the Third Person is
the Infinite and Personal Expression of the Eter-
nal Love of the Father and of the Son. Let me ex-
plain. God from all eternity contemplating His
essence, forms to Himself a perfect image of His
goodness ; " the very Figure of His substance and
Splendor of His glory." This is the Eternal Gen-
eration of the Son. This image or knowledge of
Himself is so pleasing to Him that He loves It
and It loves Him with an infinite love. This
Infinite Love is the Holy Ghost. Behold, then,
how God is goodness in and by His very nature:
how His goodness is infinite, in that it engenders
the Infinite Person of the Divine Word: how it is
infinite in its loveliness, in that proceeds from it
the Infinite Person of Divine Love.

Goodness is in its nature diffusive. It cannot
remain absorbed or centred in itself. It must go

246 THE INCARNATION.

forth and communicate itself to some being or ob-
ject outside of itself ; otherwise it would cease to
be goodness. The river must flow on from its
source. The sun must necessarily diffuse light
and heat. As water cannot but flow, as we cannot
think of fire not giving forth light and heat, so we
cannot conceive of goodness except as manifest-
ing itself to others.

Goodness, too, must communicate itself in a
manner and degree proportioned to the nature
and capacity of him possessing it. The rush and
flow of the water bear proportion to the volume
and strength of the stream ; light and heat are in
the degree of the intensity of the fire. He who
has much, should give much. We talk of princely
generosity, kingly munificence, regal profusion ;
because from the reputed wealth and superabun-
dant resources of kings and princes, we expect a
manifestation in proportion.

When we think of Divine goodness, we expect it
to correspond to the Divine nature. As God is
infinite goodness, we expect it to be manifested in
an infinite manner. God works not after the man-
ner of men. He does nothing by measure ; every-
thing in an infinite, God-like manner. It is as
natural for God to act in an infinite manner, as for
man to work by limit. When God would declare
His power. He made the marvellous and illimita-
ble world which we see around us. When it
pleased Him to disclose His justice, He opened the
great pit with its endless duration. When He
came to reveal His goodness He did it in the
same infinite way. When He made the world.

THE INCARNATION. 24/

He made it to show forth His goodness ; still it
was but a limited exhibition, and by no means
exhaustive of His resources. When He made
man, He did it, too, from goodness ; yet, after all,
it was only a finite revelation of His love. But
in the Incarnation, He shows forth His goodness
in the infinite manner in which we should expect
an inhnite being to act, and His divine goodness
carries Him as far as His divine wisdom can
devise.

Divine wisdom could go no farther. God's
goodness in a manner exhausted itself when He
became man. The Incarnation was the utmost
limit, the hnal consummation, the infinite exhibi-
tion and expression of Divine goodness. Behold
the reason of the Incarnation : God's infinite
goodness manifesting itself in the infinite manner
which the infinitude of the Divine Nature re-
quired.

Why! so true is it that the Divine Incarnation
was the influence of Divine goodness that it is an
opinion entertained by the greatest theologians,
that God would have become man, even if man
had never fallen. St. Thomas admits it as, at
least, probable ; and theologians like Suarez, sec-
ond only to St. Thomas, advocate it strongly. It
is this thought that Cardinal Newman has before
him when he says : '* I had had it in mind to come
on earth among innocent creatures, more fair
and lovely than them all, with a face more radi-
ant than the Seraphim, and a form as royal
as that of Archangels, to be their equal yet
their God, to fill them with my grace, to receive

248 THE INCARNATION.

their worship, to enjoy their company, to prepare
them for the heaven to which I destined them ;
but, before I carried my purpose into effect, they
sinned, and lost their inheritance, and so I come
indeed, but come, not in that brightness in which
I went forth to create the morning stars and to
fill the sons of God with melody, but in deformity
and in shame, in sighs and tears; with blood upon
My cheek and My limbs laid bare and rent."

We have meditated upon the Incarnation as
the Infinite Expression of Divine Love. I have
tried to explain, in words how feeble, I am fully
conscious, the stupendous mystery of Christ's
amazing love. Let not the effort have been in
vain ; let not your meditation be without fruit.
Let the remembrance of Divine love excite in
your heart reciprocal sentiments of love. And,
as he who wishes to gain the love of another does
it by narrating to him his acts of goodness, so let
the recital of Divine goodness excite in you sen-
timents of love. Let the claim of God for your
love be recognized. His love will save us, or His
love will damn us ; — save those who hearken to it,
and give love for love ; — damn those who despise
the riches of His goodness, and patience, and
long-suffering ; not knowing that the benignity of
God leadeth to repentance.

May the union which Jesus Christ, in this mys-
tery, takes up with our humanity be for each of us
an eternal one : may it be the symbol and pledge
of our eternal union Avith Him hereafter. May all
men come to believe and to adore this great mys-
tery of the Incarnation, that it may be no longer to

THE INCARNATION. 249

the Jews a stumbling-block, and to the Gentiles
folly ; but to all, the wisdom of God and the power
of God. May those who already believe it, come
to practise the lessons and imitate the examples
set by their Redeemer. INIay all come to know
the truth, and in their lives be faithful to it. May
all come to share in the blessings and happiness
which Jesus has purchased for them by His in-
carnation.

THE Nb:W

YOHK

?U?MC L^'

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AbTO-t

,

TlLOfN ■

1

THE BIRTH OF CHRIST.

And it came to pass, that in those days there went out a
decree from Cesar Augustus, that the whole world should be
enrolled.

This enrolling was first made by Cyrinus, the governor of
Syria.

And all went to be enrolled, every one into his own city.

And Joseph also went up from Galilee, out of the city of
Nazareth into Judea, to the city of David, which is called Beth-
lehem : because he was of the house and family of David.

To be enrolled with Mary his espoused wife, who was with
child.

And it came to pass, that when they were there, her days
were accomplished, that she should be delivered.

And she brought forth her first-born Son, and wrapped Him
up in swaddling clothes, and laid Him in a manger ; because
there was no room for them in the inn.

And there were in the same country shepherds watching, and
keeping the night-watches over their flock.

And behold an angel of the Lord stood by them, and the
brightness of God shone round about them ; and they feared
with a great fear.

And the Angel said to them : Fear not ; for, behold, I bring
you good tidings of great joy, that shall be to all the people :

For, this day, is born to you a Saviour, Who is Christ the
Lord, in the city of David.

And this shall be a sign unto you. You shall find the infant
wrapped in swaddling-clothes, and laid in a manger.

And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the
heavenly army, praising God, and saying :

Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men of
good-will.

252 THE BIRTH OF CHRIST.

And it came to pass, after the angels departed from them
into heaven, the shepherds said one to another : Let us go over
to Bethlehem, and let us see this word that has come to pass,
which the Lord hath shewed to us.

And they came with haste ; and they found Mary and Joseph,
and the infant lying in the manger.

*And seeing, they understood of the word that had been
spoken to them concerning this child.

And all that heard, wondered ; and at those things that were
told them by the shepherds.

But Mary kept all these words, pondering them in her heart.

And the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God, for
all the things they had heard and seen, as it was told unto them.
— St. Luke ii., 1-20.

When we contemplate the birth of Christ on a
winter night, in a miserable stable, destitute of all
the comforts of life, with the meanest animals for
companions, with a humble virgin for a mother,
and a poor carpenter for a foster father, we nat-
urally ask ourselves, why Christ came into the
world in such a state? Why did the Eternal,
when He condescended to come among men, come
in such squalid poverty, such utter self-abasement?
Why was He not created by God without human
parents, or at least, why was He not born of some
great queen ? Why was not some mighty king
His foster father ? Why was He not born in a
palace instead of a stable ? Why was not His
crib, of gold set with precious stones, instead of
a manger? Why did not all the choirs of
heavenly spirits sing that song of glory, instead
of a few ? Why were not all men ready to follow
the star, and coming fall down and adore Him,
instead of the three wise men from the East?

THE BIRTH OF CHRIST. 253

Why did He not appear in such a manner as to
arrest the attention of all men? Why was He
not surrounded with a magnificence that would
reflect, however feebly, the splendors of His
heavenly court ? Why was He not attended with
that pomp and ritual of ceremony by which even
earthly kings hedge in and seek to maintain their
dignity ? Why was He not surrounded by the
noblest of the sons of men to do His every pleas-
ure? In a word, why should God be born in a
condition from which even the meanest of men
would shrink?

We answer that He was born in such utter
humiliation because He was God. Had He been
born as we would have Him, He would not have
manifested, so clearly, His divinity, as He does,
when He comes into the world in profound con-
tempt of all that we prize, when He shows Him-
self superior to the vain thoughts of our soft and
sensual nature. Why should He, the Lord of all
things, surround Himself with the inventions of
our pride and sensuality ? Why should He have
sought the luxury and pomp which only reveal
the weakness of our nature? Why should He
have obscured His glory, by clothing Himself
with our meanness ? Man seeks to exalt himself
by such means ; God would have bemeaned Him-
self by having recourse to them. If Christ had
come into the world after the manner that human
wisdom would dictate. His birth would be too
human, to be divine. It would be too redolent of
human weakness and human pride. In it would
be seen the thoughts of man ; of the earth,

254 THE BIRTH OF CHRIST.

earthy. In it we should in vain seek the infinite
difference there must be between our manner of
conceiving the birth of a God, and what the
birth of a God should really be. In it we should
fail to see those lofty thoughts which are alone
worthy of the Divinity : that immeasurable supe-
riority which must exist between the wisdom of
God and the folly of man.

Human weakness may seek to exalt itself by
glorious raiment, may surround itself with a rit-
ual of ceremony, may fence itself round with
exclusive bounds, within which no man may
enter. But the Eternal God, the source of all
true greatness, stands in no such need. He only
manifests His greatness. He only shows that He
is God, by His sublime contempt for such human
contrivances.

If Jesus had shown a partiality for the arts and
inventions of human effeminacy, could we ever
have believed Him divine ? Where would be
the simplicity and austerity which we instinctively
attribute to an all-perfect being, to a God-made
man to reform mankind by His example ? Who,
in reading the life of Mahomet, can believe that
he was what he pretended to be, because of his
proneness to human weakness and gratification ?
He who would reform mankind, must show that
he is not himself a slave to the vices and passions
which he condemns. He who preaches a doctrine
higher than that which he practices, cannot be
divine.

But, in the way in which Jesus comes into the
world : bereft of His glory, destitute of every

THE BIRTH OF CHRIST. 2$$

comfort, reduced to the condition of the most
abject creature; showing Himself superior to all
human weakness, so completely detached from all
things human; exhibiting such lofty contempt for
the ways and maxims and wisdom of this world,
we see all divine : the elevation above all human
notions, the simplicity, fortitude, sublimity, which
we necessarily attach to our idea of God.

Men marvel at the self-humiliation to which our
Lord brought Himself in this mystery of His
birth. Will they bear in mind the depth of the
abasement to which He reduced Himself, by at all
becoming man, by ever leaving His seat at the
right hand of His father? Unspeakable was the
condescension that He should at all think of our
redemption. Birth in a stable, is a fitting birth
for a God who vouchsafed to be conceived of a
woman ; of a God who relinquished His glory
and even His divinity, so far as it was possible, to
become man. Birth in a crib, is a fit prelude to
a life of suffering, to a passion of unutterable
woe, to death upon a cross.

Men wonder at His lowly birth. Let them
look around them in this world. Do they see
His visible presence anywhere ? True, all things
proclaim His existence ; but, where is God to be
seen so visibly manifested, that even the infidel
cannot indulge his doubts? Is He not a hidden
God in the midst of the most splendid manifes-
tations of His being and perfections? He is,
indeed, a God of mystery: existing everywhere,
yet visible nowhere. If, then. He hides Himself
in His birth. He only does that which he has

256 THE BIRTH OF CHRIST.

done in the world ; He only acts in consistency
with the other mysteries by which He has dis-
closed Himself to us. In it, His humiliation is
infinite because His love is limitless. His love is
to be calculated by what He has done to show it.
The depth of His humiliation, is the measure of
His love. He could not have stooped lower:
His love could not be greater.

Christ came into the world not only to redeem
it, but to unteach men the errors into which they
had fallen, and to teach them the lessons of true
life and divine wisdom.

Since the first estrangement of man from his
Creator, since this first breaking up of the har-
mony in which his faculties of soul and body were
held by the supernatural grace in which he was
created, there have prevailed in this world three
mighty evils, the source of all others. To these
may be reduced all human passion, human avarice,
human ignorance, human error, and all that is
comprehended in the '' Lust of the flesh, the lust
of the eyes and the pride of life." Track any
evil to its source, and you will find it to spring
from inordinate self-love or blind attachment to
sense or that wisdom so emphatically called
the wisdom of this world. But Jesus cOmes to re-
claim man from his errors, to undo the work of the
fall, to point out to him the way of freedom from
the tyranny which self-love, sense, and worldly
wisdom have established in his heart. In the
external circumstances of His birth : in its self-
sacrifice, utter detachment from the things of
sense, in its profound contempt for the wisdom of

THE BIRTH OF CHRIST. 25/

this world, behold a sovereign, three-fold rem-
edy for the sovereign, three-fold source of all
evil. In His birth, He exhibits the lessons
which He afterwards taught. He begins to
reform mankind, the moment He comes among
them. Faithful preacher and guide. He asks no
man to do what He had not Himself already done
from infanc3\

In what light does all self-love appear, in
presence of the self-sacrifice exhibited in the
mystery of Christ's nativity ? — self-love, which
prompts a man to prefer himself _to others, his
passions and interests to all other considerations, —
to even the just claims of others; — thence result-
ing all sins against justice: self-love, stifling all
feelings of generosity, freezing the fount of sym-
pathy and pity to the extent of not undergoing
a slight sacrifice for sake of others ; — thence pro-
ceeding all breaches of the golden law of doing
as we would be done by. Who can do his
neighbor wrong ? who can fail to do him every
good, when he beholds so much done for himself?
Who can think about himself and his rights,
when he beholds the Lord of heaven and earth
voluntarily abandon all, and bring Himself to
such utter forgctfulness of His character and
dignity ? How withering the condemnation of
all self-seeking and self-love ! How divine the
commendation of self-denial and self-sacrifice !
In what light appear all luxury and ease and self-
gratification ; all that men live for, — in presence of
the Lord of all things in such utter destitution,
deprived of even the comforts to which the

258 THE BIRTH OF CHRIST.

humblest of men feel they have a rightful claim ?
What an insight is given to us into the truth of
the words : *' He that will come after Me, let him
take up his cross and follow Me :" " He that loses
his life, shall gain it ; he that gains his life, shall
lose it." There is need of suffering and mortifica-
tion. There can be no true religion without it,
— the royal way of the cross.

In what light is seen this sensible world with
all those sensible objects that men pursue, in
presence of the external circumstances of the
birth of Christ ? Man comes into life with his
soul athirst for happiness ; a thirst implanted in
his soul to lead him to his last end. He looks
around and finding not God, he seeks and fastens
on some sensible object for his happiness. The
veils of this sensible world hide from him the
God for whom he longs and for whom he has
been made. The demon sense tyrannizes over
us and holds us in its iron grip. It begins its
sway when first we open our eyes on the objects
around us. It only relaxes its hold, when we
close our eyes upon them forever. We are en-
cased in a body of sense. We seek only the
things of sense. Pleasure, traffic, honor, fame,
are the husks upon which we would feed the
spiritual cravings of our immortal heaven-
destined souls tarrying for a little while on
earth. Sense dominates us. We are too slug-
gish to force its iron grip, to break its fatal spell,
to chase the foul illusion from us, and to rise
to the eternal realities beyond this world. But
how this veil of sense is rent in twain, in the

THE BIRTH OF CHRIST. 259

study of the external circumstances of Christ's
nativity ! How real the future life and all the
truths of religion, when He who best knew their
value and reality, did not hesitate to appear in
such humiliation to obtain them for us. How
unreal this life and all that men live for, when
He who best knew their worth, made so little
of them in the circumstances of His birth.

As to the vices that sense creates in our souls,
lust, sensuality, desire of display, greed of gain,
love of honors, thirst of pleasure ; how bitter the
censure of all these, in the manner in which
Christ is born ! Who has the heart to seek the
riches of this life, when he sees the Infinitely
rich having not whereon to lay His head. What
an insight do we not get into His teaching,
''Blessed arc the poor in spirit, for theirs is
the kingdom of heaven " ! We begin to under-
stand the necessity of poverty, we begin to feel
the danger of riches, we realize that His words
are not an exaggeration : ** It were easier for a
camel to pass through the eye of a needle, than
for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven."

Behold the contempt poured upon all human
wisdom, in the humiliation in which Christ is
born ! Little would worldly wisdom have or-
dained that Birth in a stable, for the reclaiming
of man and the conversion of the world. But
such is the essential difference between the wis-
dom of God and the wisdom of men. What is
folly with man is wisdom with God : what is
wisdom with man is folly with God. Worldly
wisdom is narrow and short-sio:htcd. It extends

26o THE BIRTH OF CHRIST.

not beyond its own horizon. It is made up of
considerations altogether human. It makes little
account of anything that does not affect the
senses. It feels its self-sufficiency. It measures
out all things in heaven and on earth by the nar-
row rules of its philosophy. It contemns that
with which it agrees not ; it laughs to scorn what
it cannot comprehend. In the birth of Christ we
see how Divine wisdom contemns every sugges-
tion of this wisdom of man. VVe behold the lofty
superiority of the intelligence of the Creator
over the creature, and the essential difference be-
tween the Divine idea of how the Saviour of men
should come into the world, and that birth which
men would have deemed congruous. Human
wisdom was not invoked in the accomplishment
of the mystery of Christ's birth. Truly does He
show His divinity, by turning what with men is
folly, and weakness, and humiliation, into instru-
ments of His wisdom, and power, and glory.

In his birth Jesus teaches us what men have
ever sought to know and ever refused to learn ;
what men are continually taught, and yet contin-
ually contemn : the secret of human happiness.
It does not depend upon external circumstances.
Its home is built within the heart, where it may
exist in spite of the most untoward and abject
external circumstances. Felicity of soul in the
midst of misery, is the lot of those who have
learned the lesson of Christ's birth. Discontent
of heart in the midst of worldly happiness, is the
portion of those upon whom this lesson is lost.
Whatever progress society may make, however

THE BIRTH OF CHRIST. 261

the arts of life may advance, or the science of
government improve, or the condition of the poor
and destitute be ameliorated, it must always be
that the greater part of men must labor and suffer.
By the lessons of His birth, Christ teaches them
how this condition may be borne with patience
and resignation. He has compensated for its hard-
ships, by making it meritorious of an eternal re-
ward. By His own example. He has consecrated
poverty: He has reversed the world's esteem of
it. Before His birth, it was contemned and was
the synonym of meanness: He has placed the
poor in spirit above the rich of this world : ever
since, voluntary poverty has been thought the
higher state ; — an evangelical perfection. The
type of meanness has become the profession and
glory of the noblest souls, — souls given entirely
to God, — souls who seek to model themselves
upon His divine example.

By being born a helpless child and in a stable.
He wished to put His love for us in a sensible
form. By that condition. He appeals most feelingly
and powerfully to our warmed hearts. Although
His incarnation was enough to show His love, yet
if He had stopped at that, it w^ould never have
come home to the hearts and minds of most peo-
ple ; they might have reasoned and concluded that
His love was infinite, but they would have never
felt it; and religious truth to be efficacious must
be felt. But when they behold the Eternal God
born in the form of a little child, of a Virgin
Mother, not having whereon to lay His head, —
exposed to the cold of a winter's night, with the

262 THE BIRTH OF CHRIST.

meanest animals for companions, conviction gives
way to rapture, and we are overpowered by a
manifestation of love which appeals so directly
even to our feelings and senses."

The humility of the birth of Christ has shown
itself to be a mystery of the power of God.
Power ! forsooth, the unbeliever may say, talk of
power in that helpless infant who lies in a man-
ger between an ox and an ass ! Yes, I assert that
Christ's lowly birth has been the Mystery of His
power. St. Paul preached the cross and suffer-
ings of Christ, as the Mystery of the power and
wisdom of God. The lowly crib of Bethlehem
has shown itself no less the Mystery of His wis-
dom and power. Behold the influence that has
gone forth from that birth ! See how it has revo-
lutionized the world ! How it has entered into
and changed all the thoughts and sentiments and
lives of men ! What class, what sex, what age,
what profession, what walk of life, has not felt
this saving influence. Nor has this influence
been of that human kind which lasts for a period
and then disappears ; but that which, beginning
in obscurity, works imperceptibly, yet effectually
and for all time ; overcomes all obstacles ; con-
tinually increases in power, and at length accom-
plishes its final purpose. It has proved itself to
be one of the great moral forces, which, under the
providence of God, and endued with His grace,
has enlightened and exalted the human race. Such
influences resemble nothing more than the great
powers of nature.

The lessons of the birth of Christ are the wery

THE BIRTH OF CHRIST. 263

essence of whatever is most valuable in our Chris-
tian civilization. All the great improvements of
our race are to be traced to its heavenly and be-
neficent influences. The simplicity of that birth
has confounded the wisdom of the world. Its
self-denial has subdued the world's selfishness.
Its love has won the hearts of men. And
they have learned that He must be Divine Who
shone with the virtues which belong to God
alone. If the birth of Christ be not a mystery of
power, then has Christ overcome the world by
His weakness.

To-day Jesus Christ rules an empire of which
the Caesars, in their maddest ambition, never
dreamed. They could command or kill the body,
but over that which is noblest in man they had
no control : that which is best was freest: but Jesus
reigns supreme over an empire of souls. He is
their first lisp, their consolation in life, their hope
in death. To them His word is the word of eter-
nal life. His life is their unceasing study. His
death is their ransom from sin. His resurrection
is the type and pledge of their own. He is the
very God of their souls ; and living and dying
they bless His holy name. Was influence ever
like to this ! Was triumph ever more triumph-
ant !

Whatever human wisdom may suggest, or how-
ever little to human eyes the facts may seem to
warrant the statement, it cannot be doubted that
Jesus Christ, according to His wisdom and in the
manner which He proposed to Himself, has
mastered the world. '' Fear not, little flock, for I

264 THE BIRTH OF CHRIST.

have overcome the world." This the disclosures
of the last day shall make manifest. And how has
He subdued it ? There have been those who seem-
ingly conquered parts of the world, but it has
been by violence and bloodshed and by giving un-
bridled license to the passions. But Jesus has
had resort to no such means. He is the God of
peace, the God of love. His conquest has been by
love and peace and good will, — by declaring a war
to the death upon the strongest passions of the
human heart. Others have won apparent tri-
umph by yielding to the world. Jesus Christ has
triumphed by compelling it to yield to Him, by
teaching it to crucify the flesh with its concupi-
scences, by obtaining the assent of the mind to
truths which it could not comprehend, and which
in its pride it would naturally reject and contemn.

THE NEW YORK

PUBLIC LIBRARY,

ASTOW, LENOX A><0
TILOEN FOUNOaTionS.

LOVE OF OUR NEIGHBOR.

And Jesus answered him : The first commandment of all is,
Hear, O Israel : the Lord thy God is one God.

And thou shalt love the Lord thy God, with thy whole heart,
and with thy whole soul, and with thy whole mind, and with thy
whole strength. This is the first commandment.

And the second is like to it : Thou shalt love thy neighbor as
thyself. There is no other commandment greater than these.

And the scribe said to Him : Well master, thou hast said in
truth, that there is one God, and there is no other besides Him.

And that He should be loved with the whole heart, and with
the whole understanding, and with the whole soul, and with the
whole strength ; and to love one's neighbor as oneself, is a
greater thing than all holocausts and sacrifices. — St. Mark xii.,
29-33.

The passage which I have just read teaches us
the lesson of brotherly love. It is the lesson
which the Church so often places before us ; the
lesson which is laid down on every page of the
Gospel and breathes from every action of our
Saviour's life. '' I give unto you a new command-
ment : that you love one another ; as I have loved
you, that you also love one another. By this
shall all men know that you are My disciples, if
you have love one for another." It hath been
said, " Thou shalt love thy friend and hate thine
enemy ; but I say to you, love your enemy, do
good to them that hate you, and pray for them

266 LOVE OF OUR NEIGHBOR.

who persecute and calumniate you." This lesson
is the substance of all religion, the keeping of all
law, the fulfilment of all justice.

The duty of loving our brother springs from,
or rather is identical with, the duty of loving God.
He who loves his neighbor does so because in
him he sees the creature of God, made in His
image, and redeemed with His blood. His love
then flows from, or is one in fact with his love
of God. He who loves God, loves his neighbor.
He who loves his neighbor, loves God. If he
loves not the one, he loves not the other.

Brotherly love is not a mere sentiment or emo-
tion of the heart. It is not even the purest hu-
man sympathy. It is not even the most disinter-
ested human benevolence. Human benevolence is
a noble virtue, a mighty motive and one capable
of vast results. It assists the needy, compassion-
ates with the suffering, solaces the forsaken, and
pours the balm of consolatipn into the wounds
caused by grief and every manner of distress.
Like human goodness, from Avhich it springs,
pure, disinterested benevolence is the choicest
gift with which God has endowed our hearts. In
the natural order, it would seem to be a reflex or
emanation of God's own essential goodness. And
yet, the purest human goodness and benevolence
is not Christian charity, — this divine virtue is high-
er still. Human benevolence is destitute of an
adequate principle to sustain it ; it soon languishes
and fails by its own innate unsteadiness and want
of perseverance, or it is vanquished by the in-
gratitude and shortcomings of those who are its

LOVE OF OUR NEIGHBOR. 26/

objects ; or, founded as it is on a feeling of senti-
ment or even a transient conviction of duty
Avhich soon evaporates, it, too, evaporates with
what was its source and support. Not so with
Christian brotherly love. It has its principle and
motives in the love of God. Every consideration
it has for man is in and from the love of God
whose image and creature he is. It is God, in
the person of men, whom Christian brotherly
love recognizes and serves. And in this service
of God and the eternal reward thereto attached,
it finds enough to sustain it, and to compensate it
for any sacrifice, even of life itself, which it must
make in its career.

The duty of brotherly love flows from the posi-
tive command of Jesus Christ: "A new com-
mandment I give unto you, that you love one
another." A '' new mandate " it was, indeed.
Such a virtue was unknown before Christ. It
was His spirit, and He that first inculcated it
among men. There may have been human sym-
pathy and something of human benevolence in
the pagan world. But Christian brotherly love
was never dreamed of by the philosophers and
sages' of antiquity. It can only subsist among
the worshippers of a common Father and God.
Such worship is its principle and permanence.
Polytheism knew nothing of the tenderness and
strength of the ties of Christian charity.

It is not necessary that I should remind you of
our common origin, common nature, common
redemption, common heirship of the pardon and
grace purchased by our Saviour, common weak-

268 LOVE OF OUR NEIGHBOR.

nesses, common temptations, and common destiny,
as so many arguments and inducements to the
cultivation of this virtue. Nor should I prove to
you the duty of loving your brother. No one needs
proof to be convinced of his duty of loving God.
No one requires demonstration of his obligation
of loving his neighbor. He already knows it, and
owns it. These are like the other duties and
truths of religion, — admitted b}^ all and practiced
by few.

If, on the one hand, we consider how this
duty of loving our neighbor is acknowledged by
all, and, on the other, how few there are that
practise it, we cannot but ask, how it is so widely
and so generally neglected ? It is chiefly because
people excuse themselves from it on frivolous
pretexts, which a little reflection will show to be
such.

In looking about us and considering the vari-
ous obstacles that charity encounters, we find the
first and most fatal to be self-love and selfishness.
Selfishness and charity are entirely incompatible,
are in direct and positive antagonism. Self is
necessarily fatal to what in its very nature is
sacrifice of self. As well might light and dark-
ness coexist, as generosity and selfishness, fra-
ternal charity and self-love, in the same bosom.
In every act of charity which we practise, there
is necessarily an act of self-denial. If I give of
my means to relieve the needs of my brother, I
practise self-denial so far as to deprive myself of
that which otherwise I would retain. If I check
the risings of anger, or the promptings of ill-will

LOVE OF OUR NEIGHBOR. 269

against my brother, I practise self-sacrifice so far
as to deprive myself of the satisfaction of gratify-
ing my passion. If I drive from my heart rancor
and bitterness towards my brother and supplant
them with kindness and forbearance, I practise
self-denial so far as to suppress one of the strong-
est passions of the human heart; that of hate. If
I freely and from my heart forgive my brother
the wrong that he has done me, and in patience
and resignation submit to the injury and suffer-
ing thence resulting, banishing from my heart all
resentment, and am even prepared to do him the
good which, in charity, I am bound to render to
another, I overcome the most ineradicable feelings
of nature, and exercise a virtue which, in a manner,
would seem too great for our human condition,
but which God's grace has made possible and
His law obligatory. Every act of brotherly love,
then, implies self-sacrifice.

Charity is a union of hearts, a mutual commu-
nication of kind offices. No union can subsist
without a foregoing of self on the part of individ-
uals. No union can subsist while each member
insists upon all the rights which, outside the union,
he would have. Union implies the surrender of
individual right. Advantages common to many
must be purchased at the price of particular in-
terests. Without this mutual self-sacrifice, no
society or bond of charity could subsist. Now,
it is manifest that selfishness and self-love, seek-
ing itself in everything, unmindful of the claims
of others, unwilling to practise self-denial in
anything, is necessarily fatal to such union and

270 LOVE OF OUR NEIGHBOR.

harmony, and to the dictates of brotherly love.
The human heart always seeks itself. It is only
by restraint that it can be overcome. It is only
by effort that it can practise disinterestedness. It
is true, what you may say, that charity as known
among men, carries with it very little sacrifice.
Few give except what is superfluous to them.
Fewer still what may be necessary. And who is
the man that will put himself to any serious incon-
venience or loss, for his neighbor's sake ? True,
indeed, charity as known and practiced among
men carries with it very little sacrifice. But this
only proves how rare charity is. Whether what
I say may be in harmony with charity as its sub-
sists among men, or not, it yet remains true that
real charity in its nature is self-sacrificing.

If brotherly love does not imply self-sacrifice,
why was it ever put under obligation? if it re-
quires not more than inclination moves us to, or
than may be agreeable to our natural propensity,
or if it be but the experience of mere natural
feeling, why was it ever made a matter of grave
precept? It is not necessary to place the feelings
of the heart under the constraint of law. Why
was it declared the greatest of virtues, the first of
commandments, the fulfilment of all justice, unless
because of its intrinsic difficulty, and that he who
fails not to discharge this duty, will overcome the
temptations and obstacles in the way of the other
virtues. For this it was, that immortal happiness
was declared its just reward and eternal recom-
pense.

