Chapter IV: Part 4

Then there is the mother of the family, whose life is one unbroken round of acts of affection. The spirit of sacrifice, the craving to bear others burdens, is her spirit. You know how a good mother watches at the sick-bed the livelong night, passing back and forth through the dark rooms, listening to every breathing, answering every sigh with a comforting word, or a cool drink, or a soft caress. Only the next world will reveal to us the loveliness of such devoted souls; here we catch but a glimpse and an echo of it. {104} The accents, the tones of the voice, the very silence, the manners, the ways of a good mother diffuse what Scripture calls the fragrance of ointments around her household. You know, too, how she saves and pinches to keep off debt, to dress the children neatly, to save a penny to give them a holiday, to save a dollar for hard times or a spell of sickness. And all this sacrifice is a matter of course with her. But the truest glory of a mother is her patience. The patient mother is the valiant woman of Scripture. She is the woman who smothers her anger; who will suffer the impertinence of an unruly child in silence; who forgets as well as forgives; whose admonition or correction is the reluctant tribute of a tender heart to the child's well-being. Do you want to know how she is able to do this? The secret of it is that she finds time--in the heavy duty of being everybody's servant--to attend to religion; to belong to the Rosary Society and make her monthly Communion; to give alms to the poor from her hard savings; to visit and watch with sick, or afflicted neighbors. It is, in a word, because she ever gazes in spirit upon that Holy Family where Mary was mother that she is able to be a good Christian mother.

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

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Sermon XXX.

The Duty Of Good Example.

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

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

But there are those who are without these advantages. There are many around us, our near neighbors and friends, who are outside the church, not through their own fault, but by birth and education. These are not in possession of those means of knowing the church and her sanctity of which we are possessed; and in order to have this knowledge they depend to a very large extent upon ourselves. {106} I wish this morning to call your attention to the responsibility which rests upon us on this account, and to one or two practical ways in which we are accountable to God for what that responsibility involves.

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

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

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

And now a question for women. You all know in what virtue consists, the glory and honor of women. You all know what the world expects of women. You know, too, how much the church makes of modesty and chastity, in what honor she holds them, how strict she is in inculcating their necessity. Now, one of the effects of genuine modesty and chastity is to overawe and overpower the approaches of the unclean and impure. There is a majesty in virtue which lays low and keeps at its level vileness and impurity. Is everyone who comes near a Catholic girl or woman conscious of this influence? {108} Is there something about every Catholic girl and woman which makes it clear to every dirty fellow that he must go elsewhere if he wishes to find a victim and a means of satisfying his disgraceful passions? It ought to be so, for the soul of every Catholic girl and woman, over and above the majesty of natural virtue, is the abode and dwelling-place of the grace of God. And if you are true children of the church such will be the effect your presence will have.

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

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Sermon XXXI.

Bearing One Another's Burdens.

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

Perhaps you may think, my dear friends, that we have a good deal to say about this matter of charity and forgiveness, and if you do you are probably right; it was not long ago that we had occasion to remind you of it in one of these little morning instructions. But why should we not speak of it often? Is not the love of our neighbor the second great commandment, like to and founded on the first? Does not St. John also make it the test of our salvation? "We know," he says, "that we have passed from death to life"; and why? {109} Is it because we fast, say long prayers, visit the church, or even because we receive the sacraments often? No, it is "because we love the brethren." And he continues: "He that loveth not, abideth in death. ... We ought," he goes on to say, "to lay down our lives for the brethren."

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

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

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

My brethren, depend on it, those not of our faith feel often this way, though they may not say it right out. And they are not far wrong. The kind of bearing with others, the kind of forgiveness, that is given them by those who have the name of Christians is too often one that will not stand the test of God's judgment. {111} I am afraid that many pious people have found themselves in the wrong place after death on account of it. Let those who still remain profit by this lesson while they have time.

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_Sixth Sunday after Epiphany._

Epistle.
1 _Thessalonians i._ 2-10.

Brethren:
We give thanks to God always for you all: making a remembrance
of you in our prayers without ceasing, being mindful of the
work of your faith, and labor, and charity, and of the enduring
of the hope of our Lord Jesus Christ before God and our Father:
knowing, brethren beloved of God, your election: for our gospel
hath not been to you in word only, but in power also, and in
the Holy Ghost, and in much fulness, as you know what manner of
men we have been among you for your sakes. And you became
followers of us, and of the Lord: receiving the word in much
tribulation, with joy of the Holy Ghost: so that you were made
a pattern to all who believe in Macedonia and Achaia. For from
you was spread abroad the word of the Lord, not only in
Macedonia and Achaia, but also in every place, your faith which
is towards God, is gone forth, so that we need not to speak
anything. For they themselves relate of us, what manner of
entrance we had unto you; and how you were converted to God
from idols, to serve the living and true God. And to wait for
his Son from Heaven (whom he raised from the dead), Jesus who
hath delivered us from the wrath to come.

Gospel.
_St. Matthew xiii_. 31-35.

At that time:
Jesus spoke to the multitude this parable: The kingdom of
heaven is like to a grain of mustard-seed, which a man took and
sowed in his field. Which indeed is the least of all seeds; but
when it is grown up it is greater than any herbs, and becometh
a tree, so that the birds of the air come and dwell in the
branches thereof.

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

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Sermon XXXII.

How To Make Converts.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Sermon XXXIII.

The Blessings Of The Faith.

_I will utter things
hidden from the foundation of the world._
--Matthew. xiii. 35.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Sermon XXXIV.

Good Example As A Means Of Making Converts.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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_Septuagesima Sunday_.

Epistle.
1 _Corinthians ix._ 24; x. 5.

