Chapter 7. The Seven Gifts of the Holy Ghost

There shall come forth a rod out of the root of Jesse, and a flowei shall rise up out of his root. And the Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him; the spirit of wisdom and of understanding, the spirit of counsel and of fortitude, the spirit of knowledge and of godliness: and he shall be filled with the spirit of the fear of the Lord. ISAIAS xi. 1-3.

These words are a prophecy of the coming of Jesus Christ. He is the " rod out of the root of Jesse," and the " flower " that has risen up " out of his root; " that is to say, He is the strength and the beauty of God. Upon the person of Jesus Christ, the Holy Ghost, in all the fullness of His grace and of His seven gifts, rested from the first moment of the Incarnation.

The mystery of the Incarnation was, in an especial manner, the work of the Holy Ghost. " He was conceived of the Holy Ghost, born of the Yirgin Mary." And the deified soul of Jesus Christ was sanctified by the Holy Ghost according to the same laws and in the same manner in which we are sanctified. There was, indeed, between Him and us this difference: that, being God Incarnate, His humanity had, as the Church teaches, a double anointing or unction of the Holy Grhost, First, His manhood was anointed by the uncre-

134: THE SEVEN GIFTS OF THE HOi.Y GHOST ated sanctity of the Eternal Son Who assumed our humanity. And, secondly, it was anointed by the special indwelling of the Holy Ghost. The first anointing is exclusively His own, because He is God. The second anointing is the same that we receive, only differing in this: that the Holy Ghost rests upon every one of us as sinners and sanctifies us only in measure: but the deified soul of Jesus was sanctified with an immensity of grace.

In this prophecy it is said that the seven gifts of the Holy Ghost rested upon the Son of David, that is, the Son of God Incarnate. The soul of Jesus Christ was, in fact, the predestined and perfect original of the soul of man. In His deified soul there was exactly, and with one only exception, the same indwelling grace of which I have hitherto spoken as the work of the Holy Ghost in the soul of every one of us. There was the presence of the Holy Ghost; there was the sanctifying grace of the Holy Ghost; there was not faith, indeed, because He was always in the beatific vision; but there was hope, because the work of the Incarnation and of the Kedemption of the world, until accomplished, was still a matter of the future; and there was charity in the amplest perfection. There were also the seven gifts of the Holy Ghost even as they are in ourselves; and there they will be to all eternity. Therefore, first of all, the Holy Ghost rested in all His plenitude upon the Head of the Church, that is Jesus Christ, and from the Head flowed down into the whole body. But the Church has both body and soul. The visible organization which we call the Church — with its head and its members, its whole symmetry and structure, upon earth

— is, after the analcg y of the body of man. declaied by the Holy Ghost to be the Body of Christ.* Saint Paul, in the fourth chapter of the Epistle to the Ephesians, draws out this divine fact. But beside this visible body there is the invisible soul of the Church, which is the presence of the Holy Ghost infusing the virtues of faith, hope, and charity, sanctifying grace, the seven gifts, and the charity of God poured into the heart of the Church, whereby its unity is perpetually maintained. But the subject of which I have to speak to-day is neither tr.e seven gifts in the Head of the Church, nor the seveii gifts in the Body of the Church, but the seven gift* in every member of the Church, one by one. These seven gifts dwell in every one of you. As they dwelt in the soul of our Divine Lord, to Whom we shall be conformed, precisely in that manner they dwell in every one of us. They are inseparably united to sanctifying grace and charity; so that they who, through mortal sin, fall from sanctifying grace and charity no longer possess them.

1. What, then, is the nature of these seven gifts? I can only describe them in this way: the sanctifying grace of the Holy Ghost means that indwelling of the presence and power of the Holy Ghost whereby we are made holy. The seven gifts are seven habits or dispositions, as I have said before, implanted in the soul, permanently abiding in it and giving activity to the will, enabling it to elicit or to call forth certain spiritual acts.f The effect, then, of these seven gifts ib to » Ephes. iv. 16.

