Chapter XIV: Part 14

Brethren:
If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit. Let
us not become desirous of vainglory, provoking one another,
envying one another. And if a man can be overtaken in any
fault, you, who are spiritual, instruct such a one in the
spirit of mildness, considering thyself, lest thou also be
tempted. Bear ye one another's burdens, and so shall you fulfil
the law of Christ. For if any man think himself to be
something, whereas he is nothing, he deceiveth himself. But let
every one prove his own work, and so he shall have glory in
himself only, and not in another. For every one shall bear his
own burden. And let him who is instructed in the word
communicate to him that instructeth him, in all good things. Be
not deceived, God is not mocked. For what things a man shall
sow, those also shall he reap. For he that soweth in the flesh,
of the flesh also shall reap corruption. But he that soweth in
the Spirit, of the Spirit shall reap life everlasting. And in
doing good, let us not fail. For in due time we shall reap, not
failing. Therefore, whilst we have time, let us do good to all
men, but especially to those who are of the household of the
faith.

Gospel.
_St. Luke vii._ 11-16.

At that time:
Jesus went into a city called Nain: and there went with him his
disciples, and a great multitude. And when he came nigh to the
gate of the city, behold a dead man was carried out, the only
son of his mother; and she was a widow: and much people of the
city was with her. And when the Lord saw her, he had compassion
on her, and said to her: Weep not.
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And he came near and touched the bier. (And they that carried
it stood still.) And he said: Young man, I say to thee, Arise.
And he that was dead sat up and began to speak. And he
delivered him to his mother. And there came a fear on them all:
and they glorified God, saying: That a great prophet is risen
up among us: and God hath visited his people.

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Sermon CXXI.

_Behold a dead man was carried out._
--St. Luke vii. 12.

The sight which our Lord saw, and which is recorded in to-day's Gospel, we have often seen. We can scarcely walk a mile or two in a great city without seeing a dead man carried out. The hearse, the funeral procession, the pall, the coffin, the sabled mourners, are all familiar and every-day objects. Again, we read of death every day. We find in the newspapers, the hospital reports, and so forth, death in a thousand shapes. We see that death waits for us at every corner of the street, that it lurks in the river, hovers in the atmosphere, hides in our very bodies, is concealed even in our pleasures. Again and again we have heard the beating of its heavy wings and seen the clutch of its clammy fingers--sometimes in our own houses, sometimes in our neighbors', sometimes on the sea, sometimes on land, sometimes in the busy street, sometimes in the silent chamber.

Strange to say, however, although nothing is better known than death, nothing is more forgotten. We hear people saying every day, "How shall we live?" but seldom do they ever think of adding, "and how shall we die?"

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My brethren, every one of you here this morning _must_ die.

There will come an hour when your heart will cease to beat, when you will close your eyes and fold your hands in death, and when, like the dead man in the Gospel, you will "be carried out."

O brethren! how are you preparing for that supreme moment?

Are you ready _now_, at this moment, to die? If you are not you ought to be. Let us, then, see how we should prepare ourselves.

Above all things you should never forget death. When you see other men die, when you read of death, when you see the priest in black vestments, and hear the sweet tones of the choristers chanting the solemn requiem, then you should say to yourselves, "It may be my turn next."

Keep death always before your eyes; then when it comes you will not shrink from its touch. Again, keep your conscience clear, and make every confession and Communion as if it were to be your last. How many have come to their duties on Saturday and Sunday, and on Monday have departed for ever from this world!

The earth, dearly beloved, is a vast field, and Death with his sharp scythe toils in it every day. Blade after blade, flower after flower, tender plant and fragrant herb, fall beneath his sweeping blows every hour, every second. You may now be as the grass that is the most distant from the steel: there may be acres upon acres between you and the severing blade, but the strong, patient mower is nearing you slowly but surely. Listen! listen! and you will catch the sharp hiss of his scythe and hear the murmur of the falling grass. Oh! then be ready, with girded loins and burning lamp. Be ready, for you know not when death shall come. Be ready, with clear conscience and well-cared for soul, for the last great hour.

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Lastly, pray to St. Joseph that you may obtain the grace of a happy death. Go to his altar; kneel at his feet and say, "dear spouse of our Lady and foster-father of Jesus Christ! obtain for me to die, as thou didst, in the arms of Jesus and Mary, and to remain with them and thee in the paradise of God."

Beloved, death is nearing, death is coming. Oh! then, I beseech you, neglect not these words of warning and advice. "Here we have not an abiding city, but seek one to come," even the heavenly Jerusalem, the City of God, which shines above. The gate of that city is a good and Christian death. God grant, then, that through that blessed portal we all may pass, lest we be left cold and shivering in the black night of the outer darkness!

Rev. Algernon A. Brown.

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Sermon CXXII.

