Chapter III: Part 3

Now we will go a little further, and see how it decides. It can aim directly or indirectly at a certain end.

(_a_) The Will can be _direct_ when it decides for that which is evil, _because it is evil_.

Or when it decides for that which is evil, _because of the pleasure or profit_ accruing therefrom.

Naturally, the first of these decisions is the worst; it implies a radical hostility of the will to God. It is the condition into which the will of the devils has fallen through persevering opposition to God. They love evil for its own sake. The transgression of God's Law affords them no gratification, the prospect of transgression holds out to them nothing but a deepening of their woe; nevertheless, their wills have become so set in opposition that they hate what is good, and love what is evil, simply because good is good and evil is evil. The more any man suffers his will to deflect from the Will of God, and he allows himself consciously to choose evil, the nearer he approaches to this condition of rooted and hopeless antagonism to God, and separation from the source of life, light, and happiness.

The second condition is the usual one, in which man chooses evil because of the gratification to his senses, or his pride, that the commission of a forbidden act, or the adoption of a forbidden course, or the dereliction of a commanded duty, will entail on him, or that he fancies it will entail. He does not love evil because it is evil, but he loves pleasure or what flatters his pride, and he accepts the evil because of what it promises.

(_b_) The Will can be indirect in its pursuit of evil when (1) It does evil that good may come, _or_ (2) When it does good that evil may come.

In _the first case_, the Will proposes to itself to attain to a good end, but it allows a certain course which it admits to be against God's Law, in the hopes that the lesser evil will result in the greater good. Thus, a lie is told to gain the conversion of a heretic. It is good to draw a man from heresy into the way of true religion, but to use a forbidden means to do this is to sin. Or an act of injustice may be done for the sake of doing some great and manifest good. This is not permissible. Not only must the end aimed at be good, but the means by which it is attained must be good also. Better leave the end unreached than use illegitimate methods for obtaining it.

In _the second case_, the Will proposes to itself to attain a bad end, and to reach that uses good and legitimate means. For instance, the truth is spoken when we know that by speaking the truth we shall rouse violent passions and produce discord. We do not mean that the truth should be perverted into untruth, but that it may be withheld. We are not bound _always_ to say everything we know, but to maintain a prudent reserve. If A. has said something harsh of B., we are not bound to tell B. what A. has said of him. It may be perfectly true what we retail, but if we do retail it we know it will be productive of discord. So it is quite possible for a person with an ill intention to use quite legitimate means--that is, means in themselves unobjectionable--to attain an evil end. Self-deception may, and does sometimes, blind people to the badness of the object they seek, by representing to them that they have done nothing wrong in the way by which they have worked to reach it.

Fourth Tuesday in Lent.

_PRACTICAL CONCLUSIONS._

From what has been said about the Will of man and the Nature of Sin, some plain and Practical Conclusions may be drawn.

1. Those evil thoughts that pass in us, to which we give no consent direct or indirect, are not sinful to us, entail on us no guilt. That is to say, we are not responsible for evil thoughts, images unseemly, profane, uncharitable, for distractions in prayer, dreams of the night, unless we arrest them and give them our consent. Living in this evil world, surrounded by evil, we cannot avoid the knowledge of evil; that knowledge may, however, pass over the mind darkening momentarily, but not staining, like the shadow of a cloud on a hill side. So also with regard to wandering thoughts and unsuitable ideas presenting themselves to us in prayer, we cannot help them, but if we allow our thoughts to wander without effort to recollect them and harbour the unsuitable ideas, then they become sinful.

2. Sin consists in the assent given by the will to the suggestion of evil. That has been sufficiently insisted upon, and need not have anything further said thereon in this place.

3. If certain evil effects are foreseen, more or less distinctly, as likely to ensue, if we follow a certain line of conduct, and there be no reasonable motive to force us to adopt that line of conduct, and those evil effects ensue, then we are guilty of them. It lay in the power of our will to avoid that line of conduct which brought us into peril of doing those things which are evil, and, foreseeing the risk, we took the perilous course. This is the case of rushing into temptation. For instance, we foresee that association with certain individuals will lead to a lowering of our religious fervour, a laxity of view with regard to our moral obligations, and, nevertheless, we cultivate their society, then we are guilty of the coldness that ensues in our religion and the laxity that occurs in our moral look-out.

Or, again, if we see that by going to a certain place we are running great risk of committing a certain sin, and, without any real necessity, we go to that place, and fall under temptation, then we are guilty, as if we had deliberately committed the sin. Or, again, if we see that by spending much time, and thought, and money on dress, we are becoming liable to vanity, and we go on lavishing attentions on our personal appearance, so that we do become conceited and vain, then we are guilty of the sin of vanity. We have wilfully chosen that course which leads to vanity.

Fifth Wednesday in Lent.

_THE GRAVITY OF SIN._

We come now to consider why Sin is in itself so grave. There are several reasons.

1. It is a revolt against God. 2. It is a setting at naught of the Work of Christ. 3. It neutralises the Work of the Holy Ghost. 4. It is an attack on Society.