"f Donum Spiritus Sancti aliud prorsus mm eat, nisi habitualif »c Bupernaturalis perfectio mentis creatas a divina bonitata immeelicit the operations of grace. The word " elicit " meana to draw or strike out. When we strike a spark out of a Unit we elicit fire. The fire lies in the flint; it ia always there, it is inseparable from it. The spark which passes from the flint does not exhaust the fire that lies in it; it doe? not even lessen it. So the acts of grace called forth by the seven gifts do not exhaust, but multiply and increase, our sanctifi cation. Therefore they are inseparably united with sanctifying grace, and it is augmented by their activity. For instance, as the gift of science elicits the acts of faith, the virtue of faith is strengthened; as the gift of fortitude elicits the acts of hope, the virtue of hope is matured; as the gift of piety elicits the acts of charity, the virtue of charity is kindled and expanded. Charity is a virtue that springs from the love of God poured out into our hearts together with sanctifying grace; faith, hope, and charity are virtues or faculties implanted in the soul by the sanctifying operation of God, and they unite the soul with God.

The seven gifts, then, are seven powers or seven springs of action, whereby faith, hope, and charity are called into activity, and are also directed in their action. As I have said, the fire is always in the flint, but it does not appear until by a stroke we elicit it; in like manner, the sanctifying grace of the Holy Ghost is always in the soul that grows up united with God, but it is aot always in activity unless it is brouglit in*o activity diate per creationem infusa in adjutorium expeditionemquc virtu-turn concessa: per quam redditur mens creata a supernatural! rectore seu Spiritu Saucto lacUiter mobilis r Dionya Carthusian D< Donii Spiritus Sancti. tract, i. art. 16.

or elicited by thes * seven gifts. In this, grace is in strict analogy with nature. "We possess three powers in our soul — the power of reason, the power of love, and the power of will. I do not stop now to inquire how the w.ll contains in itself both the power of love and the power of action. We are obliged to distinguish them for clearness. You well know that in the teaching and the training of your children you are obliged to elicit from their reason acts of attention; you are obliged to elicit from their will acts of perseverance and the patient desire to learn; you are obliged to elicit from their hearts habits which lead to the training and formation of their character. Therefore your will — that is, a superior will — is always acting upon the reason, heart, and will of your children, in order to teach, to train, and to elevate them into a mind and character higher than their own. In this same way, faith, hope, and charity perfect the reason, and the heart, and the will; they are the three supernatural virtues of grace which perfect the three natural powers of the soul. So also the seven gifts of the Holy Ghost elicit both from the three virtues of faith, hope, and charity, and from the three natural powers of reason, heart, and will, the acts which unite the soul more intimately with God, arid therefore make it perfect. In this, then, we see what is the nature of these gifts. They are powers giving facility whereby the soul i§ called into activity according to its natural and its supernatural perfections. And they are gifts of the Holy Ghost, because it is He Who, by His presence in us, acts upon us. Just as a harp is mute until the hand of a skillful player elicits the harmony which lies in its strings, so the soul of man, though containing thti whole power of harmony with the will of God, does not manifest it of its own strength without the assistance of u the Finger of God," which is the Holy Ghost, touching its faculties, powers, and affections, both natural and supernatural. So far the analogy is true; but in one point it fails. The strings have no active power of their own. They can originate neither sound nor motion. But the soul of man is a principle of action, and the will has an originating power to initiate its natural action. But the perfection of the soul consists of two things — the action of the Holy Spirit of God upon it, and a voluntary, and perfect, and prompt conformity and response of the will to that operation of grace. And further: just as 'you cultivate the intelligence, and the heart, and the will of a child by constant and watchful education, so the seven gifts cultivate the soul. First of all, they cultivate the eye of the soul. We have by nature the power of sight, but we have not all the power of design, and form, and perspective. The eye of some (from what cause I do not know) is incapable of those wonderful exercises of skill in painting and in sculpture which distinguish one man from another. The germs of these gifts appear in children almost before they can speak plain. Some men have a subtile and vigilant power of sight in observing the phenomena of the natural world, of which others seem to be entirely destitute. Or, again, 1 might give other examples to show that the power of sight is capable of cultivation, and that by training the eye you may bring it to a precision and delicacy of perception which seems almost like a new and higher gift. So it ib with the soul. When the gifts of the Holy Ghc st — that is to say, the light and action of the Holy Ghost — work upon the spiritual sight of faith, men gain a knowledge of the truth, an interior penetrating knowledge of revelation, which may be proved by a common example. The Holy Scripture is in the hands of everybody; and yet somo men may read it from their childhood to the end of their life, and never understand it; sometimes a mere child will understand it at once. What makes the difference? The man, trusting to his own natural light and without spiritual discernment, reads the letter; the child, being in grace, having the love of God and the light of the Holy Spirit in hia hi $art, looks through the letter and beneath the letter, and reads the meaning. So, again, the eye of the soul acquires a discernment whereby some can instantly read the characters of others. They can tell the temptations of other men; they can read even their thoughts, and that by an insight which does not come from nature. It comes from the Holy Spirit. Once more, the eye of the soul acquires the power of seeing things afar off— that is, of foreseeing events, changes, contingencies and the conjunctures of all these circumstances; so that men seem almost to prophesy. They can foretell, for instance, that such a man is going forward to his rain, when nobody as yet could see the first inclination to a fall. A keen spiritual discernment in them has found out that there was a Haw somewhere. Now all these perceptions and discernments are the operations of the Holy Spirit working upon the soul in the form of knowledge, counsel, wisdom, understanding, which are the four gifts that perfect the intellect.