Self-love must be destroyed in the heart in

LOVE OF OUR NEIGHBOR. 2/1

Avhich brotherly love would reign. What is it
that engenders feelings of ill-will and hatred
among friends ? Self-love which prompts a man
to seek offence or insult in the words and man-
ner in which none was meant. What is it that
breeds dissensions among the members of the
same family ? Self-love which moves each one to
think that his rights are not respected, or his feel-
ings not regarded or consulted. What is it that
daily introduces disagreements and feuds in every
pursuit and profession in life? Self-love which
cannot brook rivalry, and accounts the success of
another as an injury to itself. If, then, we would
cultivate brotherly love for our neighbor, we
must root out from our hearts this cursed love of
self, this spirit of selfishness. We must assume
greater self-forgetfulness, a more self-denying spir-
it ; and a noble generosity should characterize
all our actions to our fellow-men.

There are those who excuse themselves from the
duty of brotherly love on the ground of the per-
sonal traits and forbidding qualities of their breth-
ren ; their wa3's are so unpleasant, their manners
are so disagreeable, their methods of thinking and
acting are so contrary to their own, and so un-
bearable. And in these personal dislikes and re-
pugnances, they find reasons to relieve them from
the duty of dispensing the offices of Christian
charity. Can the bond of brotherly love be
broken by such pretexts as these? is Christian
charity then no stronger tie than that which
springs from fancy, and the pleasure produced by
the winning disposition and bland ways of our

272 LOVE OF OUR NEIGHBOR.

brother? What is it to us, of his personal char-
acteristics and repelling defects! We are not
bound to love his qualities, nor to love him be-
cause of them. The duty of brotherly love is a
duty of the mind and will, a teaching of religion, a
dictate of conscience. It sees in man the image
of God, redeemed by His blood ; a being of com-
mon origin and common nature, common hopes
and common destiny, with ourselv'es. In all this,
it recognizes the motives of its duty of brotherly
love. Does our brother cease to belong to our
nature, does he fall from his high destiny, is the
image of God and the blood of Christ effaced
from his soul, does he forfeit his inheritance of
the grace and hopes of Christ, does he cease to
be the child of God and the redeemed of the
Lamb, because of his personal shortcomings and
disagreeable qualities ?

See what they put up with who hang on
princes' favors, who solicit the bounty of courts ;
what humiliations and insults they endure, all for
the sake of retaining the good graces of the king
and of obtaining some temporal reward. Now
God has staked our eternal happiness upon mor-
tifying our personal dislikes, at least, so far, that
they may not interfere with the fulfilment of the
duties of fraternal charity. Is not salvation worth
the self-sacrifice which men do not hesitate to
endure for the sake of some end merely temporal ?

But your neighbor has done 3^ou injury ; he
has ruined your good name and credit, — he has
deprived you of your property. I admit it ; and
so far, he has sinned, he has done wrong. But

LOVE OF OUR NEIGHBOR. 273

will this relieve you from 3'our obligations to-
wards him ? Will you do right, by doing him
wrong? He has done you wrong. Will you per-
mit him to do you the further wrong of deprivino-
you of eternal salvation by the sin of your retalia-
tion against him ? This, surely, would not redress
the grievance you have suffered. Will his derelic-
tion break up the great system of fraternal char-
ity under which God has placed all men? His
malice has violated his duty to his fellow-man ;
are you therefore liberated from the great law of
Christ ? You act as if Christian charity were like
a mere human contract, which, if broken by one
side, ceases to be binding on the other. But this
law is not of human origin. It comes from
heaven. It is there that it has its eternal sanc-
tion. As it is to Christ alone it belongs to reward
those who observe its requirements, so it is for
Him alone to punish those who are unfaithful to
it and who yield to the feelings and passions
which it would govern and subdue. If, then, be-
cause of our brother's trespass, we refuse him the
offices of brotherly love, our act redounds not to
his disadvantage but to the offense and insult of
God Himself, the author and bond of Christian
charity. If we take vengeance on our brother,
our act reverts to the con-tempt of Jesus, in Whose
blood he has been redeemed, and of Whose body
he is a member, and of ^ Whose law he should be
the beneficiary.

It is not permitted us to hate those whom God
does not hate, to cast off those whom He has not
cast off ; to punish them whom God has not seen

274 LOVE OF OUR NEIGHBOR.

fit to chastise. They may not be in His favor,
they may even exhibit some of the marks of the
reprobate. Yet remember, that the sinner of to-
day may be the saint of a time to come ; and that
he who at one time is covered with sin, and black
with guilt, may, in the eternal counsels of God, be
one of the elect. If we would hate, we may hate
the devil and the damned, because they deserve
God's eternal reprobation, and have received His
eternal malediction. They are the fit objects of
our hate and loathing and increasing aversion as
His undying enemies.

You complain that your brother has shown
himself ungrateful for all the past kindness which
you have bestowed upon him. Was it, then, to
put your brother under gratitude and to receive
his thanks that you showed him the duties of
brotherly love? Was a human reward the actu-
ating principle of your charity ? Instead of pro-
posing to yourself the eternal recompense offered
by Christ, you have substituted a human one, and
you have deservedly lost both. How much bet-
ter to have sought the reward of Him who has
promised that not even a cup of water given in
His name shall go without reward.

How shall we love our neighbor? What is the
manner and measure of fraternal charity ? I an-
swer, the love of Christ for us. Behold the meas-
ure and the model of brotherly love. Even as
He has loved us, so should we love one another.
'' A new mandate I give you, that you love one
another, even as I have loved you."

What, you will say, must I die for my neigh-

LOVE OF OUR NEIGHBOR. 275

bor ? Such may sometimes be your duty, if it be
necessary for his eternal salvation. 1 do not say
that such an obligation may occur often, if at all.
But the fact that it can happen shows how sacred
is the bond which binds us to our brother. See
what Jesus has done for your neighbor and the
price which He has thought fit to pay for him,
and you will learn after what manner you should
love your brother. Jesus, infinitely rich, and the
Lord of all, became poor, and had not whereon
to lay His head for him ; surely, you should
not be unwilling to spend some of your goods
in supplying his needs and lightening his suf-
ferings. Jesus, for his sake, has made Himself
of no repute, a worm of the earth, an outcast from
men and a reproach. Surely, you should not be
so regardful of your name and reputation ; in-
jured, as you say, by your neighbor. The suffer-
iiiirs and death of Christ teach us that there is no
forgiveness too ready and sincere, no generosity
too profuse, no sacrifice too heroic, when the
well-beinof of our brother needs it. Be chari-
table, then, to all : see yourself in those of every
age, rank, condition, and claim ; in every creature
that bears the image of God. To the young con-
tribute generously, that their hearts and minds
may be formed to virtue, and while yet pliant
early receive deep impressions of piety. Be chari-
table to the poor and needy, to the sick and suffer-
ing ; for to you they represent Christ, and appeal
in His name to your generosity. Be charitable
to the sinful and unfortunate, whom wayward
fortune, or perverse passion has not spared from

276 ilOVE OF OUR NEIGHBOR.

those ills to which we are all subject, and from
which we have only been saved by God's
grace. Be charitable to the old, — do what you
can to solace old age, to smooth its path to the
grave ; for on this earth there is nothing more
worthy of veneration and love. Be charitable to
your brother who has injured you, whether wit-
tingly or unwittingly ; for you have yourself in-
jured your neighbor, if not purposely, at least
through inadvertence, impatience, querulousness,
or unguarded words ; all which you expect him
to overlook, because of the absence of evil intent
and your general good disposition. Measure out
to him the consideration that you would desire
shown to yourself. While if you have not injured
him purposely, you certainly have sinned wilfully
and deliberately against God. For these sins you
are a debtor to His justice. Yet you confidently
ask and expect His pardon. Bestow then upon
your neighbor the forgiveness and love you expect
for yourself. " For with what measure you bestow
justice and mercy, it will be measured unto you."
The condition of Divine pardon to you, is youi
complete and absolute forgiveness of the wrongs
done to yourself. Do all this, and at the last hour
you will hear these words, " Come, ye blessed of
My Father, possess the kingdom prepared for
you from the foundation of the world ; for I was
hungry, and ye gave Me to eat ; thirsty, and ye
gave Me to drink ; naked, and ye clothed Me ; sick
and in prison, and ye visited Me. Amen, I say to
you, so long as ye did it unto the least of these
my brethren, ye did it unto Me."

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THE FORGIVENESS OF INJURIES.

Lord, how often shall my brother offend against me, and I
forgive him ? till seven times ?

Jesus saith to him : I say not to thee, till seven times ; but
till seventy times seven times.

Therefore is the kingdom of heaven likened to a king, who
would take an account of his servants.

And when he had begun to take the account, one was brought
to him, that owed him ten thousand talents.

And as he had not wherewith to pay it, his lord commanded
that he should be sold, and his wife and children and all that he
had, and payment to be made.

But that servant falling down, besought him, saying : Have
patience with me, and I will pay thee all.

And the lord of that servant being moved with pity, let him
go and forgave him the debt.

But when that servant was gone out, he found one of his fel-
low-servants that owed him an hundred pence : and laying hold
of him, he throttled him, saying: Pay what thou owest.

And his fellow-servant falling down, besought him, saying :
Have patience with me. and I will pay thee all.

And he would not : but went and cast him into prison, till
he paid the debt.

Now his fellow-servants seeing what was done, were very
much grieved, and they came and told their lord all that was
done.

Then his lord called him ; and said to him : Thou wicked ser-
vant, I forgave thee all the debt, because thou besoughtest
me :

Shouldst not thou then have had compassion also on thy fel-
low-servant, even as I had compassion on thee?

278 THE FORGIVENESS OF INJURIES.

And his lord being angry, delivered him to the torturers until
he paid all the debt.

So also shall My Heavenly Father do to you, if you forgive not
every one his brother from your hearts. — St. Matt, xviii. 21-35.

All the commandments of God, all the precepts
of His Church, all the laws ever made for the
guidance of human society, are all summed up in
the command of loving God for His own sake and
our neighbor for God's sake. It is their sub-
stance and fulfilment. If we follow it in its va-
rious, in its multiform and manifold applications,
we have no need of any other light or rule in our
duties to God, our neighbor, and ourselves.

It is not my intention to speak to you to-day of
the duty of brotherly love, — which springs from,
and has its source in, the love of God, except in
so far as it may concern the duty of forgiving in-
juries. I wish to direct your attention to merely
one branch of Christian charity. Let me ask you
to reflect with me on the duty of forgiving our
enemies.

Nothing is more commonly contemned than
this duty of forgiveness. It is seldom that we
meet one who, from his heart, pardons offences
done him. The desire of vengeance shows itself
in various ways ; sometimes in manifest violence,
in taking life or in maiming the body. But gen-
erally it pursues meaner and more insidious
methods. For, though vengeance pretends to
be the prompting of courage, the manner in
which it often seeks its object, reveals a coward-
ice, the most abject and contemptible. It will not
resort to open attack, for that were bold though

THE FORGIVENESS OF INJURIES. 2/9

sinful ; but by innuendo, hints, insinuations against
his enemy's character, the aggrieved seeks to sat-
isfy his passion. Calumny and detraction are
the blows that vengeance strikes. Even with
these injustices which, though grievously wrong,
have this in their favor, that, as they specify a
charge, they can be refuted, if untrue, vengeance
is not content ; but has recourse to that meanest
of all calumnies which consists in implying that it
could, if it would, injure its enemy's reputation ;
insinuating the existence of faults which, either
do not exist, or if they do, not to the same extent
as is implied. It has not the courage to strike, to
do violence, to calumniate openly, to detract ; be-
cause in all these defense can be made ; but it
tells us that if it wanted to speak it could, that it
will say no more and such like, leaving the im-
pression upon those that hear, that its enemy is
guilty of some heinous fault. This kind of ven-
geance, the most cowardly of all, seeks in this
manner to steer a middle course between con-
science on the one hand, and vengeance on the
other; " willing to strike, and yet afraid to give the
blow."

There is scarcely anything harder to human nat-
ure than to entirely forgive the injuries received
by us. So true is this, that in the Old law nothing
was forbidden but manifesting unforgiveness by
open violence. A better and more perfect law is
the Christian. He Who said to the Jews that it
was not only forbidden to commit adultery, but
even to look after a woman to lust for her, also
declared that not only vengeance, but even its

28o THE FORGIVENESS OF INJURIES.

desire was sinful. This Christian virtue was too
much to expect from those who lived under the
" weak and beggarly elements of the law."

And what is it to forgive our enemies? Many
understand not the nature of this obligation ;
some making of it more than it is, others making
it less. To forgive is to have for our enemy that
love and to perform for him those kind offices
which we would have shown him, had he never of-
fended us ; to reinstate him in our esteem to the
extent of doing for him, without reluctance, what-
ever charity prompts us to do for any one else :
to feed and clothe him when destitute ; to pre-
vent his misfortune or disgrace when we can ; to
succor him in all needs, both temporal and spirit-
ual; in one word, to do for him under all circum-
stances whatever we would wish done to ourselves
similarly placed. It will be seen that this does
not forbid our remembering the wrong he has
done us. It were well that we should have such
control over our minds as even to forget it, but
this is not always possible. So long as we do not
consent to the thoughts of vengeance that some-
times arise from thinking of the injuries done us,
we do not sin. It is like other passions ; sinful
only when and to whatever degree we yield to
them.

As fraternal love does not consist in feeling:,
does not spring from fancy, cupidity, or from any
other of those motives upon which mere human
love rests, so neither are we obliged to have any
sensible love for our enemy. We are to love him
as ourselves, that is, with the kind of love, but

THE FORGIVENESS OF INJURIES. 281

not with the degree of intensity with which we
can love only ourselves. As the love of God dif-
fers essentially from, and is incomparably superior
to, the sensible love we may lawfully have for
friends, so the love we ought to have for our
enemies is different essentially from the love gen-
erated by mere sentiment. All such love lan-
guishes and perishes; it cannot survive the trials
of life, the vicissitudes of time. But Christian
charity is superior to all these. Founded upon
the principles of reason, the teachings of revela-
tion, prompted and fostered by grace, it outlasts
all love that is merely the growth of emotion
naturally short-lived. This is the solid, the en-
during love we are to cherish for our enemies.

It is easy to see that the obligation of forgiving
enemies comes from the duty of loving all men.
If we are required to love all, to serve all, to per-
form charitable duties to all, we surely must be-
gin by forgiving the wrongs they have done us.
When God commands us to love, He necessarily
obliges us to everything that love requires. Even
though we should do good to our enemies, though
we should exhibit all the other promptings of
charity, unless we begin by forgiving them their
offences, we are wanting in charity.

We are all subject to the same temptations and
weaknesses ; we are all hewn out of the same rock ;
we are all liable to offend ; not one of us but
has given offence at some time or other, if not
wilfully, at least through inadvertence, selfish-
ness, want of consideration, fault finding, or other
forbidding defects. People are so different ; their

282 THE FORGIVENESS OF INJURIES.

ways are so contrasted ; like the human face, no
two alike, that we can scarcely avoid giving
offence from time to time. Yet we expect pardon
for these faults. We complain of our brother, if
he be not willing to overlook them ; we justify
ourselves on the ground that we did not mean to
offend, that our goodness of heart and amiability
of temper would not allow us. Should we, then,
be slow to forgive the faults committed against
ourselves? If we look for pardon for ourselves,
should we hesitate to give it to others ? Do we
justify, by our own unwillingness to forgive, the
reluctance of those who are unwilling to forgive
us } Has our brother no goodness, no amiability ?
Can we see nothing in him inviting our forgive-
ness? '' If thy brother sin against thee, reprove
him : and if he repent, forgive him. And if he
sin against thee seven times in a day, and seven
times in a day turn to thee, saying : I am sorry :
forgive him."

Let us bear in mind always that though we for-
give not, yet God can and, perhaps, has already
forgiven our enemies. They may have already
approached the sacrament of reconciliation with
the necessary dispositions ; they may have already
repented of the offences committed against thee,
and they may have been again restored to God's
grace. If He has pardoned, should we refuse
them pardon ? If the satisfaction offered to God's
sovereign majesty has been sufficient, should we
deem it insufficient for us ? Are we of greater
account than God ? Is our dignity and impor-
tance greater than God's eternal majesty ? Is our

THE FORGIVENESS OF INJURIES. 283

pride greater than God's mercy ? Are we to
spurn whom God has embraced ? Should we not
rather imitate the goodness of God ? Should we
not try to propitiate God's anger against our
own sins, by freely and generously pardoning the
faults committed against ourselves and which He
has been pleased to cancel ? In doing so, we
should but imitate God, and call down upon us
His choicest gifts and blessings. When we were
all lost, He sent His Only Son to redeem us ; to
redeem all, just and unjust ; those under the law,
those outside the law ; those who crucified Him,
as well as those who believed in Him ; all men
without distinction. Should we not be equally
lenient with our enemies ?

Again, God does not limit His favors to His
friends, but extends them to those who offend
Him daily, even hourly. He makes His sun to
shine, and His rain to fall upon all. If He were
to take vengeance. He -would at once destroy the
world ; but no ; He bears with the innumerable
outrages momentarily offered to His sovereign
majesty. He seeks no vengeance, and if He
does, it is a father's vengeance — not vindictive,
but salutary and corrective — looking to His
child's reformation ; a vengeance prompted by
His immeasurable love. Whom He loves. He
chastises. Should we not imitate our Father's
goodness ? If He can afford to pardon, we
should long to pardon for our Father's sake, and
in conformity with His example.

The wrongs we suffer from our enemies are not
inflicted upon us without God's permission. Our

284 THE FORGIVENESS OF INJURIES.

enemies would have no power to injure, if God
did not give it to them. All things happen with
at least God's permissive will. Nothing takes
place in the world, not even sin, without His
allowance. He tolerates all sin and suffering,
all misery and calamities, all the evil under the
sun, and all the wretchedness that men endure,
for the sake of the elect. If, then, we suffer from
enemies, let us remember that they may be but
the ministers of God's vengeance, or the dis-
pensers of His mercy. It may be an act of the
greatest love, on the part of God, to allow mis-
fortune to befall us. Sometimes the greatest
blessings come to us in the guise of calamities.
God looks down upon us and sees us prospering
in all things : amassing riches, acquiring fame,
enjoying the world's vanities; the fear and love
of God, the remembrance of the end for which
we have been created, all the truths of religion
are forgotten ; we begin to love the world
instead of God ; we are pursuing a career that
will assuredly entail our eternal misery ; and
then God, in His loving mercy, sends some acci-
dent to awaken us from our lethargy, to snatch
us from the awful precipice on which we are
standing ; to remind us of the emptiness and per-
ishableness of all human things ; to wean us
from undue attachment to ourselves ; to make us
fix our minds and hearts upon eternity ; to create
a longing for Himself, by infusing into us a dis-
gust and loathing for all else ; and for this pur-
pose, He permits our enemies to prevail against
us.

THE FORGIVENESS OF INJURIES. 285

Instead, then, of seeking vengeance on God's
instruments, we ought to thank them ; instead of
resenting these visitations of His mercy, we ought
thankfully to embrace them ; we ought to kiss the
hand that strikes us ; we ought to invoke blessings,
on whom passion prompts us to summon curses ;
we ought to give God thanks, and converted our-
selves, we ought to beseech Him to enlighten the
minds, to touch the hearts of those who have
injured us, in order that they, too, may be par-
takers of the mercy which God has vouchsafed
to pour down upon ourselves.

The wrongs we suffer cannot injure us, except
in so far as we make of them occasions of sin, and
consequently, of our eternal perdition. What can
they deprive us of, except some temporal goods,—
riches, property, name or pleasure? But, we
must one day lose all these ; we must leave them
all behind. It makes therefore little difference,
whether we part with them now or then, sooner
or later. It is true we ought not to be indifferent
to our good name, St. Paul counsels it ; yet for its
sake we ought not to harm our neighbor. Our ene-
my can do us no harm that can possibly justify our
doing him harm, and thus imperiling our souls.
The loss of temporal goods cannot stand in com-
parison with the loss of eternal happiness. Of
this we can be deprived by no one but by our-
selves. *' Fear not those who can only kill the
body ; but fear Him who is able to plunge both
soul and body into hell." ' If we resent, with
revenge, the wrongs done us, we offend Al-
mighty God, we become amenable to His jus-

286 THE FORGIVENESS OF INJURIES.

tice ; and thus, of these wrongs we make an occa-
sion of losing our immortal souls. Injuries then
can harm us only in so far as we make them occa-
sions of our sin.

Men speak of their honor, — must they not de-
fend it? What will men think of them, if they
bear with patience the insults offered to them ?
Will it not pronounce them cowards, as of poor
blood, as lacking spirit and honor? If they are
injured should they not injure? if calumniated
should they not retort with calumny ? if insulted
should they not repel it with indignation ? blow
for blow ? This is the wisdom of the world ;
always opposed to the wisdom of the Gospel, as
the shadow attends the light. No, says the Gospel,
'' Do good to them that hate you, pray for them
that persecute and calumniate you." *' Be not
overcome by evil, but overcome evil by good."
*' If th}^ enemy be hungry, give him to eat ; if he
be thirsty, give him to drink." Vengeance pre-
tends to courage. Its seeker thinks himself
brave ; but he is the meanest, the most despicable
of cowards, because he has not character enough
and force of will to contemn the world and its es-
teem. He is, indeed, a poltroon who prefers the
world to God ; its opinion to His law ; his passion
to his soul ; who prefers his neighbor's injury to
the loss of some little of this world's honor. But
he truly gains the sincere esteem of men, who for-
gives his enemy ; whose love for his fellow-creat-
ure is greater than his love for himself. He is
always sure to gain the world's praise, who de-
spises it. Vanity contemns its votaries, honors

THE TORGIVENESS OF INJURIES. 28/

those who are above its influence. If we would
be popular, let us contemn popularity. Jesus
contemned the world, and the world has honored
Him with a glory which it has never decreed to
another. The world honors the saints who de-
spised it. Virtue, if not always, frequently has its
reward even in this world. I understand not
what honor can be purchased with eternal ruin.
I cannot see that there is any honor in preferring
the world and its corrupt maxims, to God and
His eternal law. I can never understand what
honor can accrue to a man for being unreason-
able; or rather, for acting like one destitute of
reason. Man's true nobility is to be found in placing
himself in harmony with those laws that God has
given for our guidance and which are necessary to
our own happiness and the welfare of society. Yet,
we must not wonder that the world's votaries
seek vengeance ; for they are in darkness. *' He
that hateth his brother, is in darkness, and walk-
eth in darkness and knoweth not whither he go-
eth, because the darkness hath blinded his eyes."
" He that hateth his brother, is a murderer."

If those persons who seek vengeance, who are
unwilling to pardon their enemies, were them-
selves without sin for which they expect and ask
forgiveness, there would be something which, if
it did not justify, would at least extenuate their
malice ; or, if they did not seek forgiveness
for their own sins, they would be consistent.
But, how a person covered with sin, guilty of
hundreds, thousands, even, it may be, millions of
sins, can have the audacity to ask God to pardon

288 THE FORGIVENESS OF INJURIES.

him, while he nourishes hatred to his own enemy,
is something I cannot understand ; how he can
have the effrontery to approach the sacred Tri-
bunal and there even confess his reluctance to
forgive his enemy, while he implores God's for-
giveness on himself, is one of the many contra-
dictions into which one blinded by perversity can
fall. How can he, with any show of reason, ask
God " to forgive him his trespasses," while he is
not willing " to forgive those who have trespassed
against himself ? " He repeats the Lord's prayer ;
and, taking his words literally, he asks God to
forgive him, as he forgives others, that is, not at
all ; he begs God then not to forgive himself. Of
course, he does not mean this. Will he not re-
member that God will not forgive those who are
themselves unwilling to forgive? that to forgive
one's enemies, is the indispensable condition of
obtaining pardon for one's self? Upon what con-
ditions has God promised to hear our prayer for
mercy ? hear : '' If you will forgive men their
offences, your Heavenly Father will forgive 3'ou
your offences. If you forgive not, neither will
He forgive you." " When thou shalt stand to
pray ; forgive, if thou hast aught against any man ;
that also your Father who is in heaven may for-
give 3^ou your sins." '' Love your enemies, do
good to them that hate you." '' If thine enemy
be hungry, give him to eat ; if thirsty, give him
to drink ; thus you will heap coals of fire upon
his head." " If you offer your gift at the altar,
and remember that you have aught against your
brother, go first and be reconciled to your

THE FORGIVENESS OF INJURIES. 289

brother, and then come and offer your gift at the
altar."

Let us then forgive all, love all; those who
have injured us, those who have tried to injure us ;
let us forgive, and we shall be forgiven. Let us
pray for all without distinction ; for those in the
Church, that they may persevere ; for those out-
side, that as we all have a common Creator and
common Redeemer, so we may all, in a common
Church, meet in the Unity of Faith ; and thus there
may be but " One Lord, one Faith, one Baptism."
Let us imitate Jesus Christ, Who, on the Cross,
amidst His awful agony. His cruel dereliction,
prayed for His persecutors, '' for they knew not
what they did." His action is for our edification.
For us He shed His blood. For us He left that
sublime example for which the world has had no
parallel, and which alone proclaims His Divinity.
It was only a God that could die imploring pardon
for those who were putting Him to death. We
are His disciples ; let us study our model. Let
us remember that we all need mercy and the
glory of God. No one of us is without sin. '' He
is a liar and the truth is not in him, who says he is
without sin." We have offended God thousands of
times ; we can have no hope but in His mercy.
Without it, and in justice we are lost. If then,
we would obtain mercy for ourselves, let us
bestow it upon others with no parsimonious,
begrudging hand. A time will come, at the hour
of death, when we shall have need of all the mercy
which our own can now purchase for us. Let us
remember that awful moment, when, stretched on

290 THE FORGIVENESS OF INJURIES.

the bed of death, with eternity before us, and
God, the all-merciful and all-just, about to judge
us with the judgment with which we have judged,
and the mercy with which we have shown mercy,
our only hope will be His boundless mercy, His
all-forgiving goodness. Let us now forgive, if
then we would be forgiven.

THE NEW YORK

PUBLIC LIBRARY,

ASTOR, LENOX AWO
TILOEN FO-JNn.ATIONS.

THE LOVE OF JESUS IN THE BLESSED
SACRAiMENT.

When you come, therefore, together into one place, it is not
now to eat the Lord's Supper.

For every one taketh before his own supper to eat. And one
indeed is hungry, and another is drunk.

What ! have you not houses to eat and to drink in ? Or de-
spise ye the Church of God ; and put them to shame that have
not ? What shall I say to you ? Do I praise you ? In this I
praise you not.

For 1 have received of the Lord that which also I delivered
unto you, that the Lord Jesus, the same night in which He was
betrayed, took bread,

And giving thanks, broke, and said : Take ye, and eat : this
is My Body, which shall be delivered for you : this do for the
commemoration of Me.

In like manner also the chalice, after He had supped, saying :
This chalice is the new testament in My Blood : this do ye, as
often as you shall drink, for the commemoration of Me.

For as often as you shall eat this bread, and drink the chalice,
you shall shew the death of the Lord, until He come.

Therefore whosoever shall eat this bread, or drink the chalice
of the Lord unworthily, shall be guilty of the body and of the
blood of the Lord.

But let a man prove himself : and so let him eat of that bread,
and drink of the chalice.

For he that eateth and drinketh unworthily, eateth and drink-
eth judgment to himself : not discerning the body of the Lord.

Therefore are there many infirm and weak among you, and
many sleep. — St. Paul's I. Corinthians xi., 20-30.

In placing before our devout contemplation
the life, sufferings, and death of Jesus Christ, we

292 THE LOVE OF JESUS.

may with profit close our eyes to the many other
considerations which they suggest, and fix our at-
tention exclusively upon the marvellous love
which they disclose. In doing this, we cannot but
ask ourselves, wh}- God has loved us after so won-
derful a manner? He could have saved us at a
far less price. One word of His had been enough
to blot out the sins of ten thousand worlds, and
Infinite Wisdom could have found other means for
our redemption without the shedding of blood.
Why, then, did not Christ save us without this
prodigal expenditure of His blood?

It was to show us His love. Without His in-
carnation and death, we should forever have re-
mained ignorant of His love. His power we
should have beheld ; for the works that were
made from the beginning gave testimony of it.
His justice we should have felt ; but we should
never have been able to realize that God is a God
of love. So true is it that Christ became man to
manifest His love, that many Fathers of the
Church tell us that even if man had never fallen,
yet Christ would have become man as the result
of His infinite love. Why God should have
shown us so amazing a love, is, indeed, beyond
our comprehension! but we must remember He
is God : when He acts, it is in the manner of God.
We could never expect a man to make such a sac-
rifice for man : it is not in human nature. How-
ever, we must not think of God as we think of
man ; as in all things else God shows His infini-
tude, so we must expect that He will also show it
when He comes to proclaim His love.

THE LOVE OF JESUS. 293

Considering the unspeakable love of Christ in
becoming man and dying, we are not at all to be
surprised at the love which he displays in the
Sacrament of the x\ltar. On the contrary, it is
something like what we might expect. Belief in
the one leads us on, I may say, to anticipate the
other. It could never have entered the mind of
man to believe that God would become man : but
after the fact, I say that Christ's Real Presence is
only in harmony with the love of the Incarnation.
The two truths fit into each other so, that, far
from being surprised at Christ's remaining with
us, it is something like what we might expect.
Birth in a stable, finds a fitting sequel in the insti-
tution of this Divine Sacrament, in which He
gives us His body to eat and His blood to drink.
No wonder then, that, the night before He suf-
fered, He devised a means by which He would
forever abide with men to feed and nourish their
souls. He loved those of His generation, but not
more than those of all other generations. He
would not leave us bereft of His Divine Presence.

In this Sacrament, His love brings Him to the
utmost limit His power could go. One would
think that in the unutterable condescension of
His birth, and still more, in the untold agony and
sufferings of His death. He would have done
enough for man ; He would have exhausted Di-
vine love ; but no ! where we think it ought to
end, it is there that it begins ! so far are God's
ways above ours, so far greater is Divine love
than we could imagine, or have any right to ex-
pect. Not content with the love shown in His

294 THE LOVE OF JESUS.

lowly birth at Bethlehem, His illimitable love and
wisdom have established this Sacrament by which
He is given a still lowlier birth daily, in the un-
worthy hands of His priests. Not content with a
residence of thirty-three years among men, He
shows us that, indeed. His delight is to be with
them, in that He has ordained this Mystery in
which He is perpetuated for all time among
them. Not content with the all marvellous love
disclosed in the inconceivable agony of His pas-
sion, and in the excruciating torments of His
death. He has willed to die daily, in this Sacra-
ment, by the symbolical separation of His soul
and body. Theologians love to dwell upon the
thought that the Church, His mystical body, is
a continuation or extension of the Incarnation.
How much truer to believe that the Eucharist is
such a continuation, since it is His real body. For
what is the Blessed Eucharist but the perpetual
abidance of Jesus Christ upon earth? He is as
truly in the world in this Mystery, as if He had
never gone to His Heavenly Father.

