miserable. When we love God in the former manner, we are said to love Him with the love of benevolence or friendship; when in the latter, with the love of concupiscence or gratitude. The love of benevolence and friendship alone is the love of charity; the love of concupiscence and gratitude belongs rather to hope,-is altogether of a lower order,-is interested, and seeks not so much the giver as his gifts. We must not, however, suppose from this that such love is in any sense reprehensible; for although it arises out of self-interest, it does not put self before God, but, by acknowledging all happiness to be in God, it virtually subordinates self to God. It is imperfect and insufficient because it does not love God. more than self, and therefore cannot claim to belong to charity, which seeketh not her own, and loves God above all things. Neither is such love incompatible with the love of charity; for although an act of charity excludes self as having God alone for its object, yet since charity and hope, as habits, coexist, and must coexist by the very constitution of our nature, self-interest will, in a measure, be found even in the purest states of self-abnegation.

The object, then, of charity is God for His own sake. It loves God because He is infinitely just, infinitely true, infinitely merciful, infinitely beautiful, infinitely wise, in a word, infinitely good; and, on that account, wishes that His name may be glorified in this world and the next, by the saints in heaven, by men on earth, and even by the lost in hell,-and detests whatever is displeasing to Him or contrary to His holy will.

3. Again, the love of charity must be sovereign, above all other loves. Our Lord says, "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with thy whole heart, with thy whole mind, with thy whole soul, with thy whole strength." We may look at these words in their substance as a commandment, and in their fulness as a counsel. (1) As a commandment binding under pain of mortal sin, they mean that we must so prefer God to all other things, ourselves included, as to be ready to sacrifice every thing most dear to us, even our own lives,-to submit to any

(2) As a

suffering rather than forfeit His friendship. commandment binding under pain of venial sin, they mean that we must so love God as to leave no affection unconsecrated to Him. It does not mean that we are to love nothing but God, but that we are to love nothing apart from God, to have no affection which we cannot refer to God. (3) Again, we may take these words, with all thy strength, as a counsel recommending us in all things to choose that which we believe most pleasing to God.

It is to be observed that the love of charity is a practical love; it lies in the deliberate choice of the will. It is not, on the one hand, a mere matter of feeling,—a tender emotion of the sensitive appetite; we may experience such in a far greater degree for our parents, our friends, than for God, and so love them more intensely than God, and yet not sin against charity; for so long as we are prepared to give them up, if God required it, we do not really prefer them to Him. Nor is it, on the other hand, a mere judgment of the understanding that God is the sovereign good, before all things worthy of our love. No one who believes in God at all, in his right senses, could doubt this; yet atheism is not the only sin opposed to charity. The love of charity is a love of preference. It is in the will which deliberately chooses God before all things, and is determined to sacrifice all rather than offend Him. Such being the nature of charity, we see at once that it cannot stand with mortal sin; the two are contrary the one to the other. The one consists in turning to God, the other in turning away from Him. The one puts God before all things, the other puts the creature in the first place. The one seeks all its happiness in God, the other in self: "Whosoever abideth in Him sinneth not; and whosoever sinneth hath not seen Him nor known Him" (1 St. John iii. 6). "Every one that loveth is born of God and knoweth God" (1 St. Johniv. 7). "Whosoever is born of God, committeth not sin: he cannot sin, because he is born of God. In this the children of God are manifest, and the children of the devil" (1 St. John iii. 9, 10). "We know that we have passed from death unto

life because we love the brethren. He that loveth not abideth in death" (1 St. John v. 14).

On the other hand, any act of charity, however feeble, puts us in a state of grace, and our growth in charity is commensurate with our growth in grace. As long as we live we may go on growing in grace. So we may increase in charity. The habit becomes more and more deeply rooted in the soul, possesses it more, influences it more, rules over it more and more completely till the last moment of our life. But charity cannot be gradually lessened. Mortal sin, as was said, destroys it at once; venial sin does not, it would seem, directly affect it; if it did, a number of venial sins would amount to a mortal sin, which we know is not the case. Nevertheless charity is impeded in its exercise by venial sin, in that the sinful affection cannot be referred to God; and this is what spiritual writers mean when they say that venial sin diminishes the fervour of charity. Again, as venial sin leads to mortal sin by fostering bad habits and depriving us of special graces, indirectly it may cause us to lose charity.