1. _It is a revolt against God._ In the first place because God is the supreme authority, the Lord over all Creation, and that creature which sets up its own will against His, is thereby a rebel. Man regards, may be, the laws as unjust, or as tyrannical, that God has imposed on him; unjust because they limit his freedom, or are beyond his power to obey; tyrannical because they oppose the desires of his heart and animal appetites.

In the next place it shows a disregard or disbelief in God's promises and warnings, it is therefore grave because it shows indifference to God's goodness and to His severity. In the first case it robs God of the obedience due to Him, in the second case it robs Him of the respect due to Him.

Then, again, Sin is a revolt against God, as it makes man seek another end than that which God has ordained. God would have man seek Him, make Him the object of all His aspirations, all His efforts. By Sin a creature is substituted in the place of God, and man labours for, thinks of, cares for this created object, a person, or a thing, and makes of it an idol. It turns a man away from God as the object of life and its energies to a perishable and unworthy end.

Once more, Sin is a revolt against God, inasmuch as it robs God of the love, fear, reverence, worship, the thoughts of the mind, and the affections of the heart, that properly belong to Him.

Sin therefore is a state of rebellion against God, in that it refuses to acknowledge Him as king, and in that it sets up another sovereign in His place. It takes away that obedience, homage, love that should have been given to God, and gives it to something or someone else.

2. _It sets at naught the Work of Christ._ Christ came down on earth, taking human nature upon Him to break the power of Sin, and enable man to overcome it. Therefore He made atonement for Sin, and provided means of grace whereby man might be enabled to conquer it. But Sin is the making in vain the Atonement. "If they fall away ... they crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh, and put Him to an open shame." (Heb. vi. 6.) It prevents the sacrifice of Christ having any efficacy on the soul, to cleanse it from the past and to strengthen it for the future.

3. _It neutralises the Work of the Holy Ghost._ Our Lord poured down the Holy Spirit on His Church to be the sanctification of all the members thereof. This Divine Spirit prompts to good, and helps to perform what is good. It "prevents and follows us," _i.e._, it goes before, stirring up the will to do, and follows assisting in the performance. The Divine Spirit endeavours to purify us, illumine us, and strengthen us. But Sin stains, darkens, weakens us, consequently every sin wilfully indulged in, undoes the work of Sanctification which should be daily going on in us, forming in us the likeness to the perfect pattern of Jesus Christ.

Fifth Thursday in Lent.

_THE GRAVITY OF SIN._

(CONTINUED.)

1. We have spoken of Sin as a revolt against God, as undoing the work of Jesus Christ, and neutralising the Holy Ghost's work of Sanctification. We will now consider it as _an attack on Society_.

God is the Author of peace and concord, "He maketh men to be of one mind in an house." It is due to Him that Society is possible. He made man not only to be an individual with freedom, but to be a member of a community. The most elementary type of community is the Family, then comes the State, and lastly, the Church. Such unions can only be formed and maintained by a certain amount of sacrifice of individual freedom, and by mutual forbearance and compromise. Now as we see that barbarism, pure and simple, is the state of man who lives merely as an individual, and as we may be quite sure that God never intended man to be a savage, we may conclude, from reason, that God wills that man should unite with his fellow-men into societies, and therefore that He sanctions and blesses the surrenders and compromises that make such unions possible. It is so in a family; no single member can do exactly what he likes, he must give up something for the others, and it is exactly the same in the State and in the Church. In human nature there is an union of different elements, and in man as created all these were in complete accord; since the Fall disorder has entered into their relations, so that there is divergence of object aimed at by mind, body, and soul. God desires to see man's nature restored to perfect unity, so that all conflicting tendencies may cease.

2. Now Sin attacks Society--_i.e._, the Divinely-ordered unity--in several ways.

(_a_) By _Pride_ it impels the individual to assume a place to which he has no right, or to refuse to the rest those concessions which are necessary to make social harmony possible. Man rebels against being only one among many, and endeavours to thrust himself into prominence by arrogating to himself what does not lawfully belong to him.

(_b_) By _Jealousy_ men are excited the one against the other. They envy each other the place, the wealth, the respect, that they have obtained. All men cannot have the same position, the same wealth, and the same respect; there must be difference among the members of the community, as there are differences among the members of the body. Sin is an attack on Society when, through envy, it stirs up class jealousies, and stimulates hostility between different members of the social body.

(_c_) By _Cupidity_. Men, in their selfish greed to arrogate to themselves all things desirable, use the strength, opportunities, position they have, to draw to themselves the good things of this world, to the despoiling of their fellows. Our Lord warns against love of Mammon. No man, He said, could serve God and Mammon, that is, riches; and one reason is, that this greed after wealth is not for the distributing of means of subsistence among the many, and the relief of the necessitous, but in order that it all may be retained for the glorification and indulgence of self.

