all men are our brethren of the same flesh and blood: "God hath made of one all mankind to dwell upon the face of the earth" (Acts xvii. 26). And the voice of nature as well as revelation cries out against brethren quarrelling, and that it is good that they should dwell together in unity (Ps. cxxxii. 1).

2. All men have been redeemed in the precious Blood of Jesus Christ. There is no one for whom Christ did not die; none whom God does not sincerely wish to save. But if God wishes eternal happiness for every man, we ought to do so too. This is St. Paul's argument: "I desire, therefore, that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made by men. For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour, who will have. all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. For there is one God and one Mediator of God and man, the man Christ Jesus, who gave Himself a redemption for all" (1 Tim. ii. 1-6).

3. It is in a special sense the precept of the Gospel. "A new commandment I give unto you: that ye love one another, as I have loved you, that ye also love one another" (St. John xiii. 34). "This is my commandment, that ye love one another, as I have loved you" (xv. 12). And that our Lord included in this love all mankind, enemies as well as friends, is clear from His own words in the Sermon on the Mount: "Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbour, and hate thy enemy. But I say unto you, Love your enemies, do good to those that hate you, and pray for them that persecute and calumniate you; that ye may be the children of your Father who is in heaven, who maketh His sun to rise on the good and the bad, and raineth upon the just and unjust" (Matt. v. 43-45).

Tradition tells us how the Apostle of love, St. John, in his extreme old age, used to be carried to the church at Ephesus, and preach nothing but, "Little children, love one another;" and when some, weary with hearing the same thing so often, asked him why he did so, he said, "It is the Lord's commandment, and he who fulfils it has done all he need."

We are not only commanded to love all mankind as our neighbour, but we are admonished how we should love them: "Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself." We are not to understand from these words that we are to love our neighbour as much as ourselves. When our Lord says, "Be ye perfect as your Father in heaven is perfect," He does not mean that our perfection is to equal in degree the perfection of God, for He does not command impossibilities, but that we are to take the goodness and mercy of God as our standard of excellence, as the example and type according to which we should shape our conduct. So here, when we are commanded to love our neighbour as ourselves, it is meant that our love for ourselves is to be the example of our love to others: in the same manner as we love ourselves we are to love our neighbours.

It is, then, our duty first to love ourselves. No doubt at first hearing such a statement will sound strange, and contrary to the doctrine of spiritual writers, who denounce self-love as the source of all sin,-an enemy to be fought against and repressed,-rather than a virtue to be aimed at and encouraged. Yet there is no real contradiction. For the self-love of charity is a very different thing from the selflove against which spiritual writers inveigh; the latter is that disposition in us which leads us to prefer our own pleasure to the will of God,-that inordinate appreciation of self which makes us think more highly of ourselves than we ought to think, and neglect the duties we owe others,— which causes us to put ourselves in the first place, as the ultimate end of all we do and think and say. And this is indeed the root of all sin. But the self-love of charity is the desire for our eternal happiness; not simply for our own sake, otherwise it would not be the love of charity,-but because God, who is infinitely good, wills our sanctification and glory; and this is the perfection of love. We begin with loving God for the sake of self, and we end with loving self for the sake of God.

We are most certainly bound to love ourselves with the love of charity more than any one else; for to each one has been committed in a special manner the guardianship of his own soul. And he would not be justified in

abandoning such a trust even to save the world. "Every one of us shall render account to God for himself," says the Apostle (Rom. xiv. 12); therefore for himself must each one first have regard, and must not let any other person's salvation, however dear, stand in the way of his

own.

Again, we are bound not only to love our souls, but our bodies, with the love of charity. For God has prepared a supernatural glory for the body as well as the soul. Of our body we are told that, "it is sown in corruption, it shall rise in incorruption. It is sown in dishonour, it shall rise in glory. It is sown in weakness, it shall rise in power. It is sown a natural body, it shall rise a spiritual body" (1 Cor. xv. 42-44). This corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. "Our Lord Jesus Christ will reform the body of our lowliness, made like to the body of His glory, according to the operation whereby He is able to subdue all things unto Himself" (Phil. iii. 21). And to love the body with the love of charity, is to wish it all this for the sake of God, who wills it so to be. We see how the mortifications of the flesh enjoined by the Gospel, and practised in so eminent a degree by the saints, consist with such love, nay result from it: "For whosoever will save his life shall lose it, and whosoever shall lose his life for My sake and the Gospel's shall save it" (St. Mark viii. 35). From what has been said about the kind of love we should have for ourselves, we can gather in what the love of our neighbour consists. As we ought to desire and endeavour to procure for ourselves salvation and the means thereto, so we ought to do for all mankind; not indeed for all alike, but in proportion as some are more nearly connected with us than others, or have special claims on our affection. Thus, we should love parents, a husband or wife, a brother or sister, before all other relations; believers and Catholics before infidels and heretics; friends and benefactors before enemies.