As then His mortal career was drawing to a
close, as He began already to feel in His soul
the anguish of Gethsemani, as there was vividly
present to His mind the death and dereliction He
was to suffer, His divine wisdom revealed a
still more marvellous disclosure of His boundless
love, His unconquerable thirst for souls. He
then determined to remain with men, but in a dif-
ferent manner : in a manner far more transcendent
than that in which He had come into the world.
He would not only remain with men, but He

THE LOVE OF JESUS. 295

would become their food and drink, the spiritual
nourishment of their souls. Accordingly, the
niirht before He suffered lie instituted this Sacra-
ment.

It is not my purpose to expose to you the
proofs of our Lord's Real Presence. It does not
suit the occasion, — which is for devotion rather
tlian for argument. I wish to draw your atten-
tion to the wondrous, the amazing love of Jesus
Christ, in giving us His body to eat and His
blood to drink, in this stupendous Mystery.

True love always seeks to show itself in act.
What we do, is the expression and measure of our
love. When we love anyone we long to manifest
it to him. Love diffuses itself between the loving
and the loved. It reveals itself in the perform-
ance of kind deeds, in the expression of good-will,
in supplying, in anticipation, that which we be-
lieve will be agreeable to him whom we love.
Sometimes it may be that love is expressed by the
performance of only some trifling favor; but that
is because circumstances do not allow of our ex-
hibiting it in a more marked manner. When
it is in our power, if we fail to render signal
service to Him whom we profess to love, our love
is not worthy the name : it is not true love. Do-
ing for another all that he desires, and even more,
is the test and measure of our love. In propor-
tion as we do this, do we love. When we are
loved by one possessing great resources, we ex-
pect great favors from him. If he loves us ar-
dently, he will show his love in a generous, munifi-
cent way. If we are loved by a prince or a king,

296 THE LOVE OF JESUS.

we expect it to be shown in a princely or kingly
manner. If we should be loved by God, we
would expect it to be shown in a God-like man-
ner. As His love would incomparably surpass
that of creatures, so the manifestation of this love
should as far surpass any human exhibition of
love, as God's resources and power are greater
than those of creatures.

In this great Mystery, Almighty God suspends
the laws of nature : He does violence to His own
creatures, by performing a series of the rnost re-
splendent miracles, any one of which is far
greater than any elsewhere known to us. St.
Thomas calls it, ''The compendium of all mira-
cles." It is assuredly God's greatest work:
greater far than the mystery of Creation, or that
of the Incarnation. It is miraculous that the
bread and wine are changed into the Body and
Blood of Christ: miraculous that the Body of
Christ is found, not only under the form of bread,
but also under that of wine : that the Blood of
Christ is found, not only under the form of wine,
but likewise under that of bread : miraculous
that the Soul of Christ is present under each
form : miraculous that the Divinity of Christ, for-
ever and indissolubly united to His Body, is pres-
ent under each form : miraculous that One and
the Same Body is present in all the hosts through-
out the world, and in every particle of the host,
at least when divided : miraculous that being His
Real Body, and therefore material, It is endowed
with a spiritual mode of existence: miraculous in
that It has no extension : miraculous in that It

THE LOVE OF JESUS. 297

is insensible and impalpable : miraculous in that
the appearances of bread and wine remain sub-
sisting detached from their substances, and yet en-
dowed with all the force of substances, and sub-
ject to all the vicissitudes of substances.

Here, then, is a series of the most prodigious,
the most resplendent miracles, far eclipsing in
splendor all the other miracles which God has
w^rought. Great thing it was that God conde-
scended to create the world ; greater, that He
made man to enjoy and rule over it ; greater
still, that when man had fallen, He brought Him-
self to the amazing condescension of becoming
Man for his redemption: but infinitely beyond
compare with these mysteries, is this, in which
we receive God Himself: the Omnipotent Crea-
tor, the Sanctifier of souls, the very Body that He
took when He became Man, united with His Di-
vine Personality. This Mystery contains all the
excellences of those three mysteries. It is their
crown and complement. It is the extension and
fulfilment of the love and wisdom begun in the
act of creating the world.

The production of Christ's Body in the Euchar-
ist as far transcends the creation of the world, as
the Body of Christ is more precious than the
w^orld. It as far surpasses the graces conferred
on man for his restoration, as the source of graces
transcends the graces it bestows; as the sun is
greater than the ra3'S it diffuses. It so far sur-
passes the Incarnation, as in the Incarnation
Christ became man but once : in this Mystery He
is daily, hourly incarnated ; and as it is itself only

298 THE LOVE OF JESUS.

an extension of the Incarnation, made more glori-
ous, by the addition of all those surpassing mira-
cles, which His Sacramental Presence necessarily
supposes.

If God were to create ten thousand worlds, in-
finitely more perfect than this, He would not do
as much for us as He has done in this Mystery of
inexplicable love. Why has He done so much
for us? To manifest to us His love. Love is to
be measured by what it does. What, then, must
be the immensity of Christ's love for man, which
has moved Him to perform all those wonders
which I have just endeavored faintly to narrate?
How can we begin to understand the munifi-
cence, the exuberance of Divine love ? Who can
tell why God should love us with such a pro-
fusion, such a prodigality of love ?

What are we to say of the awful self-abasement
of our Lord in this Mystery ? How are we to be-
gin to understand the unutterable humiliation
which He suffers in this Sacrament ? Does it not
stagger credibility that God, the Maker and
Lord of all things, the Omnipotent, the Omnis-
cient, the Eternal, should come into this world,
and put Himself under the form of bread and
wine, in order to become the nourishment of our
souls and the pledge of their immortality ? Yet,
it is true. Out of sheer love He strips Himself
of His glory, relinquishes His throne at the right
hand of His Father, and in a manner, annihilates
Himself. If, as the Apostle says, " Being made
man He humbled Himself to the condition of a
servant, and became obedient even unto the

THE LOVE OF JESUS. 299

death of the cross," what are we to think of His
amazing condescension in becoming our food and
drink ? Great as was Christ's humiliation in His
incarnation, immeasurably greater is it in this
Sacrament. In becoming man, inconceivably
lowering as it was of Himself, yet after all, it was
taking upon Him the nature of the noblest of
His beings, the greatest work of His hands, in
the natural order. He had the stature and form
of a man and accommodated Himself to the cir-
cumstances and needs of a man. But in this
Mystery, He takes upon Him the form of the
commonest elements, than which, we are more
familiar with nothing. In it, although the parts
of the body are truly present and not at all con-
fused, yet they observe not the order in place
which belongs to other bodies ; wherefore He is
neither visible nor palpable ; discernible alone by
the sense of hearing through the word of faith ;
wanting in all the appearances, yet endowed with
every attribute and faculty and sense, of a hu-
man person. " My substance is as nothing be-
fore you." He is reduced as it were to nothing.
In the Incarnation His humiliation was but once ;
but here it is daily, never ceasing; there He
was born of the chaste womb of an Immaculate
Mother; here He is born daily, hourly, in the un-
worthy hands of His priests ; abandoned in the
tabernacle, exposed to insult and profanation,
continually entering into sinful hearts: hearts
filled with hatred, envy, impurity; sacrilegious
hearts, — hearts seething in crime, black with a
perfidy worse than Judaical.

300 THE LOVE OF JESUS.

He is, indeed, a God humiliated, hidden,
stripped of every vestige of His glory, " trem-
bling, as it were, on the confines of annihilation."
Yet, all humbled as He is in this Mystery, He
proclaims to us the dimensions of His love : its
height, its depth, its breadth. The depth of His
humiliation is the depth of His love. The more
He has humbled Himself, the more He deserves
our love. We must raise our hearts high in
order to love Him above all things. Do our best,
we can never love Him as He has loved us. He
does not expect it, we cannot hope for it ; yet we
are not exempted from loving Him as much as
we are able ; to the utmost limit of our capacity.
Love is to be repaid with love. We can testify
our love only by our actions. Let us love, not in
word, but in truth and by work. If He has done
so much for us, what ought we not to do for Him ?
What poorer, and yet, what greater return is it in
our power to make, than to pass our lives in the
service of Him Who has loved us with so marvel-
lous a love : always testing our love by the rule
He Himself has given us : '' If thou lovest Me,
keep My Commandments."

What is there that Jesus does not give us in
this Divine Sacrament? What more can He give
us than Himself ! His Sacred Body ! His Pre-
cious Blood! His Whole Being ! God and Man
indissolubly and forever united ! What is there
more precious in heaven or on earth than the
Body of Christ ? Would you prefer some great
grace? But He gives the very source and foun-
tain of all grace! Would you prefer some

THE LOVE OF JESUS. 301

earthly gift? But He gives us the very excel-
lence and beauty that you prize in such a gift !
The beauty, goodness, loveliness, and all other
perfections that you admire in the works of God,
must be contained in their fulness in Himself, the
Maker and Model of all things. St. Augustine
says that : '' Christ in giving us His body has ex-
hausted His love." He can go no farther. Even
God, infinite in wisdom, could do no more, to
manifest to us His love. He has placed a limit
to His power : inexhaustible. He has drained it,
as it were, to the last drop.

Love seeks for union, delisfhts in the converse
of the object of its love. What union closer
could Christ have devised, than that in which we
abide in Him and He in us? By that chemical
combination which subsists between the body
and its nourishment, food becomes one with the
body, becomes the body. Christ in this Sacra-
ment is made one with us, and changes not Him-
self into us, but changes us into Himself. For
this celestial food, while its union with our body
is as close as the union of corporeal food ; yet,
over such food possesses this wonderful excel-
lence, that we who are nourished by it are
changed into it : transformed into Christ. *' He
that eateth My flesh and drinketh My blood,
abideth in Me and I in him." ''Unless you eat
the flesh and drink the blood of the Son of man,
you shall not have life in you. He that eateth
My flesh and drinketh My blood hath everlasting
life, and I will raise him up on the last day. For
My flesh is meat indeed and My blood is drink

302 THE LOVE OF JESUS.

indeed." " As the living Father hath sent Me,
and I live by the Father, so he that eateth Me,
the same shall live by Me. This is the bread
that cometh down from heaven ; not as your
Fathers did eat manna, and are dead ; he that
eateth of this bread, shall live forever." Thus we
see that Christ is incorporated into us by the
closest possible of unions. In the Incarnation,
Christ had indeed by the most marvellous and un-
speakable of all unions, united Himself to our
humanity. We can only fall down and adore,
when we are told that God has stooped to our
nature and united it to His own by His Divine
Personality. In this union effected at His incar-
nation, it is God Who comes down to us and be-
comes our brother in the flesh ; but in the Holy
Eucharist we are lifted above our proper condi-
tion, we are placed even above the angelic, and
are made partakers of Christ's Divinity; and hu-
man nature is exalted to the highest pitch of
glory, by its union with the God-head.

But you will remind me, perhaps, that I have
said that this Sacrament changes the receiver into
Christ; aud you will ask, how is it then that
Catholics, being so much like other people, give
so little evidence of this union?

But, to answer this question, let me ask of what
Catholics do you speak? Of those, doubtless,
who seldom or never receive this life-giving food.
What wonder that it has no effect upon them who
never receive it ; being like the rest of men, and
never receiving this food, only proves what I say :
they are like them because they do not receive

THE LOVE OF JESUS. 303

it. How can it affect those Catholic men who
never come to Communion, or, at most, come once
or twice a year, through custom, human respect,
or to put an end to the solicitation of their wives,
and who have no appetite, no hunger or thirst
for it ? Even ordinary food taken without desire
or appetite is useless. So it is with this food, it
must be received with a longing, an earnestness,
a greed.

Look at the devout frequent communicant and
see the wondrous effects it produces in his soul !
See how seldom such persons stain their souls
with mortal sin and how frequently they are free
from even venial ! See how lust is quenched in
the soul by this wine that germinates in virgins !
How the heat of all passions is cooled by the
heavenly dew that falls from this celestial food
upon the soul ! See how it increases it in detach-
ment from the world and unites it closer in union
with God! How it reconciles itself with the
crosses of life, and in all things conforms itself to
the will of God ! See how the conviction of the
shortness of time, the emptiness of life, the all
importance of the great hereafter, grows upon
and sinks deep into that soul, giving a char-
acter, and a shape to all its being and actions !
See, in one word, how frequent and fervent Com-
munion transforms the soul, until as far as human
imperfection and our condition here below per-
mit, it becomes true to say that it is no longer
the man that lives, but Christ that lives in him!

Could Divine love go farther? Could Divine
wisdom devise any means by which He would

304 THE LOVE OF JESUS.

be more intimately and absolutely ours than He
is in this Sacrament ? Love is lavish and prodigal
of itself ; but it is only the love of God that can
go the length that Jesus does in this Mystery.
" With desire have I desired to eat this Pasch
with you." With vehemence, with burning ar-
dor, with anxious longing did He desire to eat
this Pasch, to give us His body to eat and His
blood to drink. During the years of His in-
fancy, during the labors and privations of His
manhood, during the fastings and prayers and
other works of His three years' missionary life,
during the bitter sufferings of His passion endured
in anticipation, with Gethsemane and Calvary
always present before Him ; during all this and
in spite of all this, did He yearn to eat the Pasch
with them that He might give to men the last
and greatest pledge of His love.

In the manner of giving, in the ease with which
we can all partake in this Divine Banquet, we see,
too, the marvels of His love. He gives Himself
most absolutely : becomes our daily bread, places
Himself under the most ordinary elements, im-
parts to an untold number of priests the power of
consecrating His body. Great mercy and love
it had been, had He but given this transcendent
power to one, and that, only at stated times;
even as it was permitted of old to enter the Holy
of Holies but once a year ; and if the material of
which the Sacrament would be wrought should
be the rarest and most precious. But no ; He
wishes to be the food and nourishment of every
man who is born into the world ! hence the mat-

THE LOVE OF JESUS. 305

ter must be the most easily obtainable, ten thou-
sand altars must witness unto the awful sacrifice —
'' the clean oblation that is offered to His name,
from the rising to the setting sun," an uncounted
number of priests, good, bad, and indifferent, must
possess a power denied even to the angels : the
sublime power of consecrating the Body of God.
and distributing It to His faithful. — All this be-
cause He is to be our food, the nourishment of
our souls, even as corporeal food is that of our
bodies. As without such food we would languish
and die, so without this spiritual food, the spirit-
ual life of our souls would run out and finally be
extinguished. " Unless you eat the flesh of the
Son of man, and drink His blood, you shall not
have life in you. He who eateth My flesh, and
drinketh My blood, hath everlasting life : and I
will raise him up on the last day. For My flesh
is true food, and My blood is true drink. He
who eateth My flesh, and drinketh My blood,
abideth in Me, and I in him. As the Father Who
liveth sent Me, and I live by the Father, so he
that eateth Me, the same also shall live by Me.
This is the bread which came down from heaven.
Not as your fathers ate the manna, and died.
He who eateth this bread, shall live forever."
Where is our gratitude to repay all the riches of
the love poured out so profusely in this Sacra-
ment ! Truly '' His delight is to be with the sons
of men."

We see, too, the insatiable love of Jesus in
giving us this Sacrament w^hen we call to mind
the circumstances under which it was instituted,
20

306 THE LOVE OF JESUS.

and the sin and sacrilege which He foresaw would
be forever inseparable from His Real Presence on
our altars. He gave it to us on the very eve of
His passion, — a time when, considering the in-
gratitude that was shown Him, and the ignomini-
ous suffering and death He was about to undergo.
He would have been well justified in denying to
us this design of His mercy. It was the day- be-
fore He suffered, the very night of His agony, in
the garden of Gethsemane : His death and dere-
liction was vividly before His mind : He was
about to be betrayed and abandoned by His dis-
ciples : Judas had but just dipped his hand in the
dish, the sign of him who was to betray his Mas-
ter. Peter who had sworn that he would never
deny Him, was soon to foreswear Him thrice at
the voice of a maid-servant. All the apostles
were about to flee at the approach of the soldiers
sent from the High Priest : Peter and James
would alone remain, and they w^ould not be able
to watch even one hour with Him. The people
for whom He had done so many good works,
whose friend He had ever shown Himself, are.
about to rise against Him and demand His blood,
with the curse of it upon their heads and their
children's ; the priests whose ordinances ** He
had not come to destroy, but to fulfil," are ac-
tively engaged in compassing His death ; and for
this purpose are soliciting false witnesses. Yet,
it is in the midst of this ingratitude, — this base,
this black ingratitude, this perfidy worse than
satanical, that Jesus Christ bestows upon men His
divinest gift ! His Body and Blood ! the earnest

THE LOVE OF JESUS. 30/

and assurance of their immortality ! Man nor
angel can fathom the wondrous depth of such
love ! We are surprised, amazed at it ; but com-
prehend it, we cannot ; reciprocate it fully, we
never can !

Nor was He deterred from His purpose of love
by the foreknowledge, which He alwa3's had-, of
what He would have to suffer in this Sacrament.
There was present to His divine foi'esight the fut-
ure of His Church. He saw that the unbelief of
men would surpass His love ; that His very love
would be to many a rock of scandal : that there
would be men to call in question His Real Pres-
ence ; that there would always be some to say with
the Jews, *' How can this man give us His flesh to
eat? or with the disciples, *'This is a hard saying,
and who can hear it ; " that men's incredulity would
seek to explain away the clear and unequivocal
words by which He established it. He knew, too,
that even man}^ of those who Avould believe in His
Real Presence, would have but a theoretical
faith, — a faith which would not dare to doubt its
truth, but yet would fail to realize it : which
would not penetrate the veils of His Sacramental
Presence and bring it home to the mind and
heart with the eyes of faith as a living reality,
this abidance of God with men ; that they would
regard His dwelling among them, if not with
aversion, with at least coldness and indifference ;
that if they received Him at all, it would be with
tepidity ; that it would require the threats and
anathemas of the Church to force men to partake
of this Sacrament, the nourishment of their souls,

3o8 THE LOVE OF JESUS.

the energy of a future resurrection, the pledge of
a glorious immortality.

No, this dreary, this chilling prospect of cold-
ness, of ingratitude, of unbelief, was not enough
to deter Him from becoming our food and suste-
nance. He would win us, draw us to His love.
He would melt our frozen hearts with His burn-
ing love. He would expose Himself to profanity,
contumely, unbelief, sacrilege even, for our love.
Nothing could deter Him, nothing could intimi-
date Him ; He seems to court them for our sakes.
To abandon Himself to such evils, to subject
Himself to such indignities, to suffer all this and
more that I have not dared to express, — does it
not show an all consuming thirst for the souls of
the children of men ? Who will measure the
height and depth and breadth of such love ?
Should we not exclaim with St. Paul, '* Who then
shall separate us from the love of Christ? tribu-
lation? or distress ? or famine ? or nakedness? or
danger? or persecution? or the sword? For I
am sure that neither death, nor life, nor angels,
nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present,
nor things to come, nor might, nor height, nor
depth nor any other creature shall be able to
separate us from the love of God, which is in
Christ Jesus our Lord."

We cannot begin to fathom the depth of the
Divine love displayed in this wonderful mystery.
We can only say that God is infinite, infinite in
all His attributes : infinite therefore in His love.
Nor man nor angel can compass the love of
Jesus. For the preacher to attempt to describe

THE LOVE OF JESUS. 309

it would be to collect the waters of the ocean in
his palm ; would be as a child lisping its first ac-
cents, or writing its first letters in the sand. We
have read of the marvels of a mother's love : our
hearts have melted with compassion as we learned
of the heroic acts of self-denial and self-sacrifice,
even unto the shedding of blood, which loving
mothers have so often endured for the children
of their womb. We have heard, too, of the
power of pure human love : the noblest traits of
our nature have come to light under the influence
of this strongest and noblest of passions. We
are overcome at the impetuosity of the love that
filled the hearts of the martyrs and nerved them
to face death in its most dreadful forms. We
contemplate with emotion the sublime deeds of
Christian heroism which history records : of St.
Paul wishing himself an anathema from Christ for
the love of his fellow-men ; of St. Vincent de Paul
selling himself into captivity to redeem a captive ;
but these and all other instances of love, — of the
sublimest, most disinterested love, fail to give us
any idea of the love of Jesus in giving His body
to eat and His blood to drink. Not the maternal
love of the parent, not the loftiest transports of
pure human love ; not the unconquerable love of
the martyrs, not the divinest form of heaven-born
Christian charity in saint or martyr, which noth-
ing but the love of God could inspire, can con-
vey to the mind the faintest image of the amaz-
ing, unutterable love of Christ in this Greatest of
all mysteries.

It was then to overcome us by His goodness

3IO THE LOVE OF JESUS.

that Christ came into the world. We have but a
faint idea of what goodness is. We understand
it in the abstract ; in the concrete we experience
and see but little of it. It is the greatest attribute
of God, as it is of man. In proportion as men are
possessed of it, do they resemble God : goodness
in the human soul is the reflection and emanation
of God Himself. It is His impelling motive in
all that He has done outside of Himself. Crea-
tion, Redemption, the Holy Eucharist, — all His
works find their motive in His goodness. God
wanted creatures for no other purpose than to
make them sharers of His goodness and witnesses
of His glory.

Jesus Christ reall}^ present in this Sacrament is,
indeed, the soul of the Church, and the continual
Sacrifice of propitiation between the uplifted
anger of God and the sins of men. Remove it,
and the Church at once is, what the world would
be, if you were to blot out the sun in heaven;
and the anger of God at once falls upon the
children of men : you would undo the work of
Redemption carried on by the Church, and para-
1} ze all the energies set in motion and sustained
by the Holy Ghost dwelling within her for the
salvation and sanctification of souls. Belief in
this Mystery is a foretaste of the happiness of
heaven ; it fills even the material temple with
something of heaven's majesty. It is this most
consoling of truths, which, letting down heaven
to earth, gives perseverance to the contemplative
to pass his life before this God to the senses hid-
den, but to the liirht of faith made manifest.

THE LOVE OF JESUS. 31I

From it flows the martyr's constancy, the virgin's
chastity, the missionary's courage to leave father
and mother and sister and brother and all things
else, to spend his life and shed his blood for those
for whom Christ did not hesitate to die. In this
Sacrament Christ is not only the life of the
Church, but the life of each individual soul ; its
daily supersubstantial bread. Honor then and
love to Jesus in this Mystery of invincible and
unutterable love.

The saints who now see Him face to face, were
once compelled to worship him as'we do now :
as a hidden God : by their fervent faith, their
ardent hope, their burning charity. If we would
one day behold Him as they do now, we must be
content during our mortal pilgrimage to worship
Him as they did, by an unshaken faith that will
realize His presence, an assured hope that will
know no faltering, and an undying love which
will stop at no sacrifice that His honor and glory
may demand.

And having thus known Him in His Sacramen-
tal Presence here on earth, we shall come to en-
joy His Manifested Presence ; and to see Him
face to face in heaven where we shall forever be
partakers in the love and adoration of the Blessed
Spirits whom St. John saw serving night and day
before the Throne of the Lamb Who was slain ;
to Whom be all praise, and honor, and glory, and
power, forever and ever. Amen.

j-xjy: P4t.W YORK

PUBLIC LIBRARY,

ASTOf^. LENOX AWO

TILOEN FOUN.'.'

NECESSITY OF A TEACHER IN
RELIGION.

Now an Angel of the Lord spoke to Philip, saying : Arise, go
towards the south, to the way that goeth down from Jerusalem
into Gaza : this is desert.

And rising up, he went. And behold a man of Ethiopia, an
eunuch, of great authority under Candace the queen of the Ethio-
pians, who had charge over all her treasures,, had come to Jeru-
salem to adore.

And he was returning, sitting in his chariot, and reading
Isaias the prophet ;

And the Spirit said to Philip : Go near, and join thyself to this
chariot.

And Philip running thither, heard him reading the prophet
Isaias. And he said: Thinkest thou that thou understandest
what thou readest ?

Who said : And how can I, unless some man show me.'* And
he desired Philip that he would come up and sit with him. —
Acts of the Apostles viii. 26-31.

We have the same need of a teacher to-day as
the eunuch had who could not understand " un-
less someone showed him." Widespread igno-
rance of religious truth and obstinate unbelief are
as common in many places to-day as they were at
the time mentioned in the Acts. However, we
have a teacher at hand : Jesus to-day teaches from
the See of St. Peter as truly as He formerly
taught the Jews during His life. Let us beware

314 NECESSITY OF A TEACHER IN RELIGION.

lest we show ourselves as slow to understand and
believe as they did.

One of the principal characteristics of our age,
and more particularly of our own country, is
every one's self-sufficiency. It shows itself in
every-day life, in business affairs, in literary pur-
suits ; it extends itself even to religion : reason is
his only guide in these things which, from their
very nature, are above its power. He is impa-
tient of all restraint ; he cannot endure the idea
of authority. This is no doubt owing to the in-
fluence of our institutions ; but its principal source
is to be traced to the influence of Protestantism,
to the pride of the human heart rising in rebellion
against the divinely established authority of the
Church.

No sect has maintained with greater fidelity,
and with greater pertinacity, the proper office
of reason, than the Catholic Church. Knowing
it to be the gift, the work of God ; recognizing in
it the relative perfection to be found in all His
works, she has ever sought to maintain for it its
rightful dignity ; not overrating its importance,
nor elevating its scope beyond that for which it
was designed ; nor degrading it below its true
rank, its due province. While Protestantism has
at one time exaggerated its office in religion and
at another has degraded it, the Catholic Church
has ever assigned to it its definite well-fixed limits.
She claims that it is the prelude to faith ; its office
is to consider the extrinsic motives of religion, to
determine the fact of a Revelation, and who are
its divinely appointed custodians and teachers ;

NECESSITY OF A TEACHER IN RELIGION. 315

to lead US to, not to invade, the sanctuary. She
maintains that any apparent contradiction be-
tween it and the truths revealed, is but apparent,
not real ; that it arises not from these truths being
opposed to reason, but from being above and be-
yond the ken and scope of reason. Reason and
Revelation have both the same author; therefore,
there can be no contradiction in His works.
Hence, we should not seek to test the reasonable-
ness of what God teaches, for we know before-
hand that it is reasonable and must be reason-
able. She claims that reason is not a sufficient
guide in matters of religion, that it is insufficient
to discover any save a few of the elemental truths
of religion : it must be assisted by a divine
teacher : its horizon should blend into and form
one with the horizon of Revelation, by which it is
to be elevated, illuminated, and strengthened.

Faith is a Divine virtue which inclines the mind
to assent to a doctrine as true, which we do not
see, which we cannot prove ; because God, who
cannot lie, says it is true. And since God does
not in person propose to us the truths to be be-
lieved, but commissions His Church to do so,
faith is exercised when we believe in the teach-
ings of the Church, because she is God's authority
or messenger upon earth.

Faith is one of the theological virtues. It is a
gift of God. Without His grace we would be
unable to elicit an act of faith. " It is the begin-
ning, the root, the foundation of justification."
" Without faith it is impossible to please God."
As without it, we cannot be saved, God grants it

3l6 NECESSITY OF A TEACHER IN RELIGION.

to all who seek for it with humble and docile
hearts. It is an act not merely of the intellect,
nor merely of the will ; it is the act of both. The
will, moved and directed by grace, inclines the
intellect to accept the truth of what is proposed :
not because of its intrinsic credibility, but be-
cause of the authority and truth of God, Who can
neither deceive nor be deceived.

The holy virtue of which we speak is not opin-
ion. Opinion is the result of doubt: but faith is
immeasurably removed from all doubt. We do
not think or opine the truths of revelation to be
true ; in that there would be no real faith ; we are
certain of their truth with a certainty greater than
that of any human demonstration. The certainty
of the truth of faith is the certainty of the truth
of God.

Nor is faith to be confounded with conviction.
Conviction is the result of argument and of in-
vestigation. But faith is the result of the unerring
word of God. We may be convinced of the truth
of a doctrine, and yet not believe it. We often
know what we ought to do, and yet we fail to do
it. Many are convinced that the Catholic Church
IS the true one ; and yet they do not believe in it.
Such people need, and must pray for, grace to
move their will.

Faith from its nature is entire in its scope. It
is the authority of God that induces us to accept
any truth revealed ; we have the same authority
for all. To believe part and reject part is fatal to
the very conception of faith. He who would re-
ject one truth, and believe another, would do so

NECESSITY OF A TEACHER IN RELIGION. 317

because the one would have for him some intrin-
sic credibility which would be wanting to the
other. The word of God, pledged for the truth
of both, would not be sufficient for him ; hence,
he would make shipwreck of his faith.

Faith being the acceptance by the heart and soul
and mind of whatever God reveals because of His
truth and authority, is necessarily the firmest of
assents. It is most decided, positive, immovable
in its nature; it admits of no doubt; it is shaken
by no difficulty ; it is the result of no demonstra-
tion. It is founded on the word of God ; the
same yesterday, to-day, and forever. No possible
difficulties, however great or numerous, though
they seem to our minds to possess an overwhelm-
ing force, can dislodge or disturb it. They may
be explained away, or given up as inexplicable ;
but faith, having its everlasting foundation in the
truth of God, remains forever. Thus we see what
faith is, and its constituent elements. The act of
the mind by which we accept and believe the
truth revealed, is the act of faith ; the object of
faith is what is revealed ; the motive that leads us
to believe, is the authority and truth of God.

Human society could not exist without what
may be called natural faith. No one is sufficient
for himself. We must believe one another in
many things which we are not able, and have
not the time, to investigate for ourselves. The
scholar must believe his master. He cannot test
for himself the accuracy of his master's teaching.
The, scientist cannot investigate every branch of
knowledge. If he would advance in knowledge,

3l8 NECESSITY OF A TEACHER IN RELIGION.

he must rely for much on the authority of those
who have gone before him. Every man even
unconsciously exercises this natural faith. We
believe the world is round, we believe in
the discoveries of astronomy, we believe that
China exists; who knows those things from his
own personal experience? No one can examine
everything for himself, and no one will think of
doubting anything simply because he himself has
not examined it. Human society would be dis-
solved without faith: knowledge could never
progress, the relations of men would cease, com-
.merce could not be thought of, the most ordinary
and necessary duties of every-day life would be
impossible. If, now, faith is necessary in the
affairs of this life, how much more so in the affairs
of the life to come? If we have not the time and
ability to investigate for ourselves matters of this
life, which fall under our senses and are within the
scope of our reason, how much less competent are
we to investigate, for ourselves, the eternal truths,
which are so far removed from our senses, and
which so immeasurably transcend the power of
our reason? If we must accept the authority of
others for what we are so familiar with, how rea-
sonable that we should accept the authority of
God for the impenetrable mysteries of religion,
that are infinitdy beyond the grasp of our finite
comprehension.

