are unwilling to mortify our flesh, with its desires; on the contrary, we know only how to follow our base propensities and yield to all the demands of our vile passions. Where then is our obedience to the Lord? Where is our submission to Jesus Christ, our God, who will also be our sovereign Judge? For this divine Infant who reposes in that manger, so full of gentleness and sweetness, will, on the day of judgment, come borne on the clouds of heaven, full of glory and of majesty, surrounded by millions of angels, to judge all men, princes and peasants, and render to every one according to his works; to some eternal glory, to others eternal pains. Divine Jesus, I adore Thee, my desire is to obey Thee, to follow and imitate Thee; be merciful to me, O my God! O my Saviour!

How many great and sacred things does not the word Saviour contain! What a benefit that which the love of God has granted us! Suppose, my Brethren, some terrible danger threatened our lives, an immense conflagration, a frightful earthquake, or a vast inundation. What fear, what awe, what dread would it not cause in us? But suppose that there comes a man who with authority controls the fire, the sea and the elements; who delivers us from death and saves us; who even does more, for he not only preserves us, but he heaps favors and riches upon us; beyond all doubt we would love this generous benefactor, we would even kiss his footprints! Well, my Brethren, this man so worthy of our love, is but a faint image of our divine Saviour.

We had sinned in Adam, were children of wrath, heaven was closed against us; we should have passed from this vale of tears into eternal woe, for we had violated the law of God, and were incapable of making satisfaction to His infinite justice. But God loved us, and He sent among us His only begotten Son, in whom He was well pleased. This divine Emmanuel came, clothed Himself with our nature, was loaded with our iniquities, and blotted them out by dying for us on the cross. We should have been lost, but Jesus has saved us; we should have been utterly abandoned, and held in bondage by the devil; we should have eternally suffered in the gloomy dungeons of hell; but Jesus has restored us to the friendship of His Father,-He has made us children of God and heirs of the kingdom of heaven.

No, my Brethren, we will no longer be ungrateful; we will

delight to recall to mind the blessings which our bountiful Saviour has conferred upon us. But if gratitude reign in our hearts, must it not show itself in all our conduct,-in our whole lives? There is no one among us who can not sometimes say: be Thou blessed, O my Jesus, because Thou hast redeemed me, because Thou hast saved me! But it is not words that the Saviour asks of us,-He wishes to have holy works,-worthy fruits of gratitude, and this is the only means by which we can be saved. No doubt, our divine Lord renders salvation possible, even easy for us, but, to obtain it, we must coöperate with the graces which the adorable sacrifice of the cross has merited for us; we must render ourselves worthy of this great blessing by constantly doing the will of God. Woe be to us, if at the end of our lives it be found that we have not profited by the blessings which the Saviour brought us in abundance, and if we be found wanting in gratitude and fidelity toward our best friend and greatest benefactor, who has done every thing that it was possible for him to do, to gain our love and win our hearts.

If the most powerful monarch in the world were to descend from his throne and come to dwell among his subjects; were he to seek out by preference the poorest; to speak to them with benignity; to sit at their table, eat of their bread; wish to be accounted their friend, their brother; and beg them to bestow upon him these endearing names; who would not love this good king? Who would not be devoted to him, in life and in death? My Brethren, what is this compared with all the King of heaven has done for us? The Word was God, and the Word made Himself flesh, and came to dwell among us, poor sinners; He was rich, says the Apostle, and He made himself poor, to enrich us; He chose to be born of poor parents, in an old, decayed stable; the first men from whom He condescended to receive homage were poor shepherds; for thirty years He lived in the house of a poor carpenter, and was occupied at the trade of His foster-father; He afterward had no place whereon to rest His head, and He lived only on the alms which some pious souls placed in the hands of His disciples; at last, for us He became the Man of Sorrows, died on the cross, shedding even the last drop of His blood; but not until He had instituted the adorable sacrament of his love,-the divine Eucharist; for He wished to remain among those whom He loves, all days, even to the end of time, to

be their consolation and their strength. Yes, my God, Thou didst love us to the end,-even to excess.

My Brethren, love demands love; love then your divine Saviour, who has so much loved you! Remember the consoling promise He has made us: "If you love," He says, "I will come to take up my abode in you." But let us also remember that He requires that we should prove the sincerity of our love by keeping His commandments faithfully: "He that loves me, keeps my commandments."

