penance which was prescribed by the ancient canons. In the early ages of Christianity, public penances, which sometimes lasted for many years, were imposed for certain sins. Sinners had to pray much, to pass their days in mourning and their nights in watching and weeping, to sleep on the ground in sackcloth and ashes, to clothe themselves with hair shirts, to fast, to give alms, and perform many other good works. This ancient discipline is no longer in force; still the justice of God is always the same, and sin deserves no less punishment to-day than it did in those early ages. We commit many sins; to expiate them we should do penance for many years, perhaps our whole life would not be sufficient. But the Church, ever animated and conducted by the Spirit of God, grants us Indulgences. At one time she remits a hundred days, seven years, or fifty years of penance which would have been imposed upon us according to the ancient regulations; and consequently, the corresponding punishment which we would have to undergo in purgatory. At another time she opens still more generously the treasure confided to her maternal tenderness, and remits all the penance which we would have to perform, all the punishment which we would have to suffer in expiation of our sins, after the eternal guilt had been forgiven; such is the effect of a plenary Indulgence. The penitent who gains the whole of a plenary Indulgence is as pure and spotless before God as if he had but that instant been regenerated in Jesus Christ by Baptism. The Church has forgiven him all,-she has completely freed him from his bonds, by virtue of the supreme power which our divine Saviour gave to Peter when He said to him: "Whatsoever you shall loose on earth, shall be loosed also in heaven."*

What then! must we not atone for our sins? Must we not satisfy the divine Justice in some way? My Brethren, God could demand of us all that we owe Him, even to the last farthing; but His infinite mercy permits the innocent to pay for the guilty, and that the superabundant satisfactions of Jesus Christ and His saints should turn to our profit and diminish our obligations and our debts. It is with the superabundant merits of the blessed Virgin and the saints, it is above all, with the infinite merits of

St. Matthew, xvi: 19.

Jesus Christ, that the Church pays the debt which her children owe to divine Justice. This is the source whence she draws the graces which she grants them, the Indulgences which she distributes to them. The satisfaction which our divine Saviour presented to His Father, was of inexhaustible merit,-and "where sin abounded, grace hath abounded more."* One drop of His divine blood could have redeemed a thousand worlds, saved them from hell and reconciled them to God; and yet all our Redeemer's blood was shed,— not a drop of it remained in His veins! Jesus has therefore suffered infinitely more than was necessary for our redemption. And what has become of these superabundant satisfactions and merits? He himself has placed them in the treasury of His Church, that she might apply them to us under the name of Indulgences.

There has been and there is still on earth a countless number of holy servants of God, who have offered far more satisfaction for their faults to God than He required of them. Compute, if you can, the merits and satisfactions of the numberless holy martyrs, confessors and virgins, who, during so many ages have done such great things for God,—and add to this the merits and satisfactions of the multitude of living servants of God, who have always served Him with admirable fidelity, yet who lead such mortified, penitent lives. Compute, if you can, the merits and satisfactions of a John the Baptist, sanctified in his mother's womb; the satisfactions and innumerable merits of the holy Mother of God, of Mary, the Queen of martyrs, of confessors and of Virgins, who never committed the slightest fault, who suffered so much, and who, every hour, every moment, at every throb of her heart, brought forth works so agreeable to God, so rich in satisfactions? Well then, my Brethren, are all these satisfactions lost? No. The Church is the mother of all the saints; she therefore lawfully inherits the rich treasure of their merits, the keys of which she confides to the hands of the sovreign pontiff and of bishops, that they may draw from it the spiritual goods which they impart to us under the name of Indulgences. It is then the satisfactions of Jesus Christ and the saints that place us in the happy possibility of satisfying God and expiating our sins. The Church, our kind mother, acts in favor of

Romans, v: 20.

those who can only with difficulty atone for their sins in this world, like a good and charitable father, who, seeing some of his children overwhelmed with debts, gives them the money which his other children had transferred to him, to dispose of as he judged fit.

It is true, Indulgences free us from years,-from ages of suffering; but is it the intention of the Church to release us from penance? No, but to assist us is performing it; therefore she grants Indulgences only to sinners who do every thing in their power to appease the divine justice; she wishes to supply for their inability, and not to encourage their negligence. "The Church," says St. Cyprian, "can use her clemency only in favor of true penitents, who sincerely endeavor to satisfy for their sins, and humbly beg the Indulgences of the Church; such alone can be benefited by the recommendation of the martyrs and the Indulgence of the priests."

