▲ Prayer beg of God the grace of sincere Contrition.

I HAVE now, O my God! aided by thy grace, endeavoured to discover the number of my transgressions, and have examined, to the best of my power, the state of my conscience. But, alas! O Jidge of the living and the dead! how far different is my judgment from thine!-How many offences are still perhaps hidden from my view, though perfectly known to thee! But, my God! as I am persuaded it is not so much a knowledge of their number, as sorrow for their deformity, that thou requirest, I now earnestly implore of thee to give me that lively, sincere, efficacious contrition, which I know is a necessary condition of my pardon. My heart was formed by thee, thou alone canst change it; it is in thy hands, and though most ungrateful, most insensible, it is not too obdurate for thee to penetrate and soften. One drop of thy adorable blood, one of those precious tears which my offences drew from thy eyes, would suffice to produce in my soul the most lively contrition. Ah! look on me, Eternal Light! and my understanding will be enlightened to conceive the enormity of sin; touch my heart, and it will be broken with sorrow for having ever offended thee. Convert me, and I shall be converted; for my destruction, my misery, and my misfortune, is from myself, but my salvation must come from thee, () my most merciful Father! from thee, whom I have sc ungratefully abandoned, and so grievously offended.

Motives for exciting Contrition.

THOUGH Contrition must be produced in the heart by the special aid of God's grace, yet that does not dispense sinners from making, on their part, every effort to excite in their souls the most lively sorrow For this purpose, after begging of God the grace of contrition, you should next do what lies in your

power, by seriously and deliberately meditating on the following motives, which your Catechism recom mends, as most calculated for exciting sentiments of sincere contrition. Consider, first, the nature of sin itself, and endeavour to conceive, if possible, an adequate idea of its hateful deformity. This is a point on which Christians in general are not only blinded, but even infatuated. Those who would grieve over the death of a friend, give a mortal wound to their own souls without a feeling of sorrow. Thousands who would scorn to be subject to a fellow-creature, and detest a mean action, according to the world, enslave themselves willingly to the devil, and are guilty of the basest acts of treachery towards God, without an emotion of shame or regret.-Why? Because nothing is so rare as a just idea of sin, nothing so difficult as to find a person who considers an offence against God in its proper light; that is, who considers sin as the greatest misfortune, disgrace, and humiliation; the only real evil that can be endured. This is a truth so certain, that were all the scourges of heaven, sickness, hunger, thirst, famine, plague, humiliations, poverty-in a word, every species of torment the mind can conceive or the body endure, collected on one side, and a single mortal sin opposed on the other, the misfortune of committing that sin would as far exceed all the other calamities, as the heavens are elevated above the earth. O! if sinners were thoroughly persuaded of this truth, what tears of contrition would deluge the universe! what groans and sighs of repentance would be heard on all sides! But do you, who have enjoyed the blessings of early instruction, conceive better than others less favoured, the horrid act you committed when you sinned? You would think it madness to harbour a leper in your house, lest you should catch his disgusting disease; yet by yielding to one single temptation, you opened, not your house, but your heart, to a monster. whose loathsome and abominable deformi

ty would strike you with deadly horror, were it visible; a monster, who robbed you in an instant of the greatest treasure you possessed, your Creator's friendship;—who cruelly despoiled you of the lovely ornament of sanctifying grace, and of all the merit you may have acquired in the whole course of your life; who shamefully degraded you from the glorious dignity of a child of God, and covered your socl with so frightful a leprosy, as would strike you dead with horror, if you could but see the melancholy, hideous figure into which you were transformed. O sin! dreadful misfortune! only real evil! can the soul thou hast miserably degraded feel it difficult to detest, to renounce thee for ever!

