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they have respectively to look for. This matter, altogether, filled up the first year. In the second year came the last things of men, the bliss which the pious man enjoys even in this life, the three theological virtues, the moral virtues, the hatefulness of sins, and of the triple concupiscence, and the seven capital sins. During the holy time of Lent, were introduced meditations on the passions of Christ. What Overberg delivered on these subjects had been the matter of his own meditations ever since he had been a priest; it had therefore become his own; it was the property not only of his intellect, but of his heart, from whence it was that his delivery was full of light and warmth.

Several seminarists used to write out what he had delivered immediately after, from memory. Later, when Overberg was no longer able to go into the chapel of the house, and therefore read the night prayers in the normal school, they wrote while he was speaking. By way of an example, one of these meditations, written out from memory, may be given here, just as it comes to hand.

"It remains now for us to consider, the means of banishing from ourselves this evil vice of sloth, or of guarding ourselves against it, if hitherto we have continued free from it. Now there are many effectual means for this end; it remains, therefore, that each one should choose for himself, that which he finds, in his own case, the most effectual. A lively representation to ourselves of death, and of the uncertainty of the time of it, often produces a good effect. We may die suddenly. This we ought to impress upon ourselves by examples drawn from our own experience. This man-or that one-was, in the morning, yet in good health, and in the evening dead; so it may also happen to me. It is most completely possible, that I should not reach this evening, or not live till tomorrow morning. Very likely the Lord will call thee away to-day, very likely in the next night; very likely the festival for which thou art now preparing, is the last festival which thou wilt witness. How goes it with thee? Art thou in a state

to come to a reckoning? or art thou wanting in this point or in that? Have you done this thing or that wrong? If we discover anything which is not right, we must quickly correct it; for we pass beyond death into the long eternity. Oh, how does this eternity appear! What wailing, what endless anguish, which will never cease, from which there is no redemption! We read in the holy Scripture itself, how the slothful servant was punished: bind him hand and foot, and cast him into the exterior darkness, where there is howling and gnashing of teeth.' This servant was no thief, no spendthrift, no defrauder,

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he was only slothful: and yet was condemned to eternal intolerable torment. Oh! if I were that slothful servant! if I were called away and heard that severe sentence, and had to endure eternal unspeakable sufferings for my sloth! On the contrary, what joy awaits us, if we fulfil our duties. Joy, such as it is entirely out of our power to conceive, which moreover never ends, but endures eternally. Should not we be able to give ourselves trouble for a few hours for the sake of a joy which is so great, both in its duration and its intensity? We should do it, undoubtedly, if it lasted only a thousand years; how much more as it is without end. Since Christ then says to us on this subject, the kingdom of heaven suffereth violence,' ought we not to inflict on ourselves this little short violence, for that eternal joy? We have to do ourselves violence, whenever the fulfilment of our duty costs us some trouble, and when some allurement would draw us away from it.

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"The remembrance of the presence of God will also be found a most efficacious means of putting away sloth. If you reflect, God is here at thy side, he sees perfectly how thou art going about this or that useless work, how thou art losing thy time, how thou art following thy pleasures, when thou shouldest be at work! We may also, with great advantage, put before our eyes the example of our leader and master, our chief shepherd, Jesus Christ, seeing how he laboured every moment, the whole day through, in heat and in cold, to fulfil the will of his heavenly Father, and was pleased to add the night to the day, if he could be of service to his neighbour. It may be, moreover, a means of extraordinary power to overcome sloth, for us Priests, that we should reflect on the great damage that will fall on our neighbours by reason of it. And wherein does this damage consist? If only one soul, lost by our sloth, goes to destruction; then must that soul, so long as God is God, bear the most severe intolerable woe. Let us reflect on the soul in this woe; on its anguish, its regrets, its despair; its curses and imprecations, which it sends forth against us, who were once able, and were bound by duty, to save it! And a priest may be very likely to fall into sloth. To make a short sermon once a fortnight, there is no labour in this. If he does not continually strive to stir up his flock to good in every way, then he is slothful, and not one soul but many may thereby be lost, and then woe to him! God says by the prophet Ezekiel, that he will require at the hands of the priest, the souls which are lost by his fault. Let us reflect on the other hand, if we, by more than ordinary zeal with the help of God's grace, may have brought only one

soul to eternal happiness, what joy will that soul have, unspeakable joy, without measure or end! What jubilation, what gratitude to me, its saviour! And if we labour with entire zeal, and take proper thought, to bring those committed to us to salvation, we have the hope, that not one but many souls will be brought to heaven by the grace of God, through our co-operation.

"From among these means each one has to seek out that, which, in his case, will be the most effectual, and to use it. For the others are not necessary for him. But for the end before us, he must particularly exercise himself in the three theological virtues. This, by itself, will remind us of the last things of men, will place us in the presence of God, will keep before our eyes the example of Christ, and stir us up to zeal for souls. A clock must be wound up from time to time. That is to say, if we, for a considerable time, have not reflected on such things, then the clock of the soul goes down, the man relaxes. Wherefore, every morning, we must renew the determination, that this day we will right zealously keep ourselves at work, and avoid all sloth. The foundation for this determination must be laid in deep earnest reflection, then all will go on well."