To gain an Indulgence, it is therefore necessary to be in the state of grace, free from all mortal sin. While sin reigns in your heart, pardon can not enter it. It is absolutely necessary then that a sincere confession, accompanied with true repentance, reëstablish your soul in the grace and friendship of God; for an Indulgence can not be applied to such as remain His enemies. A plenary Indulgence remits all the temporal punishment which our sins had merited for us, and which we would have had to suffer either in this world or the next. Surely this is a great blessing; but to obtain it, is it sufficient to make a good confession? A plenary Indulgence will efface all the temporal punishment still due to mortal sin when the eternal guilt has been remitted by the Sacrament of Penance; it will produce the same effect with regard to the punishment which you deserved for venial sins, of which you repent; but, if there be any venial faults for which you are not sorry, they are not pardoned, and they are not susceptible of an Indulgence; so that, in this case, the Indulgence would not be plenary in its application. There are few who gain a plenary Indulgence, because there are few who detest all their venial sins. To gain an Indulgence, it is necessary that he who performs the work to which it is attached, should have the intention of gaining it. It is therefore good for the faithful to renew every morning the intention of gaining all the Indulgences attached to the practices of piety which they may per

form during the day. And here let me remark the great favor which the Church grants to the faithful who are in the habit of confessing their sins every week. She permits them, without making a new confession, to gain all the Indulgences which occur during the week, provided they can not reproach themselves with any grievous faults when these Indulgences are applied. Finally, to gain an Indulgence, we must perform exactly whatever is prescribed by the bull or brief granting the Indulgence, and we must perform it as it is prescribed; to all this we must join a true desire to satisfy God for our sins, we must keep our hearts in a religious and penitent spirit.

Endeavor to gain as many Indulgences as you can, that you may participate in the merits and satisfactions of Jesus Christ and His saints, that you may supply for your own weakness, and that you may shorten the punishment which would retard your eternal happiness. It would be more perfect still to gain Indulgences through a pure desire for the glory of God, that He may be glorified in the remission of your sins and of the punishment due to them. Would we not esteem as foolish the man, who, loaded with debts, would nevertheless, refuse to take advantage of all just means in his power to release himself from them? And how can we consider ourselves wise, if we neglect to pay the debts which we owe to God, while we can discharge them so easily? There are Indulgences attached to the greater portion of the pious works which we perform, and of the prayers which we say every day; let us therefore put ourselves in a condition to gain them, if we wish to spare ourselves the intolerable pains of purgatory, and be the sooner admitted into the possession of eternal happiness,—a blessing I wish you all. AMEN.

SERMON LXXXVI.

ON EXTREME UNCTION.

"Is any man sick among you? Let him bring in the priests of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil, in the name of the Lord : And the prayer of faith shall save the sick man: and the Lord shall raise him up and if he be in sins, they shall be forgiven him."-ST. JAMES, v: 14, 15.

BAPTISM elevates us to the sublime dignity of children of God and of His Church, makes us members of Jesus Christ, and temples of the Holy Ghost. In Confirmation, this Divine Spirit descends upon us with the plenitude and magnificence of His gifts. The holy Eucharist makes us so many sanctuaries in which Jesus Christ condescends to dwell. Penance restores us to our former dignity, when sin has deprived us of it. Such are the means of salvation which the mercy of God has prepared for the course of our lives. But we must all one day die; and when that hour is about to strike, religion, which purified man at his entrance into life, comes to sanctify him at his departure out of this world, by offering him the Sacrament of Extreme Unction, which is, as it were, the baptism of the new life which we receive at death. It is of this liberating sacrament that I mean to speak to you to-day.

What is Extreme Unction? Extreme Unction is a sacrament instituted for the spiritual and corporal comfort of sick persons. This sacrament is called Extreme Unction, because it is the last unction which the Christian receives. The first unction is made in Baptism, the second in Confirmation, and the last when he is dangerously ill. Though this word Extreme does not signify an extremity without hope, but the last unction which the Saviour instituted for the sanctification of men, yet it is not given in all kinds of sickness, but solely when a person is perceived to be in danger of death. The catechism of the Council of Trent, speaking