14-0 THE SEVEN GIFTS OF THE HOLY OHOST.

2. But, next, all men have an ear, and yet we know that many can never learn to play on a musical instrument, nor to form a note. ISTo practice nor toil can ever make them sing in time. Others, again, seem to be made of music. They can sing before they can talk; and with a rapidity which seem¹ to be not so much an acquisition as a gift, they cultivate the ear to perfection. Now what did our Divine Lord mean when he said, "He that hath ears to hear, let him hear,"* but the plain truth that they in whose hearts the Holy Ghost reigns hear the word of God and understand; while others who are without the Holy Ghost hear the sound of the words and do not answer because they do not understand? And when Saint Paul says, "Faith cometh by hearing,''! he means the same thing — that the Gospel was preached equally to those who believed and to those who did not believe. What made the difference? The difference was, because in those whose hearts were faithful to the call of the Holy Spirit, the truth they heard generated faith; but in those who had not the Spirit of God, or who, through pride, or presumption, or obstinacy, or prejudice, set themselves against what they heard, the truth elicited no faith. They did not understand it, because they knew not the voice of God. " He that is of God heareth the words of God; therefore you hear them not, because you are not of God.vJ What our Lord meant us to learn is simply this: that the spiritual ear, which the Holy Ghost makes keen and quick to listen, is not cultivated in those who, when they hear the truth, do not believe it. " My sheep hear My voice,

• fl. Matt, xi 15, etc. f Rom x. 17. $ S. John viii. 47.

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CHE SEVHX nrris OF THE HOLY OHOST. 141