Upon the love of our enemies we have a distinct precept laid down by our Blessed Lord, which has been already referred to, and of which it will be in place here to give

some explanation. "Ye have heard that it hath been. said, Thou shalt love thy neighbour, and hate thy enemy. But I say unto you, Love your enemies, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them that persecute and calumniate you" (St. Matt. v. 43, 44). In these words our Lord clearly tells us that we are bound to love our enemies in the same manner as men used to say we should love our friends, that is, with a real love. It is not, then, sufficient to show external signs of love. There have been casuists who have said as much, but such an opinion was condemned by the Church. Love is of the heart and will, and not of the outward conduct. If we are ever so civil in our manner and words towards our neighbour, yet cherish within us a feeling of hatred towards him, most assuredly we cannot be said to love him. Nor, again, is it enough to have no ill-will towards our enemy; for love is not merely an absence of hatred, it is in itself a something positive, and in the present case implies a sincere wish for our enemies' welfare, for the sake of God. We are not indeed bound to have the same feeling of personal liking for our enemies as for our friends; neither need we treat them with special marks of affection; but we are bound to deal with them as fellow-men, created and redeemed by the same God, and heirs of the same hope.

any

We sin, then, against our Lord's command when we entertain dislike, malice, hatred, and desire of revenge, -when we rejoice at our enemy's discomfiture, or are sorry at his success,-when we will not forgive him, or prevent a reconciliation,-when we refuse him help in time of need, which we might and would supply were he not an enemy, when we will not pray for him, or have dealings with him in the common business of life. In all such ways we may easily fall into grievous sin, and prepare for ourselves certain condemnation: "For if ye will not forgive men, neither will your Heavenly Father forgive you your offences" (St. Matt. vi. 15). "And with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged, and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again" (vii. 2).

CHAP. XLII. On the spiritual and corporal Works of

Mercy.

CHARITY, as it tends to the relief of soul and body, will show itself in what are called the spiritual and corporal works of mercy. The former are: 1. To convert the sinner; 2. To instruct the ignorant; 3. To counsel the doubtful; 4. To comfort the sorrowful; 5. To bear wrongs patiently; 6. To forgive injuries; 7. To pray for the living and the dead.

The latter are: 1. To feed the hungry; 2. To give drink to the thirsty; 3. To clothe the naked; 4. To harbour the harbourless; 5. To visit the sick; 6. To visit the imprisoned; 7. To bury the dead.

It will be unnecessary to speak of these works of mercy in detail. We may, estimate their overwhelming importance by this consideration alone,-that our Lord Jesus Christ brings forward the performance or neglect of them as the ground of our acceptance or rejection at the last day. The corporal deeds of mercy are mentioned by name, the spiritual are implied.

"When the Son of man shall come in His majesty, and all the angels with Him, then shall He sit on the seat of His majesty; and all nations shall be gathered together before Him, and He shall separate them from one another, even as the shepherd separateth the sheep from the goats; and He shall set the sheep on His right hand, but the goats on his left. Then shall the king say to them that shall be on His right hand, Come ye blessed of My Father, possess you the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry, and ye gave Me to eat: I was thirsty, and ye gave Me to drink: I was a stranger, and ye took Me in: naked, and ye covered Me: sick, and ye visited Me: I was in prison, and ye came to Me. Then shall the just answer Him, saying, Lord, when did we see Thee hungry, and fed Thee; thirsty, and gave Thee drink; and when did we see Thee a stranger, and took Thee in; or naked, and covered Thee; or when did we see Thee sick, or in prison, and came to Thee? And the King answering, shall say to