The necessity of faith is shown, too, from the
waywardness of our reason. Reason infallible in
itself, is anything but infallible in man, — subject as
he is to passion, blinded by prejudice, misled b}^

NECESSITY OF A TEACHER IX RELIGION. 319

his feelings, prone to error. Consider how few
subjects there are either in politics, or science, or
literature, or art, in which there are not the most
opposite views. How little of unanimity there is
on any of these things on which we should natu-
rally expect the greatest accord. See, too, the per-
sistency, the stubbornness with which men main-
tain their conflicting opinions on these subjects.
See the wild, lamentable antagonism continually
raging in the world of politics. See the untiring
energy, the fearful pertinacity exhibited by polit-
ical factions in the espousal of their respective
views. See how nations will go to war and shed ,
the blood of millions of their subjects, and ex-
haust millions of their wealth, to maintain some
opinion or to defend some theory. History is
but a record of battles lost and won, — battles
brought on by the perversity of human reason.
The most powerful nations, the most enlightened
peoples of the world have shed blood in torrents,
for the assertion of some theory or principle to
which all could not, or would not subscribe. If,
now, in science, in politics, in matters with which
we are familiar, which are, so to speak, on a level
with reason, there exists so mighty, so stubborn a
conflict of opinion, how can we expect unanimity
on subjects religious, and so far above us, so little
within the domain of reason ? If we cannot agree
in our opinion of a book, or on a point of science,
or on a principle of politics, or on a theory of
government ; what hope can there be that men
will agree on matters that so far transcend the in-
tellect of man, as the truths and mysteries of Rev-

320 NECESSITY OF A TEACHER IN RELIGION.

elation ? Here we see that reason is inadequate
to interpret and preserve the truths of Revela-
tion, even when revealed. Some teacher divinely
taught, and capable of exacting faith in his teach-
ings, is a necessary part of Revelation : without it,
Revelation would be incomplete ; without it. Reve-
lation would not accomplish the end for which it
was vouchsafed. To those who have substituted
reason or private judgment, for the living voice
of a Divine teacher, nothing remains of the Reve-
lation of Christ save fragments and rationalism ;
they are even drifting into Atheism. Such is the
fatal, undermining process when reason assumes
wanton, unrestrained license with supernatural
truth. All this shows the need of Divine Faith
to guide human reason, even after Revelation has
been disclosed to men.

Faith and reason are both gifts of God. Faith
perfects reason, and introduces it to a knowledge
of truths which of itself it could never reach. It
is an act of the highest reason to yield to faith
and to accept its teachings. It is the very genius
of reason to pay to God the homage of our un-
derstanding, and to believe, on His authority,
what we cannot comprehend.

While then there should be no opposition be-
tween reason, which discovers truths of the nat-
ural order, and faith, which accepts the supernat-
ural truths disclosed by Divine Revelation, yet, as
reason is obscured and perverse in fallen man,
there is deadly conflict between them. Its nat-
ural proneness is to doubt and scepticism ; nor
can it be otherwise, when, forgetting its proper

NECESSITY OF A TEACHER IN RELIGION. 32 1

office, it dares to scrutinize the intrinsic nature
of supernatural truth. This tendency is all the
greater when revealed truth seems to contradict
its light and dictates. Hence, when Revelation
came into the world, reason at once assailed it.
Philosophy and heresy have always sought to
quench its Divine light. Every point of Revela-
tion has in turn been subjected to the scrutiny of
unregenerate reason. It has only been by the
Divine, infallible authority of the Church, exact-
ing an immediate and unflinching faith, that Rev-
elation has been preserved in its original purity
and integrity. Nothing short of such authority
is equal to the task of repressing the inherent and
irresistible tendency of reason to doubt and unbe-
lief. Faith, then, is necessary to protect Revela-
tion from the assaults of reason.

Nor can it be said that the Spirit of truth will
illuminate the mind of the reader of Holy Script-
ure so as to teach him its true meaning. The
Holy Ghost cannot teach contradictions. Con-
sider how the Word of God is read and under-
stood by private judgment, and you will see that
God could have never intended private judg-
ment as a standard or rule of faith. Some rely-
ing on private judgment in their interpretation,
think that the Holy Scriptures do not warrant
the belief, the most fundamental of the Chris-
tian Faith and received by all who have any
claim to orthodoxy, that there are Three Persons
in One God. The very corner-stone of Chris-
tianity, and the very soul of the Mystery of Re-
demption, is that Jesus Christ was true God

322 NECESSITY OF A TEACHER IN RELIGION.

and true Man, and that He offered Himself as the
divinely appointed Victim and Atonement for our
sins and salvation. Many while believing in the
Word of God, yet interpreting it by the light of
their private judgment, claim that it contains no
proof of His divinity, nor of any redemption or sal-
vation wrought for us by His sufferings and blood.
All Catholics, not to speak of others in heresy or
schism, believe that the words by which Our
Lord instituted the Eucharistic Sacrifice evidently
express the Real Presence of His body and blood :
others who claim to be no less but even more
His faithful followers, teach that such an under-
standing of His words is absurd and idolatrous ;
a manifest perversion of what was obviously a
symbol or figure. Can, then, God, Who came to
teach us the truth, to reclaim us from error. Who
willed that there should be but One Faith, as
there was but One Lord and One Baptism, have
given us as the foundation and rule of our faith,
and for our guidance in the all-important matter
of our eternal salvation, a principle so fatal to
truth, so fruitful of contradictions and error, so
subversive of the very foundations of Christianity !
But let us see if they who object to belief in
mysteries, do not believe in mysteries themselves:
nay, in mysteries far greater than we are called
upon to believe, and let us ask if they find any-
thing unreasonable in so doing. The man who
objects to faith in things incomprehensible is
either an infidel or a Protestant. If the former,
he believes that God created the world ; let him
explain how God could, by a single word, or by

NECESSITY OF A TEACHER IN RELIGION. 323

any other way, bring- forth from nothing the im-
mense and marvellous universe of which this our
world is but an atom. Yet, perhaps, he will deny
that God created it at all. How then came it to
exist ? How could the world exist and have no
cause ? It could not cause itself ; it cannot have
existed from everlasting. Who could explain the
absurdities and mysteries inseparable from the
idea of an everlasting world? What mind could
reconcile the contradictions involved in the
thought of making God and the world identical ?
Let then the infidel explain these mysteries of
which that of creation is but one, which he him-
self never thinks of doubting, before he carps at
the mysteries of the Christian Religion. He be-
lieves mysteries far greater than any which we
Catholics are called upon to believe.

But the Protestant scoffs at Catholic Mysteries,
while he himself believes implicitly mysteries
harder to be believed than any the Church proposes.
He believes in the Trinity ; let him explain how
God can be Three in One. He believes in the In-
carnation ; let him explain the unfathomable mys-
tery in the thought of God becoming Man. He
believes in the transmission of original sin ; let
him explain the manner in which this sin is dif-
fused, and let him show the justice which decrees
that the child inherits the sin committed before it
was born, and in which it could have had no per-
sonal participation. Does the Church call upon
us to believe mysteries greater than these ? They
scoff at the thought of God being confined in a
little tabernacle. If they lived in the time of

324 NECESSITY OF A TEACHER IN RELIGION.

Christ, they would have derided the thought ot
God being- born in a stable. They would not have
been of the number of the wise men who followed
the star till it led them to find their Redeemer,
lying in a manger, with an ox and an ass for
His companions. They talk of the irreverence to
which He is liable in the Divine Sacrament. Are
they forgetful of the insults which in the flesh He
suffered from His creatures? Do they forget the
details of the Passion? the mockery, the haling
to and fro, how He was spit upon, crowned with
thorns, made a fool of, done even unto death, by
those for Avhom He shed His blood ? His blood
may be spilled,' they say, in this Sacrament. But
was it not spilled'on the Cross? Is it exposed to
any profanation greater than that which it suf-
fered on the way to the hill of Calvary ? They
who are scandalized or astonished at the sacri-
leges to which the Body of Christ is exposed, in
the belief of His Real Presence, — if they had been
present on the day of the Crucifixion and followed
the Saviour through His bloody journey, might
have seen even the streets of Jerusalem reddened
with His sacred blood, as it fell from His torn
and mangled body ! And yet even this did not
hinder Him from consummating the great Sacrifice
which He had come into the world to make, nor
extinguish the love which filled His heart. What
incongruity, then, in believing that, for the same
love. He has placed Himself in this Sacrament,
and again exposed Himself to ignominy, outrage,
sacrilege? — that He is willing to enter into
hearts filled with hatred, anger, black with per-

NECESSITY OF A TEACHER IN RELIGION. 325

fidy ? — that He is willing to suffer the passion
even all over again for our sakes ?

I have explained to you the nature and neces-
sity of Divine Faith. Now the question offers it-
self : What are we to believe ? The answer is :
All that God has revealed. But how are we to
know what He has revealed ? Has He estab-
lished any means by which we may learn it ? As
it has pleased God to exact from man belief in
truths far beyond the reach of the human mind, it
was necessary that He should establish some au-
thority by which the fact of Revelation might
be unerringly determined ; by which its sense
might be infallibly known ; by which its integrity
and purity might be forever preserved. Such an
authority has God, in His wisdom, given to us in
the Church which He has set up on earth, and
made the depositary and guardian and teacher
of His Revelation. This Church endowed with
'inerranc}^ promised the perpetual and unfailing
light of the Holy Ghost, and in which He dwells
teaching her all truth and guarding her from all
error, is to teach us what we have to believe and
what we have to do in order to salvation.

It is only by the prompt, immediate, unhesitat-
ing submission and unflinching adherence of the
mind to such an authority, divinely instituted and
divinely taught, that we can be safeguarded from
the distressing perplexity and chaos of doubt in
which the mind is lost, when, with its limited
powers, it presumes to match itself with the infin-
ity of God and to comprehend things incompre-
hensible. It is only by this same submission to

326 NECESSITY OF A TEACHER IN RELIGION.

the Church, that we can be preserved in unity of
faith ; that we can escape being '' tossed about by
every wind of doctrine ; " that the truths of Rev-
elation can be protected against the incredulity
and scepticism of the human mind. It is this
principle of submission to authority, which sepa-
rates us from the countless sects and uncounted
innovations of those who have cast it off, and have
arrogated to themselves the right of interpreting
the Scriptures, every one for himself, in spite of
the admonition of the Apostle : " that no interpre-
tation of Scripture is to be made by private au-
thority, as there are many things therein hard
to be understood, which the unwary and unwise
wrestle to their own destruction." By this same
principle over 300,000,000 of men, differing widely
in race, nationality, language, customs, feelings,
and sympathies, are brought to partake the same
Sacraments, join in the same Worship, acknowl-
edge the same Head, and believe the same Truths.
They are assured of their belief ; it is like Him on
whom it is built, *' the same yesterday, to-day, and
forever, and its record is from generation to gen-
eration."

It was by this principle of exacting submission
to her teachings, that the Church was enabled in
all ages to withstand and to control the wild scep-
ticism of the human intellect and the stubborn
pride of the human Avill. By the same me'ans she
was enabled amidst the vicissitudes of human
events, and the assaults directed against her, to
preserve Divine Revelation in all its primitive
wholeness and unstained from the defilement of

NECESSITY OF A TEACHER IN RELIGION. 327

heresy. By this means has she been able to bring
home the truths of Revelation to all men : to the
millions who are unable to read the Scriptures, as
well as those who, although able to read them,
are yet utterly unequal to the task of rightly
knowing or determining their meaning. It was
the Will of Christ that the Gospel should be made
known to every creature. Submission to a
teacher divinely taught, is the only adequate means
for this end. This submission to the Church is
explicitly enjoined by Christ. It was not the
dead letter of Scripture, but the living, energiz-
ing voice of an Unerring Teacher, that He intro-
duced into the world to teach and enlighten men,
and to impart to them the graces of Redemption.
While we should with the liveliest feelings of
the deepest gratitude, thank God for the inesti-
mable gift of Faith which He has bestowed upon
us, yet we should never forget that faith alone
is not sufficient for our salvation. T^iough we
should have faith to move mountains, it will avail
nothing, unless accompanied and animated by
charity. Our faith must be a living, an operat-
ing faith ; a faith instinct with charity. As the
body without the spirit is dead, so faith without
good works is dead. A faith barren of good
works will serve rather for our condemnation
than for our justification. Our actions must cor-
respond with our belief, which should be the in-
forming principle of our daily life and character.
" He that doeth the will of My Father, Who is in
heaven, he shall enter into heaven."

THE IMMACULATE CONCEPTION OF
THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY.

And the Lord God said to the serpent : Because thou hast
done this thing, thou art cursed above all cattle, and beasts of
the earth : upon thy breast shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou
eat all the days of thy life.

I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between
thy seed and her seed : she. shall crush thy head, and thou shalt
lie in wait for her heel. — Gen. iii. 14-15.

The Church honors the saints because they are
the work of God. It is a true principle to honor
the artificer in his work, for there is nothing in it
which comes not from his hand. Every perfec-
tion which it possesses, and every purpose for
which it serves, is to be ascribed to the wisdom
and power of the mind that conceived it and of
the hand that made it. In this way we can honor
the great Creator, in things the most insignificant
that He has made. The vilest insect that we
trample under foot, becomes a fit subject in which
to find His praise. We can, indeed, praise the
Lord, and in all His works.

Yet, in our admiration and praise of the works
of God, we must be careful that we rest not in the
work itself. We must praise the Lord, truly, in
His work. To adore the creature without refer-
ence to its Creator, would be idolatry. As in

330 THE IMMACULATE CONCEPTION.

the great law of Christian charity we are to love
our neighbor not precisely for his own sake, but
because of God whose image and likeness he is ;
so, in like manner, we are to praise the creatures
of God because they manifest His wisdom and
power, and reflect, in some degree, His own di-
vine perfection.

The Church honors the saints because they are
the noblest work of God in the supernatural order,
the very masterpieces of His grace. Of them-
selves they are nothing. They were men of like
passions with ourselves ; hewn out of the same
mass of our fallen humanity, subject to the same
temptations, and, left to themselves, w^ould have
fallen into the same sins. It was God's powerful
grace that made them what they became. Hence,
in honoring the saints we honor God Himself.
We recognize His power and wisdom just as
truly as we do when we admire His works in the
natural order. The higher character of the ob-
ject does not diminish the worship.

This principle of honoring God in His saints, as
far as it goes, justifies the honor and veneration
which the Churcn offers to the Blessed Virgin
Mary, the Mother of God, the Queen of Saints
and the most supreme work of Divine grace. As
the greatest of the saints, she is entitled to their
Avorship; and as Mother of God, she is entitled to
something immeasurably greater. All the honor
the Church claims for her is for the sake of God
Incarnate, Whose mother she is. All the gifts
which she received from the hand of God, were
given to her that she might be not unworthy to

THE IMMACULATE CONCEPTION. 33 1

be His mother ; all the Church's recognition of
these gifts proceeds from its wish to honor God
Who has conferred them. The Church's love of
God is so exuberant and overflowing that it loves
not only Him, but all who had any relation with
Him ; and the closer the relation, the greater the
honor it bestows. It is because of Mary's inti-
mate relations with the great mystery of the In-
carnation, that the Church claims for her all her
great prerogatives. It is because she was the
Mother of God Incarnate, and that, in the words
of the prayer of the Mass of the Immaculate Con-
ception, she might be a worthy tabernacle in
which He might dwell, that the Church claims
for her the sublime gift of an Immaculate Con-
ception.

It is well that we should understand clearly
what is meant, when we say that Mary was con-
ceived immaculate. Like so many other of the
doctrines .taught by the Church, it is sometimes
misunderstood, and even misrepresented by its
enemies.

You are aware, of course, that we are all born
in sin, "born children of wrath." We all sinned
in Adam, we all died in Adam. Our race is fallen.
We have all shared the curse once uttered against
our first parents. We are defiled with original
sin. Mary is the sole exception to this universal
law. " She is our tainted nature's solitary boast."
This is what is meant by her Immaculate Con-
ception. She enjoyed immunity from this curse.
She was never stained with this original sin.
Theologians distinguish between the active,

332 THE IMMACULATE CONCEPTION.

and passive conception of a human being. The
active conception is that by which the human
body is formed and prepared for the indwelling
of the soul. The passive is the union, or infusion
of the soul into the body. With Mary's active
conception the doctrine of the Immaculate Con-
ception has nothing to do. Her body was formed
in the same way as that of the rest of the children
of Eve. The body of Jesus alone was formed by
the miraculous interposition of the Holy Ghost.
Her Immaculate Conception regards her passive
conception, and means that when the soul was
formed in the moment of its union with the body,
it was formed free from original sin.
- Was she not redeemed ? She was redeemed as
truly as any of the children of men. But the
manner of her redemption was different. We are
redeemed from original sin, after having once in-
curred it. She was redeemed from it, before she
had incurred it. She was preserved from it, in
the words of the prayer of the Feast, because of
the merits of Christ foreseen and applied in antici-
pation to her soul. The grace of Christ was be-
forehand with sin, and claimed as its own, the
soul of her of whom God was one day to be born
Man. She was, then, redeemed.

Remark well, that we say, she was free from
original sin, in the first moment of her conception.
There were not two moments, in one of which
she was conceived in sin, and in the second, or
thereafter, cleansed therefrom. This would have
been sanctification in the womb ; a transcendant
privilege, surely, but far below that which we

THE IMMACULATE CONCEPTION. 333

claim for the Mother of God. In the instant in
which her soul was created, it was created in en-
tire innocence of all original sin.

Is this truth divinely revealed? We answer
that it unmistakably is. Here let us state that
there are several ways in which a truth may be
revealed in Scripture, or in Tradition. It may
be declared explicitly, as when it is enunciated
in so many words. Thus the unity of God is de-
clared in the words uttered by Moses, " Hear, O
Israel ! the Lord our God is one God." Thus
the Incarnation, in the words of St. John, ** The
Word was made flesh and dwelt amongst us."
Truths may be declared virtually or implicitly,
as when they are contained in Scripture, not in so
many words, but in their meaning, or by logical
analysis or necessary consequence. Thus the
Council of Nice declared the consubstantiality of
the Word as virtually contained in the scripture
proofs of Christ's divinity. Christ Himself rea-
soned the resurrection of the dead from the
words, " I am the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and
of Jacob." He is the God of the living, not of the
dead. Thus also were deduced, by logical con-
sequence, the procession of the Holy Ghost from
the Father and the Son as from one principle ;
the existence in Christ of two wills and of two
operations ; not to speak of many other doctrines.
Of these truths thus virtually or implicitly made
known, some are revealed manifestly, some ob-
scurely.

Now, the truth of Mary's Immaculate Concep-
tion belongs to this latter class. It is implicitly.

334 THE IMMACULATE CONCEPTION.

though obscurely, revealed. It is revealed by im-
plication in the fact of Mary's being the Mother
of God. Once granted that the Eternal God has
become her child, and we at once infer her free-
dom from all sin. And this out of reverence to
the Lord, and because we must believe that He
prepared her to be a Mother, not unworthy of
Himself. An Immaculate Conception must have
been one of the graces which He bestowed upon
her, to prepare her for this sublime vocation. If
we claim exemption for Mary from all actual sin
because she was the Mother of the Most High,
for the same reason, we must believe that never,
for an instant, did the stain of original sin defile
her soul. Of this argument we shall have more
to say before the close of our discourse.

We find Marj^'s Immaculate Conception vir-
tually contained in, and logically deducible from,
the promise of mercy and reconciliation which Al-
mighty God made to our first parents after their
fall, and contained in the Third chapter of the
book of Genesis.

Scarcely was man created when the devil
sought to accomplish his destruction, and in him,
that of all his posterity. He tempted Eve. She
yielded to the temptation. She tempted Adam.
Adam yielded to the temptation, and all men
sinned in him. Thus the race, in its very origin,
was involved in a dreadful estrangement from its
Creator.

But God determined to save man from the
effects of his sin. He pitied him because he had
been circumvented and foiled by the stratagem of

THE IMMACULATE CONCEPTION. 335

the evil one. He promised him future reconcil-
iation with Himself, and future triumph over the
seducer. He will destroy the enmity which the
devil has sought to introduce between man and
his God. He will retort this enmity upon the
head of the devil himself. He will raise up a
seed that shall crush the head of the serpent, and
so undo his treacherous work. ''And I will place
enmities between thee and the woman, between
her seed and thy seed, and she shall crush thy
head, and thou shalt lie in wait for her heel."

Nothing diviner and nothing more according
to the order which Divine providence is pleased
to adopt in other things, than that the instru-
ments of man's subversion should serve for his
restoration. The evil one made use of the wom-
an, as the instrument for the destruction of the
human race. God made use of the woman for its
redemption. The devil employed a lying friend-
ship, that he might seduce Eve and afterwards
enslave her. God employed the hostility of the
second woman to Satan, that she might never be
his friend or his slave. The devil by his tri-
umph over Eve, the mother of all men, subjected
to himself the whole race. God restores to Him-
self the whole race, in the triumph which the new
woman, by her seed, wins over the evil one.
That He may thus overcome the evil one b}' his
own arms, it is necessary that God should raise
up another woman who should never be bound
to him in friendship, nor enslaved by sin ; but who,
by reason of the eternal hostility to him in which
she would be conceived, and by reason of the

33^ THE IMMACULATE CONCEPTION.

hostility of her seed, would pursue with undying
hate, and would thoroughly rout and destroy him,
rescuing the human race which he had seduced
from God and enslaved to himself.

If this was God's plan for the conquest of the
seducer, and the redemption of mankind, it was
necessar}" that the new woman, — the divinely ap-
pointed instrument of that restoration, should
never be the friend or the slave, by sin, of him
whose head she was to crush. No stain or conse-
quence of that primal sin should pollute or de-
grade the new Eve, who was to be the very anti-
thesis of the first. Mary's original integrity and
innocence should be the first-fruits of the divinely
appointed conquest of Satan, and the destruction,
through her and her seed, of the dark dominion
of the prince of this world. As the defeat and
disgrace of the first woman had entailed upon her
posterity the loss of untold blessings, so the tri-
umph of the second woman should be the tri-
umph of all her children, and should restore to
them all the blessings which, through the first
w^oman, they had lost. Mary, the mother of the
living, taking the place of Eve, the mother of the
dead, and united in the most intimate and indis-
soluble union with her seed, should never have
been the victim of the tyranny and slavery which
she was to destroy ; but should have been con-
ceived in the innocence and freedom from sin
w^hich she was to bring among men. As Christ
Himself, the seed of the woman, so she, in whom
He was formed, and who was made one with Him
in his warfare against Satan, and whose hostility

THE IMMACULATE CONCEPTION. 337

to Satan was identical with His own, should never
have been obscured by sin or involved in its
consequences.

The woman in her seed, is to overcome Satan
by virtue of the hostility that shall exist between
them. What is the nature of that hostility? I
answer that it is an hostility proper to the
woman ; perpetual and peculiar in its own nature.
It belongs to the woman alone. It is not the
property of any other of the children of men, for
the article "the" points out some distinguished
woman. The manner of speech indicates that it
is proper to the woman alone : no other person is
mentioned, which would not happen, if the hos-
tility belonged to others as well as to her men-
tioned. The intimate union between the woman
and her seed indicates that the enmity of one to
the evil one is the same as that of the other. But
this enmity of her Divine Son could not be
shared by others. The hostility spoken of is per-
petual. As it is identical with that of her Son, it
must have been from everlasting in the Eter-
nal Mind. The closest union exists between the
woman and her seed. They are, so to speak,
knit closely together for the conflict with Satan.
The arms that they shall employ, is the one
identical hostility, not two several kinds. When
God savs that He will place enmity between
Satan and the woman, the construction of words
indicates that there shall be no previous friend-
ship, afterwards to be dissolved, between the
woman and the serpent ; but that the hostility will
be before all friendship. If it were a question of
22

33S THE IMMACULATE CONCEPTION.

separating the woman already in friendship with
the serpent, God would say that He would place
enmity " between the woman and between the ser-
pent." If He wished to make the division before
such friendship was contracted, He would say
that which He actually does say, '' between thee
and the woman." Enmity " between thee and be-
tween the woman " would apply to those justified
even in this life, and to those sanctified in the
womb ; enmity " between thee and the woman "
means more ; it means not rescued from sin once
incurred, but saved from incurring sin. Mary's
enmity, therefore, to the evil one was not a friend-
ship broken up ; it was a friendship debarred, one
that never existed. It was a perpetual hostility,
even as that of her Divine seed. Never was she
held in the yoke of original sin. No friendship
between Mary and Satan was possible, from the
moment that God decreed that He would place
enmity between the serpent, and her whom He
would raise up to be its vanquisher and the re-
storer of the race. Therefore, in God's mind,
Mary was exempted from original sin, in the day
when He proclaimed this future reconciliation of
men to be wrought through her and her Divine
seed. From the bitter antagonism between the
devil and his seed on the one hand, and the
woman and her seed on the other, it is obvious
to believe that Mary could never have belonged
to the hostile camp, — could never have been of
the seed of the serpent ; but all conceived in
original sin are of the evil seed. Behold Mary
side by side with her God, in this first promise of

THE IMMACULATE CONCEPTION. 339

future redemption and reconciliation, made by
Him to the estranged sons of men. Behold her
united to Him in the closest possible union, made
one with Him, made consubstantial with Him in
His human nature, even as a mother is with her
son. Reconcile, if you can, with such a union,
the existence of the least stain of sin in her soul
and the least friendship for Satan ; deny, if you
can, that Mary's hostility was perpetual, even as
that of her Son. As the hostility spoken of is
personal to Mary, as it is confined to her alone,
and as it is perpetual, it is easy to learn what the
nature of it must be. It is not the enmity which
exists between the devil, and those who have cast
aside his yoke in baptism ; it is not the enmity
which comes from abstinence from all actual sin;
it is not the enmity which is implied by sanctifica-
tion in the womb. These different hostilities are
common to many ; but Mary's, confined as it is to
herself, and perpetual in duration, is not any of
these. It is nothing less than that primordial
hostility which resulted from the destruction, in
the first moment of her conception, of the friend-
ship implied in original sin.

Besides the literal sense in Holy Scripture,
which is the direct, obvious meaning of the Divine
word, there is as well a spiritual signification,
equally intended by the Holy Ghost. It is rather
the things signified, than the direct ideas ex-
pressed by the words. It is the result of the
fecundity of the Divine mind, its Author. In this
spiritual sense, we find much reference to the
Mother of God in the Old Testament. Thus, ac-

340 THE IMMACULATE CONCEPTION.

cording to the Fathers of the Church, the Temple,
the Altar, and the Sacrificial victims, are to be
taken as figures or emblems of the Blessed Vir-
gin. Among the Jews there was nothing holier
than the Altar and its Victim ; no profaned hand
was allowed to touch them ; but once a year the
high priest entered the Holy of Holies. How
pure, then, and how free from all possible defile-
ment, should she not be whom these types pre-
figured, and of w^hose sanctity they were the em-
blem ?

We come now to consider the words of the
Archangel, addressed to Mary, " Hail, Mary, full
of grace, the Lord is with Thee." The Greek
word which is rendered " full of grace " properly
means, full to overflowing, full to surfeit, laden
with grace. Such a salutation as this had never
before been addressed to any of the children of
Eve. Angels had been often sent as messengers
from God to man, to Abraham, to Jacob, to St.
Joseph, to St. Peter; but never has such a greet-
ing been recorded. No wonder that Mary was
alarmed, as Origen remarks. For she was familiar
with the ancient Scriptures and Prophecies, and
was aware that no such words had ever before
been heard. This unheard-of salutation is the
angelic recognition of the unparalleled gift of
Divine grace which adorned the soul of her alone,
to whom alone of all the children of Eve it was
addressed. This gift is that she possessed grace
in all its fulness, even before she had conceived
God Incarnate. What does this mean but her
unstained origin, her Immaculate Conception.'*

THE IMMACULATE CONCEPTION. 34 1

Bellarmine, in his Catechism, tells us what is
meant by '' full of grace." The grace of God
works in the soul, especially, three effects. First,
it destroys sins, which as stains contaminate the
soul. Second, it adorns the soul with o^ifts and
virtues. Third, it supplies it with strength, that
it may be earnest in meritorious works, particu-
larly pleasing to the Divine Majesty.

Our Lady is full of grace. She was infected
with no stain of sin, either original, or actual, or
mortal, or venial ; she had all virtues, and all the
gifts of the Holy Ghost, in the highest grade.
She performed works so pleasing to God and
meritorious, that as regards body and soul, she
was worthy \o transcend all the choirs of angels.
She was, indeed, full of grace, and blessed among
women.

The truth of this surpassing privilege of the
Mother of God is likewise contained in Divine
tradition. The lofty conception that the Church
has always entertained of Mary's sanctity, and the
cherished belief of the faithful, have been such
as to virtually include the persuasion of her Im-
maculate Conception and to exclude anything
contrary thereto. All Christian antiquity vene-
rated the Mother of God, as a new creation upon
earth, absolutely unlike the rest of mankind, and
immeasurably superior to the greatest of the
saints, in her ineffable graces and exalted spir-
itual endowments. Her holiness was not merely
that of the saints, yet incomparabl}' greater in
degree ; but of a new order and kind from that
which had ever before been known on earth, or

342 THE IMMACULATE CONCEPTION.

conceived by the human mind. New expressions
and phrases were sought to adequately designate
this new sanctity which had come among men.
Before her transcendent and incomparable holi-
ness, the glory of the seraphim and of the angels
sinks, even as the light of the stars before the ris.
ing sun. " She is a paradox of grace, a mystery
and a miracle." St. Ephraem salutes her, as " The
plenitude of the graces of the august Trinity."
St. Thomas says that, '' She received so great q
plenitude of graces as to come as near as pos.
sible to God." St. Bonaventure, " Mary is one
greater than whom God cannot make." In a
word, the Fathers teach that in her dwells the
fulness of divine grace ; " that '' her purity merited
for her, because of the graces given to her, the
rank of Mother of God ; " that " she is dearer to
God than all other creatures ; " that '' her holiness
is second to that of God only ; that '' her exceh
lence can never be sufihcientl}^ celebrated." The
persuasion of Catholic tradition that Mary's holi^
ness was of a rank and of a degree to preclude
any defilement, actual or original, is shown in the
words and titles by which the Fathers of the
Church sought to give it adequate expression.
Of these, some deny to her every possible defect
or sin; others claim for her every possible degree
of purity and sanctity. She is called '' the fault-
less," "the immaculate," " the undefiled," " the un-
adulterated," '' destitute of the least admixture of
aught that stains." Not content with this praise,,
they declare her "altogether unspotted," "com-
pletely and entirely immaculate." And St. John

THE IMMACULATE CONCEPTION. 343

Damicene salutes Mary, '* Thou art the seat of the
Divinity, O ! completely and entirely immaculate."