_If we live in the spirit,
let us also walk in the spirit._
--Galatians v. 25.

There is a saying which, in Latin, runs as follows: "_Dum vivimus, vivamus._" Put into English, it is: "While we live let us live"; or, to bring out the idea more clearly: "While we live let us make the most of life."

It is a saying which has always been very popular with infidels. We have this life, they say--it is our own; but we do not know what is coming after it, or, indeed, if anything at all is; so, while we have it, let us use it; there is not much of it, and it will soon be gone, but it is ours now. A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush; so, then, "_Dum vivimus, vivamus_"--while we live let us make the most of life.

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Now, the Christian idea of life and the way to use it is somewhat different from that of the infidel. A Christian does know what is coming after this life; he knows that this short life is only a preparation for the next, which is eternal; he knows that pursuing the pleasure of this world, after the infidel fashion, will endanger his salvation; and if he values his salvation--that is to say, if he has common sense--he looks out for the life of his soul rather than that of his body, so that he may always be ready for death when it shall come. And he has a fear of pleasure, rather than a desire of it, on account of its danger; he crucifies the flesh, with its vices and concupiscences, as St. Paul says in the conclusion of the Epistle of last Sunday, that it may be subject to the soul, instead of subjecting the soul to itself.

He makes up his mind, in short, to live in the spirit instead of the flesh; and in that, as I have said, he shows his common sense. But when he has got as far as that his common sense seems too often to fail him. He ought then to come back to the maxim of the infidel; for it is a very sensible one in itself, the only trouble with it being that the infidel has the wrong idea of life. It would be all right for the Christian.

The Christian ought to say--you and I, my dear brethren, ought to say: "_Dum vivimus, vivamus_." Or, in the words of St. Paul in the beginning of today's Epistle, which immediately follows that of last Sunday, we ought to say: "If we live in the spirit, let us also walk in the spirit." {408} That is, if we are going to live in the spirit rather than in the flesh, let us make the most of our spiritual life. Let us enjoy it, advance in it, and get all out of it that we can. We have, indeed, much more reason to say so than the man of the world; for not only shall we have more of it in the next world for all that we get out of it now, but there is much more to be got out of it even here than out of the life of the body.

And yet many, perhaps most, good Christians content themselves with simply keeping in the state of grace and avoiding sin. They just keep themselves spiritually alive, and that is all. They are like misers, who starve in the midst of their gold. There are pleasures for them, even in this world, far above what it can itself give, and they do little or nothing to obtain them.

Something has to be done to obtain them, of course. It is the same, however, with bodily pleasure, and those who seek it know that. Many a man has made a slave of himself all his life to get a few years of ease and comfort at the end of it. Why should not we do the same for the comfort of our souls?

Something has to be done, but not so much after all. A little more earnestness in prayer; a little more fidelity in meditation and spiritual reading; a little more care to uproot our evil habits; a little more charity and spirit of sacrifice for our brethren; and, last but not least, a little mortification beyond what is forced on us, or what is necessary to avoid sin, and the reward would soon come. Temptations would be lighter; the struggle would be easier; God would come nearer to us; and that dawn would rise in our hearts which is brighter than the lights which earthly hands can kindle, and which is the sure fore-runner of the eternal day.

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Sermon CXXIII.

_Let us not become desirous of vainglory._
--Galatians v. 26.

These words, my dear brethren, are from the Epistle of the Mass of this Sunday. I feel quite sure that the advice which St. Paul gives us in them is a very sensible one, and one which we all need to take very much to heart.

What is this vainglory of which he speaks? It is the vain and false glory which comes from the admiration of others. It is what, in the more important matters of life, the world calls glory, and does not call vain. It is what many great geniuses have spent their lives to acquire, and have even been admired for doing so. But it is what in smaller matters the world calls it vanity to seek; and the world generally laughs, at least in its sleeve, at those who do so.

The girl whose great desire it is to have her hat acknowledged to be the prettiest one in church is called vain and made fun of, perhaps, even by her rivals, who wish in their hearts that they had a nicer one, if it was only to take the conceit out of her; but the man whose ambition it is to have the brain that his hat covers acknowledged to be the smartest one in the country is not laughed at, but very much respected, if the brain be really a fine one. And yet the desire is really all the same thing in both of them.

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Now, my brethren, we are all more or less vain or desirous of this vainglory; rather more, in fact, than less. It will not do for us to laugh very hard at each other for it, for we are all in the same boat. It is a passion which is almost universal. Some people who are quite proud may fancy that they do not care a straw for what others think of them; but I fancy that they do, though perhaps the reason may be that the praise of others will help them to admire themselves.

So you see that I was right in saying that St. Paul's advice was one which we all need to take very much to heart--all of us, not only girls with the new styles of hats, but young men at college or in business, eminent merchants and professional men, including those whom God has called to serve him at the altar. We have all got to look out for this snare of vainglory.