3. These three motives for the breaking-up of Society are all of Diabolic inspiration. As God is the author of unity, so is Satan the source of all schism. God brings men together, and inspires to the sacrifice of their individual caprices to the general good; the Evil One, on the other hand, urges to the undue exaltation of the individual self, so as to procure separation. He is the cause of discord in families, of the sapping of the principles of unity in the State, and to heresies and schisms that rend the Church. In a family, in the State, in the Church, all members, all classes, all orders, are bound together for the common good, and the Divine Spirit is in every social body as a good ferment--working out of it what is evil. But the Spirit of Evil is the spirit of decomposition, which breaks up all unity. It is in the family, in the State, in the Church, what death is to that unity, the living man--a break-up into warring units.

Fifth Friday in Lent.

_THE EFFECTS OF SIN._

We will now consider what are the effects produced by Sin. These effects are _general_ and _particular_.

The general effects of Sin are as follows:--

1. Sin causes a _stain_ or scar on the soul. But this stain or scar is not to be regarded as having a positive existence, but to be a privation. A stain is a deficiency in whiteness, as a scar is a defect in healthy smoothness. We are restored as far as guilt goes, by our Baptism, to a state of innocence before God, the infirmity and liability to Sin remains in us, but no condemnation before God. Our souls are white and sound, white as bleached linen, sound as an untorn garment. But every sin committed after Baptism is a loss of purity and of soundness. The soul that has sinned always after bears traces of the sin committed. The blot may be covered, the rent mended, but the traces of its having been made are never removed, though, indeed, the guilt may be put away by true repentance and absolution. This is due to the fact that a sin is a something committed, and an act can never be undone, though its consequences may be rectified. A word spoken can never be recalled, nor can an act that has been done. There is salvation for the sinner that repenteth, but the salvation attained by the penitent is and must be different in kind from that achieved by the soul that has never fallen into wilful sin.

2. Sin entails _condemnation_, subjecting to punishment, either temporal or eternal.

All sin is a violation of God's Commandments, and God is a righteous Judge Who will call every man to account for what he has done; but not only _will_ He do so, He _does_ so now; and in this present life, to some extent, does punishment come on the man who sins. We see this in actual life, how that certain acts do bring with them their condemnation and their chastisement on the doer of them.

We see the same in nations that transgress God's laws. God visits it upon these nations, and brings them down, till by suffering they have come to recognize their guilt.

3. Sin _alienates_ from God. God hates sin, and he who is in sin is at enmity with God, is separated from God, and God's favour is withdrawn in a large degree from him. Jesus Christ, by His merits, brought us into reconciliation with the Father, blotting out the handwriting of offences that was against us. The merits of Christ's atonement were _applied_ to us at our Baptism. Then we who were aliens were made nigh by the blood of Christ. Every sin after Baptism separates us from God, darkens the light that shines on us, checks the flow of Divine grace that nourishes our spiritual life.

4. We can, indeed, _return to the favour of God_, through the merits of the death of Christ; but every return from mortal sin is a revival from the dead, a special call back out of the state of transgression into which we have thrown ourselves, into the way of salvation. To obtain this we must _realize_ that we have sinned, _repent_, be sincerely sorry for what we have done, and _resolve_ never to do the same again. Then, and not till then, does God for Christ's sake forgive us. No repentance is sufficient that has not the character of recognition of the gravity of the offence, sorrow for having offended God, and sincere desire for amendment.

When there is true repentance, then God _pardons the guilt_, but He does not remove the consequences of the act. The punishment must still be undergone. Thus, a man may have ruined his constitution by his excesses, or squandered his patrimony. He may bitterly deplore his sin, and sincerely resolve to avoid all occasions of sin for the future, but, though God on his true repentance blots out his iniquity, He does not restore robustness to his constitution, nor does He return to him his wasted patrimony.

Fifth Saturday in Lent.

_THE EFFECTS OF SIN._

(CONTINUED.)

We will now further consider the effects of Sin, and these the particular effects.

We live three lives; as we are made up of Body, Mind, and Soul, each has its special life. The Body lives an animal life, the Mind an intelligent life, and the Soul a spiritual life.

Sin produces a disturbing and poisoning effect on all these lives.

1. _The life of the Body._ God made man healthy, vigorous, and immortal. The introduction of Sin into the world has produced disease, infirmity, and death.

Sin is the cause of hard and exhausting toil, of the many hardships, privations, troubles to which we are exposed in this life, and it is the cause of the separation of soul and body in death, and of the corruption that ensues in the grave.

Sin has a certain deteriorating effect on the body when indulged in, at all events those sins which are sins of the flesh, such as drunkenness, gluttony, sensuality. They bring their condemnation with them on the body that sins.

2. _The life of the Mind._ The true illumination of the mind is God. An intellectual life is willed by God. No man may lawfully neglect to cultivate his understanding by neglecting to acquire knowledge, or his reason, by neglecting to use his rational power. If man does, he sins, he is wasting a precious gift of God, and the light that is in him is darkened, he becomes a prey to superstition, ignorance, stupidity. The life of his mind becomes stunted and extinguished. Sin acts on the mind as well as on the body, it distorts its perception of the truth, narrows its view, and leads it to mistake falsehood for truth.

3. _The life of the Soul._ This is the most important life of all, and it is the life usually least regarded. This is the life that is divine in us, the breath of God. It has a double aspect (_a_) as to God, and (_b_) as to man. That is to say, it lives in two relations, one to God, the other to man.

