Day 28

By ‘fasting* must here be understood all other austerities that are used to mortify the body. They must be carefully hidden. ‘Be not, like the hypocrites, sad.* ‘Anoint thy head and wash thy face.’ That is, we are to show meekness and joy to everyone ; we are not to be like people who bear austerities impatiently, and who seem, by treating all those they come across harshly and irritably, as if they laid the blame of their sufferings on them. Austerity to ourselves ought to make us gentler and more docile : — to correct, and not to increase, bad temper. This is the meaning of ‘anointing the head and washing the face * : they are acts typical of meekness and joy.

Ewent^nintb Da^ The treasure in heaven : The single eye : The im - possibility of serving two masters . — Matt. vi. 19, 20, 24.

RE our Lord tears up avarice by the roots and prevents our ever fearing poverty. To c have our treasure in heaven ’ is to place all our hopes and affections there ; and, again, to send our riches to be stored up there by the hands of the poor and needy.

‘Where thy treasure is, there is thy heart also.* This is a grand saying. Consider well what your thoughts are full of, for wherever they naturally turn is the real place of your treasure, and the home of your heart. If your thoughts are filled with God, then are you happy. If with anything merely mortal, which c the rust and the moth 9 constantly consume, and corruption lays hold of, then will your treasure escape you, and your heart remain empty and destitute.

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