And how? By despising it? Yes, in a certain way, but not in the way of pride. By resolving to value nothing according to the opinion that men have of it, but according to that which Almighty God has of it.

He values nothing much but what is, like himself, eternal. He does not care so very much more for your cleverness than for your beauty. He could spoil either one of them in an instant, if he chose. But what he does care for, and what he himself cannot spoil, though of course he could not wish to, are the merits which he has given you this life to acquire and to bring before the throne of his judgment, to be transformed into your immortal crown. Those are the only things which are worth your caring for, because they are the only things which he cares for. And they are what all can have, however low in worldly station they may be.

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Yes, my dear Christians, that is the glory for us to seek--the glory of God; that which comes from him. Try to have him think well of you. It is not vain to wish to be praised and admired, only let him be the one whom you want to have praise and admire you. He will do it, if you want him to and will give him a chance. He, your Creator, desires to honor and glorify you for ever. When you think of this can you care for other praise?

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_Sixteenth Sunday after Pentecost._

Epistle.
_Ephesians iii._ 13-31.

Brethren:
I beseech you not to be disheartened at my tribulations for
you, which is your glory. For this cause I bow my knees to the
Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, of whom all paternity in
heaven and earth is named, that he would grant you, according
to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with power by
his Spirit unto the inward man. That Christ may dwell by faith
in your hearts: that being rooted and founded in charity, you
may be able to comprehend, with all the saints, what is the
breadth, and length, and height, and depth. To know also the
charity of Christ, which surpasseth knowledge, that you may be
filled unto all the fulness of God. Now to him who is able to
do all things more abundantly than we ask or understand,
according to the power which worketh in us: to him be glory in
the church, and in Christ Jesus, throughout all generations,
world without end. Amen.

Gospel.
_St. Luke xiv._ 1-11.

At that time:
When Jesus went into the house of a certain prince of the
Pharisees, on the Sabbath day, to eat bread, and they were
watching him. And behold, there was a certain man before him
that had the dropsy. And Jesus answering, spoke to the lawyers
and Pharisees, saying: Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath day?
But they held their peace. But he, taking him, healed him, and
sent him away. And answering them, he said: Which of you whose
ass or his ox shall fall into a pit, and will not immediately
draw him out on the Sabbath day? And they could not answer him
to these things.
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And he spoke a parable also to them that were invited, marking
how they chose the first seats at the table, saying to them:
When thou art invited to a wedding, sit not down in the highest
place, lest perhaps one more honorable than thou be invited by
him: and he who invited thee and him, come and say to thee:
Give place to this man; and then thou begin with blushing to
take the lowest place. But when thou art invited, go, sit down
in the lowest place: that when he who invited thee cometh, he
may say to thee: Friend, go up higher. Then shalt thou have
glory before them that sit at table with thee. Because every
one that exalteth himself shall be humbled: and he that
humbleth himself shall be exalted.

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Sermon CXXIV.

_They were watching him._
--St. Luke xiv. 1.

How condescending and kind, brethren, was the spirit of our Lord when he entered into the house of the Pharisee to eat bread; how base and ungracious, on the other hand, the conduct of the latter and his friends, who, as the Gospel says, "were watching him"!

They watched him that they might catch him breaking the laws of the Sabbath.

They envied him because his reputation was great with the people.

They watched him because "he had a daily beauty in his life which made theirs ugly," and tried to find something to carp at, something to find fault with.

He was their guest; they were bound to treat him with respect and kindness; yet they violated the rules of hospitality, deceitfully making the banquet a cover for their plan to catch him.

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He was their Saviour and the benefactor of their people; one who, as they well knew, had healed the sick, given speech to the dumb, and made the blind to see. The knowledge of his goodness and power only moved them to envy. He was greater than they, and so they watched him that they might find something in his conduct which would lessen his reputation and good name.

Are there not found some in our own day who imitate the conduct of the Pharisee and his friends?

Jesus is often near you; you often meet him in your every-day life, often have him in your house in the person of one of his pious servants--I mean any one of your neighbors whose life is better than your own.

There are many who watch such an one with the spirit of envy and criticism, and they try to find out worldly motives for their neighbor's piety. Such persons say, as Satan did of old, "Does Job serve God for naught?" Often they exclaim, "I see my neighbor frequently at Communion, but she only goes for show; I should like to see some change in her life"; or "What does she run to church so much for? It would be a great deal better for her if she stayed at home and minded her family."

Again, many watch the prosperity of their neighbor with an envious eye; they hate to see their neighbor in a better house than their own, don't like him to have more money than themselves, and so forth. All this is watching Jesus as the Pharisee did.