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

And every one that striveth for the mastery refraineth himself
from all things; and they indeed that they may receive a
corruptible crown; but we an incorruptible one. I therefore so
run, not as at an uncertainty: I so fight, not as one beating
the air: but I chastise my body, and bring it into subjection:
lest perhaps, when I have preached to others, I myself should
become reprobate. For I would not have you ignorant, brethren,
that our fathers were all under the cloud, and all passed
through the sea. And all in Moses were baptized, in the cloud
and in the sea; and they did all eat the same spiritual food,
and all drank the same spiritual drink (and they drank of the
spiritual rock that followed them, and the rock was Christ).
But with the most of them God was not well pleased.

Gospel.
_St. Matthew xx._ 1-16.

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

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Sermon XXXV.

Bodily Mortification.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Sermon XXXVI.

Sudden Death.

_Watch ye, therefore,
because you know not the day nor the hour._
--Matthew. xxv. 13.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Sermon XXXVII.

Life's Purpose.

_Brethren, know you not that they that run in the race,
all run indeed, but one receiveth the prize?
So run, that you may obtain._
1 Corinthians. ix. 24.

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

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

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

But we Christians do not seek for an answer to this question. The answer is written plainly by faith in our souls; we may try to forget it or put something else in its place, but we shall find no other in which we can believe. {130} The answer for us is, that this life has no end or object in itself which can justify or explain it, but that it is a time of trial, of probation for something better; that we live in order that it may be seen from our life whether we are worthy to share in an eternal life; that only beyond the grave can what the soul longs for be attained, and that we may fail in attaining it if we do not keep it steadily in view and work for it with all the strength we have.

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

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

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

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_Sexagesima Sunday_

Epistle.
2 _Corinthians xi._ 19-_xii._ 9.

Brethren:
You gladly suffer the foolish: whereas you yourselves are wise.
For you suffer if a man bring you into bondage, if a man devour
you, if a man take from you, if a man be extolled, if a man
strike you on the face. I speak according to dishonor, as if we
had been weak in this part. Wherein if any man is bold (I speak
foolishly) I am bold also. They are Hebrews; so am I. They are
Israelites; so am I. They are the seed of Abraham; so am I.
They are the ministers of Christ (I speak as one less wise), I
am more; in many more labors, in prisons more frequently, in
stripes above measure, in deaths often. Of the Jews five times
did I receive forty stripes, save one. Thrice was I beaten with
rods, once I was stoned, thrice I suffered shipwreck; a night
and a day I was in the depth of the sea; in journeys often, in
perils of rivers, in perils of robbers, in perils from my own
nation, in perils from the Gentiles, in perils in the city, in
perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils from
false brethren: in labor and painfulness, in watchings often,
in hunger and thirst, in many fastings, in cold and nakedness.
Besides those things which are without: my daily instance, the
solicitude for all the churches. Who is weak, and I am not
weak? Who is scandalized, and I do not burn? If I must needs
glory, I will glory of the things that concern my infirmity.
The God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who is blessed for
ever, knoweth that I lie not.
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At Damascus the governor of the nation under Aretas the king,
guarded the city of the Damascenes to apprehend me. And through
a window in a basket was I let down by the wall, and so escaped
his hands. If I must glory (for it is not expedient indeed);
but I will come to visions and revelations of the Lord. I know
a man in Christ above fourteen years ago (whether in the body I
know not, or out of the body I know not: God knoweth), such an
one caught up to the third heaven. And I know such a man,
whether in the body or out of the body, I know not: God
knoweth; that he was caught up into paradise; and heard secret
words which it is not granted to man to utter. Of such an one I
will glory; but for myself I will glory nothing, but in my
infirmities. For even if I would glory, I shall not be foolish:
for I will say the truth. But I forbear, lest any man should
think of me above that which he seeth in me, or anything he
heareth from me. And lest the greatness of the revelations
should puff me up, there was given me a sting of my flesh, an
angel of Satan to buffet me. For which thing I thrice besought
the Lord, that it might depart from me; and he said to me: My
grace is sufficient for thee; for power is made perfect in
infirmity. Gladly therefore will I glory in my infirmities,
that the power of Christ may dwell in me.

Gospel.
_St. Luke viii._ 4-15.

At that time:
When a very great multitude was gathered together and hastened
out of the cities to him, he spoke by a similitude. A sower
went out to sow his seed. And as he sowed some fell by the
wayside, and it was trodden down, and the fowls of the air
devoured it. And some fell upon a rock; and as soon as it was
sprung up, it withered away, because it had no moisture. And
some fell among thorns, and the thorns growing up with it,
choked it. And some fell upon good ground; and sprung up, and
yielded fruit a hundredfold. Saying these things, he cried out:
He that hath ears to hear, let him hear. And his disciples
asked him what this parable might be.
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To whom he said: To you it is given to know the mystery of the
kingdom of God; but to the rest in parables, that seeing they
may not see, and hearing they may not understand. Now the
parable is this: The seed is the word of God. And they by the
wayside are they that hear: then the devil cometh, and taketh
the word out of their heart, lest believing they should be
saved. Now they upon the rock, are they who when they hear,
receive the word with joy: and these have no roots; who believe
for a while, and in time of temptation fall away. And that
which fell among thorns, are they who have heard, and going
their way, are choked with the cares, and riches, and pleasures
of this life, and yield no fruit. But that on the good ground,
are they who in a good and perfect heart, hearing the word,
keep it, and bring forth fruit in patience.

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Sermon XXXVIII.

Perseverance After A Mission.

_Power is made perfect in infirmity. _
--Epistle of the Day.

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

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