it was undertaken-in midwinter, and in the darkness of the night. The third, is the manner in which He set out-suddenly, without having time to make the slightest preparation.

II. Consider how Jesus obeyed this command. He did so 1, readily; 2, blindly; 3, joyfully.

III. Consider the motives which prompt us to follow, in this respect, the example of Jesus Christ. The first is this:-The command of my superior to go to this or the other place is the will of God: for whatever happens in the world, sin alone excepted, is in accordance with His will; and even in sin, God's will is, to some extent, found; for though He does not will its cause, but merely permits it, He wills, nevertheless, its effect. Another motive to urge us to imitate the obedience of Jesus Christ is this; the place of residence assigned to you by your superior is, of all others, the one that suits you best; for God, being all-wise, knows the place best suited to you; being omnipotent, He can put you in that place ; and since He loves you with an indescribable love, there cannot be a doubt of his wish to place you where you may best work out your salvation. Wherefore, have confidence in Him, act in conformity with His wishes, and you shall see the happy results.

The fruit of this meditation ought to be a firm and efficacious resolution to place ourselves, unreservedly, in the hands of Divine Providence, and a perfect indifference to every place where it may be the will of God that we should reside.

LECTURE.

On the Preparation of the Soul for the Choice
of a State.

In order to serve our Creator in the manner which is most pleasing to Him, we must imitate Jesus Christ. 1. In attaining that degree of perfection which He will point out to us during the course of these Exercises. 2. By holding ourselves in a state of absolute indifference to everything, without a single exception, and without placing any limits to God's grace. 3. By not only excluding every vicious inclination to the things of earth, but by cherishing, moreover, a leaning towards better things, and always striving after what is most perfect. Now there are six things which exercise a great influence in weaning us from this golden spirit of indifference. They are these: 1, worldly honours; 2, the allurements of the flesh; 3, the conveniences that riches bring with them; 4, the inordinate love for one's country, or for any one place in particular; 5, the foolish wish to play the great man in the world, and to show off one's qualifications to the greatest advantage; 6, an overdue affection for our relatives, or for anything else that savours of flesh and blood. These are our chief enemies, which seek to draw us away from our last end.

II. Christ invites us to perfection, to the mystic supper; but it happens too often that one can say, as far as we are concerned: "But they neglected, and went their ways; one to his farm, and another to his merchandise (see the thirst for gain !) and another

said: I have married a wife," &c. leaning for sensual pleasures!)

(Behold the

This is the threefold bait which usually draws the thoughtless Christian from the pure fountains of virtue, from the service of God, and from following Jesus Christ; in a word, from his last end.

But, in addition to the ordinary fare, the enemy of our souls has other and more delicate viands to tempt us. Thus, the man who has already overcome the desire of honours, of pleasures, and of riches, is touched so by his love of country, that, if God required his services elsewhere, he would either refuse, or would obey with a very bad grace. Others, again, are prepared to follow Jesus Christ in any place, but will undertake those offices only in which they may have an opportunity of displaying their superior talents. "What!" they say: "God has given us brilliant talents, an aptitude for business, and other qualifications likely to befriend us in the battle of life, and are we to hide beneath a bushel these talents which God has bestowed on us?" And, meanwhile, these deluded beings do not follow the ray which lights them on to a higher degree of perfection. There are others who are bound down by natural ties, love of parents, relatives, friends, and so forth and who, because of these obstacles, are unwilling to follow Jesus Christ, the fountain of all love; and so, for one reason or another, we are led away from that golden indifference, through which alone we can thoroughly execute the will of God, which is our salvation.

The most powerful motive to overcome these difficulties is the example of our Redeemer; following whom, we scarce can help despising honours, riches, and pleasures, when we see the humility of

Jesus, the hard life He had to lead, and the extreme poverty which He embraced both in His incarnation and at the moment of His birth. But let us go still further; let us cherish a spirit of perfect indifference to every place, to every office, to every degree of virtue, while we meditate: 1, his flight into Egypt; 2, his hidden life; 3, his sojourn in the temple. Contemplating the flight of Jesus into Egypt, let us rid ourselves of that silly leaning which we sometimes feel towards particular places, and let us be prepared to go anywhere that may be pleasing to God. Let the private life of Jesus extinguish in us that eagerness which we feel to put ourselves forward, and to let the world see the little there is in us. Let the example of Jesus, abandoning His mother and S. Joseph, in obedience to the command of Heaven, be to us an example to break through all ties of flesh and blood, how close soever they may be, and to follow the call of God in any state, even though it involved the highest degree of perfection.

Nowhere do we see the admirable plan of the Exercises better developed than in this meditation. What better stimulus to action than example? and is it not true that our strivings after perfection will be more or less proportionate to the model which we set before us for imitation? In the life of Jesus Christ we have, indeed, a model. He, so poor, is the Lord of all things; He, so afflicted, is God, the source of all happiness; He, so humble, is the Lord of Hosts, infinitely powerful. And, with this example before it, will poor, weak humanity dare to lift its head in pride? Will it still pay court to the flesh? Will it still sneer at Christian

poverty? Oh! what a contrast between our lives and the life of Jesus. In His infancy, Jesus is forced to fly into Egypt. For thirty years, He lives hidden away in a poor tradesman's shop. In obedience to the will of His Heavenly Father, He secretly abandons His mother, whom He so tenderly loved; and yet, we seek for comfortable mansions, we are unwilling to accept lowly offices, and we close our ears to the voice of God, who lovingly invites us to serve Him in a state of greater perfection.

§ II.

After the meditation of the entry of Jesus into the temple, S. Ignatius proceeds to distinguish two states of life, in both of which our Lord was a model which all Christians might copy with advantage. "The first consists in observing the commandments of God; and this is called the ordinary state," which all Christians who have attained to the use of reason are bound to embrace, if they wish to work out their salvation. Jesus sets us an admirable example of this kind of life, for we read in the gospel that He was submissive and devoted to his parents: " He was subject to them. But He left us a model of a still higher and more perfect life, when, abandoning His fosterfather and His mother, He devoted Himself to the service of His Eternal Father in the temple (a), thereby foreshadowing the religious state, and teaching us that we, also, ought to embrace this state with indifference, if such be God's will.

S. Ignatius would seem to have borrowed the idea of these two states from what we read in the nine

(a) Lib. Exercit. die 2, heb. 2.