Consider, in the second place, that by sin you have been mad enough to expose yourself to endure the intolerable and eternal pains of hell, and to dwell for ever in that infernal abyss, an object of anger and indignation to God-of scorn and insult to the devils-and of hatred and horror to yourself. Descend in spirit into that lake of fire and brimstone, which will eternally blaze, without ever being extinguished, and contemplate the wretched fate of those, whom the just vengeance of God cut off in the midst of their mad career. Behold them surrounded, penetrated, consumed with fire; trampled on by hideous demons, whose temptations they unfortunately listened to during life; cursing and detesting the day that gave them birth, and vainly calling on death to terminate those insufferable woes, which are never to have an end. Consider, that even the least of their torments is so aggravated by the importunate idea of Eternity, as to be rendered insupportably agonizing, and then ask yourself how it is possible, that those who believe in hell, should dare to sin; or how those who have sinned, and deserved hell, should be insensible to the greatness of their misfortune? O great God! whose justice is not exercised until thy mercy has been slighted, pierce my heart with thy fear, that I may

tremble at thy judgments. O! let the torrents of burning tears which the damned will for ever shed, teach me that sin alone is a just subject of tears and regret-let that sting of remorse, that worm of conscience, which gnaws them to the soul, and which will never die, teach me to listen now and during my whole life to the salutary admonitions and remorse of my conscience. Let their bitter, violent sorrow for the abuse of thy graces, urge me to profit of those yet within my reach, and teach me to detest, from the bottom of my heart, not only all my past sins, but even the shadow of sin in future, since I know that there is no fault, however small, which may not lead to a mortal offence, and thereby to hell; and that there are few among the damned who did not descend into the dreary, dismal dungeon of woes by the fatal neglect of slight faults.

Consider, thirdly, beside the awful risk you have run of being condemned to hell, you have also forfeited by sin your claim to the kingdom of heaven; that blessed city, whose walls, as the holy scripture describes them, are of precious stones, whose streets are of pure and transparent gold, watered with the river of Life flowing from the throne of God;—that city, whose dazzling splendour knows no night-from which pain, sickness, grief, privations, and every description of sufferings, however trivial, are eternally banished, and whose blessed inhabitants, crowned with wreaths of immortal glory, and shining far brighter than the sun, magnify and adore their munificent Benefactor, in one uninterrupted transport of love. For happiness like this you were created; you were placed on earth to merit heaven; you were born and instructed in the true faith; thus, placed in the road to heaven, the sacred character of baptism gave you an undoubted claim to that blessed abode. Your desires were generally left unsatisfied, that disappointment may fɔrce you to sigh after heaven; and your pleasures and pursuits often embittered, that you may

treasures.

earn to undervalue temporal delights, and labour to merit those of heaven. But what have you done, by committing one mortal sin? You, in a manner, renounced an eternity of bliss-you blotted out your own name from the book of life-you excluded your self from the seat of eternal delights-you closed the gates of heaven against your own soul. For contemptible pleasures, momentary enjoyments, which were never free from bitterness, you sacrificed, you willingly relinquished immortal blessings, everlasting If Esau was overwhelmed with anguish for having relinquished his birthright; if he roared out, as the scripture says, with great anguish, what should be your sorrow, for having forfeited a place in the kingdom of your Father-for having abandoned the society of the saints, those friends of God, who once had the same temptations you have to endure, but who were faithful to the end, and thereby received the crown of life.-Endeavour to detest your criminal indifference to your own eternal interests, and fervently thank God, for having still left abundant means within your reach, of regaining your birthright, and opening once more, hy sincere contrition, those gates to bliss which your sins had closed.

The fourth motive for contrition is, the thought of having offended a God infinitely good to us. This motive should be particularly dwelt on, because the sorrow produced by gratitude is certainly much more perfect than that which springs from fear, or the privation of any benefit. Beside, this motive seldom fails to excite feelings of sincere sorrow. The double recollection of innumerable benefits received from God, and innumerable offences committed against God, is so just a motive of regret, that no heart which is not completely hardened could be insensible to it. Endeavour, then, to recall to your remembrance the principal benefits you have received from that God, who, amongst other marks of his tenderness, thought of you even before you existed; who caused you to