His discourse was always quite simple and unstudied, as in the above meditation; his descriptions of religious truths, were perspicuous, following the literal sense of the holy Scripture, without refinements, without learned reasonings.

The importance and the sacredness of everything which is connected with the service of God in the New Testament, he made plain by comparisons with the institutions and histories of the Old Testament. In the Old Testament, holy things were all removed from the traffic of common life, by ceremonial rules, and protected from profanation by severe penal laws. Every profanation was atoned for by fire and blood. Overberg was convinced that these rules and laws were placed before the eyes of Christians, as symbols to keep them on their guard, and to frighten them from the profanation of what they understand only by faith; that the entire history of the conduct of God with the Jewish people, is a type for the Christian Church, and should serve as a caution to each individual. He demonstrated the high dignity of a priest in the Christian Church, by the dignity of the priests in the Old Testament. If, for example, he spoke of the virtue of chastity in reference to a priest, and of what punishment a priest deserved, who transgresses in this point, he used to say: "In the law of Moses, God ordained, that if a virgin went wrong, her seducer must give her a

dowry and take her to wife; but when the daughter of a priest sinned, she was to be burned alive. Why this great difference? The law itself gives the reason: 'Because she hath dishonoured her father's name.' The daughter of a priest! What then if the priest himself was guilty of the like crime? What if a priest of the New Testament should commit it, whereas he is as far elevated above a priest of the Old Testament, as the substance is above the shadow, as God himself is above his creatures!"

In this way, Overberg turned the old Testament to advantage. As well from the history of it, as from the ordinances of the law, he drew a rich collection of images to illustrate the supernatural truths of the Christian religion.

When he had said night prayers with the seminarists, and had given them the matter for their meditation, he often went again into the church, the chancel of which communicated with the corridor, into which his chamber opened. There he prayed all alone, often till eleven o'clock, and then he laid himself down to rest.

He gave the rising seminarists a written instruction on the true method of making meditation, which, in substance, was borrowed from the "Philothea" of St. Francis of Sales. At the end of each month, instead of the ordinary meditation, an examination of the state of the conscience was instituted, and of the progress of each in virtue. On this matter also, Overberg gave a direction on the previous evening. "As we can see," he said, "at the end of a month, whether the corn is grown in the field, so also at the end of a month it may be more clearly seen, whether we have advanced in virtue, or gone back."

On the eve of this monthly reckoning, the statutes of the seminary also were read out, that they might be kept in remembrance. The duty of punctually obeying them was inculcated, the utility and the necessity of some of them were explained, often by means of little anecdotes, which Overberg knew how to relate in a very attractive way. For instance, it was ordered in the statutes: In the seminary, due silence must always be observed, and all noise must be avoided. "One day," added Overberg, "lately, after dinner about noon, Mr. Professor K. was with me, and as I was accompanying him down stairs we heard a great noise of very loud shouting and laughing. The seminarists were coming in from the garden, but we could not see them. Mr. K. asked me,' Have you soldiers quartered here?' I was right glad that I was able to say yes,-for in fact, we had some."

After Overberg had read out the statutes, he always added the following exhortation :

"Let every one, out of love to God and to his own salvation, exercise himself zealously in the recollection of the presence of God, which is the most useful of all exercises."

With what persevering care, he himself practised this exercise, appears from his journal, in which he calls himself to a particular account on this matter, almost every evening. His constant walking in the presence of God produced in him that holy tranquillity, that evenness, and unvarying consistency of deportment, joined with the greatest cheerfulness and kindness, which was always remarked in him, and which spread over his whole character that incomparable dignity, by which, notwithstanding the most entire simplicity, and the most profound humility, he kept a command over the minds of men. A seminarist asked him, whether he reckoned it possible to keep oneself always in the presence of God, "The wise Jesuits," he answered, "have taught that we ought indeed at every moment to have an inclination towards God, the love of God ought to be in us habitual, but we ought never to make efforts to have always A CONSCIOUSNESS OF THIS LOVE, to feel and be sensible of it at every moment; since in that way, we should be mistaking the means for the end, and should be engaging our attention about an useless object."

The following circumstance, from the latter years of the life of Overberg, may here be related, as a proof of his unreserved sincere resignation. A priest, who had spent many years in the seminary, under his direction, but who had no other connection with him, visited him, and the conversation having turned upon the utility of the seminary, told him that he himself and many other seminarists never left the chapel, in an evening, without being moved by his discourse, and without being penetrated with a firm resolution to put into execution accurately all that he had recommended. The old man rejoiced so greatly at this communication, that his joy manifested itself through his entire frame. "Oh! what a service," said he, "do you render me in telling me this, how thankful I am to you for it! Since it comes often into my mind, to say to myself: Thou exhortest, thou warnest, thou prayest, and it all does no good. Leave off doing it. Oh, this dejection is an extremely dangerous temptation !-I shall now be better able to overcome it."

After the conversation had gone on for nearly an hour more, on other

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