their piety, or their wealth, for whom He worked His miracles and granted His favors; no, never did any unjust preference enter His heart: His blessings were lavished without distinction on great and small,-poor and rich,—just and sinful. He came on earth for all, He suffered for all, and shed the last drop of His sacred blood for all mankind. I should now be allowed, my Brethren, to address you in the words of St. Paul:-I do not believe it necessary to exhort you to the practice of charity toward your brethren: you have learned how to love one another by observing the example which your divine Saviour has given you.-If such be the case, you should carefully avoid giving fraternal charity limits which it ought not to have, and circumscribing it within a narrow circle within which only a few privileged persons are admitted. Remember, that you ought to love all men, even your enemies, for they have not ceased to be your neighbors by becoming your enemies, and you ought to walk in the footsteps of the Man-God, who, when dying, prayed even for His executioners. Your charity must be boundless, it must be universal, it must stop only at the gates of hell, it must except only the demons and the damned, who are forever excluded from the mansions of eternal bliss, because they are the irreconcilable enemies of God. But as to men, you must love them without exception. But what kind of love should we bear to them?

In the first place, we ought to Love our Neighbor for the love of God. The Love of our Neighbor ought not to seek its principle and its motive in the qualities and perfections which distinguish such and such persons, not in our sensibility, not in our self-love and our natural inclinations, not in the benefits which we have received from our neighbor, not from the services which he has rendered to us; for that would be only a natural love, which could not please God; it would not be Christian. You must Love your Neighbor for the love of God, that is to say, because God commands you to do so. Whether our neighbor be virtuous or vicious, possessed of qualities which suit us, or of defects which displease us; whether he has done us good or evil, he must still have no less share in our affection. If you love a person, you esteem the painting which preserves his features: you should then Love your Neighbor, for he has been created to the image and likeness of God, whom you love. You should still further love him, because God loved and redeemed

him, and invites him to heaven. You should Love your Neighbor for the love of God, that is to say, you should love him with a true and sincere love.

Pay attention to this, my Brethren; God does not want us to content ourselves with the simple appearance of love, or to confine our love to mere words. No, no, it is not an apparent and deceitful love, a hypocritical love, a love in which the heart takes no part, that God requires of us. We must Love our Neighbor as ourselves, in heart and in deed; in heart: that is, you must heartily desire for your neighbor every blessing that you can lawfully desire for yourselves; in deed: that is, you must do all in your power to procure for your neighbor the blessings which you desire for yourselves. Listen to the words of St. Augustine on this subject: "Whosoever loves his neighbor as himself, desires for his neighbor the same blessings which he desires for himself, and procures for him, on every occasion, the same advantages which he procures for himself, if he can do so." Take care not to inflict on your neighbor the evil you dread falling on yourselves. "Do nothing to another which you would not wish him to do to you;" on the contrary, treat others as you wish to be treated by them. Let us then examine some of your desires. Is it not true that you desire that others would forgive your faults and foibles, that they would console you in your troubles, encourage you in your difficulties, and extend a helping hand to you in your misfortune and misery? Yes, you desire that such should be the case. Act thus then, with respect to your neighbors, and do to them, what under similar circumstances you would have them to do to you. You are indignant and unhappy when you are made the victim of treachery and crime, when your character is blackened by detraction and calumny, and a false construction put upon your actions; and you heartily wish to escape being wounded by the poisoned tongue of slander. Be careful then to avoid committing against your neighbor these same crimes, which fill you with so much displeasure when committed against yourself. You will never injure your neighbor, by word or deed, if you love him as yourself, if charity reign in your hearts.

How happy, my Brethren, would we be if charity reigned on earth! There would be found no more poor, no more miserable wretches; the rich, being generous and benevolent, would relieve them

in their poverty, and comfort them in their misery; envy, avarice, hatred and anger would exist no more; every man would desire the happiness of his fellow being, and would rejoice at his prosperity; brothers would no longer despise one another, insult one another, or seek to undermine one another; a mutual esteem, love and desire to assist would animate all; among them there would be but one heart and one soul; and thus accomplishing God's law of love; the heavenly virtue of charity, after having worked their happiness here below, would introduce them into the abode of eternal delights, where those who will have known how to love as God commands, will dwell forever.-AMEN.

SERMON XL.

THE COMMANDMENTS OF GOD IN GENERAL.

"If thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments.-ST. MATTHEW, xix: 17.

