GOVERN THEM AND LIFT THEM

UP FOR EVER.

The fall of the first Adam has injured all his posterity both in body and soul, for by one man sin entered into the world and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned and so grievous is the wound inflicted on human nature that man cannot now of himself return to GOD. GOD's grace must go before any effort of his, and our wills must be prepared by Him, "for it is He Who worketh in us both to will and to do of His good pleasure." Hence it is His grace which brings us to faith and baptism, and not only that, but accompanies us through all

1 Rom. v. 12.

the course of our spiritual career, as the Apostle says, "by the grace of GOD I am what I am." Neither are we able to think anything as of ourselves, nor by our natural powers to keep our feet from the paths of unrighteousness and sin, but in every good work it is GOD Who worketh in us and with us. Now the help of God is to be invoked even by the holy and regenerate that they come to a good end, and persevere in good works.

But while we impress upon our minds the absolute necessity of Divine grace, without which we can do nothing, we must not forget what may be called the balancing truth of the freedom of the human will. Man is a responsible being, and to be responsible he must in some sort

be free. Now by the effect of the fall, man's will was so injured as not to be able to choose the good, though it might choose the evil, and this infirmity cannot be repaired but by the grace of baptism. That which was lost could only be restored by Him Who had the power to give, and the Truth Himself tells us, "If the SON have made you free, then are ye free indeed.”

But placed as we are in a Christian land, in our baptism made members of CHRIST, children of GOD, and inheritors of the kingdom of heaven, our wills in CHRIST are freed, and it is our parts and duties to see that these be mortified and subdued to His sweet yoke. To effect this we have

1 S. John viii. 36. Vide Can. Conc. Araus. 4 dis. ex S. Aug.

especial need of mortification and prayer, for without mortification prayer is too apt to become lukewarm, and without prayer the heart soon withers and dries up.

For, indeed, we cannot impress upon ourselves too earnestly the necessity and excellency of prayer, of which S. John, in the eighth chapter of the Apocalypse, tells us, "Another angel came and stood at the altar, having a golden censer, and there was given unto him much incense, that he should offer it with the prayers of all the saints upon the golden altar which was before the throne. And the smoke of the incense which came with the prayers of the saints ascended up before God out of the angel's hand.” On which passage S. Chrysostom

1 Rev. viii. 3.

says, that one proof of the advantage of prayer may be gathered from its being alone compared to incense, a composition of many admirable perfumes. For as the smell of well compounded incense is very delightful, so prayer also, when well made, is very acceptable to GOD, and gives great joy to the angels and inhabitants of the heavenly Jerusalem. In another place, S. John mentions the twenty-four elders as having in their hands "vials full of odours, which are the prayers of the saints;" so that, in the words of S. Augustine, "what can be more excellent than prayer? what more profitable in this life? what more grateful to the mind? what in our whole religion more elevated?" And another speaking of the excellence of prayer, says, "Consider