&j?y and I know them, and they f >llow Me, for they know

My voice; but a stranger they follow not."*

And then, once more, the soul has a taste, just as the body. Therefore the Psalmist says, " Taste and see that the Lord is sweet."f~ Now, there can be no doubt that the name of God and the word of God are not sweet to the great multitude of men; and why? Not because the Holy Ghost is not in them, but because these gifts of the Holy Ghost, as I will show hereafter, are suppressed and suffocated. The Psalmist says again, " How sweet is Thy word unto my lips; it is sweeter than the honey and the honey-comb." { And we know, in the lives of the saints, that some of them, as soon as they heard the name of God or the name of Jesus, have lost all memory of other things, and have been carried out of themselves with joy. No sweetness in the world, no sweetness of music, no sweetness of sensible taste, was to them comparable to the sweetness of the name of God or of the name of Jesus. And why was this I We are not so moved. It was because the spiritual taste in them was cultivated; because they were guided by the gift of wisdom — the name of which is sapientia. a word that signifies a knowledge by tasting the truth t a light to discern and to taste the sweetness of divine tilings. Now, Saint Paul says all this in few words: " The spiritual man judgeth aH things; but he himself is judged by no man."§ That is, he has a discernment whereby he can taste spiritual things; and no man can correct his discrimination, because men of the world do not understand the things of the Spirit of God; because

$ Ib. cxTiii. 103. § 1 Cor. ii. 15.

they cannot tell sweet from bitter: they put bitter foi sweet. " The sensual man knoweth not the things of the Spirit of God; for they are foolishness unto him, and he cannot understand, because they are spiritually examined;" * that is, tested, tried, proved, and knowr by the gift of the Spirit of God.

3. The seven gifts of the Holy Ghost perfect the whole soul; for in what does the perfection of the soul consist but in these three things — illumination of the reason, sanctification of the heart, and the union of the will with the will of God. This is the perfection of the soul in all its faculties. There are, as you know, four kinds of light, by which we can shape and govern our actions. There is the light of reason, sufficient in the order of nature, but at times both cold and dim. There are wide regions of truth in which reason can hardly see its road. Reason can see its way in the order of natural truths; but without the Spirit of God it cannot see its path in the order of grace. Reason is a good light whereby to travel on the earth; but it does not give light enough to show the way up the mountain which leads into the kingdom of God. It can lead us some way, and then we need another light, and reason delivers us over to that other guide. When reason has done its utmost in proving to us that God has revealed His will, then we believe that revelation to be divine; after that, faith guides us onward. We make an act of faith, which is the highest act of reason, and that act of faith delivers us over to a divine guide. Thenceforward reason and faith walk side by side. All the rest of our lives we are guided by reason and faitb * 1 Cor. ii. 14.

together. The lesser light is the light of the reason, the greater light is the light of faith; and these two are distinct, but indivisible for ever And then, springing from reason and faith, there is the light of prudence, which is both natural and supernatural. But we have, lastly, another light which is higher than all; and that is, the light of faith made perfect by the four gifts of wisdom, and of understanding, and of knowledge, and of counsel. These four of the seven gifts perfect both the reason of man and the virtue of faith; and, as I said before, faith is the most perfect act of the reason, the highest, and the noblest, and the nearest to that eternal union of the intelligence with the uncreated wisdom of God. Such is the illumination of the reason. But, next, the heart is perfected by sanctification; that is to say, the heart and the will (which, as I said in the beginning, may be taken together) are perfected by the other three of the seven gifts: namely — piety, or the filial love of God and the fraternal love of our neighbor, which springs immediately from the love of God our Father; next, holy fear, whereby we would deliberately choose rather to lay down our lives than offend God, or even go into the danger of offending Him; and, lastly, fortitude, whereby we are made willing and strong to bear anything for His sake, to take up our cross and to follow Him. These seven gifts, then, elicit into action and expand into perfection the virtues of faith, hope, and charity; and these, again, make perfect the reason, heart, and will: and thereby the whole soul, in all its natural and supernatural perfections, is made perfect and.united with God. And when these gifts are fully expanded, they have been well likened to the sails of a ship, which, when they are spread, catch every wind, and the more widely they ar3 spread, the more wind ie caught and the speedier is our course.

