in is a
deliberate act of a free will; mention necessity in the same breath,
and you destroy the notion of sin. There can never be an impossibility
of avoiding sin; consequently, there can never be an impossibility of
avoiding a near occasion of sin.

It may be hard, very difficult; but that is another thing. But, as we
have already said, the difficulty is rather within than without us, it
arises from a lack of will power. But hard or easy, these occasions
must nevertheless be removed. Let the suffering entailed be what it
may, the eye must be plucked out, the arm must be lopped off, to use
the Saviour's figurative language, if in no other way the soul can be
saved from sin. Better to leave your father's house, better to give up
your very life, than to damn your soul for all eternity. But extremes
are rarely called for; small sacrifices often cost more than great
ones. A good dose of ordinary, everyday mortification and penance
goes a long way toward producing the necessary effect. An ounce of
self-denial will work miracles in a sluggard, cowardly soul.

It would be well on occasion to remember this, especially when one in
such a state is thinking seriously of going to confession: if he is not
prepared to make the required effort, then he had better stay away
until such a time as he is willing. For if he states his case
correctly, he will not receive absolution; if his avowal is not
according to fact, his confession is void, perhaps sacrilegious. Have
done with sin before you can expect to have your sins forgiven.

CHAPTER LXXXI.
SCANDAL.

ON only rare occasions do people who follow the bent of their unbridled
passions bethink themselves of the double guilt that frequently
attaches to their sins. Seemingly satisfied with the evil they have
wrought unto their own souls, they choose to ignore the wrong they may
have done unto others as a consequence of their sinful doings. They
believe in the principle that every soul is personally responsible for
its own damnation: which is true; but they forget that many elements
may enter as causes into such a calamity. We are in nowise isolated
beings in this world; our lives may, and do, affect the lives of
others, and influence them sometimes to an extraordinary extent. We
shall have, each of us, to answer one day for results of such
influence; there is no man but is, in this sense, his brother's
guardian.

There are, who deny this, like Cain. Yet we Icnow that Jesus Chri