This spiritual life is the life of the spiritual faculty in man which enables him to see God, to delight in His presence, to love and to fear Him, to find pleasure in prayer and in meditation on the things that are invisible. It enables him to look beyond time into eternity, and to desire those things that God has promised.

Sin, when it has touched the soul, weakens its faculties. Its power of vision is affected. "Blessed are the pure in heart," said our Lord, "for they shall see God," but impurity is like a film over the eye, clouding its vision. As the soul ceases to see God, it ceases also to love Him, it takes less delight in prayer; the body, or the mind, gains advantages over it, the compound life is no longer maintained in due balance, but one factor or other overlaps, and chokes the spiritual life.

Again, the spiritual life is the life of the spiritual faculty in man which enables him to observe God's law, and Sin lames and weakens man's moral powers. As long as the spiritual life is healthy, man's moral life is also healthy, for indeed the moral life is only another aspect of the same divine life in man. But if man delivers himself up to Sin, then this moral power in him is weakened, it ceases to speak distinctly, it becomes confused, and finally ceases to speak altogether.

It is possible by continuance in sin to extinguish the spiritual life altogether. If the mind be not employed, then it sinks into inertness and death of the rational and intellectual faculties, and unless the soul be allowed to grow and expand, it also will languish. And if by continuance in Sin the soul be subjected to wound after wound, and its voice be never listened to, then finally it will die.

Fifth Sunday in Lent.

_THE DEADLY VICES._

1. Certain Vices go by the name of Capital or Deadly Vices, because they lie at the head or source of all sin; and because they mortally affect the soul.

But they are not in themselves acts, but principles or springs out of which sins issue.

They are reckoned as seven in number, but neither does Scripture indicate this number, nor has the Church come to any decision on this point. It is rather common sense, and common observation, that have led to this classification, and it is a classification simple and intelligible, and of practical use.

These seven Capital Vices are seven mothers who, when taken into the heart, settle there, and produce large families of sins. They are _Vices_, that is to say, they are dispositions towards evil, disordered inclinations left in us by original sin, whence spring up in us, _by the consent of the will_, large crops of bad actions, _i.e._, of sins. Vice is a habitual disposition towards evil. Sin is the action produced by this disposition when it has seduced the heart into giving consent to it. Vice may exist without sin, and sin can exist without vice. That is to say, there may be a vicious inclination which cannot manifest itself in act, because the opportunity is wanting. A sin may be committed without vicious inclination, out of carelessness, or against the inclination which is towards good, through the weakness of the nature and debility of the will.

Everyone has, more or less, the roots of vices in him, though in some they are far stronger than in others, and in some individuals certain vicious propensities are stronger than other vicious propensities. One man may have a natural proclivity towards pride, and this very inclination towards pride may neutralize in him the inclination towards indolence.

2. The seven Capital Vices are:--

1. Pride. 2. Avarice. 3. Luxury. 4. Envy. 5. Gluttony. 6. Anger. 7. Indolence.

Of these Pride, Avarice, and Envy, are vices of the soul; Luxury, Gluttony, Anger, are vices of the body. Indolence is a vice of the soul and of the body.

Of Pride it is said, "Everyone that is proud in heart is an abomination to the Lord." (Prov. xvi. 5.) "God resisteth the proud." (James iv. 6.) "The fear of the Lord is to hate evil; pride, and arrogancy, and the evil way, and the froward mouth do I hate." (Prov. viii. 13.)

Of Avarice it is said, "Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the Kingdom of God," and S. Paul says that among these are "the covetous" who "shall not inherit the Kingdom of God." (1 Cor. vi. 10.) "No covetous man, who is an idolater, hath any inheritance in the Kingdom of Christ and of God." (Eph. v. 5.) David speaks of "the covetous, whom God abhorreth." (Ps. x. 3.)

Of Luxury, there are many and strong denunciations in Scripture, it is one of those conditions which, like avarice, shuts out from the Kingdom of God. (1 Cor. vi. 10.) S. John saw the luxurious shut out from the gates of the New Jerusalem. See also Gal. v. 19.

Of Gluttony, that is of indulgence to excess in eating and drinking, the same is said. "The works of the flesh are manifest, which are these--drunkenness, revellings, and such like, of which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the Kingdom of God." (Gal. v. 21.)

Of Envy it is the same, "Envyings," are included among the works of the flesh.

So also is Anger.

Indolence is the torpor of the soul and body, which will not exert itself to do what is right, or to resist what is wrong. It is a state of indifference to the true ends for which man has been made, and in Scripture is called sleep--"Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead."

Fifth Monday in Lent.

_IN WHAT THE VICES ARE ROOTED._

The soil in which the Seven Vices find their root is Self-love, or rather in an undue and disordered love of Self. If we really loved ourselves we would seek to mortify and kill all the vices in us; but it is through undue and irrational self-love that the vices find root and opportunity to grow and flourish.

1. Self-love is not in itself sinful. God has planted in every man a love for himself. It is part of the nature of every man and of every intelligent creature to take care of self, and seek those things which conduce to its welfare. God has even set self-love as the measure to us of the love we should bear to our fellows. (Matt. xix. 19.)