There are many, too, whose consciences must accuse them of watching Jesus in the persons of his priests, who envy the priest's position, envy his authority over them, and such like. {415} These people try to pick a hole in the priest's ways, to pass their opinion on his manner, his judgments, his actions. They watch him in his words, at table in their own houses, to see if perchance they can find something to make a dish of scandal out of. Yes, brethren, there are many such watchers as these, and Pharisees are they all.

Envy, which prompts this horrible spirit of unchristian criticism, is one of the worst offences against the great and fundamental virtue of charity.

Envy has inspired the hearts of men with the most wicked crimes. Envy delivered the innocent Lamb of God to a cruel death. Envy, therefore, is a grievous sin.

Envy and the spirit of criticism spring from pride. Envy makes us watch others, and such watching is from pride.

Watch yourselves rather than your neighbor and your superiors.

"Brethren," says St. Paul, "if a man be overtaken in any fault, you, who are spiritual, instruct such an one, in the spirit of meekness, considering thyself lest thou also be tempted."

Walk and pray lest ye enter into temptation. Watch Jesus and his servants, if you will, but do so to be edified, do so to learn something good. Watch Jesus, who is meek and humble of heart, that you may learn the lesson which he tried to teach the proud and envious Pharisees: "Every one that exalteth himself shall be humbled, and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted."

Rev. Algernon A. Brown.

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Sermon CXXV.

_Every one that exalteth himself shall be humbled._
--St. Luke xiv. 11.

That was an unlucky guest who sat down in the first place and was sent to take the lowest. No wonder he was covered with shame; served him right. To be humbled in the very act of exalting ourselves is indeed hard punishment, sharp and painful as a pang in a tenderly sore spot. It is like being caught in a theft or a lie. For, truly, pride is theft. We have no right to be proud, because we own as our property nothing that we may be proud of. All that we have that is good is God's; to pride ourselves on that is to rob God of his due, and appropriate what does not belong to us. And pride is a lie, a deceit; "for if thou hast received," says St. Paul, "why dost thou glory as if thou hadst not received?" A vain boast is simply lying.

To lie and to steal are very mean things to do. To be caught lying and stealing makes us feel very mean in the eyes of others; and that is what comes to us when our pride is evident and is found out by our fellow-men, and then we are humbled as was the poor guest spoken of in the Gospel. Truth is the badge of honor among men. Humility is truth, because humility is to know our place and keep it; in this is truthfulness and comfort also. We feel at ease when we are where we ought to be. A bone dislocated is a torture; anything out of place is an offence and a nuisance, whether it be a misshapen limb or a stove-pipe that doesn't fit and smokes. You remember in the fable the fate of the foolish frog who wanted to be as big as the ox--he blew until he burst and collapsed.

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Now, is there not a great deal of that kind of work among us--I mean getting too big, reaching above us, exalting ourselves--in a word, not knowing our place? Let me instance: The poor will pass for rich: fine dress and flashy jewels in broad daylight on the street; at home, dirt, wretchedness, almost starvation. The ignorant will know more than they have learned, and so stretch themselves all out of shape, and wed in the most repulsive manner pretentious speech to gross ignorance. Not only is one man as good as another, but a great deal better. The layman will teach theology and canon law to the priest. The ward politician, who buys votes at five cents a glass, and trades them off for street contracts or other valuable consideration, can run the world, the Holy See not excepted. Our American boy of twelve thinks the old folks not a circumstance to him, and shows it in his behavior. The school girl who can do a sum and thump an "easy exercise" on the piano scorns domestic work, leaves the kitchen to "ma," and cultivates the fine arts in the parlor. Our talk, our press even, is fall of unreality, inflated bombast and buncombe. We have no degrees of comparison but the superlative. God help us for a vain, boastful set! What is it all but untruthfulness, want of humility, strutting up to the head of the table in one way or another? Our conversations are full of ourselves; we threaten horrors or we promise wonders; and it all issues, like the mountain in travail, in ridiculous failures. Let us know our place, or humiliation will teach it us. {418} Adam and Eve were well off, and might have been till this day had they known their place and been satisfied; but they wanted to go up, to become as God--and they came down to all the miseries of fallen nature. Simon the Magician started, with the help of the devil, to ascend into heaven like our Saviour; but God brought him down before he got very far. "He that exalteth himself shall be humbled." Moreover, pride finds its punishment in the very ridiculousness of itself. The fool imagines himself to be other than he is; the insane insists on taking to himself a character which is not his. Well, brethren, the mock-king and queen of the asylum are not more foolish and insane, because not more untruthful, than the proud man.

The lesson, then, is this: Keep to the place God has given you, don't put yourself forward in conversation, acknowledge your nothingness before your Creator, be true and real to your fellow-men; thus you will escape shameful humiliation and deserve to be exalted in the esteem of others and in the kingdom of heaven.

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_Seventeenth Sunday after Pentecost._

Epistle.
_Ephesians iv._ 1-6.