The Council of Basle declared that, '* Belief in
the Immaculate Conception was pious, and in har-
mony with ecclesiastical worship, Catholic faith,
right reason, and Holy Scripture ; and to be ap-
proved, held and embraced by all Catholics." The
Council of Trent declared that, in its Decree on
the transmission of original sin, it was not to be
understood to mean to include the Blessed Virgin
Mary.

In the Acts which record the martyrdom of St.
Andrew, we read in the Discourse spoken by him
in presence of the pro-counsel Egeus : ** And,
therefore, because the first man was created of
immaculate earth, it was necessary that of an im-
maculate virgin should be born that perfect man,
by whom the Son of God (who first formed man)
was to restore that eternal life which men had lost."
Origen says, " Mary was not infected by the breath
of the poisonous serpent." The Greek menolo-
gies saluted Mary, as *' free from blemish ; " as
" she who was formed pure from all eternity." St.
Jerome, " Mary was never in darkness, but always
in light." St. Augustine, '' Except therefore the
Holy Virgin Mary whom, through respect for the
Lord, I will not suffer to be named when there is
question of sin ; for do we not know that, in order
to conquer sin entirely, a fulness of grace has
been conferred on her who merited to bear Him,
Who it is certain had no sin?" St. Cyril, ''All
men, except Him Who was born of a Virgin and
the Virgin herself, were born in original sin." St.

344 THE IMMACULATE CONCEPTION.

lldephonse, '* It is certain Mary was exempted
from original sin." St. John Damicene, *' To
Mary, the serpent had no access." St. Peter
Damian, " The flesh of the virgin received from
Adam, admitted none of Adam's guilt." ^

The comparison which the Fathers of the Church
continuall}' make between Mary and Eve, indicates
more clearly than even explicit words (if anything
could be more explicit than this antithesis) their
belief in her Immaculate Conception, and her un-
approachable rank in the plan of man's Redemp-
tion. St. Paul declared that, '' as in Adam we all
died, so in Christ we were all made to live." The
Fathers adopting this suggestion, declare Mary
to be the mother of the living, as Eve had been
the mother of the race fallen from grace and dead
in sin. She is the source of life, while Eve is the
source of death. She is the faithful child of the
Most High, while Eve is the slave of the evil one.
From Eve came the poison that has contaminated
the race and destroyed it. From Mary comes the
purifying and restoring medicine that shall cure, —
the healing balm that shall extinguish the sin and
restore mankind. As with Adam and his dis-
obedience, they contrast Christ and His obedience
unto death ; so with Eve's pride and prevarica-
tion, do they contrast Mary's humility and fidel-
ity. Mary with her seed is the source and in-
strument of humanity regenerated and restored,
even as Eve had been the instrument of its fall.
Continually do they compare Mary, with Eve yet

* The authorities consulted in this discourse are chiefly Passaglia,
"Wiseman, and Lambruschini.

THE IMMACULATE CONCEPTION. 345

innocent and the faithful daughter of the Most
High. And the similarity is the strongest for
which they can find expression. Continually do
they contrast Mary always innocent, with Eve
guilty, — the slave of sin and of Satan. The con-
trast or dissimilarity is the fullest and completest
they can conceive, or that any words at their
command can declare: as opposite as light and
darkness, as virtue and sin, as God and His
enemy, as salvation and perdition ; the antago-
nism is as great, as extremes the most opposite
can declare. As the archangel Michael was un-
like Lucifer, as the angels that stood faithful were
unlike the faithless that fell, as Christ was the
antithesis of Adam, so was Mary the opposite
of Eve. The condemnation of the race, and the
punishments inflicted upon it, brought about by
Eve, never reached her, — the contagion of Eve's
sin never contaminated her soul. She was never
seduced by the arts of the evil one, never for a
moment yielded to him ; nor was separated from,
nor wavered in her loyalty to, God : that is, never
incurred original sin.

We should not omit to mention that the truth
of the Immaculate Conception of the Mother of
God, was always believed by the faithful in the
Church. The universal belief of the faithful in a
doctrine, is a far greater proof of its divine reve-
lation, than would be at first supposed. Such
universal belief can only come from the guidance
and illumination of the Holy Ghost. The per-
mission of so universal an error could, with diffi-
culty, be reconciled with Christ's gracious prom-

34^ THE IMMACULATE CONCEPTION.

ises to His Church. If the gates of hell were never
to prevail against it, it was that the belief of the
faithful should be forever preserved pure and un-
defiled. Patavius, one of the profoundest theolo-
gians, of unrivalled gifts and wondrous erudition,
declared that he believed in the Immaculate Con-
ception, because it was the universal belief of the
faithful.

When we say that it was universally believed,
we are not to be understood to mean, that it
was believed absolutely everywhere, and without
any exception. Opposition here and there only
showed that it was not yet defined. Such excep-
tional opposition is in the very nature of things,
until the doctrine is formally and explicitly enun-
ciated. From St. Augustine, declaring that he
would tolerate no mention of Mary when there
was a question of sin, to the Council of Trent,
enunciating that, in teaching all men to have in-
curred original sin, it was not its intention to in-
clude the Blessed Virgin, the voice of antiquity,
the intimate persuasion of the faithful, and the
unanimous opinion of the Fathers of the Church,
and the teachings of theologians, all declare for
Mary's immunity from the defilement of original
sin.

Even if Holy Scripture were less explicit, even
if Divine tradition were less full and decisive, yet
the Immaculate Conception of the Mother of God
would flow, as a necessary consequence, from
truths and principles already revealed. The
relation of Mary to* the Adorable Mystery of
the Incarnation would bespeak her Immaculate

THE IMMACULATE CONCEPTION. 347

Origin. She was the Mother of God Incarnate.
She who was thus united in the closest of all
unions with the God of all holiness, could never
have lain under the shadow of sin.

From all eternity, God decreed to become man.
The Lamb was slain in God's eternal counsels
before the foundations of the world. The
creature to whom was reserved the unspeakable
privilege of being His mother, must have been
pre-elected from everlasting. This, surely, was
assigning to her a great part in the plan of the
Incarnation. Great privilege it was to have been
elected from all the daughters of Eve, from the
glorious women of the Old Law, and the more
glorious still of the New, — virgins and martyrs
who spent their lives in pondering every incident
in the life of the Redeemer, loving hearts, souls
burning to shed their blood for His sake; inex-
pressibly exalted, then, was the dignity of Mary.
It, surely, carries with it the presumption that She
who was thus exalted, was conceived without sin.
God could grant such a grace: therefore He did
grant it. What is fitting God always does. God
the Father could not permit His Son, the very
"figure of His substance and splendor of His
glory," to be born of one subject to the devil, His
fiercest enemy. Ill would it become God the Son,
to be indebted for His human nature to one from
the seed of hell or the ranks of His enemy. God
the Holy Ghost could not conceive in her, over
whose soul sin had ever cast its darkened shadow.
He who had the effrontery to tempt the Lord,
when hungry, by offering Him, as if his, the

348 THE IMMACULATE CONCEPTION.

kingdoms of the earth, would have reproached Je-
sus with such a mother.

Destined to be the Mother of God, with what
sanctity, must She not have been furnished.
Greater, certainly, than ever given to another
child of Eve. For Her office was incomparably
higher than any ever before assigned to the
creature, — greater certainly than ever given to
angel, or archangel, or seraphim ; for, why are
they pure, except to be worthy to approach God.
How infinitely purer and holier should She not
be, who is not merely to approach God, but to be
His very Mother ! So great should She be, to
use the words of antiquity and the unanimous
voice of the Fathers, as God could make Her.
The first principle of this greatness is an Immac-
ulate Conception.

In the Old Law, the Tabernacle, the Altar, and
everything pertaining to the Worship, were made
of the rarest and most precious material ; and
this, that they might be worthy of the Sacrifices,
which were only types and figures. Jeremiah,
probably, and John the Baptist, certainly, were
sanctified in their mothers' wombs, that they might
be worthy, — the one to pre-announce, and the
other to prepare the way of, the Lord. In the
New Law the Altar and the Chalice and the Hand
of the priest, are anointed and consecrated with
a wondrous consecration that they may be, in
some sort, not unworthy to touch and to handle the
body of Christ. How pure from all possible de-
filement, and with what sanctity should she not
be adorned, in whose womb was to be conceived,

THE IMMACULATE CONCEPTION. 349

whose arms would fondle, whose breasts would
nourish Jesus Incarnate. Gifts and graces vouch-
safed by Almighty God, are always in keeping
with the rank and duty assigned.

Finally, in our own day, the voice of the living
Church illuminated and directed by the Holy
Ghost, after profound discussion and exhaustive
analysis lasting through centuries, has uner-
ringly enunciated and drawn up in formal defi-
nition the truth, of which it had always been in-
stinctively conscious ; but which now had been
investigated to its foundations : that Mary, in the
first moment of her conception, by the singular
privilege of Almighty God, in view of the merits
of Christ anticipated and applied to her soul, was
conceived without the stain of orisfinal sin. This
teaching made known by the Church divinely
taught — the proximate rule of our faith — is suf-
ficient for all Catholics. In proposing to our be-
lief this prerogative'of the Mother of God, the
Church proposes nothing strange to our minds or
abhorrent to our feelings. She but explicitly enun-
ciates that which has always been virtually be-
Heved, of which the faithful were always deeply
convinced, and which they ardently desired to see
formally defined.

As of all other doctrines subsequently defined,
the Church was, at first, conscious of this truth,
and the faithful recognized it without formal
teaching. Intimate persuasion of a truth may
exist without the desire, or even the ability, to
analyze it and to explain the arguments that sup-
port it. This was the state of the belief of the

350 THE IMMACULATE CONCEPTION.

faithful in reference to the Immaculate Concep-
tion. Afterwards, the Church undertook to ana-
lyze this consciousness of the truth of Mary's Im-
maculate Conception, and to investigate its rela-
tions with other revealed doctrines. This began
about the Twelfth Centur}^ The Feast of her
Immaculate Conception had been already estab-
lished by the Roman Church, and was a manifest
sign of its belief ; for, as St. Thomas says, the
Church cannot celebrate but what is holy, and the
very object of the Feast, was the Immaculate
Conception. During the controversies in Cath-
olic schools on this privilege of the Mother of
God, the Church remained silent ; after long
years, by encouraging the devotion and enrich-
ing it with Indulgences, she showed the leaning
of her mind. She forbade that either side should
censure the other, and, finally, threatened with
gravest penalties those who wrote against the be-
lief, or left objections to it unanswered. Centu-
ries before its formal definition, it was unlawful to
call it in question. The Council of Trent re-
affirmed these censures, and declared that Mary
was not included in its Dogma upon the diffusion
of original sin.

The thought of the Mother of God, and the
purifying influence that goes with it, Avere never
more needed than at the present time. The spirit
of impurity is everywhere. We breathe its at-
mosphere, continually. It pervades society, lit-
erature, art, and the noblest productions of gen-
ius; through these it stains the imagination of the
young, and defiles the character of the more ad-

THE IMMACULATE CONCEPTION. 35 I

vanced, while it contaminates the consciences of
all. The sacredness of marriage is no defence
against its unhallowed influence. This spirit
shows itself, not merely in gross shocking inde-
cency, which is not the most dangerous, for it be-
comes impotent by its very vulgarity ; but in a
more subtle, insidious manner which appears un-
der the cloak of delicacy of sentiment and refine-
ment of taste. It is the more effective, because
dexterously concealed. The faculties of the mind
and heart are stimulated to effort, undeterred
by any appearance of obscenity or fear of guilt.
The very idea of Mary and her purity, is enough
to banish this corrupting influence, even apart
from her supernatural influence. Her name
and example are enough to correct this dis-
order. In her presence and in her remembrance
every unhallowed suggestion disappears, and
we are raised to a plane of holier thoughts and
emotions.

It is our duty to think of her, to imitate her,
and to invoke her. God has seen fit to assign
to her a high place in the Mystery of our Re-
demption ; He has honored her by permitting
her to co-operate with Him. As in the physical
world, so in the spiritual. He makes use of second
causes. Even as He has made use of her, so
should we invoke her intercession that we may be
saved. She has been given to us at the foot of
the Cross as a mother. The children of men have,
in the person of St. John, been placed in her cus-
tody. With what filial confidence and love the
child runs to its mother, so should we have re-

352 THE IMMACULATE CONCEPTION.

course to her. Our true devotion to her will be
shown, by our true love of her Son and the faith-
ful observance of His law ; according to the
sense of His own words, more blessed is she who
keepeth His law, than she who would be His
mother.

THE NICW YOXK

ASTOR, L£N

TILOEN FOU'.

THE HOLY GHOST IN OUR SOULS.

By whom He hath given us very great and precious promises
that by these ye be made partakers of the Divine nature : shun-
ning that corruption of lust which is in the world. — II. St. Peter
i. 4.

But if the Spirit of Him who raised up Jesus from the dead
dwelleth in you ; He Who raised Jesus Christ from the dead
will also quicken your mortal bodies, because of His Spirit who
dwelleth in you. . . . For whoever are led by the Spirit of
God, they are sons of God. For ye have not received a spirit
of bondage again in fear, but ye have received a spirit of adop-
tion of sons, in which we cry Abba (Father). For the Spirit
Himself beareth testimony to our spirit that we are children of
God.— St. Paul to the Romans viii. 11, 14, 15, i6.

When the Holy Ghost is said to dwell in our
souls, it is not to be understood in any mere spir-
itual or metaphorical sense ; nor, that He dwells
in them as He does in all creatures, by His ubiq-
uity or immensity. This would be merely say-
ing that, as He is everywhere. He is necessarily
in our souls. But we claim for Him a special in-
dwelling, or, if you will, a local habitation in the
inmost recesses of our being. Nor does it ex-
press the truth to say that the Holy Ghost is
present in our souls as by a consecration or ded-
ication. In this sense, the material church is de-
voted or the altar is anointed for His service :
but it is not in this manner, that our souls and
23

354 THE HOLY GHOST IN OUR SOULS.

even our bodies are said to be the very temples
in which dwells this Divine Spirit. The^ dwell-
ing of the Holy Ghost in our souls is real and
true. By the gift of Sanctifying grace which He
confers upon us, He unites Himself so closely to us
and us to Him, that it is perfectly true to say that
in Him " we live and move and have our being."
He takes such entire possession of our souls that,
if it were possible for Him to cease to exist else-
where, He would still continue to exist in them.
He is the very life of the soul, even as the soul is
the life of the body ; as the body without the soul
dies, so the soul loses its life if the Divine Spirit
be withdrawn. There is a life of the soul as truly
as there is a life of the body ; there is a spiritual
world within us and around us as truly as there
is a physical world. The Sanctifying grace of
God is the vital principle of the soul ; and this
Sanctifying grace is the efihcient cause of the life
of the soul, while the soul is the formal cause of
the life of the body. As man's physical life be-
comes remiss and languid, if the soul's energy or
activity be anywise impeded ; so his spiritual life
becomes remiss and languid and may even perish,
if grace be lessened, or obstructed, or destroyed
in his soul.

This union, abiding and life-giving, of the soul
with the Holy Ghost by means of Sanctifying
grace, makes of it a very temple of God and exalts
it as of incomparable excellence over all other
creatures, in the eyes of God. By this indwell-
ing, the soul, already like to the Adorable Trinity
by its threefold powers of will, memory and un-

THE HOLY GHOST IN OUR SOULS. 35$

derstanding, becomes even a more perfect like-
ness of the Holy Ghost and a more perfect image
of the Divine nature. By this mysterious union
the soul becomes even a partaker of the nature of
the Holy Ghost, according to the words of St.
Peter, 2d Epistle, 1st chapter : " By whom He
hath given us very great and precious promises:
that by these ye may be made partakers of the
Divine nature : shunning that corruption of lust
which is in the world." By this union through
grace with God, the soul is said, in some sense, to
partake of the Divine nature. Indeed, according
to some Fathers of the Church, the Holy Ghost
subsists in our soul not merely by the gift of Sanc-
tifying grace, but even substantially and in His
own proper person ; in this sense, while they de-
clare man to be a compound of soul and body, they
declare a Christian man to be made up of body
and soul and of the Holy Ghost.

The Holy Ghost enters the soul particularly by
Baptism and Penance ; which, as they pre-sup-
pose the soul dead in sin, are called Sacraments
of the dead. By Baptism we are again born of
water and the Holy Ghost into a new life of grace
and immortality, from which we had fallen in the
fall of our race ; we are again admitted into the
supernatural order, and there is again opened
upon us the same prospect of immortal blessings
which, by that primal sin, was in the beginning
closed ; we are again restored to our divine in-
heritance, and grafted as members upon the mys-
tical body 01 Christ. As in the old Adam we all
fell, so in the new Adam humanity is restored. As

356 THE HOLY GHOST IN OUR SOULS.

by one man sin entered into the world, and by the
sin death, so by one man, Jesus Christ, came grace
and justice ; and by His obedience came life.
Mankind lost in Adam, is restored to life, and to
life more abundant in Christ Jesus, the Author
and Restorer of the spiritual order, and of grace
in the souls of men.

When through temptation, or the perversity of
the will, or the darkness of the mind, or the
proneness of the flesh to sin, we forfeit the Sancti-
fying grace of the Holy Ghost by mortal sin, we
are again restored to spiritual life by this Divine
Spirit. He pours into the soul the true sorrow
and unshaken purpose of amendment which, in
His gratuitous goodness and sacred promises,
will insure us by the recc{)tion of Sacramental
penance forgiveness for our sins. Thus, as by
Baptism He inaugurates His spiritual life within
us, so by Penance He restores it when interrupted
by sin ; and, in the end, finishes His work by con-
ferring upon the soul the grace of final persever-
ance.

By Sanctifying grace the soul is made pleasing
to God, no matter how numerous or how black
in their nature the sins may be which have been
committed and which have murdered it. The
Sanctifying grace of the Holy Ghost makes them
as white as snow, destroys them as if they had
never been, and restores to new life and grace
the soul. It is able to overcome the fury of the
strongest passions and the most downward ten-
dency to sin. It can turn the mass of corruption
into the vessel of election, or the divinest exem-

THE HOLY GHOST IN OUR SOULS. 357

plar of virtue ; it can produce purity from impur-
ity, and create a saint, the fervent and life-long
penitent from a Magdalen. It can transform the
proud and lustful king into a David, the model of
repentance. " It can create the foundation of the
Church and the Supreme Teacher of the faithful
out of an irresolute, vain-hearted, and impetuous
Peter. It can make the intrepid Apostle and
Teacher of the Gentiles and the vessel of election
Out of the zealous persecutor of the Church,
breathing vengeance upon the faithful, and send
him forth to i)roclaim the glory and divinity of
Him whom he had persecuted. It can produce
the noblest types of virtue and sanctity out of the
most loathsome sinfulness. By it an Augustin
seethed in impurity is transformed into the great
Doctor of the Church and the teacher of all time.
In every country and in every age it has wrought
the holiest embodiments of godliness out of the
gross and sinful mass of our lost humanity. It
can, in very truth, out of the very stones raise up
children to Abraham. When Sanctifying grace is
poured into the soul, it irradiates it with a light
and glory and joy which reach even heaven,
where we are told " there is joy upon every sin-
ner doing penance." The light of sun and stars
pales before the light of Sanctifying grace. The
glory of a sanctified soul is not surpassed even
by the glory of Cherubim or Seraphim ; the
sanctification of a soul is a greater work in the
supernatural order, than the creation of a w^orld
in the physical ; it is, indeed, a masterpiece of
God's power, the work of His own right hand.

358 THE HOLY GHOST IN OUR SOULS.

The Holy Ghost is the sustaining principle of
the sanctity of the soul ; He is the unfailing source
whence the grace of God, weakened by continual
assaults of temptation, is continually renewed
and replenished; He is the salient, living fount
that nourishes and supports our supernatural life.
Without Him, continually assailed by the inroads
of sin and the attacks of the flesh, the world, and
the devil, it would soon be quenched and de-
stroyed.

Sanctifying grace makes the soul like to God ;
nothing among creatures can resemble more the
Divine Life than the union between the soul of
man and the Holy Ghost by Sanctifying grace.
Even life itself, be it rational or sensitive or
merely vegetative, in its simplest element, is an
image, howsoever feeble, of God and of His
Divine Life. Life is motion; under the idea of a
first mover, philosophy has ever formed the idea
of a First cause. First motion could not proceed
from a cause outside the Creator. He must pos-
sess it in His own nature. Life proceeding from
itself, manifests a Being eternal in duration, infi-
nite in power, and in all perfection ; there can be
but one such Being. The life possessed by the
creature, being the nearest approach that can
exist to this primordial life of the Creator, has
ever been taken as the fittest emblem of the
Divine Life. All things that God has made He
has made in His own image. Hence, mere life in
its simplest element is a figure of God Himself.
But how incomparably more excellent and how
infinitely nearer to the life of God, is this super-

THE HOLY GHOST IN OUR SOULS. 359

natural life of the soul, whose Author and Sus-
taincr is the Holy Ghost. If man is a microcosm
in that by his natural faculties and endowments
he sums up all created nature, by this indwelling
of Divine Grace he is the most exalted of
creatures and the adopted son of the Most High.
Sanctifying grace in the soul raises man to the
highest pitch of glory : it makes him, in a manner,
a partaker of the Divine nature. The mysterious
bond which Sanctifying grace creates between his
soul and the Holy Ghost makes him, indeed, but
little less than the Angels, and unites him in a
most unspeakable manner with his first beginning
and last end. "Whoever," says St. Paul, "are
led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of
God, for ye have not received a spirit of bondage
again in fear, but ye have received the spirit of
adoption of sons in which we cry 'Abba,' Father.
For the Spirit Himself bears testimony to our
spirit that we are children of God, and if children,
heirs also, heirs indeed" of God, and joint heirs
with Christ, yet so if we suffer together that we
may be also glorified together." (Rom. viii.) "And
because ye are sons, God has sent the Spirit of
His Son into your hearts crying : 'Abba ' Father ;
therefore now he is not a servant, but a son ; and
if a son, heir also through God." (Gal. iv.) "But
ye are not in the flesh but in the spirit, if how-
ever the Spirit of God dwell in you, but if any
man hath not the Spirit of Christ, he is not His.
. . . But if the Spirit of Him Who raised up
Jesus from the dead dwelleth in you. He Who
raised up Jesus Christ from the dead, will also

360 THE HOLY GHOST IN OUR SOULS.

quicken your mortal bodies, because of His Spirit
Who dwelleth in you." (Rom. viii.) '' I said to
you, ye are gods and ye are all sons of the Most
High."

Jesus Christ, even according to His humanity,
became not the adopted, but the natural son of
the Eternal Father ; and this, because without the
Divinity, the human nature of Christ never, for
one moment, subsisted. When, by the ineffable
motion of the Holy Ghost, the Sacred Humanity
of Christ was conceived in the womb of His
Virgin mother, in that same moment and simul-
taneously with the act of conception, the Divine
Person took possession of that body and made it
His own forever ; as, then, that human nature
never subsisted without its hypostatic union with
the Second Adorable Person, it became the true
and natural Son of the Most High. In some such
way, but at an infinitely greater distance, our
human souls united with God by the Sanctifying
grace of the Holy Ghost become not, indeed, the
natural, but in very truth, the adopted sons of
God; according to the words of St. Paul which
I have already quoted.

In the moment of the conception of God Incar-
nate, His human soul and body, by reason of
their personal union wath the Divinity, received
all the riches of Divine wisdom and grace. The
soul of Jesus was anointed with the sevenfold
gifts of the Holy Ghost. He was constituted the
heir and partaker of all the treasures of the God-
head. While union by Sanctifying grace with
the Holy Ghost is far from being the hypostatic

THE HOLY GHOST IN OUR SOULS. 361

union of our humanity with Jesus Christ, yet, be-
cause of the intimacy that it admits us to with the
Godhead, and because of its ordaining us as the
adopted sons of God, we, too, receive, according to
the measure of creatures and the purpose of God,
the treasures of His wisdom and of His grace.
" He Who has not hesitated to ordain the incar-
nation and death of His Adorable Son for our
salvation, and' Who has sent the Holy Ghost into
our hearts for their sanctification, cannot stop
short of making us possessors of all the riches of
His wisdom and goodness."

Jesus Christ as man, because of His union with
the Godhead, is forever placed on the Throne
of God, as the Mediator and Intercessor of the
race which by His blood he has rescued from sin
and Satan. He is anointed forever as the great
High Priest, always at the right hand of His
Eternal Father, where with groans unutterable
He makes unceasing intercession for the souls
which he has ransomed by His sacrifice and blood.
We are the members of His mystical body, we are
His brothers in the flesh, we are the fruit of His
spiritual loins ; in Him we have received life and
grace. Where He is, there, also, we shall be ; He
is there to prepare a place for us. We are united to
the Holy Ghost by the closest possible union ; by
His grace He is the very life of our souls ; we are
the adopted sons of the Most High ; by the Blood
of Jesus Christ which has saved us, and by the
Grace of the Holy Ghost which has sanctified us,
we are forever made acceptable and precious in
the sight of God, Whom, by the inspiration of the

362 THE HOLY GHOST IN OUR SOULS.

Holy Ghost, we call our Father. We, too, then,
are the priests of the Most High, '' the royal
priesthood, the elect people " ransomed by His
blood from every tribe, and race, and nation.

The supernatural life of the soul manifests itself
by action ; any form of life is shown by its motion
and productiveness. The act of reason evinces
the existence of rational nature ; the act of growth
demonstrates the existence of vegetative life : a
spiritual life must show itself in acts conformable
with its nature. Works of which mere nature
is evidently incapable, and to which it even is
opposed, must proceed from a higher life and
energy. Vital actions prove the existence of life ;
acts which are clearly spiritual are as clearly the
operation and fruit of the supernatural principle.
These actions which are at once the result and
the evidence of the supernatural life, are the very
pulsations of the Holy Ghost within us ; they are
the operations of that supernatural life under the
influence of His actual grace. By His light He
teaches us what we ought to do, and by His grace
He gives us fortitude to perform it. It is by His
light that we receive faith, and are enabled to in-
cline the mind to accept Divinely-revealed truth.
The absence of this Divine light renders faith im-
possible. From the Holy Ghost in Baptism the
soul receives the germ of faith ; it is for this rea-
son that we find faith so easy to practise. It is
because they have never received the light of the
Holy Ghost during life or in Baptism, that many
find faith so impossible. Those who by faith
already know what they are to believe, the Holy

THE HOLY GHOST IN OUR SOULS. 363

Ghost enlightens as to those truths which are the
very foundation and support of a Godly life. He
keeps alive in their minds the vanity of life, the
shortness of time, the certainty of death, the
malice of sin, the Sacrifice that was made for our
souls, and the all-importance of the life to come.
As the light of the Holy Ghost is as necessary to
have faith in religious truth, as the light of the
sun is to discern the objects that surround us ;
so, also, the light of the Holy Ghost is as neces-
sary to live a life of virtue, as physical beings
are necessary to support our physical life. Hav-
ing taught us the truths which we are to know,
and the manner of life that we are to live, the
Holy Ghost gives us inclination and fortitude to
be faithful to this light, and to live this life. He
enables us to overcome all obstacles, to surmount
all difficulties, to triumph over all temptations, to
rise superior to all weaknesses, to overcome the
suggestions of the flesh, the fascination of the
world, and the assaults of the devil.

There can be nothing more precious than this
Sanctifying grace of the Holy Ghost. Nothing
that is in the sea or in the earth, nothing in those
objects that men pass their lives in pursuit of, and
die without attaining, can for a moment be com-
pared with it. The loftiest human genius, or
its divinest production that may have immor-
talized its author, is as nothing to it. The most
exalted human distinction and glory that man
has ever reached, or in his boundless ambition
has ever aspired to, is but dust before it. No
work of God on earth, or in heaven, can be

364 THE HOLY GHOST IN OUR SOULS.

placed in the balance against this emanation of
His nature, this gift of Sanctifying grace. Sera-
phim or Cherubim, deprived of it, would lose all
their glory and be as nothing before its Giver.
Take away, if it were possible, from the Blessed
Mother of God the gift of Sanctifying grace, and
the privilege of being the Mother of God would
count for naught; because she was more blessed
in keeping His word, than in being His Mother;
the observance of His law, of which Sanctifying
grace is the result, is more precious in His eyes,
than the transcendent privilege of the Divine
Maternity.

The spirit of the Holy Ghost is essentially op-
posed to the spirit of the world. What can there
be common between holiness and sin, between
God and the evil one, between the love of God,
and the hate of Him which fills the souls of those
who are the followers of the prince of this world ?
"You cannot serve God and mammon; no one
can serve two masters, for he will hate the one
and love the other." He that will save his life
hereafter, must lose it here below. If we try to
unite this twofold service of God and man, we
shall find that our labor will be languid and in-
different. In the end, tired of the effort to serve
both, w^e shall abandon God and become the abject
slaves of sin and Satan. The flesh, the world, and
the devil, are the fortresses behind which lie in-
trenched the enemies of our salvation : self-denial,
detachment from the world, and the grace of
Jesus Christ, are the means by which we are to
conquer them and come off victors in the conflict.

THE HOLY GHOST IN OUR SOULS. 365

The Holy Ghost speaks to our souls by the in-
spirations, the illustrations, the holy suggestions
with which He is ever trying to gain entrance
into them, shut against Him by sin. In the exer-
cise of our free will, we can, if we will, resist these
gracious visitings and suggestions of His grace ;
He places no compulsion upon our free will ; He
gives us abundant grace, if we but correspond
with it. Yet we may by our pcrverseness resist
His holy influence, we may shut our eyes to His
light, close our hearts to His invitations, steel our
consciences to these compunctious visitings of
His mercy ; or, as the Scripture says, *' grieve
the Holy Spirit of God, and put Him before
men to an open shame." Such are they who are
continually admonished by the Spirit of God; by
interior inspirations, and by the ordinary means
of the preaching of the word of God which He
emplo3'S, to return from sin and to seek their
Lord and His mercy while they ma}- be found.