Ir is not sufficient for one to say in his heart: I love my God, I love my neighbor; God requires that this love should be reduced to practice, and manifest itself by acts, especially by a faithful observance of His holy law. "He who loves me," says our Saviour, "keeps my Commandments; he who loves me not, keeps not my Commandments." We love the Lord, and prove that we love Him by zealously fulfilling His adorable will. Come then, my Brethren, let us meditate together on the Law of God: it is this law that converts souls, that gives wisdom to little ones, that brings joys to the heart and light to the eyes.

Laws were given to man from the very commencement of the world. In creating man, the Lord God set before his eyes and in his heart a light, which enabled him to distinguish good from evil. Man was created in rectitude, and came from the hand of God, with happy inclinations to good, which rendered it easy for him to accomplish all his duties. Had he perseveringly walked in the innocence in

which he was created, he would have easily preserved the knowledge of all the obligations which his condition as a reasonable creature imposed upon him toward his Creator, toward himself and toward his neighbor. But he soon ceased to hear the law which God and his reason dictated. Soon too, the corruption of the heart bringing on that of the mind, this law was obscured, forgotten, and, as it were, blotted out by the power of sin and concupiscence. In this miserable state man needed to have recalled to his mind the Commandments which God had intimated to him at the moment of his creation. Nevertheless, the Lord deferred for a long time giving a written law to his chosen people, because there still existed a great many just men, who by their advice and good example, reminded them of the law they had to observe. But, after the long stay which the people of God had been compelled to make in idolatrous Egypt, it was to be feared that they would follow the example of infidel nations, would cease to adore the Creator, would substitute falsehood in place of the truth, and offer their incense to idols. So the Lord resolved to announce His word to "Jacob, His judgments and His Commandments to Israel," and His hand wrote the law of the Decalogue.

The Almighty calls His people from out the bondage of Egypt, and three months after their departure from this idolatrous land, the children of Israel arrive at the foot of Mount Sinai. The summit of the mountain is enveloped in clouds, a thick smoke rises to heaven, the whole appears on fire, the lightning flashès, the thunder peals, the sound of trumpets is heard on every side, and the voice of God comes forth from heaven, exclaiming: "I am the Lord thy God, who brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. Thou shalt not have strange gods before me. Thou shalt not make to thyself a graven thing, nor the likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or in the earth beneath, nor in the waters under the earth. Thou shalt not adore them nor serve them. Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain. Remember that thou keep holy the Sabbath day. Honor thy father and thy mother, that thou mayest be long-lived upon the land which the Lord thy God will give thee. Thou shalt not kill. Thou shalt not commit adultery. Thou shalt not steal. Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor. Thou shalt not

covet thy neighbor's house: neither shalt thou desire his wife, nor his servant, nor his handmaid, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor any thing that is his."

Behold, my Brethren, with what solemnity the Lord announces His divine will to His people. All this grand and majestic preparation tells us, who is here the legislator: it is the all-powerful and eternal God, the Lord of lords, the King of kings; and, by engraving His law on stone, He himself teaches us the esteem with which we ought to regard it, the respectful submission with which we ought to receive, and everywhere and always practice it.

Although these ten Commandments were given at first only to the people of Israel, yet you must not imagine that they were not also imposed upon us. To us, Christians, as well as to the Israelites, this holy law was given, for our divine Saviour tells us, that He came, not to abolish the law, but to fulfill and perfect it; and He adds: “If thou wilt enter into life, keep the Commandments." A young man comes to find Him and says to Him: "Good Master, what good shall I do, that I may have life everlasting?" Our meek Saviour answered him: "If thou will enter into life, keep the Commandments. He saith to Him: which? And Jesus said: Thou shalt do no murder: Thou shalt not commit adultery: Thou shalt not steal: Thou shalt not bear false witness: Honor thy father and thy mother: and, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself."* These are exactly the Commandments of the ancient Decalogue. We are therefore obliged to observe this law, for it is the law of the Supreme Legislator, the Master of the world, the Creator and Judge of all men; we are then bound to observe the Decalogue, for the Lord did not come to revoke these divine Commandments, but on the contrary, He gave them a new force,-a new authority, and He declares that we can attain heaven only by walking in the way of these Commandments.

It is necessary to observe the Commandments to attain heaven. Take care, therefore, that you do not say with some heretics of our time, that it is impossible to fulfill these Commandments. To speak thus, is a blasphemy, for God declares that He commands us nothing that is above our strength. It is an impiety, for our Saviour

St. Matthew, xix: 16, 17, 18, 19.

+ Deuteronomy, xxx: 11,