nothing more rare than retraction. Mankind is strongly addicted to this vice, says St. Jerom. It unhappily infests all states, ranks and conditions, insomuch, that even those who have retired to a great distance from other vices, fall into the sin of detraction as into the last snare of the devil. Who is there amongst us, who has not a thousand times heard the character of his neighbour torn and mangled in conversation? and yet seldom or never has any detractor returned to undeceive us and make a due reparation, though the obligation is so strict that no power on earth can exempt the delinquent from it, and so pressing that it should by no means be deferred, delays herein being particularly prejudicial.

Since, therefore, detraction is so odious and so dangerous a vice, let me entreat you, my brethren, to guard most carefully against all the different ways it is committed, and the various cloaks with which it is often artfully disguised. Take heed, says the Scripture, Eccles. c. xxviii. v.30. lest perhaps you sin by your tongue, and your fall become incurable unto death. We are even cautioned in the Holy Scripture against keeping company with detractors. My son, says the Holy Ghost, Prov. c. xxiv. have nothing to do with detractors, for their destruction shall rise suddenly. And again, Surround thy ears with thorns, and hearken not to a wicked tongue. Make a door for thy mouth, and locks for thy ears. Hast thou heard a word against thy neighbour, let it die within thee, Eccles. c. xix. v. 10.

Ŏ Divine Jesus! infuse into our hearts the spirit of true charity, that we may never lessen our neighbour's reputation by detraction or slander. Give us grace to govern our tongues, to be watchful over all our words, to avoid rash judgments and malicious reflections, and to walk with circumspection in the way of thy commandments, that after promoting thy honour and glory, and edifying our neighbour here on earth, both by word and example, we may have the happiness to see and enjoy thee hereafter for all eternity in the sacred mansions of bliss. Which I wish you all, in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.

TWELFTH SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST.

On the Love of God and of our Neighbour.

Diliges Dominum Deum tuum ex toto corde tuo, et proximum tuum sicut te ipsum. Luc. c. x. v. 27.

Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with thy whole heart, and thy neighbour as thyself. Luke, c. x. v. 27,

AS the sun was created to give light, and the fire to communicate heat, the water to refresh, the air to breath, the earth to produce its fruits, and these fruits to nourish man, so man himself was created to love and serve the Lord his God. He has made us for himself, says St. Augustine, and our hearts will be always restless until they repose in him, as the only amiable object that is able to satiate our boundless desires, and render us completely happy. Experience has convinced thousands of this great truth, and taught them, that even in this life no real content or true happiness is to be found but in loving and serving God. The virtue by which we love God above all things is called Charity, and is ranked by St. Paul in the first place amongst the theological virtues, that regard God as their immediate and primary object. Faith, Hope, Charity, these three, says the Apostle, but the greatest of them is Charity. Faith and Hope will cease after this life, but Charity shall subsist for all eternity, to be the glory and joy of the blessed inhabitants of heavenly Jerusalem. Charity is usually stiled the form, the life, the soul and the queen of all virtues; for all the other virtues are so closely connected with it, that they always accompany it, linked as it were hand in hand together. When it reigns sovereignly in the heart of a Christian, it animates the whole train of the other virtues, sets them in motion, and reduces them to practice; it is never idle, but ever active, operative and laborious; it is always doing good werever it is, and where it does not good, there it is not, as St. Gregory tells us. It is to the soul of a Christian what wings are to a bird, says St. Augustine; it bears it up against all adversity, and enables it to soar above all sublunary things, and to surmount all difficulties that occur in the practice of virtue; it makes it run with alacrity in the way of the Commandments, and in the road of perfection; it sweetens all the rigours and austerities of penance and mortification, and renders the yoke of

Christ pleasant, and his burden light and easy; so that every thing he prescribes in the Gospel is performed with pleasure and delight by a true lover of God, let it appear ever so disagreeable to the senses, or repugnant to the inclinations of corrupt nature. Those, indeed, who blindly fix their hearts and affections on the toys and trifling enjoyments of this transitory life, are unacquainted with these heavenly charms of charity; but give me one, says the great Augustine, who in reality loves the Lord his God as he ought, and he will bear testimony of the truth of what I say. Da amantem, et sentit quod dico. We have almost as many instances and witnesses hereof as there have been saints in the Church of God, the blessed fruits and happy effects of divine Charity having appeared conspicuous in the whole tenor of their conduct. This virtue is so necessary that we cannot expect salvation without it, though we should have the faith of an Abraham, the chastity of a Joseph, the zeal of a Moses, and the piety of a David. Though I should have faith strong enough to remove mountains, says the Apostle, though I should distribute all my worldly substance in alms to feed the poor, though I should even deliver my body to be burnt on the score of religion, yet, if I have not Charity, it would avail me nothing, and I would be no better than a sounding brass or a tinkling symbal. Charity is the nuptial robe with which our souls must be clothed, in order to be entitled to admission to the marriage feast, or to partake of the banquet of eternal glory that is prepared for the elect in the kingdom of Heaven. The very spirit of Christianity consists in Charity; it is by it, says St. Augustine, that the children of God are discerned from the children of Satan; it is the plenitude of the Law, as St. Paul calls it; it is the chief end of the Law, and the very foundation on which the whole Law and the Prophets depend. Our entire duty and obligation, and the substance of whatever God commands and forbids, is reducible to Charity, and briefly contained therein, for which reason the Apostle says, He that loveth has fulfilled the Law.

