orld and eternal felicity in the world
to come. It is to this God calls us, but we--no, not truly we, but
the Man of Sin--flatter ourselves, as he did Eve, that if we follow
him we shall not die but become as gods. We, to-day, have the same
temptation to overcome that Eve had.

"Oh, how much greater God would have us be than we are, and we will
not! We must cast out the Man of Sin and submit to the Paradisiacal
Man. This we are enabled to do, blessed be Heaven, by the grace of
God through Jesus Christ.

"What are the temptations which hold men back from following God and
leading a divine life? In one word, the World. Pride, love of praise,
riches, self-indulgence, all that refers and looks to time instead of
eternity, heaven, God.

"We should encourage all that gives us an impulse heavenward, and
deny all that tends to draw us down more into the body, sense, time.
Man, alas! is weak, powerless, and unable to perform any good deed
which will raise him to God without the free gift, the blessed grace
of God the Holy Spirit. We all fail to act up to the divine grace
which is given us. O Lord! forgive my manifold transgressions, and
empower me to be more and more obedient to thy Holy Spirit. My inward
man desires to follow Thy Spirit, but the appetites of my members
ever war against and often subdue him. Strengthen him, O Lord! and
enable him to govern my whole three-sphered nature. Send down Thy
celestial love into my heart and quicken all my heavenly powers.

"It is very true that no man can serve two masters. Between God and
Mammon there is no compromise, no mediator. Lord, make me fully
sensible of this, and strengthen my resolution to follow Thee. I do
look to the Church of Christ for help. Oh, may I find in it that
which the Apostles found in Jesus!"

We cannot refrain from reminding the reader of the immature age, and
almost total lack of education--in the ordinary meaning of the
term--of the man who wrote these lofty and inspiring sentences. He
was ignorant of everything but the most rudimentary truths of
Catholicity; had never read an ascetic work; had never spoken on
ascetical subjects with Catholics; had never read the life of a
saint; and had no experience to draw from except his own. Yet mark
the absolute certainty of his propositions and their uniform
correctness. It should also be made known that these doctrines and
sentiments, though written with the most evident haste, follow each
other, page after pa