Such, then, are the gifts of the Holy Ghost; and when the inspirations of the Holy Ghost find these gifts spread and expanded in the soul, they impel it swiftly onward in its way towards God and eternity. But those who have lost these spiritual gifts, or by indolence have neglected to use them, are like ships that are dismantled, which lie motionless upon the waters. The winds blow upon them in vain. There is no sail spread to catch them; there is hardly power to impel them into motion. I am not speaking of those who have altogether forfeited grace by mortal sin, but of those who have hindered their advance and weakened the power of grace in their hearts by the frequent commission of venial sin. They may, indeed, be making progress, but it is slowly and uncertainly. They are making progress, with painful effort, with labor and noise, like those who are compelled to row with oars because they have no sail to set, or can set no sail even if they have it. They must depend upon the labor and toil of their own strength. Having lost the help of grace, they are endeavoring to force themselves onward in the way of God by straining the powers of nature, which can never bring a soul to salvation.

(1) Let uj now make application of what I have said. The Hoi} Spirit of God is the creator of all things. It was He Who ordered the first creation. " The Spirit of God moved over the face of the waters." * He im pressed upon the first creation the law of its perfec • Gen. I a.

tiou; He gave to everything its form and fullness— to each after its kind. But in an especial sense He ia the Author and Perfecter of the new creation of God, which springs from the Incarnation. And there are two operations which He is always carrying on in this new creation of the regenerate. He is always sanctifying the will of man, and He is always illuminating the reason of man; for He is the Illuminator and the Sanctifier; and this twofold office constitutes His work in the soul. When the Holy Ghost sanctifies the soul, He is creating the saints of God. We are all of us " called to be saints." * When you were regenerated, you were called to sanctity — imperfect it may be in this world, but perfect in eternity. The power of sanctity was then implanted in you. I am but repeating the words of the Holy Spirit, by whose guidance the Apostles wrote. Do not begin to count up the canonized saints, for I am not speaking of them only. I am also speaking of them, indeed, for they were once in the warfare and imperfections of this world just as you are now; they were as commonplace; they were as homely in their look and bearing; they were as weak; they were as sorely tempted; they were buffeted; they sinned; they fell; they were stained by their falls; they rose again; they were penitent; they persevered unto the end. The saints now before the Throne in the kingdom of glory are only the ripe and perfect fruit, which has been gathered from the mystical vine; and we are the unripe and imperfect fruit hanging in their stead. You are all bound to be saints. The little children among us are the most like saints on earth; for they are the freshest from the

14:6 THE SEVEN GIFTS OF THE HOJUY GHOST.

waters of regeneration, and as yet the world i.as not stained them, and their own will has not departed from God. They are in their baptismal innocence. And our Divine Saviour took a little child and set him in the midst even of Apostles, and said, " Unless you become as one of these, you shall not enter the kingdom of heaven.'J We are, then, surrounded by saints. We think that saints are like the great mountains, or like the cedars of Lebanon, in the kingdom of God — seldom to be seen and afar off. There are saints standing amongst us, and we know them not. They do not know it themselves; for sanctity sees only its own im perfections. And you were once like the saints; you were once children fresh in the innocence of grace; for you were then humble, and unstained, and docile, and obedient. And there are other saints to be found on earth. In the multitude of the poor there are to be found the friends of Jesus and the followers of His poverty, and they are saints. " Blessed are the poor in spirit."² The state of poverty is a discipline of mortification and self-denial, of humility and submission. It generates the spirit of poverty, which is true perfection. " Hath not God chosen the poor of this world, rich in faith?" f "A rich man shall hardly enter into the kingdom of heaven? " J " Woe unto you, O rich; for you have received your eonsolation."§ Why did our Divine Master, pitiful and tender as He is, speak so sternly? Because riches generate pride; and from pride spring covetousness, worldliness, selfishness, self-dependence, isolation, unsympathetic hearts — and hearts

*S. Matt. v. 8. fS- James ii. 5.

