should grow, like Jesus in grace and wisdom before God and man; that is, God should discern in your heart, and those with whom you associate should witness in your conduct, an increase of the fear and love of God. Those faults and failings which were excusable some years ago, before you were admitted to the holy Communion, become serious at present. Examine whether you may not unfortunately have lost much of the fervour with which you first approached the adorable Eucharist, and never forget that not to go forward in virtue, is to go back.

Jesus Christ, while yet a child, is found among the Doctors in the Temple, asking them questions, and listening to the word of God with profound veneration. Did the eternal Son of God, the Fountain of all Knowledge, require instruction? Was there any thing for him to learn, or any person on earth who could teach him? Certainly not; but on this occasion he would teach you with what ardour you should seek after instruction-how thankfully and respectfully you should receive it-how highly you should value an opportunity of hearing the word of God.. He would also impress on your mind an essential duty of youth, which is, to venerate age, and love the society of the virtuous. But the chief virtue which characterized the youth of Jesus Christ was obedience; so strongly would he recommend this to you, that he has scarce permitted any other account of his early years to reach us, than that he was subject to his blessed mother and his reputed father. He obeyed them in all things, at all times, with cheerfulness and exaciness: consequently, to imitate your adorable model in this important point, you must resolve to respect and love your parents, or those who hold their place; to submit to their authority with docility, because they are deputed by God to command you; and with confidence, because they have also received light to direct your inexperience. Remember, that Jesus Christ was not less submissive to the orders of

Herod, one of the most wicked of men, than ne was to those of his blessed mother, the most perfect of creatures, because it was God alone whom he obeyed in all superiors. Impress this lesson on your mind, and guard against a fault so common to youth, viz. that of obeying only those who may please you, and totally forgetting that duty with regard to others. If you do not respect the authority of God in all your superiors; if you do not love God in them all, and remember that it is he who inspires your parents themselves with their tenderness towards you, and their solicitude in providing for your welfare, you can never acquire that amiable docility, which is a virtue so necessary to youth, that without it you cannot become virtuous, learned, or happy. O Jesus! my God, impress on my heart the image of thy divine childhood; thy purity, simplicity, obedience, and docility! infuse into my soul the horror thou hadst of sin, that I may dread it as the only real evil, the only obstacle to my resembling thee.

III. Point.-Consider, that the hidden life of Jesus Christ is a model which you should continually study, because it was during those years that Jesus has given you an example, that you should follow his footsteps. (1 Pet. ii. 21.) During thirty years of subjection and labour, Jesus deigned in a peculiar manner to become the model of all Christians. Contemplate that model attentively, and consider with astonishment, that he who had descended from heaven to instruct, convert, and save the whole universe, employed the greater part of his life in seclusion, showing no otherwise the perfection of the Divinity which resided in him, than by obeying his parents, serving and assisting them, and fulfilling in all things the will of his heavenly Father. The accomplishment of that adorable will was the only object of his most vehement desires; it was so necessary to his happiness, that he himself declared it to be his food, the support of his existence, the end of his mission

on earth. This pure, upright, and divine intention of accomplishing the will of God, so dignified and enhanced the merit of our Redeemer's actions, that one word, one sigh, one tear, one thought of Jesus Christ, was more meritorious in the sight of God, than the labours and austerities of all the saints. Learn then, from the hidden life of Jesus, that lesson of perfect conformity to the will of God, by which alone you can resemble him, and attain true sanctity. Resolve, in every stage of your life, to place all your perfection in being about the business of your heavenly Father; that is, in faithfully discharging the duties which Providence has allotted you, whatever they may be. If you be firmly convinced that this faithful, cheerful, persevering discharge of duty, is true sanctity, and a real imitation of Jesus Christ, you will carefully avoid that disedifying system of devotion pursued by many of your sex, who say long prayers; spend, or rather lose much time in chapels; who frequent the sacraments, yet whose hands are empty before God, because they do their own will, and not his; because their devotion is little better than sloth, which leads them, under cover of piety, to neglect those domestic duties which God had allotted them, and which should be their conscientious pursuit and their glory. (See the Holy Woman, Prov. xxxi. 10.)

In the public life of Jesus Christ, which was a series of miracles and wonders, humility, patience, mortification, meekness, and unexampled charity, were lessons which he never ceased to preach to the world. The imitation of Jesus Christ in this respect is a point of the utmost importance, because charity was a favourite virtue of Jesus-the virtue to which he sacrificed his life-the virtue by which he would have his real followers distinguished-and the virtue also which St. Francis of Sales calls the peculiar fruit of a good communion. Resolve, then, that the fruits of your having been so lately united to the God of Charity should appear evident by your ger tleness,

patience, forbearance, silence on the defects of others, and endeavours to serve and oblige all, particularly those who may appear to you least amiable or deserving. Conclude this meditation, by fervently and humbly begging of God to impress the truths it contains so deeply on your heart, that your ideas and conduct may, in future, be happily regulated by them.

THIRD DAY

On the Danger of not corresponding with the Graces received in the holy Communion.

I. Point.-CONSIDER, that Christians in general frustrate more or less the designs of Christ, in instituting this mystery of love; some by constantly relapsing into mortal sin after their Communion; others by committing venial sins habitually, or by persevering in their ordinary failings, and taking no pains to amend their lives.

As to the first description of relapsing sinners, viz. those who banish Jesus from their hearts by grievous sin, their misfortune is so great, that it can never be excessively dreaded, or sufficiently deplored. They are compared by the holy fathers to the Jews, because, like them, they receive Jesus Christ with feelings of joy and gratitude, but shortly after crucify him by sin; they are even likened to Judas, the most unfortunate of all men, because, like him, they no sooner communicate, than they betray their Lord and divine Guest. Alas! would it not be better that such persons never communicated, never received those graces of which they never profit? Do you most earnestly beg of God to enlighten your mind, and give you a clear idea of the dreadful risk which relapsing sinners run, and also to penetrate your heart with a sincere horror of their ingratitude. To con ceive their danger, you need only reflect on those

awful words of St. Paul, who says, that it is impossible for those who were once enlightened, have tasted also the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost, and are fallen away, to be renewed again to penance; (Heb. vi. 4. and 6.) that is, sintere conversion becomes extremely difficult for those who, though fully enlightened by instruction, frequently nourished with the heavenly gift of Christ's sacred body, and also strengthened by the Sacrament of Confirmation, nevertheless persevere in a fatal habit of repenting, confessing, communicating, and then relapsing; salvation for them must indeed be most difficult, if not impossible. Why? because the ordinary means of salvation becomes useless to them: the bread of the strong does not fortify their souls, therefore the sacraments, which are a source of grace and salvation to other sinners, become the chief subject of their condemnation. As to their ingratitude, what can be more ungrateful, than to trample on the sacred blood which purified their souls! to insult a God again who so often received them with mercy! Ah! I will never be guilty of such ingratitude-I will never expose my soul to such danger; but I must not depend on my own strength; though I trust in the mercy of God, that the spirit of sin has gone forth from me, yet has he not perhaps already said that he would return? (Luke ix. 24.) Does he not perceive, with envy and rage, that my soul is, as the Gospel says, swept and garnished? (Ibid.) That it is purified by a good confession, and adorned with the robe of sanctifying grace; with the ornaments of virtuous desires and holy resolutions? Has not that wicked spirit determined to disturb the happiness I now enjoy, and to temp+ me again with seven times more violence than before? O my God! my strength! my refuge! thou knowest that the least temptation would be too strong for me, if I be aban doned to myself. O stay with me, then, my God! protect me from mine enemies; and rather take me