CHAP. LXIV.

The Sixth Commandment: "Thou shalt not commit adultery." NEXT to loss of life, unfaithfulness in a husband or wife is the greatest injury our neighbour can suffer: hence, to the prohibition against murder succeeds that against adultery.

Adultery is a carnal act committed with another's husband or wife. Its guilt, which is contracted by both persons concerned in it, is far greater than where neither person is married; for it adds to the sin of impurity a grievous breach of justice. In condemning this sin as an effect of lust, the commandment has always been understood to include all other sins which spring from the same source,- -as the Catechism says, all kinds of immodesties by kisses, touches, looks, words, or actions.

God has bestowed on man, in common with the animals, certain bodily appetites, to the exercise of which are attached peculiar pleasures. Some are chiefly for the preservation of the individual, others for the continuation of the species. We are not, however, permitted to indulge as we please in such propensities, but are required to restrain them to the ends for which they were given. We may never pursue pleasure simply for its own sake. And as to eat and drink simply to please the palate is a sin against temperance,-although we may satisfy our appetite in order to promote sociability and cheerfulness of spirit, and refresh nature as well as to supply its strict needs, so the gratification of other desires is a sin against purity, except under the sanction of the marriage tie, when such gratification is permitted for the sake of begetting children, and strengthening mutual affection.

The obligations of purity are most strict, and bind under the heaviest penalties, any deliberate violation of them being mortal sin; and this because of the degrading and absorbing character of lasciviousness. Its pleasure has a special tendency to subjugate the higher parts of our nature to the lower,-the reason to the appetite, the soul to the body. Impure objects most vividly impress themselves on the imagination, and inflame the desires, which powerfully draw after them the will, rendering it utterly

blind to reason, and incapable of choosing aright. In a short time the whole person becomes sensual, carnal, and on a level with the beasts that perish. Christianity supplies more weighty reasons still for regarding with abhorrence the sin of lust. For since the Incarnation our whole nature has been specially consecrated and raised to a divine excellence by union with the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity; so that its degradation to the mere animal is not only greater, but becomes a sort of sacrilege. By the Sacraments, and eminently by the Sacrament of the Altar, we are engrafted into Christ; we are made one with Him: we become members of His Body, of His flesh, and of His bones. Hence the Apostle speaks of sins of impurity not only as offences against one's own self, but as directly against Christ. "Fly fornication. Every sin that a man doth is without the body; but he that committeth fornication sinneth against his own body. Know ye not that your bodies are the members of Christ? Shall I, then, take the members of Christ and make them members of a harlot? God forbid !" (1 Cor. vi. 18, 15). By no figure of speech, but in very truth, we are temples of the Holy Ghost who dwells in us: "Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you? But if any man violate the temple of God, him shall God destroy" (1 Cor. iii. 16).

No wonder, then, we find sins against the Sixth Commandment so emphatically denounced in Holy Scripture, and especially in the New Testament. "Fornication, and all uncleanness or obscenity, let it not so much as be named among you, as becometh saints; for know this, and understand that no fornicator nor unclean person hath inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God" (Eph. v. 3-5). "Mortify your members which are upon earth, fornication, uncleanness, lust, evil concupiscence,-for which things the wrath of God cometh upon the children of unbelief" (Col. iii. 5, 6). "The works of the flesh are manifest, which are fornication, uncleanness, immodesty, luxury; of which I foretell you, as I have foretold you, that they who do such things shall not obtain the kingdom of God" (Gal. v. 19-21).

A characteristic of these sins is the shame which accompanies them. This feeling of shame and confusion is a good thing in itself, and intended to inspire us with a horror of sin, and a firm determination to avoid it; but it is sometimes perverted, and becomes an instrument for the ruin of the soul. When those who have unhappily fallen into any sins of impurity begin to reflect on what they have done, they are sometimes so filled with shame that they cannot bring themselves to confess their guilt, and so they cut themselves off from all hope of forgiveness. Bad confessions are more frequently owing to sins of impurity than to all other sins put together. So shameful are these sins, that the very shadow of them is sometimes enough to lead persons to make a series of bad confessions. They have perhaps only been tempted, and, in the sight of God, they are free from guilt; yet they are so frightened at the breath of sin, that they believe they have been guilty; yet, rather than explain their difficulty, they make a sacrilegious confession by wilfully omitting what they believe they are bound to declare. Bad as are all sins of impurity, they are made far worse when to their own deformity is added the guilt of sacrilege. Whenever, therefore, persons have reason to fear they have given way to any of these sins, unless they have been already assured their fears are groundless, they do well to make known their doubts to their confessor. If they are real sins, they ought to be confessed in order to be forgiven; if they are only temptations, one of the best preservatives against them is to declare them. The act of humiliation will bring upon the penitent the blessing of God,-will cover the tempter with shame, and enable the confessor to point out the suitable remedies. On the contrary, if these doubts be passed over in silence, there will often be danger of bad confessions, and at best the penitent will have little peace of mind from the constant fear and scruple that he has done wrong.