$ 8. Matt. six. 28. § S. Luke vi. 24 without sympathy aie far off from God. Such hearts have little union with the Sacred Heart of Jesus, or with the Holy Ghost, Happy, then, are the poor, whose life is hard and austere; whose hunger and thirst, if they are borne in patience, are true fasting; whose homes are more bare and empty than the cell of an anchorite; whose whole life is a life of toil, that chastises both the body and the will. Such a state generates detachment from self, and thankfulness, and dependence on the good providence and watchful care of our Heavenly Father. When our Divine Lord said, " Blessed are ye poor," He did not indeed bless those only who were poor in this world with external poverty. He gave this beatitude to all those, in whatsoever state they are, who are poor in spirit. It matters not what may be their outward state. They may possess in safety their wealth, their broad lands, their noble houses, their great titles, their prerogatives, royal or imperial, if only their hearts are poor before God, if they are detached from the world and detached from self. All that they possess externally will not hinder their eanctification any more than the external poverty of the poor will insure their sanctification. The richest and the noblest may be perfectly detached from this world, poor in spirit in the midst of all that it heaps upon them; and if so, their will is sanctified, and they are among the saints of God. Let us take examples of saints who by these seven gifts renounced the world.

One held an honorable and useful office in Home. In the midst of the Pontifical Court, with all its lawful splendors, he found the atmosphere too dangerous for him. He therefore renounced it and became a priest and spent his whole life in charity for the salvation oi souls. Such was Saint Caietan. Another WAS practicing at the bar, one day let slip a slight untruth. He was so wounded in his conscience, that in the greatest fear he renounced at once the pi of ession in which he had all before him. Such was Saint Alphonsus. Saint Rose of Lima was by nature beautiful, and had an ap [nsara-iice which attracted notice. She cut off her hair, lest she should draw around her temptations which might be f:^tal to humility and forgetfulness of sel£ These were actions prompted by the gift of holy fear. The gift of fortitude has created the martyrs. It made Saint Pancratius, a little boy, as strong as Saint Sebastian, who was a leader of the legions of Eome. It made Saint Agnes, a child of fourteen years, as strong in will and inflexible in courage as Saint Lawrence and the martyred Pontiffs of the Church. Fortitude made our great Saint Thomas of Canterbury. For six long years, with a martyr's will and a clear foresight of the death that awaited him, he went onward without swerving to his hour of martyrdom. But, as I said before,:t is not only the saints who are canonized who could do these things, out you also, if you have the gift of fortitude in your will. You are even now willing to bear any cross that may come upon you rather than betray your faith; you will not be ashamed of the scorn or the laughter of the world; you will not be afraid of its malice; you will not fear the accusations that may be burled at you. You will say in the light of God's presence, " I know that these bitter words are the badge of the disciples of Jesus; the world's hatred is His bequest. I know that the faith for wh'ch I am cast out is the

THE SEVEN GIFTS OF THE EOLY GHOST.

truth which the pencil of theHdly Ghost has written npon the intelligence of the Holy Catholic Church, and I will glady die for it." More than this, if you have fortitude in you, you will not be afraid of a Little penance, of a little fasting, of a little abstinence, a little voluntary poverty, a little sharp dealing with yourselves, a little crossing of your own self-indulgence, a little secret privation, which none will ever know save your Heavenly Father Who seeth in secret. You may carry a penitent will even under the soft raiment that you wear, because your state in life demands it. Go through the world unnoticed if you can. Those that make themselves singular in their dress or manners are seldom free from vanity. Those who make outward show of their austerities or their penances are the least likely to persevere, because singularity generates self -consciousness, and self-consciousness generates pride. Secret privations, secret sacrifices of your own will, which will never be known until all things are revealed, are surer instruments of perfection than chains and shirts of hair. The Holy Ghost in this way creates His saints. And when I say saints, I mean such as you are, or such as you may be. I can say nothing to encourage you more on the one hand, and I can say nothing to humble us more on the other. Saints, then, are made by the gifts that Banctify the will.

