morse because of their long neglect. They are not engaged in dishonest pursuits, they do not seek to circumvent, nor to deceive in their transactions with other men; they are just and honourable in their dealings; and upon the maxim of the Saviour, they do unto others as they would that all men should do unto themselves; still, however, they do not give to God that homage which is due to him. They plead the want of leisure, when they should rather avow that it was the want of inclination. They have time to labour for the meat which perisheth, but will not find time to secure that which endureth unto life everlasting. Alas! my brethren, these men are called wise; they are esteemed virtuous; they contrive to find leisure for relaxations and the amusements as well as for the business of life; and yet they can find no moment which they would devote to the sanctification of their souls, to their reconciliation with an offended God, to the acquiring of that peace which the world cannot bestow, to establishing their claim to a heavenly inheritance through the merits of their Saviour! They have no leisure. What then is the manner in which the Lord's day is occupied? Does the spirit of the world lead them to forget that this day is to be principally devoted to the duties of religion? Does their covetousness urge them to infringe upon the sacred ordinance, and to take from God and their own souls, that time which it would be not only injustice but sacrilege to devote to the business of the world? We trust that such is not the case. They are then deprived of this semblance of an excuse; they have abundant time if they had sufficient inclination.

Trusting, therefore, that you are so disposed, and that you will turn that time to beneficial account for your souls, we shall, beloved brethren, lay before you a brief admonition as to the mode in which, at this holy season, you might be most profitably employed in the concerns of your salvation.

You are aware that, in this holy time of penance, the great object of the church is, by bodily fasting, to elevate your minds to heaven, to bring you to a spirit of compunction for your sins, to lead you to mortify your passions, to repress vice, to avoid sin, to practice virtue, and through your Lord Jesus Christ to merit the rewards which he has promised to those who dying with him to the world will be raised by him to a new life of grace. It is for this purpose that she multiplies her offices, invites you to prayer, extends the means of instruction, and exhorts, reproves, intreats, rebukes, and is urgent with you. But she specially in this time, lays her commands upon you by that authority derived from the commission of Jesus Christ, (Matt. xvi. 19; John xx. 21, and so forth), to receive the holy sacraments of penance and euchar

ist. There was a period, brethren, when her children did not require a command from her to be added to the invitation of the Saviour. It was enough that they felt themselves oppressed by the weight of their own infirmities, and heard the endearing words, "Come to me, all you who labour and are heavy laden, and I will refresh you." (Matt. xvi. 20.) They went with eagerness to learn humility and meekness; to take up the yoke of the Lord and to find rest to their souls. In the spirit of that humility, they might have hesitated to approach to eat the flesh of the Son of God; did they not hear his own admonition, "Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you shall not have life in you" (John vi. 54); knowing that whosoever partook thereof unworthily, was guilty of the body and blood of the Lord (I Cor. xi. 27), they proved and tried themselves, and had recourse to that tribunal which the Saviour established for the remission of sins to those who truly repented. (John xx. 22, 23.) Thus, when the children of Jesus Christ were gathered around the table of his spouse, like olive-plants around the fruitful vine (Psalms cxxvii. 3), they drew plentifully of the invigorating nurture that not only multiplied their number but accelerated their growth, and made them produce not alone the tender foliage which gratified the eye, but also the luxuriant fruit which the first ages of Christianity saw gathered for heaven. These, indeed, brethren, were days in which the sword of the persecutor was unsheathed, and a destructive beast ravaged the vineyard; but patient zeal overcame fury, and a virtuous progeny survived the destroyer. Though for a time desolation appeared upon the earth, yet was it but the means of adding to the spirits of the just made perfect for their celestial abode. At such a time as this, the business of the Christian people was, by their exertions for a time, to secure their salvation for eternity. And are we not called in the same vocation, though not liable to similar sufferings?

During the ages of this conflict, it was not necessary to enforce by any ecclesiastical precept the frequenting of the holy sacraments; but the charity of man grew cold after the rage of persecution had subsided; and the fifth century of Christianity exhibits the command to approach at least on the occasion of the three great festivals of Easter, of Pentecost, and of Christmas. When the devastations of barbarism had added to evils which heresy had inflicted upon the church, and the license of the soldier combined with the ambition or the rapacity of his chieftain to disregard the evangelical counsels and to break through moral restraints, the neglect of the sacraments became an alarming symptom of the decay of religion; in the thirteenth century, the fourth

Council of Lateran deemed it useless to endeavour to bring the great bulk of the people to approach to communion at the three great festivals, and was in the affliction of spirit reduced to the necessity of so modelling the law, as to make it obligatory only once in the year, that is at or about the festival of Easter. Thus it was enacted, that if any one of either sex who had come to the proper years of discretion should, having the opportunity, neglect at this period 15 to confess his sins with the dispositions of true repentance, and go to the holy communion, he should be liable to excommunication. And such is the present state of the law upon this subject. And when we look around us, and contemplate the gross neglect of this salutary enactment within our own charge, we are covered with confusion and filled with self-reproach; for although we have rebuked and intreated, instructed and besought, as you are well aware, and must bear us witness before the throne of our judge; yet we do fear, that although we have done much, yet that we have been deficient in some way. Bear with us then, brethren, for our soul is at stake, whilst we again and again, through the tender mercies of the Saviour, exhort and intreat you not to suffer this holy season to pass away, as so many others have done, as a testimony of your unfaithfulness when it should have brought the exhibition of your fidelity in the exercise of piety. Redeem the time that you have misspent, and now at least, bring forth worthy fruits of penance.