As charity ever accompanies sanctifying grace,* all the means of grace are means of charity, prayer, the Sacraments, good works, deeds of penance done in a state of

* Many great theologians suppose that charity and sanctifying grace are one and the same thing; that charity is sanctifying grace, and sanctifying grace charity. For, as they remark, all the effects and characteristics of the former are attributed in Holy Scripture to the latter. 1. By grace we become the sons of God; and St. John says of charity, "Whosoever loveth is born of God" (1 Ep. 4). 2. By grace we are made pleasing in the sight of God; and so of charity it is said, “He who loveth Me, shall be loved of My Father." 3. Grace bestows spiritual life, and so does charity: "We know that we are translated from death unto life because we love the brethren; he who loveth not abideth in death." 4. Grace unites us to God; and "He who abideth in charity abideth in God, and God in him" (1 St. John iv.). 5. Grace is the principle of merit, and St. Paul refers all the virtues to charity: "Charity is patient,' &c. (1 Cor. xiii.). 6. Grace is the ground of our salvation, the seed of our future glory; and this is the very effect which St. James attributes to charity: "God hath promised a crown of life to those that love Him." 7. Sins are remitted by grace; and our Lord says of St. Mary Magdalen, "Her sins which are many are forgiven, for she hath loved much."

grace, acts of charity, even the most feeble. And the better to make acts of this virtue, we should accustom ourselves to meditate upon God, His Being and His attributes, His deeds of mercy and love, regarded not so much as benefits to us, but rather as manifestations of His nature. We should think about Him as He has made Himself easy to be thought about,-incarnate in Jesus Christ our Lord. The will cannot act except through the understanding; we cannot love a person unless we know him, and it is not easy to see how we can know God unless we meditate upon His character, what He is, and what He does.

CHAP. XL. How often we are bound to make acts of charity. WE are bound to elicit an act of charity, (1) whenever we have any obligation which implies such an act. For instance, if we were in danger of dying without the Sacraments in a state of sin, we should be bound to make an act of perfect contrition, which presupposes an act of charity. (2) If, again, we were under a temptation which could not be conquered without an act of charity. (3) It is probable we are bound to make an act of charity at the beginning of our rational existence, when we are first able to appreciate the goodness of God. (4) And it is still more likely that we are so bound in the hour of death; for it does not seem consistent with the care we ought to have for our souls to neglect so great a means of salvation at such a time. (5) And frequently during our lifetime we are bound to make acts of charity, though it is not possible to fix precisely how often. St. Alphonsus says we should commit a mortal sin if we neglected for a month to make an act of charity. Indeed, if we wish to keep the commandments, if we wish to keep alive in us that virtue without which we are nothing, we shall never let a day pass without frequently making acts of love to God; and such acts need not be made in a set form of words. Whenever we say the Lord's Prayer, and sincerely wish that God's name may be hallowed for the love we bear Him, we make an act of perfect charity. Nor do we require words at all.

We may elicit acts of charity by giving alms, by hearing Mass, or doing any good work for the love of God.

CHAP. XLI. On the virtue of Charity as exercised towards our neighbour.

AFTER our Lord had laid down the first and great commandment of the law, "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God," &c., He added, "and the second is like unto it: Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself." We must not, however, suppose that these two precepts belong to two distinct virtues. They are both included under the one virtue of charity, for the motive of love in both cases is the same. When we love God by charity, we love Him, as we have seen, for His own sake; when we love our neighbour by charity, we love him for the sake of God. Hence the observance of one precept implies the observance of the other. He who loveth God must love his brother also (1 John iv. 21); and "if any man say, I love God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar" (iv. 20). Our love for God necessarily passes on to all who participate in His goodness; and if we love not so much of Himself as God has shown us in those who bear His image and likeness, we thereby prove that we do not love God. "He that loveth not his brother, whom he seeth, how can he love God whom he seeth not?" It is fitting therefore to speak of the love of our neighbour under the virtue of charity.

And first, who is our neighbour? When our Lord was asked this question, He replied in a parable, which teaches us that every man, no matter how separated from us by religion or social position, is our neighbour, and to be assisted in time of need. Our neighbour, then, includes the whole human race; not only our relations and friends, fellowcountrymen and benefactors, not only those of the household of faith, but the whole human race,―strangers, pagans, infidels, heretics, Jews as well as Catholics; the bad as well as the good; our enemies as well as our friends; those who hate us and do us harm, as well as those who love us and do us good.

1. All men are our neighbours and deserve our love; for