2. Self-love becomes sinful when it is excessive and unreasonable. When, for instance, the love of self makes a man disregard another's need or comfort. When, moreover, it becomes a dominating passion in the soul, obscuring and even extinguishing the love of God. When it seeks wrong ends for self, the indulgence of selfish pleasures, selfish comforts, passion, glorification. Then self-love is sinful. When a person takes no interest in any subject but what concerns self, has no talk save of what touches self, sees everything in the light in which it affects self, then self-love is unduly great.

Moreover, self-love may be disordered when it seeks for its end apart from God, in its pleasures, in its self-glorification, in its self-righteousness. Some people dethrone God and set up self in His place, and make self-interest their only law, and self their only law-giver. Again, self-love becomes sinful when it sees good where good is not, and takes the appearance for the reality.

Self-love is disposed to self-delusion whenever it is allowed to consider itself too highly.

3. Self-love once excessive and unreasonable, draws on to pride, avarice, luxury, gluttony, anger, indolence, because it shows man his supreme good in honours that flatter, riches and pleasures that puff up and indulge self-love, revenge against such as offend self-love, and that neglect of duty which comes so easy to those who give way to self-love. All the Seven Vices minister to self-love, pamper and feed it, assist in its growth, and tend to make it take the place of God in the heart.

Self-love is harmless so long as it does not encourage the growth of these noxious vices. We must therefore be very watchful of ourselves, and hold our love of self under severe control, never allowing it to become a soil in which vices may luxuriate, but seeing that it be a garden plot in which Christian graces spring up, which it well may, for the same soil that grows weeds will grow flowers.

4. Self-control, self-renunciation, are required of us by Christ. "If any man will come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me." (Matt. xvi. 24.) The true love of self has a far eye and looks to eternity, and seeks those things that are above, not the things that minister to self-love below; seeks the salvation of the soul, not the pampering of the flesh and the flattery of pride. And the only way of obtaining the imperishable riches and unfading joys, is by resisting the inclinations of the carnal nature towards such as are for a time, and perish in the using. There is a true love of self and a false love of self; or rather love may be directed towards the elevation of the better self, or to the degradation of the inferior self. It is necessary to distinguish between the elements that make man, Body, Soul, and Mind, and to seek those things which minister to the superior elements--Mind and Soul, not to the animal part of man--Body. Or again, not to serve only the Mind and neglect the Soul, but to seek the welfare of the Soul first of all.

Fifth Tuesday in Lent.

_PRIDE._

1. Pride is the love and estimation man has for himself beyond measure. Every man should have a proper pride in himself as a creature of God, an heir of everlasting life, and so maintain his dignity and self-respect, not degenerating into buffoonery, and making himself a laughing-stock to men.

But Pride must be within due limits. Let no man think more highly of himself than he ought to think.

2. There are five ways in which Pride may become excessive and sinful.

(_a_) When a man is puffed up with self-esteem because of the natural gifts he has received, as though they came from himself, and were not the unmerited gift of God. Thus a girl may become vain and conceited because she has good hair or eyes, and is esteemed a beauty. A man because he has wealth. He becomes purse-proud. Or because he has great abilities. Or because he has great strength and health. This leads to vain boasting, to an insolent demeanour, to great self-opinionativeness.

(_b_) When a man regards what successes he has met with as due to his merits. Success may be, and probably is, due in most cases to frugality, sound judgment, caution at one time and daring at another; but there is ever in it an element of the unforeseen, due to God's ordering. Moreover, the good qualities, the prudence, frugality, and so on, in the man are the growth of good elements implanted in him by God. A man must always acknowledge God as the Giver of all good things, recognize His hand in the inception and the carrying out of whatever succeeds, and must not attribute it solely to himself. The thought of self drives the thought of God out of the mind.

(_c_) When a man boasts himself of what he has not. When, that is, in order to flatter his self-pride before others, he pretends to be, or to have what he is not, or has not got. Thus living under false appearances, living beyond one's income, are due to Pride.

(_d_) When a man despises others. Every man who looks down on, disparages, and regards others as common and vile, is guilty of Pride.

The rich have no occasion to despise the poor, those of one social class to talk contemptuously of those of another, or as being _common_ people, as _Nobodies_. With God nothing is common, and not one of His creatures is a Nobody. Moreover, it is possible to sin through pride if those who have committed no mortal sins despise such as have sinned. Spiritual Pride is the worst kind of Pride.

3. Pride produces a good many children, all bad when overgrown.

(_a_) _Ambition._ The desire to distinguish oneself above others. Harmless when moderate, evil when excessive.

(_b_) _Vain-glory._ The desire to make parade of those qualities one has, and to attribute to oneself qualities one has not. Always bad.

(_c_) _Ostentation._ The affectation of making display of those advantages we possess--wealth, cleverness, knowledge, &c. Always not only bad, but vulgar.

(_d_) _Contempt for others_, leading to disparaging what is good in others, and exaggerating their faults. Never other than bad.