There are others, who have, indeed, received
the Holy Ghost in their souls by either Baptism
or Penance ; He abode with them ; for a season
they enjoyed the delights of His presence; they
felt the hatred for sin and the disrelish for the
world which He is sure to inspire; but, little by
little, they began to feel the attractions of sin and
the inroads which temptation made upon them ;
careless, at first, in little things, growing indiffer-
ent to smaller sins, cultivating ease and self-grati-
fication, seeking to combine what they regarded
as reasonable gratification with the law of God,
they, finally, succumbed to greater temptation and

366 THE HOLY GHOST IN OUR SOULS.

fell into mortal sin. In that moment they drove
the Holy Ghost from their souls ; the Spirit of
God and the spirit of sin could not co-exist, and
the house divided could not stand. The evil
one once exiled from that soul, returned with
tenfold fury. When the temple of the Holy Ghost
was profaned by the stain of mortal sin and this
sacrilegious intrusion, He could not remain.
These, too, have grieved the Holy Spirit of God
and put Him before men to an open shame.

There are others, in whom the Holy Ghost may
have dwelt even for a long time ; but they tired
of the loyalty of heart which His presence neces-
sarily enjoined ; they chafed under subjection ;
they longed for the freedom of sin ; they rose,
even as the angels rose against God, in the full
light and knowledge of the malice of mortal sin.
They felt the caressing voice of passion, it sug-
gested the delights of sin. As in the beginning,
the evil one whispered in our first parents' ears
that they should by no means die, that they
should be as God, that the forbidden fruit w^as an
inexhaustible source of life and pleasure ; so, also,
he put it in their hearts that the years of life
Avere many, — too many, perhaps, to pass in the
pain of privation, in hope of a future life which
after all, may be, was but a shadow, a dream, and
an illusion. They made up their minds to prefer
the world to God, sin to self-denial; like the Jews
of old, they determined to prefer Barabbas to
Christ; what they could touch and taste and
handle to what they could only believe in, hope
for, and love from afar. These, too, have grieved

THE HOLY GHOST IN OUR SOULS. 367

the Holy Spirit of God, and, by deliberate act and
wilfulness most obstinate, driven Him from their
souls. They have set up the abomination of deso-
lation in the holy place in which He had dwelt so
long.

There are others, who do not belong to any of
these classes : who have not forced the Holy Ghost
from their soul by sin, who have not resisted His
knockings for admission into their hearts ; who,
in a word, have by no serious or deliberate act
done despite to the Spirit of God. They have,
indeed, admitted Him into their hearts; He still
abides there; but they correspond not with Him
calling them to a still higher life, — to a still more in-
timate union with Him. The Holy Ghost is not
satisfied with the sacrifice of self and the surrender
to Him which they have already made ; it is the
property of Divine love never to be satiated, but
to draw the soul closer and closer to Him Who is
at once the object and inexhaustible source of
Divine charity. They are unmindful that the soul
already sanctified, should advance from faith to
faith, and from grace to grace, until it reaches, as
far as its human condition permits and the will
of God ordains, the highest Christian perfection.
They yield not to the influence of the Holy Ghost
urging them to a loftier faith, an intenser hope,
and a more burning charity. They should not
be content with these divine virtues in that de-
gree which may be sufficient for salvation, but
which is not sufficient to realize the purpose of
the Holy Ghost in their regard. It may be that
he urges them even to the profession of evangeli-

368 THE HOLY GHOST IN OUR SOULS.

cal perfection ; to utter detachment from the
goods of this life, to complete denial of the in-
clinations of the flesh, to an entire surrender of
their own will. It may be He is heard whisper-
ing- in their souls, " If thou wilt be perfect, go,
sell what thou hast, and come and follow me ; "
and, like the young man in the Gospel to whom
these words were addressed by Christ in person,
they may be '' sorely grieved, because he had
great possessions ; " or they may have great at-
tachment to the little which they do possess, or
they may live in the hope of one day coming by
such temporal goods. They turn a deaf ear to
the voice of Christ: " He that will come after me,
let him take up his cross and follow me ; " " He
that loses his life for m}^ sake shall gain it." They
are content with what satisfies the great bulk of
even those who live to save their souls. They
may melt with love and compassion in reading the
lives and heroic actions of the martyrs and saints
of God, who followed wheresoever the voice of His
blood and the influence of His grace would lead
them ; but they have not the resolution or incli-
nation to imitate their example. They pass their
lives in what seems to them, in their moments of
illumination, as a sort of half or faint-hearted ser-
vice of Almighty God. These, too, grieve the
Holy Spirit of God, in not following resolutely
wheresoever He would lead them. *' He that fol-
loweth Me, walketh not in darkness."

There are still others, who are as truly given over
to a reprobate sense, as the world before the com-
ing of Christ, — " without God and without hope."

THE HOLY GHOST IN OUR SOULS. 369

If they believe in God, they live as if they believed
not ; and if they could, they would willingly de-
stroy Him. He is neither in their hearts, nor, so far
as they can make it, in the world at all ; they would
willing-ly forego Him, for sake of the years of
pleasure they can enjoy in this life ; they would
willingly barter their souls for eternity, for sake
of the short lived gratification that the prince of
this world can bestow ; they are the invincible
slaves of sin ; they are the foresworn enemies of
Christ ; they are irrevocabl}' enrolled under the
banner of the evil one ; they jeer at religion and
mock its holy ordinances; they turn the word of
God calling them to repentance into ridicule;
they would willingly efface the traces of God
written in their conscience and heart ; they would
seem to be those in whom some of the fallen
angels lingering on earth have taken up their
permanent abode; they seem to be confirmed
in iniquity ; obstinately steeled against all influ-
ences of grace ; they are the blind who cannot
see the truth and the obdurate who cannot follow
its suggestions. These, too, have grieved the
Holy Spirit of God and driven Him forever, it
would seem, from their souls. It may be that
they have incurred tlic guilt of that sin against
the Holy Ghost which we are told shall never
be forgiven, either in this life, or in the life to
come.

Behold the rank and dignity in the scale of His

creations, to which Almighty God has exalted the

soul and even the body of man, by this Divine gift

of Sanctifying grace ! To what greater height

24

370 THE HOLY GHOST IN OUR SOULS.

could he be raised? what more precious endow-
ment, what diviner glory short of His manifested
presence, could even God bestow? What royal
diadem or kingly sceptre could, for a moment, be
compared to this supreme Gift ? How true it is
that they whose souls it illustrates, are made " a
chosen people, a royal priesthood." They are
ennobled even to the level of Cherubim and Sera-
phim. All human glory, all human riches, all
that God has made in this world, and which the
heart of man most madly pursues, pales before
the glory and transcendent lustre of this Sancti-
fying grace. If we could imagine the loftiest
spirits in heaven destitute of it, they would envy
the lot of the sons of men who possessed it. How
true it is that " man has been made but little less
than the Angels, and has been crowned with glory
and honor." How even truer is it, that he has
been made equal to the Angels by the possession
of this inestimable boon of Sanctifying grace. It
is in a manner scarcely to be marvelled at, that
man as having been once the heir of this Divine
gratuity, and having, even in his fall, an aptitude for
it, moved the compassion of the Lord of heaven
and earth to become man, to suffer and to die,
that he might come again by its possession. No
wonder that the Angels in transports of admira-
tion, behold this Divine grace restored where
it once belonged ; no wonder that the splendor of
the soul rising from the foulest depths of degra-
dation and sin, and enriched again with this Divine
treasure, sends a triumph and jubilee to heaven
that make the Angels rejoice more than over the

THE HOLY GHOST IN OUR SOULS. 37 1

n.nety-nine who never lost it and therefore needed
not its recovery.

The Sanctifying grace of God is more valuable
in itself, and in its fruits, than any other of the
works of God. The glory of the sun and moon,
the ineffable wisdom and harmony which God has
bestowed u[)on the illimitable works of His hands
which the heavens show forth, are as nothing
compared with the excellence and beauty of this
Divine emanation. In the words of St. Thomas,
the least Sanctifying grace is more precious, than
all the good to be found in created nature; even
the human soul considered in the natural order,
and apart from this Divine grace, while the noblest
of God's works, is as nothing before this Divine
gift, which gives it all its real life and immortal
value. Countless are the treasures which the wit
of man has discovered in the bowels of the earth,
or drawn forth from the depths of the sea; still
more countless are those that therein lie, and
which man shall never reach. We know not
what may be the riches of Divine wisdom and
power that are spent in the unnumbered worlds
and universes of worlds that roll in space. But
we do know that all this and ten thousand times
more could never equal the incalculable value of
Sanctifying grace as conferred upon a single
human soul. We know, or, at least, we have
some faint conception of the matchless wisdom
and boundless power which the heavens, as the
handiwork of God, proclaim ; and of the manifest
evidence of God's omniscient, all-compassing
intellect which is disclosed in the smallest ele-

372 THE HOLY GHOST IN OUR SOULS.

ment of matter. And, yet, we know that all this
infinite wisdom and power of God's creations are
nothing compared with the wisdom and power
displayed in the renovation of the soul from sin
and its blightful effects, by Sanctifying grace.

A cup of cold water is the least gift that man
can confer ; and, yet, this gift conferred in the
name of Jesus Christ, and viewed as the inspira-
tion and result of Sanctifying grace dwelling in
the soul of the giver, exceeds by far all that the
most princely generosity and the most lavish
munificence could bestow ; it may be indeed the
purchase-money of the salvation of a soul, nay,
even of many souls. In God's sight it is more
precious than a fortune sacrificed from some
motive merely human ; more precious than even
kingdoms granted from considerations merely
temporal. Ten thousand kingdoms, untold fort-
unes, the world itself, if it were possible, given
away, but not for God's sake, would be nothing
before this cup of cold water bestowed in the
name of Jesus Christ, and by a soul truly ani-
mated with His spirit. It is this principle of
Sanctifying grace actuating all our works that
gives them their real value ; with it they are ac-
ceptable to God and worthy of Him ; without it
they are but refuse and worthless. " 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 ; if I have all faith so as to move
mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing ; if
I give my goods to feed the poor and my body to
be burned, and have not charit}^ it profiteth me

THE HOLV GHOST IN OUR SOULS. 373

nothing." In these words, St. Paul clearly shows
that he realized to the full the unapproachable ex-
cellence of this uns})eakable Gift. No wonder he
exclaimed, " Cursed be he wholoveth not the Lord
Jesus Christ;*' nc^ wonder that he declared that
''neither persecution, nor nakedness, nor hre, nor
the sword, nor might, nor height, northings pres-
ent, n(jr things to come, nor any other creature,
could separate him from the charity of God which
is in Christ Jesus."

Considerthcfelicity of which this Divine gratuity
is the assurance and inception, — which is its fruit
and reward. This Sanctifying grace is the germ
which will develop in immortal happiness. Even
in this life its possession constitutes the only real
happiness of the soul. Other objects men may
pursue and in them seek to satisfy the cravings
of their heart ; but, sooner or later, surfeited with
the go(^ds of this life, or disap|K)inted in their at-
tainment, thev turn to God, acknowledging that
He alone can fill their souls and satisfy their de-
sires. The soul is made for God, and can be only
truly happy when united with Ilim in the life to
come. The soul's happiness in this life can only
be in possessing God in that way which here be-
low is possible, that is, in its union with God by
Sanctifying grace. This truth so clear to the
light of reason, and so consonant with the teach-
ing of Revelation, is brought home to the mind and
heart of every one by the universal experience of
mankind. All human experience would have to
be reversed and belied before any son of Adam
could declare to be untrue, what the wisest of

374 THE HOLY GHOST IN OUR SOULS.

men has taught as the result to him of unlimited
gratification in all that passion could suggest, or
wit devise, or wealth procure : '' Vanity of vani-
ties, and all is vanity, except the love and service
of Almighty God." What is even the happiness
secured for us in this life by Sanctifying grace,
compared to the immortal bliss which this same
Sanctifying grace shall obtain for us in the life to
come, and of which it is the necessary condition
and Divine assurance ? If without grace during
life the soul is miserable, how miserable would it
be forever without it in the life to come? If the
soul which during life is possessed of this Divine
gift, rises superior to all human misfortune and
trial and disappointment and enjoys a lofty seren-
ity and unbroken bliss, how great must not be the
happiness that it shall insure the soul in the life
to come, and of which all human happiness is but
the merest foretaste and presentiment ! Sanctify-
ing grace dwelling in the soul and persevered in
till death, is the guarantee of everlasting union
with God hereafter. The soul united to God in
this life is united with Him forevermore. The
soul disunited from God in this life is disunited
from Him forever. " Eye hath not seen, nor ear
heard, nor hath it entered into the heart of man "
to conceive the glory and felicity which this Sanc-
tifying grace shall procure for us in the life to
come.

Nor can we feel that the choice of this ever-
lasting bliss is supererogatory ; a choice w^hich we
may make or not make, a preference to which we
may or may not incline, a happiness which we

THE HOLY GHOST IN OUR SOULS. 375

may or may not covet, which we may neglect, and
yet be in no worse condition than we are here
below. This choice is absolutely necessary : if we
fail to make it, we not only fail to obtain an un-
ending bliss, but we sink into everlasting misery ;
positive punishment is the consequence of spurn-
ing positive happiness ; we are not free not to
choose everlasting felicity so as yet not to choose,
or to avoid everlasting suffering ; to decline tlie
one is to incur the other. In such an issue, our
freedom is the freedom of sin, and eternal misery
or eternal bliss is the alternative before us. If
we are not sharers of God's Sanctifying grace, we
are sharers of God's withering and eternal curse,
which entails upon us punishment and sufferings
without end. Our eternal destiny hangs trembling
in the balance of our possessing, or rejecting. Sanc-
tifying grace during the days of life. A blessing
and a curse I place before you, choose ye.

The unceasing care and tireless assiduity and
unswerving perseverance to be employed in ob-
taining and retaining this Divine gift, should be
proportionate to the eternal consequences which
depend upon it, and to its own incalculable value.
As this Gift of the Holy Ghost is so precious that
the mind cannot conceive it, nor words declare it,
and as undying bliss or unending woe is the
issue which depends upon it, one would think
that man's efforts to obtain it and to cherish it,
would be continual and unlimited ; one would
think that no sacrifice could be too much, that no
life could be too long, to spend in its acquirement ;
one would think that man would value it above

376 THE HOLY GHOST IN OUR SOULS.

all the objects of human ambition, above all the
interests of this world, above all the treasures of
this earth, above all the concerns of time. It
should certainly be manifest that as eternity alone
can suffice to proclaim the value and necessity of
Sanctifying grace, so the few years of time would
be but too little to spend in its acquisition. As
immortal happiness is to be purchased, — and must
be purchased by this Divine gift ; as eternal misery
is to be avoided, — and can onl}- be avoided by the
same Divine gift; so our lives should be employed
for no other end than to attain it ; nothing else
should stand in its way, or, much less, usurp its
place. This is the teaching of good sense and
sound judgment. Yet the fact is that there is noth-
ing which men regard as less valuable, or cheaper,
or of less account, than this Sanctifying grace ;
they barter it for every, even the least, gratifica-
tion. A temporary gain, an hour's pleasure, a
night's revelry, a beastly gratification, a vengeance
gratified, — these and countless other sinful acts
are accounted by most people as more valuable,
and always to be preferred to this Divine gift of
which we speak. Such is the contradiction be-
tween man's soul illuminated by grace and freed
from sin, and man's soul destitute of heavenly
light, filled with the darkness of sin and passion,
and enslaved by the tyranny of Satan.

What can we do but pra)^ that this Divine
Spirit, Whose presence and operations in the soul
we have endeavored to describe, may come to the
rescue of all who are so minded ; that the spirit
of darkness may flee before His light, that per-

THE HOLY GHOST IN OUR SOULS. 37/

versity of the will may be rectified by His grace,
that the power of temptation and passion may be
slackened by His influence, that hearts obdurate
with sin may be softened, and led to the practice
of virtue ; that all may come to manifest, by the
manner of their life and the improvement of their
character, the appreciation of this Divine gift, and
of the eternal felicity that it leads to, which they
express by their faith and outward profession.

THE NEV/ YORK

PUBLIC LIBRARY,

ASTOW. LENOX AWD

THE PASSION OF CHRIST — THE
LESSONS OF THE CROSS

But Jesus turning to them, said : Daughters of Jerusalem,
weep not for Me, but weep for yourselves, and for your chil-
dren. For behold the days are coming in which they will say:
Happy are the barren, and the wombs that never bare, and the
breasts that never suckled. Then will they begin to say to the
mountains : Fall upon us : and to the hills : Cover us. For if
they do these things to the green tree, what will be done to the
dry ? St. Luke xxiii. 28-31.

These are the words which Our Blessed Lord
addressed to the women of Jerusalem, whom He
met weeping for His sake, as He ascended the
Hill of Calvary. And the same words may to-day
be addressed to every Christian congregation :
children of the Church weep not for me, but for
yourselves ; weep for the sons of men.

It is not my purpose to-day to seek to excite
your sympathy or compassion for Jesus suffering
and put to death. It was not to move the pity or
draw the tears of men that Jesus suffered and
died on this day. And the preacher who under-
takes to preach Christ crucified, will do well to
propose to himself some other end than that of
a transient feeling or passing tear. Discourses de-
scriptive of the sufferings of Christ may be useful,
yet it is to be feared that they too often produce

380 THE PASSION OF CHRIST.

but a momentary impression, and leav^e no lasting
fruit. I would then to-day seek rather to inform
your minds than to move your feelings ; to impart
to you solid food for thought. I would ask you
even to look beyond the sufferings and death of
Christ, and contemplate the truths to which these
sufferings give such fearful expression and por-
tentous meaning. I would ask you to meditate
upon the lessons of the Cross of Christ. This
Cross is a great book in which we can well learn
all that it most behooves us to learn. As profane
books are the mirrors in which are reflected and
by which we come to know the secrets of nature,
so the Cross of Christ is an open book, in which
we may read and come thoroughly to understand
the great truths of religion. It is intelligible to
all. It requires no painful effort of the mind, no
long-continued application. It is no elaborate
argument, no recondite dissertation, no subtle
process of reasoning. It is level to the meanest
capacity. It is worthy of the devout meditation
of the highest genius.

Let us, then, draw nigh to the Cross of Christ,
and in its light contemplate some of the truths
which it so wonderfully teaches.

Fix the passion and death of Christ well in
mind. Fix your mind upon any stage or circum-
stance of the passion which brings home to it
most forcibly, most vividly the idea of a suffering,
dying God. Let it be, if you wish, the agony in
Gethsemane, where Jesus went to pray the night
before he suffered ; let it be there where our Lord
may be said to have abandoned Himself to Him-

THE PASSION OF CHRIST. 38 1

self ; where the agony which He endured was, in
a special and true sense, self-imposed : where by
His own act He withdrew from Himself the con-
sciousness of innocence, which to every just man
suffering is a source of consolation and support,
and which has often nerved the martyr's heart to
meet death in its most awful form ; where He felt
Himself to be what, but in seeming, He could
never be : a criminal black with the guilt of all
the iniquities of men ; contemplate Him in that
garden when shutting off the support and glory
of the Godhead from His soul, there rushed in
upon it that fearful agony which issued in the
mysterious sweat of blood. Or, if you prefer it,
behold Him abandoned to the Jews, fallen a vic-
tim to the cruelty of men, crowned with thorns,
lashed at the pillar, mocked, spat upon, haled
from court to court, treated as a fool, covered
with every manner of insult and contumely. Or,
finally, look upon Him to-day raised upon the
Cross, offering Himself a victim between the up-
lifted vengeance of God, and the sins of men ;
and accepted as such, the Eternal Father lets fall
upon Him the last blow of Divine Justice resulting
in the mysterious cry, " Lord God ! why hast thou
abandoned Me?" Consider, I say, our Blessed
Lord in all or any one of these circumstances
which will give you the best idea of a suffering,
dying God. And having done so, try to give a
meaning, and a value, and a sufificiency to those
sufferings, by remembering that they are the
sufferings of a God, endured, indeed, in his human
nature ; yet, by reason of that nature's personal

382 THE PASSION OF CHRIST.

union with Divinity, in very truth, the sufferings
of a God; and as such, of an infinite value. It is
the Eternal God Who agonizes in Gethsemane,
Who suffers at the hands of the Jews, Who is
to-day raised upon the Cross. Let us come now
to learn the lessons which we have said the Cross
discloses: some of those truths of which we hear
so much, and think so little, and which are so im-
perfectly understood, because so little reflected
upon.

I ask, first, why this amazing fact of a God, suf-
fering and dying ? Alas, it is an old story ; one
which we have often heard, but which cannot be
repeated too often. Adam had sinned and fallen.
In him we all sinned and fell. In him we stood.
He was the moral head of the human race. His
fate was its fate. His destiny was its destiny. He
fell from the supernatural order. He forfeited
his supernatural destiny. He could not transmit
his supernatural inheritance to his children, any
more than a king justly bereft of his kingdom,
can transmit it to his offspring. Thus was the
whole race estranged from God, and condemned
to hell.

This fall was in itself irreparable. Adam's sin
was in itself irremediable ; there was an essen-
tial and invincible malice in it. It was not the
mere eating of the forbidden fruit, but the viola-
tion of the Divine law which forbade it. It was
the effort of the creature to rid itself of the duty
of obedience and submission which it owes to his
Creator. It was the rebellion against the Creator
of the creature endowed with free will ; the first

THE PASSION OF CHRIST. 383

exercise of its sovereign faculty. There was an
infinite malignity in it, because aimed against an
infinite God. Hence, it was inexpiable. Man
could offend, but could not appease, God. Not
all men offered up as a holocaust would suffice to
atone for sin ; not all the angels and blessed spir-
its incarnated, and suffering, and dying, could sat-
isfy the justice of God for sin.

The pagan sacrifices of expiation and mediation
betrayed the consciousness of the original fall of
our race, and of their own insufficiency to pro-
pitiate God. The Jewish sacrifices bespoke the
same consciousness of guilt ; and confessed this
same insufficiency, in looking forward to the One
Great Sacrifice which they prefigured. The
psalmist gives the reason : '' No man can pay the
price of his soul." In vain did men seek to pro-
pitiate heaven by the blood of sheep and oxen and
goats. If an atonement was to be made, if a ran-
som was to be offered, that atonement should be
of infinite efficacy, that ransom should be of price-
less value. Nothing short of an infinite sacrifice
could suffice: a God-man should be that atone-
ment : — God, that the atonement might be infin-
ite and thus equal the malice of sin ; man, that
this atonement might be reputed the satisfaction
of the race that had offended.

God, then, should suffer, or man be irretriev-
ably and hopelessly lost. Christ offered Himself
as the necessary Atonement, the all-sufficient Sac-
rifice. '* For it is impossible that sins should be
taken away by the blood of bulls and goats. There-
fore coming into the world, He saith : Sacrifice

384 THE PASSION OF CHRIST.

and oblation Thou wouldst not have: but Thou
hast fitted to Me a body. Holocausts and sacri-
fices for sin did not please Thee. Then 1 said:
Behold I come : at the head of the book it is writ-
ten of Me, to do Thy Will, O God." Heb. x. 4-7.
*' For God so loved the world, as to give His only
begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him
may not perish, but have life everlasting." John
iii. 16.

The Eternal God came upon earth, and shed
His blood worth more than hecatombs of sheep
and goats ; worth more than the blood of all the
sons of men. Because of the charity with which
He loved the world, He did not hesitate. We are
bought truly at a great price : not of corruptible
gold and silver, but with the blood of the Immac-
ulate Lamb. The All Holy takes upon Himself
the sins of men, and for their sake becomes before
His Eternal Father the criminal upon whom falls
the justice due to their guilt. By His blood is
blotted out sin and its entailed punishment. How
can we believe that such unutterable mercy has
been shown us, without tears of sorrow, without
the profoundest emotions of gratitude and love ?

How mysterious the truth that here presents
itself! God dies to satisfy the justice of God!
God dies as an expiation for sin ! Nothing less
required for man's Redemption, than the shedding
of the blood of the Incarnate God! The Creator
dies that the creature may live ! God must die
that sin may be destro3'ed, and yet destroyed in
such wise that Divine justice and majesty may re-
main inviolate. Sin is of a nature so incomprehen-

THE PASSION OF CHRIST. 385

sible, that He to Whom it is offered, must for its
expiation assume the appearance of the sinner, and
bear the load of his malice. The Second Divine
Person, charged as He is with the sins of all men,
becomes, according to St. Paul, an execration or
curse from the Father, and a reproach and out-
cast among men.

While thus as an innocent victim He bore the full
torrent of Divine vengeance ; while it penetrated
to the inmost recesses of His soul ; while His
whole being was plunged in sorrow and distress
and pain, as in a sea, God was in Him, reconcil-
ing the world to Himself; for, in Him he had
placed the power of reconciliation. By His vica-
rious sufferings were the sins of men no longer
imputed to them, but forever blotted out.

That the Creator should die for the creature ;
that the offended God should become the victim
of propitiation, while the sinner man should be-
come His executioner, is a mystery which is not
given to mortal intelligence to understand. God
could not suffer; and, yet, the sufferings endured
in His human nature derive their infinite effi-
cacy from its union with the Divine. Immor-
tality and death, the Divine and human, entered
into an alliance to restore the relation of the creat-
ure to his Creator, subverted by sin. Man fell
by pride and refused to serve ; Christ humbled
Himself to become a creature and became obe-
dient even unto death. Man had rebelled ;
heaven closed, hell opened : by the incarnation
and death of Jesus, heaven was opened and hell
closed. The creature aspired to freedom from
25

386 THE PASSION OF CHRIST.

God. God became captive in the hands of men.
The Lord of all makes Himself a worm of the
earth and an outcast from men, that the outcast
man may be restored to God and the worm of the
earth may become an inhabitant of heaven. He
suffered death that man might live. He was re-
puted a sinner, that by His justice sinners might
be justified, and that His obedience might be im-
puted to all. The Sovereignly rich strips Him-
self of all, and has not whereon to lay His head,
that men may, through His poverty and destitu-
tion, be eternally enriched.

That Christ, in His sufferings and death, was
the victim of expiation for mankind, is the very
essence and soul of the mystery of Redemption.
His prayer, in the Agony, that "this chalice might
pass from Him," His cry, upon the Cross, *' My
God, My God, why hast Thou abandoned me,"
would show that His Sacrifice was expiatory in
the highest sense, and compensatory to the Divine
justice outraged by sin. This is the stumbling
block of the Jew ; this is the folly of the Gentile.
These are the things of the Spirit of God which
the natural man cannot receive. This is the mys-
tery of Godliness which flesh and blood, " unless
drawn by the Father," cannot receive. ** O ! the
depth of the knowledge and wisdom of God, how
incomprehensible are Thy judgments and how
unsearchable Thy ways ! " Man had become a
debtor to Divine justice, and a slave to Satan.
God alone knew how to punish him, and to devise
a plan of Redemption by which man was rescued
from sin and its eternal consequences, ransomed

THE PASSION OF CHRIST. 387

from the slavery of guilt and Satan, restored to
the freedom of innocence and the children of
God, by which sin was forever destroyed, and
death made of no avail ; and yet, all this, so as
Divine justice was satisfied, sin avenged and its
malice exhausted, and the Divine Majesty and all
the Divine attributes remained inviolate.

Now we begin to feel the malice of sin that calls
for such an Atonement. What are we to think of
the nature of sin which crucified the Eternal God,
put Him to an open shame, made of Him a very
worm of the earth and an outcast from men ?
What are we to think of the deep-dyed guilt, black
malice, foul enormity of sin which was satisfied
with nothing less than the shedding of the blood
of the Incarnate God? How are we to imagine
the bitter malignity, the intense evil of sin, which
stops at nothing short, I had almost said, of the
annihilation of the God-head. Yes, my brethren, it
is in meditating upon the suffering and dying
Christ, as the Divinely appointed expiation for
sin, that we can best understand its true nature,
its deadly malice, the hatred that God bears it,
and the ruin which it brings upon our soul. Now
can we understand the justice of God which, for
one sin, flung the Angels from their high estate
down to bottomless perdition, '^ unrespited, un-
reprieved, ages of hopeless end." Now can we
understand something of the mysterious nature of
the sin of our first parents; a sin which cursed,
with an everlasting curse, not only them, but all
their posterity, and which brought into the world
the intense, horrid, wide-spread evils of which all

388 THE PASSION or CHRIST.

history is but the record, and of which we our-
selves have daily experience : evils which are still
festering in our souls ; evils that endure after the
Sacrifice of the Incarnate God ; evils that will
only cease when God Himself will come to judge
the world.

Now we begin to apprehend the justice of eter-
nal punishment. In the sufferings and death of
Christ, viewed as the only sufficient Atonement
for the sins of men, we read such a lesson of Di-
vine justice as prepares us to believe in the exist-
ence of punishment infinite, if not in intensity, at
least, infinite in duration, — nay more — to see the
fitness of it. When I look upon Jesus crucified,
when I reflect upon this fearful exhibition of Di-
vine justice, I am no longer surprised that He
has created the great pit and filled it with the
cries of deathless souls. What must be the jus-
tice of God which spared not His Only Begotten
Son ? if He spared not the Creator infinitely great,
will He spare the creature infinitely vile, a worm
of the earth ! If He hath done such things in
the green wood, what will He not do in the dry ?
If His justice required the sacrifice of His Son,
will it not require the eternal sacrifice of the sin-
ner ? Eternal punishment is the just sequel of in-
finite love despised. Eternal anger is the fit con-
sequence of eternal mercy refused. A God who
could only satisfy his love by becoming man and
dying, can only satisfy His justice by damning
the sinner to hell.

Sin is the act of the creature, turning his back
upon the Creator, and refusing the mercy and

THE PASSION OF CHRIST. 389

pardon so freely vouchsafed. God wishes no one
to perish, but to repent ; He wills not the death
of the sinner, but that he be converted and live.
He opens heaven to all and induces all to enter.
'* Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the proph-
ets and stonest those who are sent to thee, how
often would I have gathered together thy chil-
dren, as the hen doth gather her chickens under
her wings, and thou wouldst not. Behold your
house shall be left to you desolate." Then He an-
nounces the desolation that shall overtake it, be-
cause of its stiff-necked incredulity to His word
and blind obstinacy and resistance to His grace.
If, in spite of all, he is lost, shame and confusion to
the sinner. '' O Israel ! thou hast destroyed thy-
self." *' So I let them go according to the de-
sires of their heart: they shall walk in their own
devices." Ps. Ixxx. 14. Such perversity of will,
such a contempt and turning away from God,
such a renunciation of Divine goodness invokes
the Divine justice upon the head of the sinner.
'* Dost thou despise the riches of His goodness,
and patience, and long suffering ! Dost thou not
know, that the benignity of God leadeth thee to
penance ! But, after thy hardness and unpenitent
heart, thou treasurest up for thyself wrath on the
day of wrath, and revelation of the just judgment
of God, who will render to every man according to
his works. Rom. ii. "And as the Lord rejoiced
over you before, doing good to you, and multi-
plying you ; so He will rejoice in destroying and
bringing you to nought." Deut. xxviii. 63.

