at the loss of them. It is the man who gives nothing, or scarcely any thing of his superfluities to the poor; who so ardently loves what he possesses, and grasps it with such tenacity, that you must, in some measure, resort to violence to determine him to buy necessaries for himself; it is that man who is never satisfied with the wealth which he has acquired, with the gains which he has made, who always longs to make them greater, and whose craven appetite for money, in the language of Holy Writ, never can be satiated.* His desires have no bounds; and to appease them,-to satisfy his infernal thirst for gold, God alone knows what trouble he gives himself, what pains he takes, what means he employs, and how many crimes he commits. "There is not a more wicked thing than to love money for such a one setteth even his own soul to sale:" because of his injustices, and wrongs, and injuries, and divers deceits; and nothing is more wicked than the covetous man. The desire of riches is so deeply rooted, and so insatiable in certain avaricious souls, that they have no regard to laws or the dictates of justice. They defraud,-they overreach others,-they steal,they are ever employed in hoarding up gold, without troubling themselves whether they do so lawfully or unlawfully. They are resolved to make a fortune, to increase their capital and extend their possessions; and to attain their ends, they employ every means, without stopping to inquire whether they are guilty of injustice or not. If such a one is a judge or a magistrate, it matters little to him on which side right and justice are found,―he pronounces in favor of him who lodges the most money in his hands. Is he a merchant, he will be found using false weights and measures, although God has said: Wo to you that have in your house diverse weights, a greater and a less! § He sells as good, merchandise which is bad, damaged, and full of defects, which he takes great care to conceal. If we believe himself, there is no man more just than he is in his dealings,-he even swears to what he asserts; but in the eyes of God, who sounds his heart, this man is a cheat and a thief. Is the avaricious man a mechanic, a laborer or a domestic? He is ready to do every thing, to commit all kinds of sin and crime; there is no artifice, no means, no matter how mean or

Ecclesiasticus, v. † Deut., xxv. Ecclesiasticus, x: 8, 9, 10. § Deut., xxv

shameful, which he will not employ to obtain money, and increase his property. To procure gold, the covetous man will avail himself of false witnesses,―he fears not to perjure himself, and has no dread of committing theft or robbery. What do I say? If to attain wealth, he will have to rob the poor, plunder the orphan, defraud his ward, or ruin the heart-broken widow,-he cares not,he shuts his eyes,-stifles the pangs of conscience, and advances boldly to perpetrate the crime. The covetous man will never let loose his grasp on what he holds; so great is his apprehension of being stripped of his ill-gotten goods, that he can never resolve to restore what he unjustly possesses; he pays neither his creditors, his servants, nor the unfortunate tradesmen who happen to work for him. But God shall vindicate the cause of his oppressed poor. "Behold, the hire of the laborers, who have reaped your fields of which you have defrauded them, crieth out; and the cry of them hath entered into the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth."*

Oh you, who inordinately hunger after riches! do you never reflect that it is not of superfluities, but of the very necessaries of life, that you deprive that family, whose earnings you withhold. See these children,-they are naked,-they tremble with cold and hunger; their poor mother weeps, and the unhappy father has no bread to break to them,-no raiment wherewith to clothe them. Well then, rejoice every night, because forsooth you have been able to add a few more dollars to your already well filled coffers; hoard up your gold,-hoard it up, and forget that "the laborer is worthy of his hire." But the day will come when you shall hear these appalling words: I was hungry, and you gave me not to eat: I was thirsty, and you gave me not to drink; wicked servant, as long as you did it not to one of these least ones, neither did you do it to me: cruel and heartless man, for you there shall be no mercy during all eternity.t

St. Anselm remarks that St. Paul was right when he said that riches are the devil's net, by which he catches the souls of men and drags them to perdition. In the acquisition of them they are a net, for rarely are they obtained without recourse being had to unjust In the possession of them they are a net, for the posses

means.

sors too often make of them a god, and erect an altar to them in their hearts. But most of all are they a net in the hour of death; for then they hinder the miser from making the restitution which God, his conscience and justice demand. In that hour does the devil use all his efforts to bind fast this soul and precipitate it into the abyss, still clinging to its unjust possessions. Without restitution there is no pardon. Foolish man! behold, God required thy soul of thee, and,-it is lost! For whom are the riches which you have amassed? Poor miser, thou hast wearied thyself in vain in the ways of iniquity! Hear the voice of thy heirs who laugh at thy sordid parsimony, and remember their unwilling benefactor only with the contempt and the derisive joy which thy folly deserves.