(2) Next, it is by the sanctification of the intellect that the Holy Ghost creates the doctors of the Church. I will not dwell on this; it is a subject which ought to be taken by itself. Faith is like the sun, and theology ia like the rays which flow from it. This great radiance of the faith is partly what the world storms against a* dogma, 3r dogmatic theology; partly it is what th« world cannot understand, that is mystical theology; partly what the world hates, ascetic theology; and partly that which the world is always violating, I mean moral heology. And these four great provinces of divine truth are cultivated in the Church by men whom the Holy Ghost illuminates and sanctifies for that work. Saint Athanasius, Saint Augustine, Saint Leo, our great Saint Anselm of Canterbury, Saint Thomas Aquinas, Saint Bonaventure, Saint Bernard, Saint Bernardine of Sienna, Saint Alphonsus, and a multitude who have not been canonized on earth, though they are saints in heaven, have been illuminated by the Holy Ghost, by thci four gifts which perfect the intellect, for the illumination of the Church. They have each, according as the gifts of science or counsel, intellect or wisdom, prevailed in them, elaborated and taught the science of dogmatic, or mystical, or ascetic, or moral truth. To these may be added the Pontiffs who have legislated for the Church. The sacred Canon law against which the rebellious wills and shallow intellects of men have evei clamored is the noblest, highest, purest legislation that mankind has ever known. The jurisprudence of the Church is the perfection of wisdom and justice. And here the difference between the Church and the world comes out into light. The doctors and legislators of the world may be unsanctifled men. The doctors and lawgivers of the Church are created by the Holy Ghost. Of the men of science who are the doctors of the world at this day, many openly deny the existence of God. WQ are living in a century when men pride themselves on their intellectual culture, and:n the illu ination of science, and I know not what; but it is an intellectual culture which prides itself upon its independence of God, and its divorce from the sanctification of the will. The whole power of " progress and modern civilization " is at this moment attempting to accomplish four things — to expunge God from science, to drive His name out of education from the highest to the lowest school, to shut out His revealed law from the whole public order of states, and from the whole culture of the human intellect. What wonder if the apostles and prophets, the doctors and Pharisees of modern civilization rose up and threw dust in the air at the promulgation of the Syllabus? But I may not go on. The Holy Ghost creates saints, and the Holy Ghost creates doctors, but fools create themselves. And who are they whom the Word of God numbers among the fools? Those who have not the seven gifts of the Holy Ghost 'n them, or those who having them by regeneration will not use the faculties they have received; those who, having the light of the Holy Spirit, which would make them wise and understanding, suffocate these gifts by empty pride. I use the word " fool " because the Word of God has used it before me, and the word " fool " in the Holy Scripture is equivalent to the word sinner.

u Fools despise wisdom "* is the saying of the Holy Ghost Himself. And the man that prefers this world to the next makes the fooPs bargain. They who, hav ing treasures within them beyond all that man can give, squander them like spendthrifts and wreck them like bankrupts, are fools indeed. And how do they do this? In two ways. They do it, first, by any mortal sin, * ProT. 1 7.