Brethren:
As a prisoner in the Lord, I beseech you that you walk worthy
of the vocation in which you are called, with all humility and
mildness, with patience, supporting one another in charity,
careful to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.
One body and one Spirit: as you are called in one hope of your
vocation. One Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father
of all, who is above all, and through all, and in us all, who
is blessed for ever and ever.

Gospel.
_St. Matthew xxii._ 35-46.

At that time:
the Pharisees came nigh to Jesus: 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 the 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. And the Pharisees being
gathered together, Jesus asked them saying: What think you of
Christ? Whose son is he? They say to him: David's. He saith to
them: How then doth David in spirit call him Lord, saying: "The
Lord said to my Lord: Sit on my right hand, until I make thy
enemies thy footstool"? If David then call him Lord, how is he
his son? And no man was able to answer him a word: neither
durst any man from that day forth ask him any more questions.

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Sermon CXXVI.

_Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself._
--St. Matthew xxii. 39.

Nothing can be plainer than the fact that we must love God, and it is equally plain that we must love our neighbor. Our Lord declares that on these two precepts depend the whole law and the prophets. Yet we see people who make very little of them both. The precept to love our neighbor is perhaps the least regarded. Let us, therefore, reflect upon this commandment to-day. In the first place, there is no doubt about the obligation. Jesus says plainly, and with authority: "Thou shalt love thy neighbor"; and again, in another place, he says: "A new _commandment_ I give unto you, that you love one another. By this shall all men know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another."

So, then, if you want to keep the commandment of Jesus Christ, if you want to be known as his disciples, you _must_ love your neighbors. The obligation is clear and plain.

But our Lord not only gives a _commandment_, but also explains the _method_ of fulfilling it. He not only says, "Thou shalt love thy neighbor," but also adds "as thyself." He does not say as much as thyself, because, of course, the orders of nature and charity both require that we should love ourselves better than our neighbor. We must save our own soul first. We must not peril our own salvation in order to benefit our neighbor. Our Lord says "as thyself"--that is, in the _same manner_, not in the _same degree_. We must love our neighbor for his own sake, just as we love ourselves for our own sake. {421} If we only love our neighbor on account of the use he can be to us, the pleasure he can give us, or the positions he can obtain for us, then that is really no love at all. That is nothing more or less than loving ourselves. We must love him as Jesus Christ has loved us--with a supernatural love, with a love which is founded on a desire to save our neighbor's soul.

And now in every-day life how must we treat our neighbor in order to fulfil the command of Jesus Christ, "Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself"? First, do your neighbor no wrong, either by thought, word, or deed. You don't like any one to think evil of you. Very well, don't think evil of your neighbor. You don't like any one to speak ill of yourself; you don't like to be insulted; can't bear to be abused. Ah! then be careful that you don't visit such things upon your neighbor.

You don't like to be defrauded or cheated; you don't like to have your property or your reputation injured, or to be wronged in any way. Why? Because you love yourself. Very well, then, "love thy neighbor _as_ thyself," and don't do to him what you are unwilling should be done to you.

Again, not only refrain from doing your neighbor wrong, but wish him well and do him good. Try to have his name on your lips when you are at prayer. Say: "O God! prosper my neighbor, even as thou hast prospered me." Endeavor to show your fellow-Christian that you are interested in his well-being, and heartily glad when he succeeds in life. Have that spirit in your heart which makes you as glad to hear that your neighbor has gained five hundred dollars as if you had made the sum yourself. {422} Then, when you can do your friend a good turn, do it with a hearty good-will; give him a helping hand; try to encourage him in his business. Don't say, "Every man for himself and God for us all, and the devil take the hindermost"; but say, "Do unto others as you would they should do unto you."

And, lastly, you want God to forgive your sins? You want men to condone your offences and look over your shortcomings and defects? Then love your neighbor as yourself. If he has injured you, pardon him; if he has done wrong, overlook it; if he has got defects, bear with them. "All things," says one of the saints, "are easy to him who loves." So, then, love God, love your neighbor, and all things will be easy to _you_. This life will pass away all the more pleasantly, and the life to come will be all the more bright and its reward all the more precious, if you will only remember and act upon this great commandment: "Thou shalt _love_ thy neighbor _as thyself_."

Rev. Algernon A. Brown.

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Sermon CXXVII.

_With patience, supporting one another in charity._
--_Ephesians iv._ 2.

We hear a great deal nowadays, my dear brethren, about toleration. It is a thing which the nineteenth century takes a special pride in. It seems to imagine that it is really a great deal more charitable and patient than any previous one, and that, in fact, the apostles themselves might learn a lesson of Christian virtue from it, if they could come back to the earth.