Divine Jesus, Thou art the Son of the Most High, Thou art our Lord, our God: from the bottom of our hearts we adore Thee, and lay at Thy feet our solemn promise of remaining ever faithful to Thee, of obeying Thy divine word, and of walking constantly in the ways of Thy commandments. Thou art our Saviour; Thou hast died to save us from eternal death; Thou hast blotted out sin and broken down the walls that stood between us and God; Thou hast opened the gates of heaven for us. Be Thou then praised, O sweet Jesus, forever and ever! O bountiful God, how much hast Thou loved us! And how have we repaid Thy love? We have spent many years in lukewarmness, in sin and in impenitence, lost in the pursuit of earthly things, and forgetful of heaven, of the glorious paradise to which Thou invitest us, and where Thou awaitest us. Pardon, O my Saviour, pardon us, that we begin so late to love Thee. Grant that the merits of Thy sufferings and Thy death may not be lost in our regard. Be our guide, our support, and our strength, that nothing may be able to separate us from Thee, who art the truth we must hear, the way we must follow, and the life wherewith we must be animated, if we would enjoy the life and the happiness of heaven.-AMEN.

SERMON XIII.

FOURTH ARTICLE OF THE CREED.

LIFE OF OUR DIVINE SAVIOUR.

"Who hath loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood."-AroCALYPSE, i: 5.

THE heavens have diffused their sweet dews, and the clouds rained down the Just One. The earth has opened its bosom and given birth to the Saviour. Jesus, the divine Redeemer promised to the world when our first parent sinned, has just been born. Angels announce to the poor the miraculous birth of the Messias; kings come from the East, prostrate themselves at His feet and adore Him. But, behold another king, a cruel tyrant seeks to put Him to death: the God made man takes refuge in the land of Egypt, and lives in obscurity, until He has attained His thirtieth year. At length the important time foretold by the prophet, had come, when the divine Saviour was to commence His heavenly mission, to preach forgiveness of sins, to invite all men to repentance, to overturn the empire of Satan, and to immolate himself for the salvation of the world. I would gladly lay before you the entire life of Jesus, but I must content myself with recalling to your minds some of its principal events. Be sure that you attend well to what I say. Jesus leaves His retreat, quits His humble abode at Nazareth, comes to the banks of the Jordan, enters the river, and requests John to pour on His head the waters of baptism. My Brethren, Jesus did not require the baptism of penance, which John gave; He was not obliged to do those penitential acts; He who had come to blot out the sins of the world, could not be himself stained with sin. He was the pure and spotless Lamb, and if He chose to receive the baptism of John, it was to leave us a noble example of humility, and to sanctify the water, which was afterward to efface, in reality, our sins in the sacrament of baptism. Yes, Jesus humbled himself,

on the banks of the Jordan, but His Father hastened to glorify Him. The heavens open; the Holy Ghost, in the form of a dove, descends on our divine Saviour; and a voice, the voice of God, the Father, is heard from the highest heavens, saying: "Thou art my beloved Son; in Thee I am well pleased.' >> Jesus leaves the banks of the Jordan, goes into the desert, fasts for forty days and forty nights, and afterward permits the devil to tempt Him. In vain does the infernal spirit exert all his malice, employ all his wickedness, and call in action all his cunning: he prevails not over the spirit and heart of the Saviour of the world, who was soon to crush this serpent's head. But this temptation which Jesus suffered in the desert, on the eve of undertaking His divine mission, proclaims londly to us that we must be on our guard against the artifices of the devil, and watch over ourselves, lest we be surprised by Satan, who did not fear attacking even the Holy of Holies!

Jesus comes forth from the desert and declares that He is the Messias promised to men; He travels through villages, marketplaces and cities; He preaches in the temple, on the highways, on the sea-shore; He reveals to the people those sublime truths which are the object of our faith; streams of enchanting eloquence flow from His divine lips; He speaks with authority, He speaks as no man ever spoke before; He shows us, that in God, we have a Father, in other men, brothers; He demonstrates clearly the nothingness of the things of this world; He tells us the importance of salvation, the value of heavenly things, the happiness of the elect, and how we may attain that happiness; He teaches us to submit our minds and hearts to the word and the will of God; to subdue our passions, to practice virtue; and to support the truth of His words He works the most wonderful prodigies, evidences indeed of His omnipotence, but no less proofs of His goodness. He speaks, and His word puts to flight the whole train of evils that afflict us. He speaks, and fever, leprosy, and all infirmities disappear. He speaks, and the blind see, the deaf hear, the dumb speak. He speaks, and the devil retreats in shame and confusion. He speaks, and the grave gives up its victims, and the dead come to life.

While performing these wonders, Jesus at the same time pre

* St. Luke, iii; 22.