Notwithstanding the terrible punishments which have been inflicted on sins of impurity, and the shame which attends their guilt, these sins are very common, and very difficult to overcome when persons have once habituated

themselves to their commission. A habit of such sins, once contracted, too often accompanies a person to the grave. Segneri relates an instance which may be taken as an example of what sometimes happens, even among the better disposed. A certain person, he tells us, had frequently indulged in sinful thoughts, but still from time to time made his confession with sincere sorrow and repentance; yet he never continued for any length of time without relapsing into the same sins. When his last illness came, he made a good confession, and received the last Sacraments in pious dispositions; but as soon as the priest had left him, he was tempted to commit the sin to which he had been habituated during life. At first he rejected the thought immediately; it soon returned, and again he rejected it, but not till it had dwelt a few moments in his mind. It came a third time, and he took pleasure in it. He committed a grievous sin of thought, and died in his guilt. So terrible are the ravages of these sins, that spiritual writers tell us that the great majority of those who are lost owe their sufferings to this source.

CHAP. LXV. Remedies against Impurity.

THE one sovereign preservative against sins of impurity is to avoid with the greatest care whatever may be a subject of temptation. Some things may be a dangerous occasion to one person which are not to another; but whatever we have reason to believe, either from past experience or in any other way, is dangerous to us, we should shun as we should a venomous serpent. When we know, from the present state of our health or from the nature of our constitution, that we are liable to catch some deadly fever, we use every precaution we can, and do not consider whether others, who are differently constituted from ourselves, are bound to be at the same pains; so, if we have our spiritual welfare at heart, we shall not consider how others are bound to act, but we shall strive to keep at a distance from whatever is dangerous to ourselves. This is a warfare, says St. Philip Neri, in which cowards

are victorious, those, that is, who are most careful to keep at a distance from the enemy, and to shun the peril of an encounter. The senses are the avenues through which temptations enter the soul, and therefore we should exercise a strict guard over them, especially the eyes and the ears. "Gaze not upon a maiden," says Ecclesiasticus, "lest her beauty be a stumbling-block to thee. Look not round about thee in the ways of the city, nor wander up and down in the streets thereof. Turn away thy face from a woman dressed up, and gaze not about on another's beauty. For many have perished by the beauty of a woman, and hereby lust is enkindled as a fire" (Ecclus. ix. 5-9). Besides the danger pointed out in these words of inspired Scripture, it is necessary to guard the eyes from reading bad books, looking at immodest representations, whether they be plays, sculpture, or paintings, or gazing at any thing which may prove a subject of temptation. The ears likewise should be shut against dangerous discourses; and if it be necessary to avoid reading bad books, it is no less necessary to avoid listening when they are read by others. In a word, we must shun the company and conversation of all who are likely to be an occasion of sin to us.

But in spite of every precaution which we take, we cannot hope to be altogether free from temptation; and therefore, besides shunning the danger, we should learn how to resist, when, without any fault of ours, we are exposed to its attacks. If, then, we do not succeed in keeping the danger at a distance from us, we must manfully and courageously resist in the beginning, and banish the first suggestion as soon as we are able. These temptations may be compared to sparks of fire. If we cannot prevent the sparks falling on our clothes, we must dash them off immediately, otherwise we shall be in great danger of being burnt to death; so likewise, if we allow the sparks of temptation to dwell in the mind, we shall be burnt with the fire of concupiscence and sin, and this fire will be but the preparation for the unquenchable flames of another life. Whatever we find the most effectual and the most speedy way of banishing the evil suggestion,-no matter