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I wish that such were actually the case; but if we examine this pretended toleration and charity we shall have to confess that it is simply a sham, having nothing whatever in it to make it deserve the name it takes. You would not say of any man that he was of a tolerant and patient disposition because he was quite willing that some stranger should be interfered with, provided he himself was let alone. Well, that is precisely the tolerance of the nineteenth century. The world is now tolerant about all things in which the rights of Almighty God are concerned, because it has made him a stranger to itself; but it resents interference with itself, and insists on being let alone in its own enjoyments as much as, or more than, ever.

The world, then, has not yet learned to be tolerant, patient, or charitable in any true sense of those words, in spite of all its boasting; and it is much to be feared that it never will. After all, it is not much wonder that it has not; for this is a very difficult lesson, and one which one must have the help of God to learn. True tolerance or patience, bearing with others when they interfere, not with somebody else, but with ourselves, is a fruit of grace rather than of nature. It cannot be expected from those who have rejected the grace of God as a needless encumbrance in the journey of life. If they have the appearance of it, it is only an outside finish of what is called politeness, put on merely to save trouble and make things more comfortable on the whole.

But it is not for Christians who are trying to live by the light of grace, not of nature; who believe in God and are trying to keep his commandments; who wish to imitate Christ, and are receiving the sacraments which should enable them to do so, to follow the example of such.

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We ought to try to be really tolerant with our brethren, whatever their faults or defects may be or however much they may put us out or interfere with our comfort consciously or unconsciously, "with patience, supporting one another in charity," as St. Paul says in the Epistle of to-day. And yet must we not confess that too often we do not even make an attempt to practise this virtue? Your neighbor offends you in some trifling way, perhaps without really meaning to do so or knowing that he does; it may be even by some peculiarity which is not really his fault at all. Do you put up with it; do you say: "Oh! that is not much; I must take people as I find them and as God made them, not as I would like to have them; we all have plenty of defects, and perhaps I myself am the worst of all"? Do you not rather say: "Oh! there is no getting along with such a person; I will keep out of his way; I cannot bear the sight of him; it will be better for us to avoid speaking," and the like?

This intolerance, which is so common, is simply avoiding a cross which we ought to carry, not only for the love of God, like all others, but for the love of our neighbor also; and especially when it comes from those who are our brethren not only by a common humanity but by a common faith, who have with us, as St. Paul goes on to remind us, "one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in us all." Try, then, to bear this cross cheerfully, and show, by so doing, that you really are aiming to fulfil the great commandments given in to-day's Gospel, by loving God, from whom it comes, with your whole heart and soul and mind, and your neighbor, by whom it comes, as yourself.

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{425}

_Eighteenth Sunday after Pentecost._

Epistle.
1 _ Corinthians i._ 4-8.

Brethren:
I give thanks to my God always for you; for the grace of God
that is given you in Christ Jesus, that in all things you are
made rich in him, in every word, and in all knowledge: as the
testimony of Christ was confirmed in you: so that nothing is
wanting to you in any grace, waiting for the manifestation of
our Lord Jesus Christ, who also will confirm you unto the end
without crime, in the day of the coming of our Lord Jesus
Christ.

Gospel.
_St. Matthew ix._ 1-8.

At that time:
Jesus entering into a boat, passed over the water and came into
his own city. And behold they brought to him a man sick of the
palsy lying on a bed. And Jesus, seeing their faith, said to
the man sick of the palsy: Son, be of good heart, thy sins are
forgiven thee. And behold some of the Scribes said within
themselves: This man blasphemeth. And Jesus seeing their
thoughts, said: Why do you think evil in your hearts? Which is
easier, to say, Thy sins are forgiven thee; or to say, Rise up
and walk? But that you may know that the Son of man hath power
on earth to forgive sins (then saith he to the man sick of the
palsy), Rise up: take thy bed and go into thy house. And he
rose up, and went into his house. And the multitude seeing it,
feared, and glorified God who had given such power to men.

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{426}

Sermon CXXVIII.

_Why do you think evil in your hearts?_
--St. Matthew ix. 4.

All those, dear brethren, who are trying to lead a holy life have a great horror of _external_ sins. They will not lie, steal, murder, or be guilty of adultery or intemperance. Still, I am afraid a great many of us are awfully careless about _internal_ sins. We forget that not only the sins which we openly commit, but those also which we secretly assent to in our own minds, are offences against God.

You can see this in to-day's Gospel. When our Lord said to the sick man, "Thy sins are forgiven thee," the Scribes directly said "_within themselves_, He blasphemeth"; and although they did not shape this sentence in words, it was accounted to them for sin, as we can see from the reply of Jesus Christ contained in the text.

You see, then, brethren, if you want to keep your conscience clear, you must not only avoid external but even internal sins. Indeed, I think the sins which we commit internally are even more deadly than the external ones. First, because they always precede the open offence; as our Lord says in another place, "From the heart come forth evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false testimonies, blasphemies." Now, you will see at once that "evil thoughts" come first on the list, by which I think our Lord wishes to intimate that they are the root of all the others.

