first class are invalids, anxious to be cured, but unwilling to take the necessary steps thereto. Those of the second class are also anxious for a cure, but they won't have it unless the medicine be sweet, and the drugs palatable. But those who belong to the third class are invalids, anxious to be cured, and who won't refuse the medicine be it ever so bitter.

The Sacred Volume gives us a clear proof of this in the story of Naaman the Syrian. This great general, wishing to be cured of a leprosy, presented himself before the prophet Eliseus, that he might be cleansed. "And Eliseus sent a messenger to him, saying, Go and wash thyself seven times in the Jordan, and thy flesh shall recover health, and thou shalt be clean. Naaman was angry, and went away, saying, I thought he would have come out to me, and standing, would have invoked the name of the Lord his God, and touched with his hand the place of the leprosy, and healed me. But when he saw that he should have to wash himself, he said to his servants, Why should I go bathe in the Jordon: "Are not the Abana and the Pharphar, rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel, that I may wash in them, and be made lean? So as he turned, and was going away with inlignation, his servants came to him and said to him,

if the prophet had bid thee do some great thing, urely thou shouldst have done it: how much rather that he now hath said to thee: Wash, and thou shalt e clean. Then he went down, and washed in the Jordan seven times. And he was made

lean" (a).

Whoever, then, wishes to be made clean must

(a) 4 Kings v.

belong to those of the third class; and if he be not, his leprosy shall not depart from him.

§ IV.

In what has been said, we see the master-hand of S. Ignatius guiding us, step by step, through the Exercises to the selection of a state. To make this, one needs must have a perfectly tranquil mind-indifferent to all things, and free from every passion— so that there should be a brain, clear to think, and a will ever ready to act-so that if passion should draw us aside to any evil, we would shrink from it, and embrace the opposite virtue. Thus wise, that, if we have an overdue affection to riches, we should not content ourselves with being merely indifferent, but should strive to create within ourselves an ardent attachment to poverty.

Though S. Ignatius, during the entire of the second week, has been trying to instil into us this leaning for higher perfection, he does it nowhere with greater efficacy than in this exercise and in the three degrees of humility, the third of which consists in this, "that, to imitate Christ (even though it made no difference as far as God's glory is concerned) one should choose to be poor, and despised, and laughed at, and to be called a fool, rather than be rich, and crowned with honours, and deemed a wise man."

It needs no proof to tell us how powerful this motive is to incite us to perfection; and here we admire more and more the prudence of S. