on the practice of good works, and standing fair for a neverfading Crown of Glory in the kingdom of Heaven, he sets all his engines at work, and artfully spreads the net of pride and vain-glory in order to ensnare their souls, and strip them at once of all the spiritual riches of grace and virtue, which they have been accumulating for several years. He knows it would be to no purpose to tempt them to fall into glaring and palpable crimes, and therefore he endeavours to infect and vitiate their virtues and good-works with the bane of vain-glory. He endeavours to fill them with a presumptuous opinion of their own merits, and to persuade them that they are not like the rest of mankind; that they have not been guilty of any gross crimes, like many others in the world; that they have served the Lord faithfully for several years, and consequently that they have a right to expect great rewards from him in Heaven. There is not a more evident proof of pride than to imagine ourselves to be out of the reach of it; they are often most guilty of it who do not believe themselves to be proud. Other crimes are apt to stare men in the face, and disgust them by their deformity at the first sight; but this subtle and pestiferous vice steals upon them almost imperceptibly, and deceives them in such a manner, that as St. Thomas of Villanova remarks, they are often full of it up to their very eyes, without being sensible of it themselves. It is the first vice that gene rally attacks those who apply themselves to a virtuous life, and the last that leaves them; it is born with us, and closely twisted and interwoven with our corrupt nature, and mankind is so so strongly inclined to it, that most persons are more or less guilty of it. We have received it by inheritance from our first parents, and it is the most deeply rooted and the most dangerous of all the spiritual maladies and wounds that original sin bas inflicted on human nature. Where is the man that does not feel in himself a violent bent and fondness for admiration and praise? Where is the man who is entirely exempt from self-complacency and self-love? Where is the man who is not pleasing in his own eyes, and who is not desirous of being pleasing to others? A little applause, though never so undeserved, is apt to exalt some people in their own conceit, and to swell them with vanity; pride being a passion of that strange nature that will feed upon almost every little trifle, and upon mere empty shadows, appearances and imaginary excellencies, when it has nothing real or solid to subsist on. It insinuates itself under a thousand shapes and forms; it even covers itself sometimes with the cloak of humility, and makes men proud of humility itself. How many will you not find in the very midst of Christianity, who, under the mask of an apparent humility, are idolaters of themselves and dupes of a subtle refined pride? They are humble in their words but in their hearts they are puffed up and elated with such an idea of their own imaginary perfections, that they cannot endure the least contradiction, or

bear to be slighted or treated with the smallest disrespect or inattention. Tange montes et fumigabunt. They are all mildness, and pictures of forbearance as long as they are not thwarted; but if you offend their delicacy, the mask will disappear, and their anger will begin to vent itself without restraint. Others will to boast of their talents and abilities, and pretend to be versed in every science; but with all their boasted knowledge, they are strangers to the very first elements of true wisdom, since they are ignorant of themselves and vainly think they are something, whereas they are nothing, as the Apostle speaks, Galat. c. vi. v. 3. They are active, restless, and bustling; they aspire presumptuously to exploits beyond. their sphere, and are fond of such works and employments as attract public applause and esteem, the two darlings of human pride, to which they sacrifice their cares and occupations, and which they unhappily make the last end of all their pursuits. Others are obstinate, positive, contentious, and extremely attached to their own will and judgment; they are full of envy, jealousy, bitterness and indignation against those who are preferred before themselves, or shewn greater marks of honour. and esteem, considering their good qualities as a diminution of. their own supposed excellence; they censure and judge them, rashly, misconstrue their virtuous actions, and give them a malicious turn. Like the censorious Pharisees, they discern a mote in a brother's eye, as the Gospel says, at the same time that they do not perceive a beam in their own; they are filled with scorn, disdain and contempt for their neighbour, and clear-sighted in discovering his failings and imperfections, but blind to their own real faults, and to the many evil dispositions that spring from the pride and corruption of their hearts.

It is only the all-powerful hand of God that can cure us of these dreadful evils, and entirely root the pernicious vice of pride, with its various branches out of the soul; we should, therefore, frequently implore the assistance of his divine grace by fervent prayer, and labour incessantly on our part to check the pride of our hearts, and to stifle the flattering delusions of self-love by a profound humility; we should watch carefully over our interior, and beware of attributing to our own merits the gifts that we have received gratis from the pure bounty of our Maker. What has thou, says St. Paul, that thou hast not received? And if thou hast received it, why dost thou glory as if thou hadst not received it? 1 Cor. c. iv. v. 7. and again, 2 Cor. c. 10. He that glories, let him glory in the Lord, who, in crowning our good works, crowns his own gifts and the effects of his grace, according to St. Augustine. Instead of entertaining any vain self-complacency in our hearts, or in our minds, we should gratefully acknowledge our own indigence and dependence on him in all things, and remember, that the more we have received, the more shall be required of us. We should enter into the humble sentiments of the Apostle, who says, what I am, I am

by the grace of God; and cry out with the Royal Prophet, Ps. exiii. v. 9. not to us, O Lord, but to thy holy name, may all praise, honour and glory be given. In him only we are to confide, and not in ourselves, or in our own righteousness, as the proud Pharisee did. In all our works we are to seek only to please him and do his holy will, in imitation of Christ our Lord, who never sought his own glory, or the praise of men, but did all his works with the most pure intention, for the honour and glory of his heavenly Father, Jo. c. viii. v. 49, 54. Humility was his favourite virtue, and ought to be the favourite virtue of every Christian. He came from Heaven to teach us humility by his example as well as by his doctrine; in every stage of his life we meet with lessons of humility. Learn of me, he says, Mat c. xi. v. 29. to be meek and humble of heart, and you shall find rest to your souls. To inculcate the excellency, and to enforce the necessity of this amiable virtue in the most striking manner, when his disciples were disputing among themselves for pre-eminence, and, and asked him who was the greatest in the kingdom of Heaven, he called to him a little child, and having placed him in the midst of them, he said, Amen, I say unto you, unless you be converted, and become as little children, you shall not enter into the kingdom of Heaven; whosoever, therefore, shall humble himself like this little child, he is the greatest in the kingdom of Heaven, Mat. c. xviii. v. 3, 4. O Almighty God, who resisteth the proud and givest thy grace to the humble, inspire us with a just abhorrence of the destructive vice of pride, and excite us to the love and practice of the opposite virtue of humility, that we may be favoured with thy grace here, and inherit thy glory hereafter. Which is the happiness, my brethren, that I wish you all, in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.

ELEVENTH SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST On the Sin of Detraction.

Jesus tetigit linguam ejus, et suspiciens in Cœlum ingemuit.

Marc. c. vii. v. 34.

Jesus touched his tongue, and looking up to Heaven, he sighed.

Mark, c. vii. v. 34.

THE subject of this day's Gospel is an illustrious miracle, wrought by our Blessed Redeemer in favour of a man who was both deaf and dumb. The Son of God, pitying his condition,

and taking him aside from the crowd, put his fingers into the ears of this poor man, and touched his tongue with a little spittle; then looking up to Heaven, from whence all blessings. descend, he sighed, and commanded the mouth and the ears of the dumb and deaf man to be opened; and immediately, his ears being opened, and the string of his tongue being loosed, he recovered the perfect use of his hearing and of his speech, to the great astonishment of the multitude then present, whom our Saviour, willing to give us an example of humility, charged. not to publish the miracle they were eye-witnesses of; but the more he recommended silence to them, the more their zeal prompted them to publish it, and to proclaim the praises of Jesus Christ, crying out with a loud voice, He hath done all things well; he hath made the deaf to hear and the dumb to speak. Here we see the use of sacred ceremonies, approved and authorized by the example of Christ himself. In curing this man, as well as the man who had been born blind, Jo. c. xi. v. 6. what a number of ceremonies did he make use of, and for what end? A single word from him was fully sufficient for the purpose of curing both the one and the other; but as his actions are recorded for our example, we have his sacred autho rity in approbation of the holy ceremonies used by the Church upon different occasions. The very ceremony he used in curing the deaf and dumb man, mentioned in this day's Gospel, is taken from his example, and is still retained and observed in the administration of baptism, to signify, that by the grace of bap tism the ears of our soul are opened to hear the word of God and the inspirations of his Holy Spirit, and that by obeying his divine will, manifested to us by this means, we are to become a good odour of Christ, 2 Cor. c. ii. v. 15. by our good example and edifying conversation.