Yes, my Brethren, Covetousness is an egregious folly, it is a crime; "take heed therefore and beware of all Covetousness." And how shall you avoid this vice? Have confidence in the paternal care of divine Providence. God watches over you,-He will provide for your wants. Do you not experience this truth every day? Is it not your God who says that you are dearer to Him than the birds of the air, that sow not, neither do they reap, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them? Labor then,-for such is the will of God; but be not solicitous about to-morrow; let not your hearts be troubled with thoughts of the future, it will come to you accompanied by the blessings of heaven. Cease esteeming and desiring riches so much. You have a Father who loves you and who will never forsake you in the hour of need. If God had placed you in abundance, would you be happier? Perhaps, you would have become misers, and the miser is a perpetual torment to himself, for the more he acquires the more he wants; he suffers in the very possession of what he loves, and in his abundance he is poor. Love your neighbor sincerely and charitably as you love yourselves, and you will avoid Avarice, which inclines us to do to others what we would not be willing that they should do to us; you will not seek to enrich yourselves at the expense of your brethren; you will be open, frank, just and equitable in your dealings with them; you will not be insensible to the miseries of the poor; the poor man will love to come to you, while he shuns the miser as carefully as the rich man avoids a thief; you will remember every day that God has given you riches, that you may make a good and holy use

of them, and above all, that you may be enabled to give bread to those who need it.

"Take heed and beware of Covetousness" by considering that, as you brought nothing into the world, so you shall take nothing out of it. Gold and silver can neither preserve you from death, nor add one day more to your life. The days which God grants to each one of us are very short, and, when we shall reach the fatal term, the greater our wealth shall be, the greater too shall be our pain in dying and leaving all behind. Remember that too great an attachment to the good things of this world, causes us to lose all love for the goods of the life to come,-the only lasting,-the only true goods, the only goods worthy of our labor and our love. If the Lord has favored you with the goods of fortune, be not attached to them, but raise your hearts above them, so that, as St. Francis of Sales tells us, in the midst of riches, we may be without riches. You can not serve two masters,-God and mammon. Prefer God, the source, the principle and the Author of all riches. In Him is found every thing beautiful, great, rich and precious, and He will give himself entirely to you in heaven, where He will be your reward exceeding great. What doth it profit a man, if he gain the whole world and lose his own soul?" To redeem this soul, gold and silver were valueless; it required the blood of a God. Esteem your soul then, endeavor to fit it, to enrich it for heaven, and you will avoid Avarice, the inordinate love of the false goods of earth; you will avoid Avarice, that odious and dangerous vice; you will love and practice charity, the divine virtue which makes you loved by God and opens for you heaven.-AMEN.

SERMON XCV.

ON LUST OR IMPURITY.

"God hath not called us to uncleanness, but to holiness."-1 THESSALONIANS, iv: 7,

HAD we a perfect resemblance to our forefathers in the faith,-to the Christians of the primitive Church, whose lives were so holy, and whose hearts were so pure, I might say it is not necessary for me to speak of the third capital sin to those that come here to listen to the word of God; they detest this vice, and, following the advice of St. Paul, the degrading sin of Lust is "neither known. nor named amongst us; every one of us knows how to possess his vessel in honor and sanctification; not in the passion of Lust, like the Gentiles, who know not God;" and we delight to recall to mind that, "God hath not called us to uncleanness, but to holiness." But, alas! my Brethren, such is not the case in our unhappy times; Lust, far from being unknown, is the cause of the ruin of an innumerable multitude of souls, and the greatest efforts must be made to prevent this frightful evil from spreading further. May I obtain this salutary result by once more telling you how dangerous and how criminal is the vice of Lust.

What is Lust? Lust or Impurity is a criminal affection for pleasures contrary to the virtue of Christian chastity; it is an inordinate desire for the unclean delights of the flesh. It is this sin which sensual men wish to regard as a light fault, and which they represent to us as the necessary and inevitable effect of human frailty. It may indeed be that it is inevitable for those proud people who, in their criminal presumption, lean only on their own strength, and neglect the fountains of grace and virtue, prayer and the sacraments, which our divine Lord has established to render us strong and holy; but it is not the less culpable in them. No! Lust