(_e_) _Presumption_, which impels to attempt what is beyond one's powers. It is not wrong to have self-confidence in what one has. It is wrong when one presumes on what _one has not_.

(_f_) _Hypocrisy_, which seeks to show to the world a better face than what one really has, to pretend to be what one is not. Ever bad.

(_g_) _Obstinacy_, which follows self-determination as if that must be right; and a stubbornness which does not suffer a man to give way when his reason has been convinced that he is wrong.

(_h_) _Disobedience_, which follows on self-conceit, making a man follow his own wishes and opinions, and disobey just commands, because he desires independence, or because he despises his superiors and those in authority over him.

Sixth Wednesday in Lent.

_AVARICE._

1. Avarice or Covetousness is a disorderly and unreasonable and excessive attachment to the things of this world, especially to money.

Now the love of the good things of this world is by no means sinful in itself, it is legitimate. God gives them to us to enjoy. God gives to us earthly things to be possessions, to keep, and to enlarge, and multiply. To throw away wantonly what has been given to us is sinful. For instance, it is sinful to squander money in extravagance, in horse racing, in gambling. Riches are a trust, land and houses are a trust, given us from God, and we must not diminish what we have received, in amount and value, but endeavour to make them more. It is a token of gratitude to God for this gift that we appreciate them, and use them profitably.

2. Worldly goods are given to us to satisfy the necessities of life, not only in the matter of eating, and drinking, and clothing, but of our mental and spiritual life also. Our worldly goods are given to us to enable us to cultivate art, and science, and literature, all that goes towards the furtherance of the amenities of life: music, painting, architecture, sculpture, horticulture, &c.

Worldly goods are given to us that with them we may do what we can to mitigate the miseries of the poor and suffering, and to advance God's Kingdom, and enrich and adorn His Sanctuaries and His Service. Consequently we are using our riches aright when we seek out means of relieving distress, when we assist in the propagation of the Gospel among the heathen, and when we build and decorate Churches, and provide for the beautiful musical rendering of the worship of God.

3. Avarice is a mortal vice when we:--

(_a_) Desire the good things of this world for the sole gratification they yield to our senses, when they minister to our luxury. When we love them for a selfish reason, and value them only as they minister to the comfort, ease, indulgence, and pampering of self.

(_b_) Avarice is a sin when we desire the good things of this world inordinately. "Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world." (1 John ii. 15, 16.)

Excessive love of the things of this world becomes idolatry. (Eph. v. 6.)

(_c_) Avarice is a sin when it agitates the mind, and occupies it with excessive anxiety after the good things of this world. "Take no thought for the morrow," says our Lord, "for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself." "Seek ye first the Kingdom of God, and His righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you." (Matt. vi. 33, 34.) That is to say, the mind is to be mainly occupied with the true end of life, and strain for that, and the striving after all material interests must be kept in subordination to that.

(_d_) Avarice, or Covetousness, has several daughters. It produces in man--1. _Callousness_ to distress. He loses feeling for the distress of the poor and suffering. He begrudges everything given to them as something taken from himself. 2. _Dishonesty._ In order to increase wealth, the Conscience is hushed to pass over certain fraudulent or dishonest acts whereby money may be gained unfairly, by false representation, by selling a thing at what is beyond its worth, &c. 3. _Unrest._ The mind is engrossed by the cares and anxieties of the pursuit of wealth, so that no good seed can grow in it. The calm and peace of a Conscience at rest in God pursuing the true end is gone, and is replaced by constant uneasiness as to how certain speculations will turn out, what profit will come from a certain sale, or how certain losses are to be made up.

Sixth Thursday in Lent.

_LUXURY._

1. Luxury incites to the indulgence of the senses excessively, beyond what God's law permits. As a vice, it consists in the love of what is sensuous, and the inclination to yield to the pleasures of the sense.

It leads to forgetfulness of God and idolatry. That is to say, to the enthronement of self in the place of God. Everything is made to give way to the indulgence of the pleasures and caprices of self. God exacts of us the homage of the entire man--body, soul and spirit; luxury corrupts the body so that it can no longer be presented holy and without blame to God; stains and enervates the soul, and dulls the mind, filling it with lassitude and indifference.

It leads to sacrilege, for sacrilege is the profanation of that which is dedicated to God. Now, man's body is the temple of the Holy Ghost, and S. Paul shews that sensuality is a defilement of this temple.

Moreover, Christ took human nature upon Him to restore human nature, to purify it, and if we by indulgence desecrate the body, we are dishonouring that nature which Christ stooped to assume.

2. Luxury indulged in becomes a _servitude_. He that doeth sin is the servant of sin. (John viii. 13.) The more that the carnal nature is yielded to, the more exacting it becomes. It is never satisfied, it is ever crying out for fresh pleasures, and even when the faculty of enjoyment is over, the burning craving after new pleasures remains.

Luxury indulged in _gives the Evil One power over us_. At first he advised, suggested evil, then he commands as a master, and will be obeyed. The sinner groans in his bondage and desires to escape, but remains in chains, his efforts to escape are powerless.