Again, evil thoughts, whether they are against charity, or against chastity, or against faith--whether they are thoughts of pride, of hatred, or envy, or avaricious thoughts--insomuch as they are concealed from the sight of others, do not cause the same shame to the guilty person as an overt act would. Thus, being the more easily committed, they are the more frequent and the more deadly.

{427}

Lastly, dear friends, evil thoughts pollute the mind and heart, and in proportion as they and their darkness enter, God and his brightness leave. To indulge in evil thoughts is to defile the stream at its fountain-head and poison all the river below.

Be on your guard, then, dear brethren, against this insidious enemy.

Perhaps evil thoughts against faith may assail you. Cast them out before they have time to enter fully into the mind. Many, better perhaps and holier than you, have in times past become heretics, apostates, enemies of God's church because they did not trample at once upon these beginnings of evil. You may be assaulted by imaginations against holy purity. Stifle them, I beseech you, at once, or they will grow in strength and gain in frequency till they have buried the grace of God, peace of mind, and strength of intellect in one common and unhallowed grave. You have all doubtless heard of the avalanche which happens in regions where the mountains which rise from the great valley and tower above the nestling valleys are covered with perpetual snow. Perhaps it is a slight puff of air, or the light tread of the mountain goat, or it maybe nothing but the brushing of a bird's wing that detaches the ball of snow; but be that as it may, the particle, once started, rushes down the mountain-side, gathering strength as it hurries on, leaping from one precipice to another, till finally, having swept everything before it, the enormous heap falls upon the peaceful village and buries everything in "a chaos of indistinguishable death." {428} Yet in the beginning that avalanche was but a ball of snow. So it is with evil thoughts against faith, chastity, charity, humility, and all the other virtues. Once let them start and you can never tell in what awful ruin they will end.

Nip evil thoughts, then, in the bud; and as chief remedies I would say:

1. Fill your mind with good thoughts. A vessel cannot be full
of two liquids at the same time. Think of heaven; think of God,
of Jesus, of Mary and her pure spouse, St. Joseph.

2. Remember the eye that sees the secrets of all hearts, and
Him who saw the thoughts of the Scribes in the Gospel of
to-day.

3. Remember that you can commit a mortal sin by thought as well
as by deed.

Lastly, picture to yourself One ever standing by your side,
with wounded hands and pierced heart, "whose name is faithful
and true, whose eyes are as a flame of fire, and on his head
many diadems; who is clothed with a garment of blood," and who
cries to you night and day, "Why do ye think evil in your
hearts?"

Rev. Algernon A. Brown.

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Sermon CXXIX.

_And Jesus seeing their faith,
said to the man sick of the palsy:
Son, be of good heart,
thy sins are forgiven thee._
--St. Matthew ix. 2.

These words of our Lord must have been something of a surprise to the paralytic and his friends; welcome they must have been, but still unexpected, and to some extent disappointing. For the sick man had not been brought to Christ to have his sins forgiven; and that favor had not been asked, at least no request had been made for it in words. {429} The paralytic himself must have wished it, it is true, for God never forgives our sins unless we desire forgiveness; but he did not say so, and his mind, like those of his bearers, was probably more occupied with his bodily than with his spiritual cure.

It will be worth our while to see why our Saviour chose to give them this surprise; why he did not cure the sick man first and forgive him afterwards. That might seem to be the more natural way: to restore him first to bodily health, and then to move him by gratitude to repentance and conversion. Still, when we come to consider it I think we shall hit upon two very good reasons for his course, and that without very much reflection. The first reason, then, for our Lord doing as he did, was to show us that the health of the soul is more important in his sight than that of the body, and hence requires our first attention. The second follows from the first: it was to remind us that, such being the case, we cannot reasonably expect bodily health or any other temporal blessing if we neglect to reconcile ourselves to God.

Now, these are two things that all of us, my dear brethren, must certainly know very well, otherwise they would not occur to our minds so readily. But in spite of this we too often fail to give our knowledge a practical application.

How few there are, strange to say, who really act as if the health of their souls were of more importance than that of their bodies! Take, for instance, in proof of this, a fact which we have often seen recorded lately in the daily papers. The yellow fever, you will hear, has appeared in some Southern town, and what has been the result? {430} All the inhabitants, who could leave the place immediately did so, perhaps taking the very next train, and, it may be, leaving their property in the hands of strangers. Well, we may think this a little cowardly and foolish, considering that, after all, there would not have been, perhaps, more than one chance in ten even of sickness, if they had stayed; but still we cannot blame them, for we feel that we should very likely have done the same ourselves. But how many would act in this way in the presence of a spiritual danger, though it were much more certain and imminent than that of the body in this terrible Southern plague? Ask yourselves the question, you who remain contentedly in unnecessary occasions of sin, with much more than one chance in ten, nay, with an absolute certainty, that your soul will be not only sick but dead as long as you remain there; ask yourselves if you value the health of your soul more than that of the body; see if you practise what you must believe if you are a Christian--that it is better to die even to-day in a state of grace than live for a moment in that of sin.

