God has given him; he is not fearful of impoverishing himself by his bounty to the poor; he is ever ready to become poor himself, if such be the will of Heaven. He loves the poor, and he also loves poverty; he deprives himself of every gratification; he puts up with the discomforts which happen to him, fixing his heart, his thoughts, his desires on God alone. Verily, verily, I say to you, this rich man is truly poor, and will partake of the blessings which are promised to the poor.

"Heaven is for him, as for the poor man who, in spite of his destitution and indigence, is content with his lot and never utters a complaint. Heaven is for him, as for the poor man who despises riches and attaches himself only to the abiding and imperishable goods of Eternity, who pities the rich because of the perils to which they are exposed, and who, so far from regarding them with envy, on the contrary prays for them, that God may grant them the grace to save their souls. Heaven is for him, as for the poor man who loves his poverty, and deprives himself even of what he has that he may give it to those who are still poorer

than himself.

"Heaven is for that rich man as for that poor man ; for their sentiments are the same; they are both detached from the riches, the pleasures, the satisfactions of earth. They both practise poverty with cheerfulness of heart, the one from necessity, the other voluntarily. They assist the poor, each according to his ability. They have one only good, one only treasure, one only thought, God. O happy, a thousand times happy, these two poor men: theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven.

"O ye rich, enter into the views of Providence.

RICHES GIVEN TO HELP THE POOR.

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When God gave you the goods you possess, it was not that you might take your pleasure and indulge your comfort and your ease; He delivered them to you that you might be His stewards and the agents of His care for those who have them not. When you are yourself living in abundance, could you be so hard-hearted as to refuse assistance to the unfortunates who knock at your door, sometimes in most pressing need, destitute of everything or wasted with hunger? What excuse would you allege? your household expenses, the education and settlement of your children, and a thousand other reasons? True, your household expenses are considerable; but could you not curtail a large portion of what you now spend on your festivities, your assemblies, your evening parties, your dress, and your attendants? Curtail these useless expenses, and pour your superfluities into the hands of the poor; you will detract nothing from the splendour of your rank; far from it you will invest it with a splendour which will not only strike the eyes of men but will penetrate the heavens. Deprive yourselves of all these useless daily satisfactions, and you will have enough therewith to relieve the poor, and the poor will pray for you. You will still be able to bring up your children, to give them a sounder and a more solid education, by teaching them to walk in your footsteps, in simplicity, in love for the poor, and in the practice of all virtues. God will bless you, and will bless your children; He will assist you in the establishment of your family, and you will see it increase and multiply, bearing with it the happy results of the Divine benedictions.

"Learn that God gave you your riches only that you might relieve the poor. He commands you to stretch out your hand to them, He commands you to

come to their aid. This is to you an obligation of justice. In doing this you will merit no reward; if God is pleased to reward you, it is only because He has engaged to do so.

"Such, then, are the duties of a Christian: he must not be attached to riches, he must not desire them. If he is rich, he must assist the poor; if he is poor, he must not covet the goods of the rich, but hope in the mercy and providence of Him who feeds the birds of the field. God has disposed all things well by His wisdom. He will call the rich man to account for the administration of his goods; He will call the poor man to account for his submission.

"Forget not, My daughter, that riches are the occasion of ruin to great numbers. Happy the man who does not yield to the temptation of desiring riches! Happy he who is not attached to them when he possesses them! Happy he who does not desire, or seek, or crave, or covet any other goods than those of Eternity!"

4. Of death; natural, spiritual, and eternal; advan

tage of the thought of death in temptations, adversities, and the troubles of life, in joy and prosperity, in the state of sin, of justice, and of perfection. Death, so terrible to the sinner, is full of sweetness to the just. Of the desire of death.

I had assisted one day at the burial of a woman. While I was praying for her, and begging God to have mercy on her, I heard the Saviour Jesus speaking thus

to me :

My daughter, there are three kinds of death: natural death, spiritual death, and eternal death.

SPIRITUAL DEATH.

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Natural death is the separation of the soul and the body; spiritual death is the separation of the soul and of grace by sin; eternal death is the separation of the soul and of God by the eternal punishment of sin.

"Natural death, My daughter, is the separation of the soul and the body; this death is the first punishment pronounced against sin. Sin was the cause of death. Man was not destined to die, but because he rebelled against God he was condemned to death.

"All men are condemned to natural death because they have all sinned in Adam. Great and small, learned and ignorant, rich and poor, monarchs and their subjects, all are marked with the sign of death, and not one escapes it. Each disappears in his turn, and every day is a step nearer death.

"All men are condemned to natural death; the decree is gone forth against all; but no one knows, except by a special revelation, either the day, or the hour, or the manner, or the place of his death. Death comes like a thief; it surprises a man when he least expects it, most frequently at a time when he is promising himself still a long life. Death comes and destroys all the pleasures of life, the riches of life, the honours of life, the strength and vigour of life; it leaves nothing of man but a corpse, nothing but vile food for the worms of the grave.

"Spiritual death is the separation of the soul and of the grace of God. Your soul, My daughter, is immortal; it has no need, like your body, of being vivified by a principle superior to itself; it does not create itself, it comes from God; but God creates the soul full of life, and the life which God gives to the soul is an immortal life. This life of the soul, however, is not its true life; there is a life superior to this life, and

life more exalted, more precious, which is communicated to it, and which becomes its own life, which the soul may possess and may lose when once it has received it. This life is given to it by sanctifying grace, of which I have already spoken to you.

"Sanctifying grace is the spiritual and supernatural life of the soul. It is given to the soul by baptism and by the sacraments; it is taken from it by mortal sin. Every soul which is in the state of mortal sin has lost the life of grace. There is a radical incompatibility between the life of grace and mortal sin. Thus, every soul which is in the state of mortal sin is dead to the life of grace, although it preserves its natural life, which was given it at the moment of its creation. This death is terrible and supremely deplorable, because it may fix the soul in eternal death.

"Eternal death, My daughter, is the eternal separation of the soul from God by the punishment which God inflicts on souls in the state of sin.

"When a soul is separated from the body which it vivifies, and appears before God, its lot is determined immediately and for all eternity. If it is united to God by sanctifying grace, it will be eternally happy and enjoy for all eternity the vision of God; if it is separated from God, not by mortal sin, but by the punishment due to that sin which it has not expiated, or by venial sin, this separation will be only temporary; it is united to God by sanctifying grace, and, after making it expiate what it owes to the Divine justice, He will call it into His everlasting tabernacles. But if this soul, on the contrary, is separated from God by mortal sin, and is found in that state at the moment at which He demands an account of its life during time, it will incur eternal damnation. The life of