in

Yet, alas! how many Christians are there to be found, who, open violation of the covenant and sacred obligations of their baptism, dishonour and disgrace the Christian name by their disorderly conduct and scandalous conversation? They may, indeed be said to resemble in some respect the dumb and deaf man spoken of in the Gospel, as they are, in a moral sense, not only dumb but likewise deaf; for they are silent when the honour and glory of God, and the edification of their neighbour, call on them to speak out and make a proper use of the gift of speech. They are deaf to the inspirations of God, and to the clamours of a guilty conscience, inviting them to open their mouths in fervent prayer and implore mercy and pardon of their sins by a sincere repentance. They neglect to employ their tongues for such salutary purposes, whilst they unhappily make them subservient to the most odious vices, and instrumental to the most horrid crime of cursing, swearing, blaspheming, and abusing the adorable name of the Lord their God. How frequently are their tongues employed in spreading the infection and odour of death, and in calumniating and

detracting their neighbours? It is on the pernicious and destructive sin of detraction that I intend to expatiate in the following discourse, in order to excite you to a just abhorrence and detestation of so foul a vice, by shewing you how offensive it is to God, how injurious to our neighbour, and how detrimental to the detractor himself. In short, detraction is highly offensive to God, and injurious to man. This shall be the subject of the first point. Detraction is highly detrimental to the detractor himself, and attended with consequences extremely dangerous and almost irreparable. This shall be the subject of the second point. Let us previously implore the divine aid and unction of the Holy Ghost, through the intercession of the blessed Virgin. Ave Maria.

Detraction is an unjust defamation of our neighbour, or a blackening of another person's character in his absence. It is called Detraction, not because it detracts from the truth, but as St. Thomas of Aquin observes, because it detracts, derogates, and takes from our neighbour's reputation, by lessening. the esteem and good opinion others have of him; a man's reputation being as effectually lessened and lost by publishing the crimes he has actually committed, as those he has not. To discover the hidden faults of others, when it is necessary for their amendment and conversion, or for the instruction and precaution of those who are in danger of being considerably damaged or corrupted by their wicked principles, bad example, company and conversation, is not detraction but fraternal correction, provided it be done, not out of anger, malice, hatred, or envy, but with a good intention and through a motive of charity and justice, to prevent their ruin and destruction. Thus the Patriarch Joseph, for the amendment of his brothers, discovered their wickedness to his father Jacob, Gen. c. xxxvii. Mardochæus manifested the conspiracy of Bagathan and Thares, Esther, ii. St. Paul also notified the impiety of Alexander the copper-smith, lest the innocent might be defrauded and deceived by him, Ephes. c. ii. v. 4. and Christ himself pub- ́ lished the malice and hypocrisy of the Scribes and Pharisees, to precaution his disciples from following their example. All kinds of false testimonies, calumnies and detractions, are forbidden by the eighth commandment. False testimonies were punished in the Mosaic Law, by inflicting the same penalty on the false witness which he would have brought on his neighbour had he been really guilty, and had the fact been fully proved against him, Deut. c. xix. v. 19. The very Pagans themselves held the crime of bearing false witness in such abhorrence, that they punished it with death, as appears from the practice of the ancient Romans, who condemned false witnesses to be cast headlong down from the Tarpeian Rock. Detraction differs from contumely, as theft differs from robbery; for contumely attacks a person's good name openly and before his face, but he base and cowardly vice of detraction stabs his reputation