Luxury indulged in _weakens the power of resistance_. The sinner becomes with every sin yielded to more frail and more cowardly. His will becomes more powerless every time he yields, he makes the next fall more easy, recovery more difficult.

3. Luxury is not merely the yielding to gross sins of the flesh. It is a root of inclination in man to yield to and pamper the body in many ways not in themselves sinful. Any excessive indulgence in pleasure, in ease, in dress, in entertainments, in distractions, in ├Žstheticism, may be, and often is, mortal vice. To take a simple case, the reading of novels. A novel may be read as a distraction from laborious thought, or painful thought. But to make fiction the main nutriment of the mind and imagination is to indulge in the vice of luxury.

Man is sent into this world to do some good to others, to fill some social gap, and to educate his mind, discipline his body, and cultivate his soul. But luxury bids him distract his mind from serious pursuits, and seek distraction as an end. Luxury, instead of bracing, enervates the body, and it neglects the soul, if it does not cover it with stains.

4. Gross indulgence in luxury, and long continuance in luxurious living degrades the heart. The heart is rendered incapable of responding to noble thoughts.

It blinds the mind to Divine things. As the pure in heart see God, the impure have their understanding darkened to Divine things.

It chokes the spiritual life. To the luxurious prayer gives disgust, religious counsel irritates.

It hardens the heart, it leads from sin to sin, till sin becomes a habit, and habit becomes impenitence. Then the grace of God leaves the soul entirely, and spiritually the soul is dead.

Sixth Friday in Lent.

_ENVY._

1. Envy is a sadness which affects the mind on the contemplation of advantage accruing to a fellow-being, and which we resent as though what was his good was our ill. Or else it is a gladness which we feel when we see or hear of some disadvantage happening to a fellow-being. Or again, it may be a dissatisfaction at his having some natural gifts or divine favours accorded to him which we are without, or a satisfaction at his having certain natural defects, faults, or infirmities.

2. There is no sin in the feeling of the heart when we are sad at the success of another, which has not fallen to us, so long as it does not embitter us, and so long as it serves to spur us to activity. _Emulation_ is not sinful. On the contrary, God allows of inequalities, in order to stimulate us to use our energies, and exercise our faculties to the utmost. Emulation is only sinful when with it goes loss of charity.

There is no sin in the feeling of the heart when we are sad or wrath at persons obtaining advantages which they do not deserve. This is _Indignation_, and springs out of a wounded sense of justice. But such indignation must not prompt us to disparage, backbite, and injure those who have succeeded without just cause for success.

There is no sin in the feeling of the heart when we are disconcerted at certain persons obtaining positions of trust and authority which we believe they will misuse. This is _Fear of Evil_, and is legitimate. At the same time, as we cannot see the hearts and measure the understandings of others, it is possible we may undervalue them, and that they will do better than we have thought probable.

There is no sin in the feeling of the heart when we feel glad that a person whom we deem unworthy has failed to obtain, or has lost an employment for which he was incapable.

Nor is there anything wrong in the feeling of satisfaction at the punishment of an evil-doer.

3. Envy is that gall of the heart which is the reverse of charity. Envy is bred of self-esteem, and it hates to see others better, happier, more esteemed, more prosperous than self. It is _selfish egoism_, desiring to possess all advantages itself. It is a _baseness of the soul_, which cannot endure to see anything superior to its own mean self. It is a _falsity of judgment_, for it interprets awrong everything done by the person it envies. It is _hypocritical_, for it knows the despicable quality of its emotions, and veils them under all kinds of disguises.

4. It is the most distressing of spiritual maladies. It is to the soul what rust is to iron, canker to a tree, corroding and destroying all happiness, brightness, amiability.

It poisons the entire life.

It is, moreover, the fruitful mother of many sins.

It produces (_a_) slander, backbiting, malicious words, (_b_) uncharitable and cruel acts of animosity and vengeance.

It is a vice most hateful to God. "Envy," says Solomon, is "the rottenness of the bones." (Prov. xiv. 30.) "Though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing," says S. Paul. (1 Cor. xiii. 3.) It is one of the works of the flesh that excludes from the kingdom of God. (Gal. v. 21.) "If ye have bitter envying and strife in your hearts, glory not ... this ... is earthly, sensual, devilish. For where envying and strife is, there is confusion and every evil work." (James iii. 15, 16.)

5. One belief among theologians is that the Devil fell through Envy; when he knew for what God had created man, he was filled with jealousy of man, and therefore revolted. As charity is the greatest of virtues, and sweetens and glorifies the whole life, and is that virtue most near to Christ, so is Envy the greatest of vices, souring and darkening the whole life, and bringing most into likeness to the Devil.

Sixth Saturday in Lent.

_GLUTTONY._

1. Gluttony is the vice of greedy love of eating and drinking beyond measure. If it be a love of eating too much it is _greediness_; if a love of eating and drinking only choice and palatable things, then it is _daintiness_. Now God requires us to eat and drink what is necessary for our life and health, and He gives to us a sensation of pleasure in eating and drinking in order to encourage us to eat and drink what is good and healthful.

Gluttony is the opposite vice to the virtue of temperance.

