in sin for many years. If God in His anger had destroyed her at the beginning, a saint would have been lost to the Church.

2. Complete reward and complete punishment will come only in the next world.

The most wicked sinner has something good in him, which God rewards in this life, since He can not reward it in the next. The best man has his faults, which God punishes in this world in order not to be compelled to punish them hereafter. Thus the justice of God is the same to all men. Of this thought, dear Christian, avail yourself and be so encouraged by it that you may never be found cold and indifferent in the service of God, ever remembering that, come weal or woe, you are always in the hand of God. Misfortune did not condemn Job, neither will good fortune justify you. With St. Augustine pray, "Here, O Lord, cut, here burn; only spare me in eternity."

God is Infinitely Good.

God is the source not only of all power, wisdom, knowledge and holiness, but also of all love. "God is charity," as the holy apostle, John, says. This love is plainly manifested by His benevolence toward all

creatures.

"Thou lovest all things that are, and hatest none of the things which Thou hast made" (Wisdom xi. 25).

He bestows upon us, and indeed upon all creatures, untold benefits. This love or charity we call goodness. This goodness of God has given us life and an immortal soul; it maintains and supports us, and provides us each day with whatever we need. And how manifold are the gifts of God! He might have given

to us the merest necessaries of life, for man can live easily on water, bread, milk, and meat. But He gave us an abundance of gifts, which nourish us, strengthen us, and enliven us; which not only sustain life, but make it pleasant and even luxurious. We are compelled in our astonishment to ask, "Whence comes this unlimited love of Our God?" Then to temporal benefits He adds eternal blessings. When, in the ingratitude of his heart, man abandoned God and committed sins upon sins He did not spare His only Son. That was, as St. John says, the greatest proof of His love. "By this hath the charity of God appeared towards us, because God hath sent His only-begotten Son into the world that we may live by Him" (1 John iv. 9). After all this God can not withhold anything from us. After having given us the greater will He keep from us what is infinitely less? What could He deny to us after having sacrificed for our salvation the life of His well-beloved Son? Where is the heart that is not deeply touched at the sight of such love? The very heathens have wept on hearing from their missionaries an account of what God has done out of His love for men. Should Christians, because they hear the story often, be less grateful than the heathens? Let us then love this good God, giving Him our hearts with all our love. The Lord has said, "I am come to cast fire on the earth, and what will I but that it be kindled?" (Luke xii. 49). We, too, should desire to see this fire kindled and burning brightly, for what is it but the fire of love that ought to ascend to God from the altar of our heart?

God is Merciful and Patient.

The love of God is manifested not merely in His goodness, but also in His mercy and patience toward

sinners. God is merciful. He willingly pardons all repentant sinners. He is patient, for He waits long before chastising the sinner, in order to give him time to do penance. No sooner had Adam and Eve sinned than He showed His mercy. He punished them, it is true, but He would not abandon them to the hopeless and endless misery in which they would have been plunged if deprived totally of His grace. He did not wish to leave them a prey to the devil, nor to close against them the gates of heaven for which He had originally intended them. Hence, He promised them a Redeemer, the thought and expectation of whom, and the hope in whose coming, consoled our first parents in the grief for their lost happiness and led them on to sorrow and penance. And as He dealt with Adam and Eve so did He deal with all sinners who, after their sinning, came to Him with humble and contrite hearts. He washed away even the remembrance

of their transgressions.

But in order that God may be merciful the sinner must be converted truly and really, and not merely apparently. Words are not sufficient, deeds are necessary; not useless tears, but avoidance of evil and doing of good are required. The sinner's conversion must be like that of the Ninivites. Among the innumerable examples of God's mercy contained in the Sacred Scriptures there is none more striking than this case of the Ninivites whom God, through His prophet, Jonas, threatened with destruction. "And the men of Ninive believed in God: and they proclaimed a fast and put on sackcloth from the greatest to the least" and the king caused it to be proclaimed that men and cattle should fast and that the people should cry to the Lord with all their strength. Nor did he proclaim to his subjects a mere outward fast, as of the body; he said

"let them turn, every one of them, from their evil ways and from the iniquity that is in their hands." The Ninivites did this, "And God saw their works, that they were turned from their evil way: and God had mercy with regard to the evil which He had said that He would do them, and He did it not" (Jonas iii). If the sinner's conversion be only as thorough as was that of the Ninivites he need not doubt of obtaining God's mercy. God Himself promised it solemnly when He said through another of His prophets, Ezechiel, "As I live . . . I desire not the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live " (Ezechiel xxxiii. 11). What God thus solemnly promised, His Son, Our Saviour, who Himself came to redeem sinners, has taught us in the beautiful parable of the prodigal son. Can a father's heart know any pain more acute than that caused by the son who leaves his home and squanders his substance? Yet the father receives him back with joy and even prepares a banquet to celebrate the return. But first the son must make the advance, throw himself at his father's feet, remain at home and by humility and obedience repair the wrong he has done. The same truth is taught by Jesus in the parables of the lost goat and the stray sheep. There can be no more tender figure than that of the anxious shepherd seeking the lost sheep, extricating it from the thorns and thistles, placing it upon his shoulders and carrying it home. This good shepherd is Our Saviour, whom the eternal Father has sent in search of sinners. Let us listen, then, to His gentle voice as He speaks to our hearts, "Behold, I stand at the gate, and knock" (Apocalypse iii. 20). Is not that mercy for sinners?

And how long Our Saviour continues to knock before He is tired! He does not at once hurl His thunder

bolts on the godless. He waits, as in the days of Noe, to see whether men will become better. "Thou hast mercy upon all, and winkest at the sins of men for the sake of repentance (Wisdom xi. 24). Like the gardener with the unfruitful tree, God gives the sinner a chance. For three years the lord came seeking fruit on the fig-tree and found none. Then he let it be another year, until it was digged about and manured. It is thus God deals with sinners. When He sees the sinner persisting in his wickedness He not only gives him more time for repentance, but He redoubles the proofs of His love, that the man, touched by the mercy of his Maker, may enter into his own heart. He sends him instructors and confessors. He seeks to bring him by crosses and afflictions. He bestows upon him grace after grace before He withdraws

His hand from him and leaves him to his fate. While all this is very consoling, it is, on the other hand, dreadful when the sinner rejects the mercy of God. For, although God is merciful, He is also just. The vessel of divine grace, although capacious, is not inexhaustible. When it is emptied then is the vessel of divine wrath filled. Let us fear this last misfortune, and daily pray that God's excess of mercy may not make our guilt greater.

God is True and Faithful.

As God is infinite charity so also is He infinite truth, and as such He is the source of our faith. God is truthful, that is to say, He can neither deceive nor be deceived. It is man's peculiar trait to err; to err is human. A man with the best intentions is liable to err, for his knowledge is uncertain and defective. Thus it was that the ancient philosophers erred. Al