There are two precepts of Charity, which, like two branches, sprout from the same root; one of them regards God, the other regards our neighbour; and the tendency of both the one and the other, is to bring back our hearts and affections to God, and make us recover that happy union with him which mankind lost by the fall of Adam. It is of the nature of those two branches of Charity that I intend to speak in the two parts of the following discourse, it being a matter of the greatest consequence for all Christians to be well instructed in so essential a duty. The manner in which we are bound to love the Lord our God, shall be the subject of the first point; the manner in which we are bound to love our neighbour, shall be the subject of the second point. Let us previously implore the light of the Holy Ghost, through the intercession of the blessed Virgin. Ave Maria.

The Law of God, properly speaking, commands nothing but Charity, for this virtue takes in every other duty, and necessarily includes the observance of all the commandments, which made St. Augustine say, Ama, et fac quod vis. Love God, and do what you please. Charity does not consist in certain transient consolations and affectionate motions, which sometimes warm the heart with pleasing transports, and are attended with spiritual sweetness and tears of sensible devotion. Persons of a lively imagination, and inclined to tenderness, are apt to have such feeling sentiments without having the reality of love; they sometimes fancy that they love God when in fact, they love him not, and only love themselves. Many of the saints never experienced or felt such sensible impressions, and yet they really loved God above all things, and with their whole heart and soul. To persevere in the service of God, though we should happen to find in it no relish, no consolation, is a more certain proof of a generous, disinterested and solid love. It shews that we love God for his own sake. This holy love covers a multitude of sins in this life, and will be rewarded with everlasting happiness in the next life, when the measure of a Christian's glory will be proportioned to the measure and degree of charity that he is possessed of here on earth. The measure of loving God is, to love him without measure, says the devout St. Bernard; for if love should be proportioned to the goodness and excellence of the thing beloved, the love due to God should be immense and infinite, as God himself is immense, and infinitely exalted above all other beings in goodness and in every other perfection; consequently, he deserves to be loved with the most eminent, the most sublime, and the most intense degree of love, were it possible for us to arrive at such perfection in this place of banishment and vale of tears; but it is only in Heaven that the actual perfection of Charity will be acquired, when the curtain shall be drawn, and the cloud shall be removed that hides God from us at present. Divided as we now are, between so many distracting cares and engagements, it is not expected from us, weak and imperfect mortals, that our minds should be constantly united to God by an actual and unrelenting fervour, like unto the blessed Angels and Saints, who see him clearly face to face, and perceive such charms in him that they are forcibly, but sweetly attracted by his incomprehensible beauty, and have it not in their power to restrain their love, or to turn their thoughts from him even for a single moment.

However, though we cannot pretend to such a degree of fervor, we are indispensably bound, as far as our condition and infirmities here below will admit, to love the Lord our God with our whole heart, with our whole soul, with our whole mind, and with all our strength. This is what constitutes the essence of divine Charity; this is the first and the greatest of all the com

mandments; and at the same time that it points out our duty to us, it affords us, as St. Augustine and St. John Chrysostom remark, a sad proof of the miserable condition to which sin had reduced the children of Adam, as they stood in need of a formal precept to press and engage them to love the Sovereign Good and the Fountain of all Love. To love him in the manner enjoined by this precept, is to give him effectually the first place in our hearts and in our affections; it is to love him sovereignly and in preference to every thing in Heaven and on earth; it is to love him more than ourselves, and better than our own life; it is to be sincerely disposed to part with what is dearest to us in this world, rather than part with his grace, forfeit his friendship, or offend him by a single mortal sin; it is to prize, value, and esteem him inwardly in our minds above all things in the universe, and to make him the principal object of our thoughts, the centre of our desires, the beginning and last end of all our pursuits; it is to employ the faculties of our souls in meditating on his eternal truths, our senses in glorifying him, our tongues in blessing and praising his holy name, our hands, our strength, our labour and industry in serving him, and doing good works to promote his honour and glory.

The love of him neither admits of superior nor of rival; he claims our whole heart, or will accept of no part of it; he requires it entirely, without division or reserve; it is not sufficient to give it to him by halves, as they do who are for serving two masters, God and the world; God must be the only object of our whole love, and we are not to love any created object with him, finally for itself, but only for him, in him, and with a due subordination to our love for him; for, as St. Augustine says, L. 10. Conf. C. 29. he who loves any thing with God, which he does not love for God, is deficient in loving God, because, as God is the principle from whence every thing proceeds, so he is likewise the centre in which every thing must terminate. We are to love him for himself, and we are to love nothing out of him, but for his sake and with a view and reference to him. For this reason the aforesaid holy doctor compares the love of God to a great river, which is endowed with the tributary waters of several small rivulets that flow into it. It is thus that all the different species of well regulated love, whether of our neighbour or of ourselves, must, like so many different rivulets, be all united together in the immense ocean of the adorable perfections of God, by which means we may be truly said to love God in all things, and all things in God, and for God, and less than God.

Nothing is more just, nothing is more conformable to the dictates of right reason, nothing can be better adapted to all capacities than this important duty. The poor, as well as the rich ; the ignorant, as well as the learned; the weak and sickly