Some people are particular not to drink fermented liquors, but gorge themselves with food. They are quite as guilty of excess in one way as those who drink beyond measure. The gifts of God are bestowed to be used, and used in moderation. To despise and reject any gift of God as in itself bad is to sin against God. So S. Paul speaks of those who forbad meats, and so nowadays some intemperate advocates of temperance forbid all fermented liquors as in themselves bad. Sin does not exist in eating and drinking, but in eating and drinking immoderately.

2. There is sin when (_a_) one eats and drinks in excess of what nature requires, merely for the sake of the pleasure of eating and drinking.

(_b_) One eats or drinks with daintiness, picking and choosing, and disparaging food or drink if it be not quite what suits our pampered tastes.

(_c_) One spends too much time, or thought, or money, over food and drink.

(_d_) One disorders the health, and confuses the mind, through overmuch eating and drinking.

3. There is a virtue in self-denial in eating and drinking. Our Lord Himself exhorts to fasting (Matt. vi. 16), and Himself set us the example to fast. It must, however, never be done to excess, so as to injure the health. And as it is well to abstain from food, so is it well to abstain from intoxicating drinks, if done merely as an act of self-denial, and to avoid scandal.

4. Gluttony or Drunkenness is the fruitful mother of several evil children.

(_a_) The _degradation of the superior faculties_, which are weakened by surfeiting and drunkenness. The mind is abased, and the soul smothered by excessive eating and drinking.

(_b_) _Forgetfulness of Salvation._ The soul becomes so lost in the grossness of the life led by the glutton, and the gourmand, and the drunkard, that it does not care for the things of the life to come.

(_c_) _Laxity of Morals._ When the thoughts are given up to pampering the animal man in one particular, the power to resist temptation to indulge the animal appetites in other particulars is weakened, if not lost.

(_d_) _Passion._ The glutton and the drunkard are liable to give way to explosions of rage and anger, to quarrels and discords. Self-restraint being sacrificed in one quarter is lost in another.

Palm Sunday.

_ANGER._

1. Anger is an agitation of the heart against persons or things that displease us, impelling us to reject them and injure them. It urges us to avenge ourselves on them for the wrong they have done, or that we imagine they have done to us.

Anger is not necessarily in itself sinful. It is legitimate when it is just, when the feeling is moderate, when the desire of punishment is proportioned to the offence, and when it is soon passed.

It is sinful when it is _unjust_, _excessive_, _vengeful_, and _lasting_.

We feel angry when we see a wrong done, the weak oppressed, the truth spoken against, religion mocked. Such a feeling is right, it is _righteous zeal_. But Anger must not be allowed to get the dominion over us. That is what the Apostle says when he bids us, "Be ye angry, and sin not."

2. Anger is criminal in its _object_, when it seeks vengeance on a person for a wrong he has not really done, or in excess of his deserts.

Anger is criminal in its _means_, when it goes about to avenge a wrong by some illicit means, as by slander, by bringing hurt upon the person who has given the offence in a secret, underhand way.

Anger is criminal in its _motive_, when it pursues the offender remorselessly, even though he deserves punishment.

Anger is criminal in its _motions_, if they be allowed to pass the bounds of moderation, and obscure the judgment, that is to say, if it become a blazing passion.

Anger is criminal in its _expression_, when it impels to extravagant, insulting, false words, or violent acts.

3. Let us now return to the consideration of the four qualities of Anger that justify or condemn it.

(_a_) It is sinful if it be _unjust_, and lawful if _just_. We must, therefore, be very careful not to allow our eyes to be blinded by passion so as to judge wrongfully. We are very liable to mistake, and may suppose a thing is done against us intentionally, when it has been done accidentally. We must, therefore, not be impulsive in our Anger.

(_b_) It is sinful when _excessive_. We must not give way to the feeling of Anger, so as to allow it to grow out of indignation at the sense of wrong done into a hot personal passion that, like a whirlwind, will sweep us away with it.

(_c_) It is sinful when _vengeful_. God says, "Vengeance is mine, I will repay." We must seek only the redress of the wrong, not the injury of the wrong doer. We must seek his good, not his hurt, in the exercise of punishment. That makes all the difference between retribution and revenge.

(_d_) It is sinful when _lasting_. "Let not the sun go down on your wrath," is S. Paul's rule. If we bear anger and malice in the heart, the longer we harbour it the more unreasonable it grows. Anger must be soon over, ready to die out at once when the opportunity presents itself for forgiveness.

Monday in Holy Week.

_SLOTH._

1. Sloth is that love of indolence, or dislike to exertion, which induces man to neglect his duties.

The will is given to man as a determining faculty to impel him to action in the right course, and to hold him back from activity in the wrong direction. Sloth is that inertness which holds back the will from forming a determination, and therefore usually holds man back from fulfilling his duties. It may hold him back from doing what is wrong, and so may be of a negative advantage, and yet it so saps the life of the will as to make it incapable of doing any good, that it would in some cases be better in the end for a man to have chosen what is wrong, and to have repented, than to have remained inert in the presence of a question set before him to decide upon.