which at once extinguishes all sanctifying grace: and the seven gifts of the Holy Ghost go with it. They do it, next, by a habit of venial sin, which stifles the operations of grace. I hope we may believe that we are in a state of sanctifying grace. Nevertheless, we may make ourselves fools even while we abide in a state of grace. We may do so by the venial sins which we com init every day with such facility and in such a multitude. Like as the fine dust which gathers gradually and imperceptibly upon a timepiece slackens its motion and destroys its precision in marking the time, so the multitude of venial sins gradually clouds the conscience, and chokes and slackens the action of these seven gifts. At last there is formed a habit, and then a character, opposite and repugnant to these seven virtues; as, for example, where pride gradually forms itself, wisdom is cast out; where pride is, wisdom goes out of itself, for where pride is, wisdom will not dwell. Pride is, therefore, the" supreme folly of man. Again, where there is presumption and rashness there is no holy fear. A man that is not afraid of the occasions of sin will soon fall. Again, people are afraid of the world, or they love the world and worship of the world, or they applaud the world that they may be applauded again, that they may get into society, or that they may gain position or the notice of those whose names are known in the world. What fortitude is there in such empty hearts? They are ashamed of the name of our Divine Lord. Be sure of this, that His disciples will always be looked down upon. It is in some of these many ways that we form pride, selfishness, and worldliness, And these things hinder the gifts of the Holy Ghost, and at last extinguish them. All this is what Saint Paul has said in words I have alrea;y quoted. " The sensual man," or, as the word is in the original, the ani mal man, the natural man, " perceiveth not the things of the Spirit; for they are foolishness unto him, neither shall he perceive them, because they are spiritually discerned.''* Just as the spiritual man is supernatural, and the world invisible is, to him, more real and sensible than the world that he can see — and he lives for that world, and for God Who reigns in it, and for the interests of the kingdom of God — so the unspiritual man is a man who lives for this visible and perishing world. The worldly and natural man lives for everything that is worldly. Nothing but what he can see, and handle, and touch is real to him. Everything that he can see is substantial, but nothing that he cannot touch, handle, and see has action or power over him. This is the state in which many begin; but what is the state in which they may end? The Apostle Saint Jude has told us: " These be they who separate themselves, sensual men not having the Spirit."! Here is the history of the heretics and schismatics, and all those who set themselves up against the truth and the Church of God. Here is the secret of the fall of the worldling, of the folly, of the pride of those whom I have described.

(3) Being by no merits of our own, but by sovereign grace in the light of the wisdom of God, let us pray every day, " Lead us not into temptation," but preserve us from the folly of our own hearts. Be devout to the person of the Holy Ghost. "If any man love the * 1 Cor. ii. U. f S. Jude 19.

world, the love of the Father is not in him "* " If any man love not our Lord Jesus Christ, let him be anatho ma, maranatha."f But if a man does not love the Holj Ghost, he will sin against Him. If he sins against Him, " he shall never be forgiven, neither in this world nor in the world to come."J But there is no command to love the Holy Ghost; and why? Because the Holy Ghost is the Love of God and the Giver of love. He is the Charity of God. He is poured forth into our hearts. He is the Holy Ghost Who is given unto us. There is therefore no need of commandment to love Him. If we have God the Holy Ghost in us, we cannot but love Him. We shall realize His personality; we shall know Him to be co-eternal and co-equal to the Father and the Son; we shall be conscious of His presence; we shall know His voice and His power, and we shall feel His friendship; we shall remember all day long that we are the temples of the Holy Ghost, that He dwells in us; we shall keep at the greatest distance from every contact with sin and from its occasions; we shall not endure a soil or a stain upon that white robe with which He invested us in baptism, which also He cleanses with such diligence and with such tenderness every day of our life, whensoever we make an act of contrition.

Remember, then, His presence; walk in the light with which He encompasses you. Be faithful to His inspiration. A heart that corresponds with His inspirations is enlarged and expanded. And the gifts of the Holy Ghost in us are like the buds upon the trees which are always unfolding into flower and fruit. " W«

• 1 S. John ii. 15. f 1 Cor xvi. 22. J S. Matt. xU. 32.

are not straitened in Him," as the Apostle says; " we are straitened in ourselves/* Our hearts will be enlarged, and we shall run the way of God's commandments, if we expand with the grace of the Holy Ghost A heart so enlarged is a heart that is full of the peact of God — a heart full of strength, a heart full of Go<? Himself. And what is the bliss of eternity? It if this: God the Holy Ghost will transfigure the faith H< has given us into the light of glory. And when by th » light of glory He has perfected our intellect, with ths gifts of wisdom and of understanding, of knowledge and of counsel, we shall see God; and when He has made perfect our heart in filial piety and holy fear, and in the virtue of fortitude, we shall be suited with God in love for ever. This is the weddir^ garment which the Holy Ghost will put upon us. The soul will be thereby elevated and united with Gt»d; and then in His light we shall see light, and " th«* Lord shall be our everlasting light, and our God our glory."*

Footnotes

1. 8. John iii. 27. f Ps. xxxiii. 9.
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2. Bom. i. 7. 7 ↩