Well, whether you act on this belief or not. Almighty God does. He shows you that, as I have said, in this Gospel of to-day. And it follows that you cannot please him or be in his grace as long as you do not do for your soul what you would do for your body; that is, as long as you do not remove it from needless dangers. That is the first practical lesson to be learned from our Lord's action in the cure of the paralytic.

{431}

And the second is that, if we hope to obtain from God temporal favors out of the natural order of his providence, we must first provide for our souls, which come first in his estimation. And yet many people seem to expect him to reverse the order which he has established. They promise conversion if they obtain the temporal blessing which they want. They may succeed through his abundant mercy; but the better and the surer course would be to think of the soul first and the body afterward. "Seek first," and he says, "the kingdom of God and his justice, and all things shall be added unto you."

And remember that this must be the real disposition of your souls, if you would be saved. The catechism tells you that the only contrition which will obtain forgiveness, even in the sacrament of Penance, must be what is called "sovereign"; that is, "we should be more grieved for having offended God than for all the other evils that could happen to us." Think well of this, and you will be able to add a good deal to what I have had time to say.

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{432}

_Nineteenth Sunday after Pentecost._

Epistle.
_Ephesians iv._ 23-28.

Brethren:
Be ye renewed in the spirit of your mind: and put on the new
man, who, according to God, is created in justice, and holiness
of truth. Wherefore, putting away lying, speak ye the truth
every man with his neighbor: for we are members one of another.
Be angry, and sin not. Let not the sun go down upon your anger:
Give not place to the devil. Let him that stole, steal now no
more, but rather let him labor, working with his hands that
which is good, that he may have to give to him who is in need.

Gospel.
_St. Matthew xxii._ 2-14.

At that time:
Jesus spoke to the chief priests and Pharisees in parables,
saying: The kingdom of heaven is like to a man being a king,
who made a marriage for his son. And he sent his servants to
call them that were invited to the marriage: and they would not
come. Again he sent other servants, saying: Tell them that were
invited: Behold, I have prepared my dinner; my beeves and
fatlings are killed, and all things are ready: come ye to the
wedding. But they neglected, and went their ways, one to his
farm, and another to his merchandise. And the rest laid hands
on his servants, and, having treated them contumeliously, put
them to death. But when the king heard of it he was angry, and,
sending his armies, he destroyed those murderers and burnt
their city. Then he saith to his servants: The wedding indeed
is ready: but they that were invited were not worthy. Go ye
therefore into the highways, and as many as you shall find,
invite to the wedding. And his servants going out into the
highways, gathered together all that they found, both bad and
good: and the wedding was filled with guests.
{433}
And the king went in to see the guests, and he saw there a man
who had not on a wedding garment. And he saith to him: Friend,
how camest thou in hither not having a wedding garment? But he
was silent. Then the king said to the waiters: Having bound his
hands and feet, cast him into the exterior darkness: there
shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth. For many are called,
but few are chosen.

----------------------------

Sermon CXXX.

_Let him that stole,
steal now no more._
--Ephesians iv. 28.

These words, dear friends, are taken from the Epistle appointed to be read to-day, and contain a most useful lesson.

Now, I know the words "steal, stealing, thief, etc.," have a very ugly sound.

People have a horror of them. The worst insult you can give to any one is to say, "You are a thief." Still, in spite of this feeling, we know that sins against justice are very often committed.

Public men steal from public moneys. Employees rob their employers, children steal from their parents, servants from their masters, trustees from those whose affairs they have under control, and so on. From the time that Judas put his hand into the bag and filched from the scanty funds of his Master and his brethren, down to this present day, there have been Catholics who have so far forgotten themselves and "the vocation to which they are called" as to steal. Do you doubt this? Take up the first daily paper that comes to hand, and you will have evidence in black and white. {434} Now, there are three ways in which we can commit the sin of stealing: first, by taking that which does not belong to us; secondly, by unjustly retaining what does not belong to us; and, thirdly, by injuring what is not our own. First, then, we must not take what is not our own. Now, this you all know so well that I need only say a few words about it. Brethren, the man, woman, or child who takes money, articles, clothing, or what not from another, without their consent and knowledge, is a thief!

When such persons creep to the till, the box, the desk of their neighbors, with stealthy tread and bated breath, to take what does not belong to them, God sees them, God's angel sees them; and, could they but hear it, they would be aware of a hundred voices crying aloud, "Thou shalt not steal." You are a thief! You are a thief!