It is a reckless and unblushing contempt of the

390 THE PASSION OF CHRIST.

power of God, and a malign attempt to obliterate
the intrinsic relation which necessarily subsists
between the creature, and the author of his being.
God is the absolute Lord and Creator of man :
by every conceivable right and title does he be-
long to Him ; his submission and lo3'alty should
be as profound and unshaken, as the Lord's au-
thority over him is indefeasible. The clay can-
not dictate terms to the potter. We can con-
ceive no law more absolute, than that which binds
man to his duty to God. He sometimes fears
those who can kill the body ; but his fears should
be reserved for Him Who can cast both body and
soul into hell. God, b}' a just decree, makes him
feel the weight of the power which he contemns.
Thus the sinner's pride is crushed, and disturbed
order is restored. " Because thou didst not serve
the Lord thy God with joy and gladness of heart,
for the abundance of all things, thou shalt serve
thy enemy, whom the Lord will send against
thee, in hunger and thirst-, and nakedness, and
in want of all things: and he shall put an iron
yoke upon thy neck, till he destroy thee." Deut.
xxviii. 47-8.

It is rebellion against the government which
God has set up for the temporal and eternal wel-
fare of human society. The laws whose observ-
ance God requires, are founded in the very nat-
ure of things as they exist, and in their mutual
intrinsic relations to one another. He who vio-
lates these laws, violates the order and harmony
which the All-wise Creator has inscribed upon
them. Moral and free agents should freel}^ and

THE PASSION OF CHRIST. 391

by choice obey those ordinances which brute and
inanimate nature follows by the necessity of their
nature. Man's free wish should be coincident
Avith their enforced tendency. While he, in his
freedom, and by sin, may oppose himself to
God's providence in one order, yet, by his diso-
bedience, he becomes amenable to another order
of the same providence, which he cannot escape.
Inevitable compulsion follows freedom abused,
and perverted to his destruction. The harmony
disconcerted by sin, and the disturbed relations
of the Creator and creature, are restored by the
punishment which Divine justice inflicts: and,
thus, from evil God draws good, and compels
sin to serve to manifest Divine justice, and so to
further His general providence. " If ye will
not hear Me nor do My commandments, . . .
I will set my face against you : . . . I will
chasten 3^ou seven times more for your sins, and
it will break the pride of your stubbornness ;
and I will make to you heaven above as iron, and
the earth as brass ; . . . I will go against them
with fury, and I will chasten you with seven
plagues for your sins."

Yet, in this justice of God there is nothing for-
bidding, nothing to drive us to despair. He tem-
pers His justice with love. He blends one into
the other ; while He astonishes us by His justice,
he melts us by the display of his love. He is not
justice to the exclusion of love. He is not so
inexorably just, but that He is at the same time
inconceivably loving and merciful. We are such
strangers to any feeling of love for God, we are

392 THE PASSION OF CHRIST.

SO filled with ourselves, deeds of disinterestedness
are so foreign to us, that it seems extravagance to
talk of God dying out of ver}^ love for His creat-
ures. Yet, if humanity could have ever doubted
that the great Creator, of Whose justice we have
so far spoken, could be wanting in love for His
creatures, we have, this morning, but to contem-
plate the spectacle which Calvary presents, — a
spectacle, of which it is nothing to say that for
it the earth has no parallel, — a scene which the
human mind is utterly inadequate to conceive, —
a sight upon which the Angels look down in
transports of wonder and amazement. Sacrifice
is of the very essence of love ; love is to be meas-
ured by what it does, gives, and suffers, for its
object. There is no real love without self-sacri-
fice. It is the test of the depth and tenderness
and strength of love. What can we do but fall
down in silent adoration of the unutterable Self-
sacrifice which the Hill of Calvary to-day affords.
The Lord of Infinite Holiness and Adorable Maj-
esty at Whose sight heaven and earth do tremble,
and the Angels hide their heads, dies the death of
a malefactor ! Jesus, the All-holy, takes upon Him
the form of a sinner and offers Himself as a sacri-
fice to the Eternal Father for the sins of all men.
Why this uncounted expenditure, this extrava-
gant profusion of the charity of God ? Could
man have been ransomed at no less price? Would
nothing less have sufficed for our redemption than
this astounding self-sacrifice of the Incarnate God !
Why did it not please Him to require the sacrifice
of a man, or the blood of all men ? Or why did

THE PASSION OF CHRIST. 393

not an Angel or a choir of Angels assume our
nature, and die ; and thus save the shedding of the
blood of the Only Begotten Son of God ? Such
a sacrifice would not have been sufficient, it is
true ; yet, it could have been accepted, as such,
by Almighty God. Or, if Divine justice did re-
quire the shedding of the blood of the Incarnate
God, why was it not satisfied with one stroke of
the scourge, one puncture of the thorn-crown,
one moment of the agony, one drop of that Sacred
Blood, which would have sufficed to atone for the
sins of ten thousand worlds ? Why drain out
that agonizing heart? Why endure a passion of
such untold agony and grief? Why die a death
of such inconceivable suffering, such unutterable
woe? We cannot say why God should love us*
with so amazinof a love. We cannot begfin to
comprehend the motive of such lavish, such un-
bounded love. God's ways and wisdom are so far
above ours, infinitude so far surpasses what is
finite, God the Creator, is so far above man, the
creature. We can only say that God is infinite ;
infinite in all His attributes, infinite therefore in
His love. What He does. He does in an infinite,
God-like manner. It was to manifest this love
that He became man ; that He endured the awful
agony of the passion, and the ignominy of the
cross.

What can we, in return, do, but spend our lives
in the love and service of Him Who hath loved
us with so absorbing, so consuming a love. A
man who lays down his life for another, performs
an act of goodness so unheard of, that we shall

394 THE PASSION OF CHRIST.

long search history in vain for such an example.
The man who dies for his country, secures for his
name an immortality on earth and is forever en-
shrined in the hearts of men. What are the Di-
vine and eternal claims of Christ Jesus upon our
gratitude ! And we need go no farther to find a
motive for Christ's love. He wished by His prod-
igal display of love, to excite us, in return, to His
love. He loved that He might be loved. He
would kindle our love by the fire of His own.
And in this love consists, St. Thomas tells us, the
perfection of human nature. It shall find its glory
and bliss in eternal union with God in the life to
come. Here below it shall find its perfection and
happiness in that union which, in this life, alone
is possible ; the union with God by faith, hope,
and charity.

Faith makes the truths of religion as real, by the
sense of hearing, as visible objects are, by the
sense of sight. Not because we see an object is
it any truer, than if made known to us by those
who liave knowledge of it. Hence, St. Paul des-
ignates faith as the substantial realizing of what
we hope for. Owing to the merits of Christ, and
His gratuitous promises, and our performance of
the conditions required, we come to live in the
unfailing hope of one day entering into the pos-
session of what faith discloses. Seeing that our
eternal bliss is to consist in union with the God-
head, which union must be Avrought here below,
if wrought at all, Ave come to be united Avith our
Beginning and Last end, by the bonds of charity;
so that we can in truth feel, " what can separate

THE PASSION OF CHRIST. 39$

US from the love of God in Christ ? " Upon this
foundation of faith, this assurance of hope, in this
union of charity, the man of God passes his life ;
and upon it is constituted his sanctity and true
happiness here below. And this, because it is the
nearest he can get to the Eternal union, for which
he has been made, and is an indispensable con-
dition thereto.

THE NKV/ YC'RK

PUBLIC LIBRARY,

ASTON. LENOX ^KD
TILOEN FO'JNnATI'JN?.

Mjmi

THE PASSION OF CHRIST.

{Continued.)

Now I begin to put a value on my soul when I
see the price paid for it. When I consider the
wondrous plan of the Incarnation to which Divine
wisdom had recourse ; when I consider the mar-
vels of wisdom shown in the Redemption; when
I consider the love and blood poured out in the
sufferings and death of Christ, to redeem man
from sin, yet so as not to leave Divine justice un-
avenged, I begin to realize the boundless value of
a human soul. He who best knew its worth, hesi-
tated not to shed His blood for it. That soul
must be spiritual in its essence, which the Incar-
nate Word purchased with His blood; a gross
material being, destined to corruption, could
never invoke such a ransom. That soul must be
immortal in duration, for which the Immortal
God did not refuse to die ; immortality would
never have made such a sacrifice for a being
whose duration would be confined to the limits
of time. That soul must be capable of enjoying
infinite bliss, or enduring undying woe, when
there was such a Redemption, to regain for it the
one, and to rescue it from the other ; such a price
would never have been paid for a deliverance

398 THE PASSION OF CHRIST.

from transient suffering, or for obtaining tempo-
rary joy. Boundless, endless in its hopes and as-
pirations must the soul be, when God's love for
it was so great as to exhaust the fountain of Di-
vine Charity and to constrain the Son of God to
become man.

Christ suffering and dying teaches me, too, this
important lesson : that self - denial is the only
means of salvation ; that the road to heaven is the
road to Calvary, the royal way of the Cross.
True happiness would be in a return to the state
in which man was created, which is no longer
possible. The nearest approach to that state, and
even to the felicity of the life to come, springs
from the subjection of the passions to reason,
enlightened by God's holy law, and the submis-
sion of reason to God's will and revelation. This
was the felicity of our first parents, constituted,
as they were, in original justice and sanctifying
grace. When they fell they lost it. Ever since
it has been exiled from earth. Never again shall
we enjoy it until we return, as far as may be, to
that original state. To come to, once again, that
lost happiness, to hold passion under the control
of reason, and reason in harmony with God's
sovereign will, has, ever since, been the aim of
every Saint, the summit of Christian virtue, the
scope and purpose of all religion. For this did
Christ set us the example of suffering. '' Did it
not behoove Him to suffer, and so enter into His
glory ? " For this did the Saints imitate Him ;
for, those whom He predestined to glory, He
predestined to be made like unto the image

THE PASSION OF CHRIST. 399

of His Son. There is no religion without suf-
fering.

The Saints thought it a small thing to lay down
their lives joyfully, and to pour out their blood,
like water, for salvation. We hesitate to make
the least sacrifice; has salvation become cheaper?
We are the children of the Saints ; we have in-
herited their example; are we faithful to it? Are
we walking that path, narrow, and steep, and dif-
ficult on every side, which leads to Calvary, and
through Calvary to glory? or are we, Judas-like,
betraying the 'cause of Christ, and treading that
broad, and downward, and facile path so easily
found and so generally pursued ? Does it not
behoove us to suffer, and so enter into glory ?
There is no salvation, without that degree of suf-
fering which is required to bring every passion
into subjection to reason, and reason to the truth
of God.

Study the suffering and self-sacrifice disclosed
on the Cross. Let the avaricious man who lives
for nothing but to aggrandize himself and family,
look upon Jesus Christ dying, naked u})on the
Cross, and destitute of all things ; and does he
feel no sinking of his love of the things of life, when
he beholds the Sovereignly rich, for our sake dy-
ing poor? Let him who blasphemes Providence
for the wrongs which He permits, and who re-
signs himself not to His gracious dispensations,
ponder the lesson which the Cross teaches of
God's permission of the blackest wrongs, and of
the Saviour's meek submission. Let the vindic-
tive man who refuses to forgive, and who seeks

400 THE PASSION OF CHRIST.

vengeance as his due, and as the recognized right,
listen to Jesus : " Father, forgive them, for they
know not what they do." Let him who wal-
lows in passion, who breathes impurity with his
every breath, behold the Lord suffering in every
nerve, mortified in every feeling, and dying
amidst torment and agony. Let the proud be-
hold the Lord humbled to the condition of a
worm of the earth, and become an outcast from
men ; " Who, although He thought it not robbery
to be equal to God, yet humbled Himself to the
death of the cross ;" and what a lesson should we
not learn of self-abasement? By contemplating
these, and other virtues as illustrated and incul-
cated in the suffering and dying Lord, Whom to
follow is not to walk in darkness but in light,
we shall learn how to live.

As Jesus in His life taught us how to live, in
His death he teaches us how to die. He gives us
an example of every virtue, an exemplification of
all He had ever taught. By His mildness, meek-
ness, patience, resignation to the will of His
Father, suffering for justice's sake, submitting to
an undeserved death in its most disgraceful form.
He shows us that death should have no terrors
for the just who have conformed themselves to
His example ; He shows us that we, too, are to be
ready to meet death, if God and the salvation
of our souls require it.

Who does not shudder at the certain prospect
of death, the extinction of life? Who does not
cling to life ? — life, which has charms even for the
beggar of ninety, who has lived destitute of all that

THE PASSION OF CHRIST. 401

would make it desirable, or at least endurable, no
less than for him who has enjoyed all that it affords.
Who does not shrink from the grave ? to decay,
to rot, to be as if we had never been, or rather
worse ; for, having tasted life, the deprivation is
greater than if we had never known it. Who can
submit with resignation to the infliction of the
primal curse, " Dust thou art, and into dust thou
shalt return." What awithering, chilling prospect !
Well thought on, it stops the blood and paralyzes
all our feelings. Who can bear the thought of
the sundering, even for a time, of this soul and
body, mated together for an eternal alliance ? But
all this has been reversed : our doom has been
blotted out : in the grave of Christ we are reborn
to life, to incorruption, and to immortality. There
we learn that they who are dead, shall live. To
gain our real life, we must lose this. The portals
that close on this, open on our eternal life. We
enter on the reality when we have passed from
the shadow. Our eternal birth is coincident with
our temporal death. Death, then, shall not have
dominion over us. His death has made ours of no
avail. '' He died for our sins, and rose again for
our justification." " He rose the first fruits of
them that sleep." By His death, He has pur-
chased for us the grace which is the pledge of our
own resurrection. If we endure the separation
of soul and body, if we sink into the earth,
we shall only follow the example of Him Who
has sanctified death and robbed the grave of its
horrors.

Who does not feel the loss of the objects of
26

402 THE PASSION OF CHRIST.

this life; its riches, honors, pleasures? Who does
not feel the pang of leaving forever relatives,
friends, companions? But Christ consoles for
these losses, bj teaching us, that all which we
prize in the world, is but the faintest reflex of the
reward which He has prepared for them who
love Him and keep His commandments ; — is but
as the shadow to the substance, the figure to the
reality ; that to our relatives and friends we shall
again be united in the day and world where
'' there will be neither marriage, nor given in
marriage, but where we shall be as the Angels
of God."

Who does not tremble at the thought of the
judgment which it is appointed to every man
to undergo : " Once to die, and after death be
judged ;" " Man shall render an account of every
idle word." Who knows which of the dread
alternatives, resting upon this judgment, eternal
bliss or eternal woe, shall be his ? But Jesus has
deprived that tribunal of its terrors, and has dis-
armed the justice of God. He endured in his
own person, the punishment which of right was
ours. If we are still liable to the adverse sentence
and to eternal misery, the responsibility is with
ourselves ; it is our own doing, it is our own per-
versity and free choice. As in Him we have
all been made to live, it rests with ourselves, by
our manner of life during this probation, whether
we shall hear the sentence of consolation, or be
consumed with the dire malediction.

The future life, which till Christ was dark, deep,
and mysterious, is no longer so. Its darkness is

THE PASSION OF CHRIST. 403

dispelled by the light of the truth, the primal curse
is blotted out. Its depths have no terror for those
who are supported by the power of God. " When
thou shaft pass through the waters I will be with
thee: and the rivers shall not cover thee : when
thou shalt walk in the hre, thou shalt not be
burnt; and the flames shall not burn in thee."

The bondage of Adam is become the freedom
of Christ. His death has been our deliverance.
The future is not deprived of God, and sunk in
misery. Nor is our destiny annihilation. The
words, "Dust thou art, and into dust thou shalt
return," have become, ** O grave, where is thy
victory, O death, where is thy sting." Its myste-
riousness is illumined by the words of Christ:
'' For the hour cometh in which all that are in the
graves shall hear the voice of the Son of God,
and shall come forth, some unto the resurrection
of life, some unto the resurrection of judgment."
•' I am the resurrection and the life. He that be-
lieves in Me, even though dead, shall live ; and
every one that lives and believes in Me, shall not
die forever." " He that eateth My body, and
drinketh My blood abideth in Me and I in him,
and I will raise him up at the last day." '' For if
the .Spirit of Him Who raised Jesus from the
dead, dwells in you. He Who raised Jesus from
the dead, will resuscitate your mortal bodies,
because of the Holy Ghost dwelling in them."
''This corruption must put on incorruption ; this
mortal must put on immortality."

In the Mystery of the passion and death of
Jesus Christ, there was a hidden virtue and power

404 THE PASSION OF CHRIST.

capable of drawing to Him, '' all whom the Father
had given to Him : " " For no one cometh to the
Son, save the Father draw him." To all such, the
Cross of Christ has proved itself the potent in-
strument of salvation.

The Divine virtues and holiness which the
Saviour exhibited in every stage and circumstance
of His passion and death, manifested His Divinity :
He was, indeed, " predestined the Son of God in
holiness." His patience under calumny and insult.
His resignation to the will of His Father, when
the anguish of His soul forced from Him the
prayer that the chalice of His agony might pass
away from Him," His meekness and constancy
under contumely and bodily suffering. His pray-
ing, even in death, to His Eternal Father for His
executioners and those guilty of His blood, '' for
they knew not what they did," His spirit of forti-
tude, in suffering without complaint or resent-
ment, the basest outrages, the most lying cal-
umnies, and excruciating torments, when He had
at His command ''twelve legions of angels," —
these were the unmistakable evidences of the
virtues of a God made Man.

He was charged with perverting the Jewish
nation, although He had declared '' that He»had
not come to destroy, but to fulfil; ".and when
they would make Him King, He had fled : He
was charged with counselling not to give tribute to
Cagsar, when He had commanded that *' to Cassar
should be rendered what belonged to him, and to
God what was His." He was charged with be-
ing an evil-doer, when, truly, He had performed

THE PASSION OF CHRIST. 405

every manner of good work, and when He had
openly challenged any one '' to accuse Him of
sin." Pilate bore witness to His innocence, declar-
ing^that he found no cause of death in Him.''
But the Jews, upon whom He had showered un.
counted benefits and miracles and blessino^s, were
resolved that " His blood should be on themselves,
and on their children." Submission under such
calumnies, and when vindicated by the voice of
authority, was not the submission of a character
merely human. He alone, Who was conscious
that His condemnation, sufferinors, and death
were the Divinely-appointed sacrifice for sin, and
the redemption of mankind, in the ordering of a
Divine providence of which the Jews were but
the instruments, though guilty, could be capable
of so ready a resignation to injustice, and so pro-
found a willingness to suffer and die.

In the Apostles demanding that fire be sent from
heaven to destroy the people of Samaria, who had
not received them, and in Peter's drawing his
sword and cutting off the ear of Malchus, the ser-
vant of the High Priest, we see what human nat-
ure, when stung by insult, or exasperated under
wrong, is capable of. In Christ's reproof of the
Apostles, that they knew not of what spirit they
were, in commanding Peter to put up his sword,
for all who take it perish by it, in remaining upon
the Cross, in spite of the jeers and taunts of his
enemies, to consummate the work of redemption,
when He could incontestably have descended un-
injured,— in all this we see a virtue and holiness
All Divine. His descent from the Cross would

406 THE PASSION OF CHRIST.

as little have convinced the Jews, as the resur-
rection of Lazarus from the dead (a greater mira-
cle), and which had served as the occasion of
His apprehension and trial and death.

The great prophecies, which had kept alive in
the minds and hearts of men the promise made
by Almighty God, on the day when man fell, of a
future redemption, had been fulfilled by Christ.
Daniel's seventy weeks of years that should
elapse " From the going forth of the word to
rebuild Jerusalem, unto Christ the Prince," ex-
pired at the end of the Saviour's career. He was
slain at the middle of the last week, or in the
four hundred and eighty-seventh year from the
going forth of the command to restore the Holy
City. The prophecy of Jacob, that ''The scep-
tre should not pass away from Juda till He come
Who is to be sent," was verified when Jerusalem
fell before the Roman arms in the very generation
of Christ, and in obedience also to His own pre-
diction. The second Temple, which was to be
yet standing when the Messiah would come, and
Whose presence was to be its glory and to render
it even greater than the first, to which, materially,
it was incomparably inferior, has long since passed
away ; it was destroyed in the conflagration inci-
dent to the fall of Jerusalem, and in spite of the
efforts of the Roman generals to save it.

In every circumstance and incident of His pas-
sion and death, Christ fulfilled to the letter, all
that had been foretold, by Moses and the proph-
ets, concerning Him. His iniquitous condemna-
tion. His barbarous treatment, the unrestrained

THE PASSION OF CHRIST. 407

cruelty of His passion, and atrocious death, to-
gether with every detail attending each, had been
clearly preannounced. His continual remark,
" How then can it be fulfilled which was spoken
by the prophet," indicates that He had, indeed,
come " to fulfil the law," and the consuming
desire, that He should discharge His mission.
" The man of sorrows," '' He Who was acquainted
with infirmity," " He Who was wounded for our
iniquities, and bruised for our sins," '' He of
Whom a bone would not be broken," " Upon
Whose vesture they would cast lots," " Who would
be sold for thirty pieces of silver, to be spent for
a potter's field," was as real to the vision of Isaiah
and Jeremiah and the other prophets, as He was
seen on Calvary by the Jews and by his execu-
tioners, who unconsciously fulfilled their predic-
tions.

Jesus Christ Himself uttered prophecies, which
even in His own time, and since, have been glori-
ously fulfilled. Thus He showed that He pos-
sessed that intimate knowledge of the hearts of
men and of future free events, depending upon
the free actions of contingent persons and causes,
which is the property of God alone. To know
the future, belongs to Him alone with Whom
there can be no past, nor present, nor future, but
before Whose all-seeing, all-comprehending vision,
all things are naked and open. " The Son of Man,"
said He to the Apostles long before any action
against Him by the Jews was meditated, " must
go up to Jerusalem, and suffer many things, that
all written concerning Him may be fulfilled ; die,

408 THE PASSION OF CHRIST.

and the third day rise again." No fewer than
four times was this prediction uttered. And the
Son of iNIan went up to Jerusalem, suffered much
from the hands of the Jews, died, and the third day
rose again, and all written of Him was abundantly,
and to the letter verified. " Why this waste?"
exclaimed Judas, when Mary Magdalene poured
the ointment upon His feet, in preparation, as it
proved, for His death and burial, "it could have
been sold for much and given to the poor;" as if
the treacherous and money-loving heart of him
who afterwards sold his blaster for thirty pieces
of silver, could have had any regard for the poor.
" Amen, I say to you, that wherever this Gospel
shall be preached, that also which she hath done,
shall be told as a memorial of her." And to-day,
from the rising to the setting sun, the story of
Mary's love and constancy is narrated. " An evil
and adulterous s^eneration seeketh a sisfn, and a
sign shall not be given it, but the sign of Jonas in
the whale's belly. For as Jonas was in the
whale's belly three days, so shall the Son of Man
be three days in the bosom of the earth." And
the Son of Man was three days in the bosom of
the earth, whence He rose glorious and immortal
the third day. *' Destroy this temple, and in three
days I will rebuild it." And they destroyed that
temple of His body, and in three days He rebuilt
it with increased beauty, and transcendent endow-
ments, and eternal glory. '' A-men, I say to you,
that one of you is about to betray me." And
Judas forthwith dipped his hand in the dish, giving
the sign of him who was to betray Him. " Al-

THE PASSION OF CHRIST. 4O9

though all should be scandalized in thee, yet not
I," exclaimed the impetuous and over-confident
Peter. '' Amen, I say to thee, that this night, before
the cock crow, thou wilt deny me thrice." And
that night, before the cock crew, Peter denied his
Master. '' He went out and wept bitterly remem-
bering the word that Jesus had spoken." The
morning found him shedding those bitter tears,
which he never ceased to shed, and which eventu-
ally furrowed his cheeks. When thou shaft have
risen from, and done penance for, the fault into
which thou art about to fall, " confirm thy breth-
ren : " and from then till now, Peter, in himself and
in his successors, has not failed to confirm his breth-
ren in the faith ; his own being made secure by
the efficacy of Christ's prayer. " When I shall be
lifted up, I will draw all things to myself : " and
He has drawn all things to Himself, either unto
His love, or unto His condemnation. " He is
set for the fall and rising of many in Israel."
He foretold the ruin of Jerusalem, even before
His generation should pass away, in words than
which nothing more feeling or pathetic is to
be found in all literature. He described the
dire distress, the heart-rending scenes, the har-
rowing details that should accompany it, and de-
clared it to be the just retribution for all the in-
nocent blood which the Jews had shed, from the
blood of Abel the just even unto the blood of
Zachariah and His own. And while His blood
yet bedewed Calvary, the Roman armies sur-
rounded the city ; and after a siege the most cruel,
and sufferings the most unparalleled that history

4IO THE PASSION OF CHRIST.

records, Jerusalem was destroyed ; its Temple
given to the flames, its lofty towers dismantled,
its walls razed to the ground, and not a stone was
left upon a stone to tell where it had once stood.
The Roman general tried hard to save the Tem-
ple, but declared that its destruction, and that of
the whole city, was clearly the work of the Most
High ; for his arms and forces had been insufihcient
to overcome such impregnable fortifications.

Not alone by tlic exact fulfilment of all that
had been written concerning the Messiah, and by
His own prophecies, then, and since luminously
verified, but by the performance of miracles, and
by the visible testimony of nature, even in the
midst of what, to human eyes, might seem the
season of His weakness and confusion, did Jesus
Christ proclaim His eternal power and divinity.
In His passion, He was comforted by an Angel
sent from heaven in answer to His prayer of res-
ignation to the will of His Father. On the first
approach of the soldiers sent to apprehend Him,
they fell prostrate before Him, overcome by the
majesty of His bearing, and probably, too, by
the consciousness of the iniquity of their er-
rand. He restored the ear of Malchus, which
Peter in his hot indignation had cut off. There
was darkness over the earth from the sixth to the
ninth hour; and whether this was confined to the
land of Judea, or extended over the whole globe,
the occurrence was equally prodigious, and equal-
ly the attestation of nature suiting itself to and
abhorring the black deed of Deicide. When the
God of nature suffered, no wonder that even in-

THE PASSION OF CHRIST. 41I

animate nature by the power of its Creator, ex-
pressed its horror at the crime perpetrated by man,
His free and noblest being. The creation await-
ing for its redemption, according to the mind of
St. Paul, could not fail to manifest its sense of the
value and plan of that Divinely-wrought deliver-
ance. The earth shook, the rocks were rent, the
graves were opened, the dead arose and appeared
to many. The veil which separated the holy of
holies from the body of the Temple, was rent in
twain from top to bottom, thus signifying the end
of the Old Law with its types and symbols, and
the removal of all obstacles that stood between
the creature and his Creator, hindering his ap-
proach to Him. The centurion who stood by the
Cross, struck by all that he saw and heard, ex-
claimed, " This, truly, was the Son of God."
Those others also who stood by during the Cru-
cifixion returned, striking their breasts, uttering
the same Divinelj'-infused faith. The two thieves
who were executed on either hand, may well be
taken as types of the predestination which exists
in God's eternal counsels. His life and death
were, indeed, ordained for the fall and rise of many
in Israel. To the penitent thief was given par-
don and the promise of glory : the impenitent,
who with the executioners reviled the Saviour of
men, died in his blasphemy and impenitence.

In this act of forgiving sin, and promising para-
dise, Jesus Christ, with His dying breath, claims
the power which during life He had claimed and
wrought miracles to establish ; and shows unmis-
takably His consciousness of the truth of His

412 THE PASSION OF CHRIST.

divinity. At the same time, He proclaims the
reality of His sufferings, by the cry, " Lord God !
why hast thou forsaken Me?" thereby indicating
the withdrawal, by his own act, or the suspension
or retirement, in some manner, of His divinity.
Having thus, for the last time, proclaimed His di-
vinity by the exercise of God's prerogative, and
His humanity by the declaration of the reality of
His sufferings. He seals the truth by commend-
ing with the utmost confidence His soul into the
hands of His Father, and gives up His Spirit.

St. Paul had sounded the depth of the philos-
ophy of the passion and death of Christ when he
declared that he gloried in the Cross of Christ :
'' God forbid that I should glory in aught else,
save the Cross of the Lord Jesus Christ." *' For
seeing, that in the wisdom of God the world, by
wisdom, knew not God ; it pleased God by the
foolishness of preaching to save those who be-
lieve. For both the Jews ask for signs, and
the Greeks seek after wisdom : but we preach
Christ crucified : to the Jews indeed a stumbling-
block, and to the Gentiles foolishness; but to
those who are called, Jews and Greeks, Christ the
power of God, and the wisdom of God : for the
foolishness of God is wiser than men : and the
weakness of God is stronger than men."

In entire harmony with this Divinely-ordained
economy disclosed in the passion and death of
Christ for the world's salvation, was the means
elected to continue and perpetuate it among men.
" But the foolish things of the world hath God
chosen, to confound the wise : and the weak

THE PASSION OF CHRIST. 413

things of the world hath God chosen, to con-
found the strong : and the base things of the
world, and the things which are despised, hath
God chosen, and the things that are not, that He
might bring to naught those things which are :
that no flesh may glory in His sight." Such is
'' the wisdom of God in a mystery " "■ which none
of the princes of this world knew ; for if they had
known it, they would not have crucified the Lord
of Glory," and which, under the superintending
providence of God, has been ordained for the
world's redemption. Its weakness is its power,
its shame is its glory, its triumph is the victory
of God, ''that no flesh may glory in His sight."
'' This is the victory that overcometh the world,
our Faith."

Has He succeeded? The disclosures of the last
day will make it known. There can be no doubt of
it. There may be those who still refuse to believe
in Him ; there are those who would not hearken
to Him even if He returned to earth. '' No one
can come to the Son save the Father draw him."
Faith is not the gift of flesh and blood ; it is the
gift of the Eternal Father. " The Cross is to all
that perish, foolishness ; but to those who are
saved, the power of God." Yes, Jesus has tri-
umphed. " Fear not, little flock, for I have over-
come the world." The power manifested in the
Crucifixion of Christ has been manifested ever
since wherever Christ crucified has been preached.
The Cross has overcome the world : from it has
gone forth a virtue, and an influence, and a
grace, which has more than matched and over-

414 THE PASSION OF CHRIST.

come the maxims and wisdom and power of the
world.

