ts, for the work of the ministry, for the building
up of the body of Christ, until we all meet unto the unity of faith and of
the knowledge of the Son of God unto a perfect man."(36)

The moral law which the Catholic Church inculcates on her children is the
highest and holiest standard of perfection ever presented to any people,
and furnishes the strongest incentives to virtue.

The same Divine precepts delivered through Moses to the Jews, on Mount
Sinai, the same salutary warnings which the Prophets uttered throughout
Judea, the same sublime and consoling lessons of morality which Jesus gave
on the Mount--these are the lessons which the Church teaches from January
till December. The Catholic preacher does not amuse his audience with
speculative topics or political harangues, or any other subjects of a
transitory nature. He preaches only "Christ, and Him crucified."

This code of Divine precepts is enforced with as much zeal by the Church
as was the Decalogue of old by Moses, when he said: "These words, which I
command thee this day, shall be in thy heart; and thou shalt tell them to
thy children; and thou shalt meditate upon them, sitting in thy house, and
walking on thy journey, sleeping and rising."(37)

The first lesson taught to children in our Sunday-schools is their duty to
know, love and serve God, and thus to be Saints; for if they know, love
and serve God aright they shall be Saints indeed. Their tender minds are
instructed in this great truth that though they had the riches of Dives,
and the glory and pleasures of Solomon, and yet fail to be righteous, they
have missed their vocation, and are "wretched, and miserable, and poor,
and blind, and naked."(38) "For, what doth it profit a man, if he gain the
whole world and lose his own soul?"(39) On the contrary though they are as
poor as Lazarus, and as miserable as Job in the days of his adversity,
they are assured that their condition is a happy one in the sight of God,
if they live up to the maxims of the Gospel.

The Church quickens the zeal of her children for holiness of life by
impressing on their minds the rigor of God's judgments, who "will bring to
light the hidden things of darkness, and make manifest the counsels of the
hearts," by reminding them of the terrors of Hell and of the sweet joys of
Heaven.

Not only are Catholics instructed in church on Sundays but they are
exhorted to peruse the Word of God, and manuals of devotion, at home. The
saint