As our confidence is that you may, by God's grace be excited to approach to the tribunal of penance: we shall endeavour, beloved, to bring to your recollection those things in which you have already been instructed regarding the sacrament that is there administered.

The sacrament of penance consists of three parts, viz., contrition, confession, and satisfaction, on the part of the penitent; and absolution, on the part of the minister, who must be at least a priest having canonical jurisdiction. His being merely in priest's orders does not suffice. This sacrament is as necessary for those who have had the misfortune to lose their baptismal innocence, as baptism is for those who have not yet been born again of water and of the Holy Ghost. It is indeed as St. Jerome says, the plank upon which alone, after the shipwreck of that innocence, we can hope to cling for safety in the perilous ocean of life. It has also been styled a laborious baptism,

15 There is no ecclesiastical law binding to Paschal confession. The point of obligation is simply confession once a year; the exact time when to confess is not specified. But communion must be received during the so-called Paschal time, that is, at or about the festival of Easter." This law is founded upon the constant practice of the Church, on innumerable decrees or canons of church councils, and has been re-affirmed by the Council of Trent.-ED.

for that merciful God whose grace we have abused by our prevarication after baptism, does not admit us to this second reconciliation with the same facility that he did to the first.

Contrition is a hearty sorrow for having offended God, who is so amiable and worthy of our affection. It necessarily includes a detestation of sin, a serious determination to avoid it, and an intention of making such reparation as may be in our power to God and to our neighbours, for offences or injuries committed against either of them.

Sorrow arises from various motives. The sinner might repent of iniquity because of the punishment which it induces, and whilst he laments his being liable thereto, he regrets that this obstacle should exist to the indulgence of his passions, and though he avoids external misconduct, his heart is unchanged; his attachment to sin continues. He is not contrite; yet the dread of punishment operates usefully in his regard, as it arrests the progress of crime to its completion, and leads the sinner to reflect upon the judgments of him who, after having slain the body, has power to cast both soul and body into hell-fire. This fear is inculcated as wholesome by the Saviour (Luke xii. 5, and xiii. 3, 5), and its utility is testified by the Apostle St. Paul (Rom. ii.). Others repent from a better motive, urged by gratitude to God for the benefits which they have received at his hands, they lament their offences, and are drawn to serve him with affection; love of their benefactor is their motive, and reviewing his own excellence, they discover how amiable he is, and how deserving of their affection; loving the Lord, they detest from their hearts those crimes by which he is offended; they bewail their iniquities, and they sincerely desire to enter into the service of their Redeemer.-It is to the sorrow founded upon those motives that you should aspire, for this is the beginning of contrition. It is made perfect when the heart raises its affection above mere gratitude, and loves God for his own sake, contemplating the excellence of his nature, the height of his perfections, and the amiability of his qualities: considering herself created to admire and to love this supreme good, the soul bewails in the bitterness of affliction, the offences of which miserable creatures whom he formed for his service are guilty. This is indeed loving the Lord God with our whole heart, and with our whole soul, and with our whole mind. (Matt. xxii. 37.)

This disposition of heart must be obtained from God, for it is his gift, as the Saviour declares that without him we can do nothing which would bring us to eternal life (John vi. 44, and xv. 4), but he will not refuse those who ask of him in the sincerity of their hearts and the fervour of spirit. (Matt. vii. 7; John xiv. 13, 14.) Do you then ad

dress him in the words of the prophet praying on the behalf of Israel, "Convert us, O Lord to thee, and we shall be converted: renew our days as from the beginning." (Lament. of Jer. v. 21.) Excite your faith to the belief of his doctrines, because "without faith it is impossible to please God; for he that cometh to God must believe that he is a rewarder of them that seek him." (Heb. xi. 6.) Thus will you make due preparation for bringing the kingdom of heaven within your souls, and when you shall have been turned from iniquity led by such motives, iniquity will not be your ruin, for the Lord has declared, "If the wicked do penance for all his sins which he hath committed, and keep all my commandments, and do judgment and justice, living he shall live, and shall not die. I will not remember all his iniquities that he hath done: in his justice which he hath wrought he shall live." (Ezech. xviii. 21, 22.) And further, the Lord himself in the same place shows his desire to aid you, if you correspond with that first grace which he so frequently bestows to excite you to come to him. "Is it my will that a sinner should die, saith the Lord God, and not that he should be converted from his evil ways and live?" Thus to the truly contrite sinner, a merciful God vouchsafes through the merits of Christ, to promise the eternal life of his heavenly kingdom: for though the promises have been made by the prophets before the incarnation, and even at an earlier period by the patriarchs, by divine authority, still we know that there was no mercy or forgiveness except by virtue of the Redeemer; "for there is no other name under heaven given unto them, whereby they must be saved." (Acts iv. 12.) All those promises had relation to the atonement which he was to make, who, when we were sinners died for us, that being justified in his blood we might be saved from wrath through him. (Rom. v. 8, 9.) "If any man sin, then, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the just and he is the propitiation for our sins; and not for ours only, but for those of the whole world." (I John ii. 2.) "Having therefore a confidence, brethren, in the entering into the sanctuary by the blood of Christ, a new and living way which he hath dedicated for us through the veil, that is to say his flesh, and a high priest over the house of God: let us draw near with a true heart in fulness of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience . . . let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering (for he is faithful who hath promised). And let us consider one another to provoke unto charity and to good works; not forsaking our assembly, as some are accustomed, but comforting one another."

Brethren, when the sinner's heart becomes hardened by pride, he