In His passion, He was charged with aspiring
to be king: but He has become the King of an
empire, of which the loftiest ambition or the
most aspiring human pride never dreamt : the
Spiritual Kingdom of souls and consciences. In
derision, a sceptre was put into His hands: that
sceptre has become the emblem of an authority,
before which pales authority, the most despotic
of human power. In mockery, He was crowned
with thorns : that thorn-crown has blossomed into
a diadem of glory, before which fades the lustre
of all human thrones and dynasties. In ignominy,
He was nailed to a cross : that Cross has become
His everlasting Throne ; as inseparable from Him,
as the humanity which was nailed to it, is insep-
arable from His divinity. That sign shall be in
heaven, when He will come to judge the living
and the dead.

The mysteries and the truths which we have
been considering are, at once, the loftiest that
can engage the human mind, and the most neces-
sary to shape wisely our lives. May, then, the
great lessons of the Cross be fruitful in our souls :
may they reap more than a transient emotion ;
may their effect be abundant and abiding, show-
ing itself in changed thoughts, and a renewed
life ; may they ever be with us to fill our souls,
and to direct our actions, that we may so live this
life as to be made partakers of the next ; may they
be with us in the day of our death as the only
source of our consolation, the only assurance of

THE PASSION OF CHRIST. 415

our salvation. May we, to-day, die to our sins, in
image of His death, that we may rise with Him
three days hence, in image of His resurrection,
to a new life which purity, innocence, charity,
patience, justice, temperance, and every kind
of Christian virtue may illustrate; which will be
a pledge and foretaste of the future life which
Christ has purchased for us by His sufferings and
death.

THE NEW YORK

PUBLIC LIBRARY,

ASTOR, LENO>
TILDEN FCV

THE EXISTENCE OF HELL.

As. then, cockle is gathered up, and burnt in the fire, so will it
be at the end of the world. The Son of Man will send His an-
gels, and they shall gather out of His kingdom all scandals, and
those who work iniquity ; and cast them into the furnace of fire :
there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.— St. Matt. xiii.
40-42.

And fire came down from God out of heaven and consumed
them ; and the devil who seduced them was cast into the lake of
fire and brimstone, where both the beast and the false prophet
shall be tormented day and night forever and ever.— Apoc. .\x.
9-10.

God has established a moral law in the world.
It is manifested to us by our conscience, which is
the voice of God speakini^ in our hearts. Every
law presupposes a lei^islator. The moral law can
emanate from Him alone Who is at once the
Maker of man's moral nature and the Source of
morality. It is essential to the very idea of law
that it have some sanction or penalty to secure its
enforcement: hence no human law is made with-
out a penalty upon those who refuse it obedience.
What human wisdom has found necessary for
laws ordained for the welfare of human society,
Divine wisdom has established to secure the ob-
servance of the moral law. Yet Divine wisdom
goes farther; and not content with punishment
for the violation, also assig-ns rewards for the
faithful observance, of its laws.
27

41 8 THE EXISTENCE OF HELL.

We do not find this sanction of the moral law in
this world. Hence we must look for it in the next.
We see that such rewards as this world affords,
are, for the most part, enjoyed by those who
would have least claim to them on the ground of
their faithful observance of the moral law ; and
those who might claim them on this score, are,
for the most part, deprived of them, and com-
pelled frequently to pass life, it may be, in destitu-
tion and suffering. God would be indifferent to
virtue and vice, if there were no future rewards
or punishments. The cause of virtue must neces-
sarily be His cause, and the virtuous His friends.
Vice and its votaries can have no claim upon
Him. Few are disposed to call in question the
existence of heaven. No one is inclined to doubt
whatever he desires, or whatever will yield him
happiness. His misgivings begin when required
to believe what may be repugnant to his feelings,
and to his notions of what an Infinite being should
do. Yet, if there is a heaven, there must be a
hell ; the one argues the existence of the other.
If all the wicked, no less than the good, are to
enter heaven, there is no reward, and there is no
essential difference between virtue and vice. If
the good are to be rewarded, the wicked are to be
punished. Exclusion from heaven would itself be
a hell. As the good are to be rewarded, posi-
tively, with felicity far beyond that to which they
may lay any rightful claim ; so the wicked are
to be punished, not only negatively, by the depri-
vation of this reward, but also positively, by the
infliction of punishment which will bear a just

THE EXISTENCE OF HELL. 419

proportion to the malice of sin, and the moral dis-
order which they have caused in the world.

The pursuit of virtue is arduous and difficult.
It is beset with obstacles. Man is prone to vice.
The lust of his heart is to be slackened and over-
come. External temptations are to be vanquished
or shunned. Continual vigilance and effort are
the price of virtue. After years of innocence,
vice may obtain the mastery. Yet virtue is neces-
sary to the salvation of every man. There must,
therefore, be an inducement to its practice and a
compensation for the sacrifices it calls for. There
must be a deterrent and dissuasive from vice.
Grief and pain and anguish proportionate to the
offence, should be the portion of those who have
sought the unhallowed delights of sin ; punish-
ment proportionate should be the Avages of the
sinner.

As it belongs to God to ascribe sanctions to
His law, it is His right to ordain such as He may
deem sufficient or necessary. In this, He will act
as the universal Ruler and Disposer of all things.
He will consider not merely the means that may
be necessary to the observance of His law, but
also, what may conduce to His final purpose in
the creation of the world. He will ordain means
compatible with the freedom of the human will,
and the economy upon which He has been pleased
to place the salvation of man. According to this
sense, whatever means or sanction He ordains
will be absolutely sufficient, although man may
still be at liberty, in the exercise of free will, to
contemn it. The only means absolutely sufficient.

420 THE EXISTENCE OF HELL.

at once, to allure to virtue and to overcome vice,
is perpetual happiness for the one, and perpetual
pain for the other. Any retribution short of this,
would be insufficient. Although even this may
seem insufficient to many, yet it is owing to their
perversity, which leads them to try to reconcile
sin with salvation, and the commission of sin, with
the prospect of future pardon. No one deliber.
ately and irrecoverably abandons the hope of sal-
vation. The retributions of the future life would
be insufficient, only where one could knowingly
abandon them for something else. The sanction
with which God has confirmed the moral law% is
absolutely sufficient, whatever man in the free-
dom of his will, may do. If so many in their
blindness, shut their eyes to the eternal character
of future rewards and punishments, and give
themselves to the gratification of sin with the
hope of some time rising from it, how would it be
if the future retributions were anything short of
eternal? If the eternal scarcely holds man to his
duty, how little observance of the moral law would
there be, if there was any hope of future allevia-
tion or pardon? Eternal sanction is alone suffi-
cient. If there was a limit to future punishment
or reward, there would be, in a manner, some ex-
cuse for the sinner's infidelity. Future hope, re-
laxing his obligations, would extenuate his guilt.
Nor could the offence be without limit, Avhose
punishment was one day to end.

It belongs to God to declare when the retribu-
tions which are the sanction of the moral law,
shall take place. Naturally, we should look for

THE EXISTENCE OF HELL. 421

them when the law itself will cease ; with the
death of the individual, and the termination of
human society. God is, assuredly, free to make
the period of probation, that of human life. There
is no reason why it should not expire then as at
any remote period in the future. There is fully
as much reason why we should experience re-
ward and punishment after the years of this life,
be they few or many, as after uncounted ages.
Nor can it be said that man has a right to a longer
time. It is for the Creator to declare the term of
the creature's probation. God's omniscience can
perceive that the shortest span of life suffices for
this, as much as the longest. He who has no
right to time at all, has no right to its farther in-
stalments. He who has no right to sin at all, has
no right to sin for a longer time. In the exercise
of free will man should follow the li^ht of his in-
tellect ; but this teaches him that sin is the great-
est of disorders and therefore to be avoided at
every sacrifice. To sin, consequently, is to abuse
the freedom of the will. How long this abuse shall
continue, it belongs to God to declare and not to
the sinner. He who is justly condemned for his
first offence, has no right to opportunity to repeat
it. Sin has no risfht to dictate terms to God and
to demand a longer impunity, a broader field, or
a more lengthened opportunity. The creature
has no right to sin, and sin has no claim upon the
sinner, and neither has any claim upon God. He
could, in justice, have annihilated both in the act of
the very first sin. Sin, accordingly, has no claim
that the period of transgression be prolonged.

422 THE EXISTENCE OF HELL.

God, then, can decree the hour of death to be the
hour of retribution.

They who question the existence of hell, fail to
understand the nature and enormity of sin, and
the infinite perfections and attributes of the God-
head. The sinner, as a creature, belongs to God,
as his Creator, by every title. Over him, God
has the most indefeasible right and dominion ; to
God, the creature is bound, by the most inalien-
able duty and subjection. From God the creature
came as from his cause. To Him he is bound to
return according to his nature, in the use of free
will, as to his final end. To hold him to this
duty, God has disclosed the retributions of the
future life, alluring free-will by the prospect of
eternal happiness, intimidating it by the assurance
of everlasting suffering. The sinner spurns this
lofty economy, renounces his God, forsakes his
supernatural destiny, sacrifices heaven, embraces
hell, and makes himself a slave of sin. Besides,
when the creature sins, he places himself in con-
flict with God's order, and creates an irreparable
confusion. It could never be in his power to re-
store the order he perverts, and reinstate himself
in God's favor by his own unaided strength. Be-
hold the grievous and irremediable nature of sin.
This nature shows the necessity of hell as its just
punishment ; so great a disorder, and perversion
of God's law and providence, should be repaired
by a condign satisfaction. Sin's punishment
should be proportioned to sin's malice.

I hear it said that there is no proportion be-
tween eternal punishment and sin, the work of a

THE EXISTENCE OF HELL. 423

moment. But, what is there in sin, that for a
moment of it, the sinner should contemn God? If
man for a moment's gratification sacrifices God
forever, why should not God give him his
choice? If for a moment's sin man sacrifices an
eternal good, what injustice if for the same sin
God inflicts an eternal punishment ? Man is free
to sin and to abandon God forever ; God is bound
to exert justice and to cast away forever the sin-
ner. The violation of the supreme dominion of
the Creator over the creature, and of the correla-
tive absolute duty of the creature to the Creator,
can never be measured by the duration of the act.
Its intrinsic malice is only exhausted by an eter-
nal expiation. The malice of sin is indestruc-
tible and inexpiable. Eternity itself cannot atone
for it. In itself, sin is unpardonable; once com-
mitted, it is an everlasting evil. It is the essential
malignity, not the length of the act, of sin that is
.the measure of determining its nature. The civil
law does not count the length of the act of viola-
tion, but the act itself as an affront to the majesty
of the law, as an injury to the state, involved
therein. Murder may be but the work of a
moment, yet the law does not hesitate to punish
it with death ; — a punishment as infinite as human
wisdom and power can execute ; infinite, in a sense,
absolutely, inasmuch as it may deprive the victim
of salvation, by depriving him of further oppor-
tunity. It consigns him to death; it may be an
everlastinor death, for all the law cares ; it never
stops to inquire whether he will rise to life again
in the next world. It is an infinite punishment

424 THE EXISTENCE OF HELL.

because it takes away a life which it can never
restore. Death, as a punishment, is a fit image of
eternal reprobation. It is as infinite as man can
inflict, human power can go no further. Thus, the
civil law does not hesitate to visit the most con-
dign suffering, the most revolting torture, even
loss of life for that offence which is but the work
of a moment. Why cannot God do the same for
sin, which although momentary is yet essential
contempt for His Divine Majesty? which is the
wilful perversion of the order which His wisdom
has established, which is the perfidy involved in
the rebellion of the creatui"e against the Creator,
which is the abuse of free Avill, leading to forfeit-
ure of heaven and entailment of hell. If man can
justly for the good of temporal society cause
death, cannot God inflict eternal punishment, as
the sanction of His law, for the government of His
eternal kingdom ? Cannot God restrict the time
of pardon to this life, and decree that reward and
punishment shall be measured out, when this life,
as the time of probation, shall cease ?

God is infinite perfection and sanctity. Before
His unblemished majesty the angels are not pure.
To His all-seeing eye the heart of the purest is not
without stain. In the light of His holiness and
glory, the angels, with unceasing praise, proclaim
the perfection of His nature. Nothing stained
can stand before His unsullied purity. No defile-
ment can co-exist with His absolute perfection.
No sin can enter heaven. Darkness cannot subsist
with light. Neither sin nor the sinner can be united
to God. The moment mortal sin is committed.

THE EXISTENCE OF HELL. 425

there is separation between God and the soul.
This separation is in itself absolute and eternal.
The interval that divides extremes the farthest
apart, is small, compared with this separation.
The sinner becomes the enemy of God. His state
is that of damnation. The grace which united
the soul to God and made it live in Him, passed
out when mortal sin entered. Unless by repent-
ance, the soul remains forever in that forlorn con-
dition. It needs no intervention on the part of
God to damn that soul ; it would rather be needed
to save it. It only remains that the sinner's vital
breath may cease, that the cord of life be broken,
for him to pass naturally to his proper place. Just
as a man tied or fastened to some height needs but
that what secures him should give way, to fall to
the earth, so the sinner needs but that he pass
from life to death, to meet his eternal doom. And
as in the first case the man would need a suspen-
sion of the laws of nature to save him from fall-
ing, so would the sinner need the suspension of
God's laws and His own direct interposition to
rescue him from hell. Death makes no change ;
it only seals and confirms forever what has been
done. At the end of life the sinner only enters
upon a new form of the same damnation, he
begins to suffer the punishment that belongs to it.
The union of the soul with God, which consti-
tutes salvation, unless effected in this life is lost
forevermore. The disunion, which constitutes
damnation, caused in this life and persevered in
till death, subsists forever. This separation from
God, wrought here below and sealed by death, is

426 THE EXISTENCE OF HELL.

the essential misery of the damned ; and even
without any pain of sense would by itself be a
hell. Nothing- else is required to make the soul
supremely and forever miserable. The existence
of hell, then, flows as an intrinsic necessity from
the nature of God, and the undying- hate with
which He must ever pursue sin. It is the just
vengeance of God upon the opposition and
affront which sin offers to His essential holiness.
Sin must suffer the condign punishment which
His inscrutable counsels have declared against its
black and mysterious nature. Hell is the abode
of this punishment. During life the sinner con-
temned the mercy of God. During eternity he
shall forever proclaim His justice.

It has always been the universal persuasion of
mankind that this life is one of probation, and
that after it comes retribution. This belief has
also induced the conviction that parelon for sin is
restricted to this life, and that the manner of life
decides the eternal doom. While here, we may
merit or demerit. But in the life that begins at
death, we must expect only reward or punish-
ment,— that then there is no longer pardon,
that the sentence uttered at death settles the
eternal destiny. This belief so universal in its
extent, finding acceptance among every people
of the most different character and kind, coming
down through all ages from the origin of man,
and so familiar to, and approved by, the conscience
of every one, can only be accounted the inborn
conviction of his rational nature, and the result of
the primary dictates of his intelligence. Such

THE EXISTENCE OF HELL. 42/

human sense, in every matter, is held to be an un-
failing- source of truth and one of the criteria of
certainty. Whatever has such authority in its
favor, must be esteemed true. God alone could
have been its Author. He alone planted it in the
human heart.

The moral law, of which the retributions of the
future are the inexorable sanctions, was imposed
upon man, as such : as a being made up of soul —
gifted with free will and the option of good or
evil — and of a bodv subject to lust and passion,
and therefore fit subject upon which the will, ex-
ercising its freedom, can by its control, attain to
virtue and its reward, or bv its license, become
guilty of sin and of its wages. When, tlien, man
ceases to exist, the mc^ral law for him should
cease and retribution should naturally come. He
is no longer the being capable of vice and virtue,
to whom the moral law as a test and restraint was
given. After the labor should come the wages.
His life as man is at an end. It is true that his
bodv will rise again, but it will arise supernatu-
rall\^ endowed — glorified and immortal, no longer
subject to passion and prone to sin, but a new
creature ; the soul no longer on probation, no
longer in peril by its freedom of sin, but con-
firmed forever in God's grace. They will begin
a new life, and develop new activities wholly dif-
ferent in character and object from that of this.
They* will be no longer capable of virtue and vice.
If there was pardon in the future life for sin done
in this, it should be given immediately after death ;
not in the untold ages of eternity. For, man at

428 THE EXISTENCE OF HELL. '

the time of death is what he shall ever be. No
change Avill take place in him which could induce
God to grant the pardon, after ages, which he
refuses at death.

The sanctions of the moral law are abundantly
sufficient to hold man to virtue and to deter him
from vice. There is no temptation however great
that cannot be overcome by the fear of hell or the
hope of heaven ; there is nothing that sin and the
world can afford, that, for a moment, can be pre-
ferred to God and the eternal happiness of the
soul. It is onl}^ reflection that is needed to ena-
ble them to exert their unyielding force and ef-
ficacy. Yet, such is the freedom of the will, and
the perversity of the heart, that most men are un-
restrained b}^ eternal retribution and give way to
sin. How would it be, if there was any pardon
or hope, that, in the remote ages of the future,
there would be prospect of forgiveness ? How
would it be if men could but induce the hope,
that, at the hour of death, a few years hence, there
would be no retribution ? The sanctions of the
moral law would fail. If, now, with absolute as-
surance of eternal punishment and eternal reward,
with absolute security of no forgiveness after
death, and all this but a few years hence, men are
not deterred from sin, how would it be if death
brought no punishment, or if the remotest future
afforded the faintest hope? If the soul of the
sinner be such an incipient hell, if human society
be but a prelude of hell, in spite of the dread fut-
ure alternatives which we know and which should
be restraints, into what a hell would both be

THE EXISTENCE OF HELL. 429

turned, if these retributions were withdrawn, or
even weakened by doubt?

If a subject rises in rebellion against his gov-
ernment, especially a just one, and if a period is
assigned within which he must return to his
loyalty or suffer the penalty of death ; who is to
be blamed if he, persisting in his crime, suffers the
punishment of the law ? is it the law, or the law's
leniency, or the rebel's contumacy ? is not his
death to be ascribed to himself, as he had it in his
option to avoid it? If a great multitude rise
against a beneficent government, and a time is
allotted within which by a return to obedience
and loyalty they are pardoned, or, continuing in
rebellion, they are slaughtered or decimated ;
who is responsible for the carnage ? Who will
hesitate to attribute it to their neglect of the prof-
fered pardon ? If, to reduce an individual, or even
a multitude to the observance of law, confiscation
of goods and forfeiture of rights are threatened;
who will censure or condemn, if the threat is exe-
cuted on their failure to fulfil the required con-
dition ?

History is full of such instances. The wisest
men and legislators have not condemned them.
The accumulated wisdom and experience of man-
kind have justified them. Can we deny to God the
right we claim for man? Can that be folly or
cruelty in God which is wisdom and leniency in
man ? Can that be condemned in God which is
lauded in man? If man is free to employ such
measures for human government, can God's wis-
dom be impeached for employing man's own in-

430 THE EXISTENCE OF HELL.

struments for the Divine government? Cannot
God chastise individuals or human society for
rising against the mildest and most lenient gov-
ernment, which He by His providence has estab-
lished to secure the end of our creation, with the
punishment which is not more infinite for Him,
than those ordained by human law are for man ?
Exile and forfeiture of goods are among the most
grievous penalties of human law. Cannot God
sanction His law by expatriation from heaven and
forfeiture of eternal goods ? Death is as infinite a
punishment as man can devise. Cannot God in-
flict a punishment as infinite, proportionate to
His infinite nature? Unless, then, we are pre-
pared to say that what the wisdom of mankind
has declared wise and necessary for human so-
ciety, is folly and unnecessary for the moral gov-
ernment of men, we must conclude that God can
decree punishments and rewards after death.

If, to protect his life and property, one should
cause a great chasm to be dug around his estate,
so steep and deep and precipitous as to be sure
and swift destruction to the invader ; who would
blame him, so protected, if his enemy, in mad
fury, and with full knowledge of his peril, rush-
ing to assail him, should fall into this gulf and be
forever lost ? Cannot God safeguard His majesty
and name against rebellious creatures by sur-
rounding His throne with similar buhvark, and
forbidding them, at their eternal peril, to assail
Him ? If a great city protects itself, as has been
frequently done, by a vast trench or circumval-
lation into which an invading army falling is de-

THE EXISTENCE OF HELL. 43 1

stroyed ; who will question the wisdom or justice
of such a fortification ? Who will fail to ascribe
the great destruction, not to the city so defended,
but to those carrying on the invasion? Cannot
Divine wisdom protect the City of God by caus-
ing to be sunk the deep pit filled w^ith torture and
everlasting misery ? Whose fault is it if myriads
of men, in their wilful passion and blind folly
rushing to assail the heavenly city, stumble into
this bottomless gulf and are lost forever?

No sane person will denv that God can assign
a period after which there shall be no longer
pardon for sin. No one will claim that the creat-
ure has a right to sin forever. No one will af-
firm that forgiveness must never be denied in
order that license for sin may reign forever.
Have men, a right that God should never refuse
them pardon? If God is not bound to forgive
man even once, no one will dream that He is
bound to forgive him forever. To maintain a
proposition so absurd, would be to say that the
creature and his passions are greater than God
and His law ; that the violation of law is more
sacred than its observance ; that virtue is a de-
lusion, that the moral law does not exist, that sin
is the normal rule which alone should subsist ; that
the freedom of sin is more inviolable than the ob-
ligations of virtue ; in fact, that there is no such
thing as virtue, and that there is no God. Unless
we are prepared for such absurdities, we must say
that God can decree a limit to human probation
and a period to pardon.

If God can do this. He is as free to declare it to

432 THE EXISTENCE OF HELL.

be now, or at the hour of death, as at any indef-
inite time in the future : as free to declare it to
be after the short years of this life, as after ten
million or any other period in the life to come.
Every objection that the individual or society
could urge against the execution of such a decree
at the end of life, could be urged against it after
any indefinite period, however long, in the future.
Such a vast period of delay would afford as little
time to the individual, or to the society of that
time, as the few years of life afford to the individ-
ual, or to society of to-day. Such a duration of
sin might well prescribe against virtue. Besides,
it could not benefit the individuals who should
have died before it came. They would still be
confined to their few years of life. No one claims
that individual human life should be prolonged to
that indefinite period. Even then the time of life
would be as short for salvation, sin as pleasant,
conversion as difficult, God as far removed, the
idea of God inflicting eternal punishment as in-
credible, the arguments pro and con, the same as
now, to the men and women Avho would be then
alive. The past would seem to them as short as
the past now does to us. The career of men
would appear as suddenly checked then, as it now
appears after the course of this supposed short
span of life. As, then, God is free to assign a
limit to probation and pardon, and to declare
there shall be no forgiveness after this limit,
He is free to declare that limit to be Avhen the
soul leaves the body at death. What He can
do later. He can do sooner. What He can do

THE EXISTENCE OF HELL. 433

after the first sin, He can do after a life of many
sins.

Ponder carefully some of the passages of Holy
Scripture, in which the existence of hell is
plainly taught. There is no truth disclosed by
Divine revelation more unmistakably or fre-
quently. If the words that I shall quote do not
establish the fact of eternal punishment, tell me
what can their meaning be ? St. Paul to the
Romans ii. 4-6 : *' Or dost thou despise the riches
of His goodness and patience and long-suffering!
Dost thou not know, that the benignity of God
leadeth thee to penance? But, after thy hardness
and impenitent heart, thou treasurest up for thy-
self wrath on the day of wrath, and revelation of
the just judgment of God, Who will render to
every man according to his works." St. John v.
28, 29 : " Wonder not at this, for the hour cometh
in which all that are in the graves shall hear the
voice of the Son of God. And they who have done
good shall come forth unto the resurrection of life ;
but they who have done evil, unto the resurrection
of judgment.*' Matt. x. 28 : '' And fear not those
vyho kill the body, and cannc^t kill the soul; but
rather fear Him who can destroy both body and
soul in hell." Mark ix. 42-47 : *' And if thy hand
scandalize thee, cut it off : it is better for thee to
enter into life maimed, than having two hands to
go into hell, into unquenchable fire, where their
worm dieth not, and the fire is not extinguished ;
and if thy foot scandalize thee, cut it off: it is
better for thee to enter lame into life than having
two feet, to be cast into hell, into unquenchable
28

434 THE EXISTENCE OF HELL.

fire, where their worm dieth not and the fire is
not extinguished. And if thine eye scandalize
thee, pluck it out : it is better for thee with one
eye to enter into the kingdom of God, than having
two eyes to be cast into hell fire : where their
worm dieth not, and the fire is not extinguished.
St. Paul, II. Cor. V. lo : "For we must all be
manifested before the judgment -seat of Christ,
that every one may receive the proper things of
the body, according as he hath done, whether good
or evil." Matt. xiii. 49, 50: " So shall it be at the
end of the world. The Angels will go out and
separate the wicked from among the just, and
cast them into the furnace of fire ; there shall be
wailing and gnashing of teeth." St. Paul, II. Thess.
i. 7, 8 : '' And to you, who are afflicted, rest with us
when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from
heaven, with his mighty Angels in flaming fire,
taking vengeance on those who know not God,
and on those who obey not the Gospel of our
Lord Jesus Christ." Rev. xiv. 10 : " He also shall
drink of the w^ine of the w^rath of God, which is
mingled with pure wine in the cup of his wrath,
and he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone
in the sight of the holy Angels, and in the sight of
the Lamb." Matt. viii. 12 : " But the children of
the kingdom shall be cast out into utter darkness ;
there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth."
Luke xiii. 28 : " There will be wailing and gnash-
ing of teeth ; when ye shall see Abraham and
Isaac and Jacob and all the prophets in the king-
dom of God, and you yourselves cast out." Isaiah
Ixvi. 24 : " And they shall go out and see the car-

THE EXISTENCE OF HELL. 435

casses.of the men that have transgressed against
me ; their worm shall not die, and their fire shall
not be quenched ; and they shall be a loathsome
sight to all flesh." Matt. xxv. 41 : "Then he will
say to those also on his left hand : Depart
from me ye cursed into the everlasting fire, which
was prepared for the devil and his angels." St.
Paul, II. Thess. i. 9 : " Who shall be punished with
everlasting destruction from the presence of the
Lord, and from the glory of his power." Matt,
xiii. 40-42 : " As then, cockle is gathered up and
burned in the fire, so will it be at the end of this
world. The Son of Man will send His Angels,
and they shall gather out of His kingdom
all scandals, and those who work iniquity : and
cast them into the furnace of fire : there shall be
wailing and gnashing of teeth." Rev. xx. 10:
" And the devil, who seduced them, was cast into
the lake of fire and brimstone, where both the
beast and the false prophet shall be tormented
day and night forever and ever."

Consider the goodness of God as shown in
nature, and in man : in his rare endowments and
supernatural destiny. Behold it in mere matter,
seemingly dead, yet alive with fertility for his
use and comfort ; behold it in animal nature, and
in the varied forms of physical life ; all this for
man: what a claim upon our love! Reflect upon
the wondrous goodness of God as shown in the
mystery of the Incarnation. What it was for the
Infinitely Good and Eternal Being, our Lord and
Maker, and the Creator of all things, to have
stooped to our condition, and become man out of

436 THE EXISTENCE OF HELL

very goodness : to save us from sin, and to die
that we might live. Ask yourselves how great
is the claim which all this display of goodness
exerts upon our service and our love ; how great
must not be our punishment if we refuse it? In
view of the gratitude and love which we owe to
our Lord and Maker for His infinite goodness,
as shown in nature, and in the supernatural
orde-r, especially, in the amazing fact of the In-
carnation, we cannot be surprised that eternal
punishment is the alternative, if this goodness
is ignored or contemned ; it is the result of
Divine justice. Infinite goodness calls for infinite
love ; infinite goodness despised, calls for infinite
wrath to be inflicted. Divine patience abused,
calls for the manifestation of the just judgment of
God. " Or dost thou despise the riches of His
goodness and patience and long-suffering? Dost
thou not know that the benignity of God leadeth
thee to penance? But, after thy hardness and
impenitent heart, thou treasurest up for thyself
wrath on the day of wrath, and revelation of the
just judgment ot God, Who will render to every
man according to his works." (St. Paul to
Romans, chap. ii. 4-6.)

Call to mind the infinite price that has been
paid for our Redemption, and calculate the infinite
evil that must be, from which such Redemption
has saved us. The incarnation and death of Jesus
Christ was the infinite ransom of our rescue from
sin and hell. When we consider mortal sin,
with its boundless malice, as an affront offered to a
God of Infinite Majesty, and its wages, hell, with

THE EXISTENCE OF HELL. 437

its eternal duration, as the evils from which that
Incarnation was to save us, we are not surprised,
at least, after faith has taught us the fact, that
God should make such an Atonement. To rescue
an immortal being from endless torture was a
purpose worthy of the incarnation and death of
the Son of God : He knew the value of human
souls ; He knew the infinite punishment that was in
store for them ; and that He a^one by His Infinite
Atonement could redeem them. The existence of
hell renders credible the -Incarnation; the Incar-
nation makes manifest the existence of eternal tort-
ure. An infinite price implies an object worthy
of it, or an infinite debt to be discharged. All the
souls of men, all the sacrifices that even Angelic
nature could make, would not have been sufficient
to atone for sin and to save man from hell. Noth-
ing finite could compensate the Infinite Majesty
of God, outraged by sin. Nothing finite could be
an expiation fc^r the punishment of eternal guilt.
In Christ there was an eternal redemption, an
eternal justice, an eternal sacrifice and priesthood^
by whose efficacy •* He can forever save those
who through Him approach to God, since He
always liveth to make intercession for us," and
upon whom the sentence of eternal reprobation
has not yet been uttered.

In the incarnation and death of Christ, as the price
of our redemption, we behold at once the boundless
nature of sin, the eternal duration of its punish-
ment, and the Infinite Sacrifice which was neces-
sary to save those who would apply it to their
souls. But to the damned, this Infinite Atone-

438 THE EXISTENCE OF HELL.

ment can no longer be applied. During the time
of probation they had it at their command ; to
them it was an abundant salvation, but now the day
of retribution has come ; they have been cast out
from the city of God, to perpetual exile and un-
ceasing torture ; they can no longer benefit by the
blood of the Immaculate Lamb, Which during life
they contemned, and Whose atonement for them,
by their impenitence, they made void. They who
decline infinite love, court eternal anger ; eternal
punishment is the retribution of infinite love de-
spised. The blood of Christ was never meant in
God's counsels to reach or rescue or relieve the
damned ; it was meant to anticipate their damna-
tion and to save them from it. If it was the pur-
pose of God ever to apply it to the souls of the
lost, that blood had been equally efficacious to
have saved them from hell and to have blotted
out their sins before the eternal curse was pro-
nounced upon them. They are no longer capable
of the application of that Sacred Blood, because of
their state of eternal reprobation, in which they
are forever dead to God, and where their wills
are confirmed forevermore in iniquity.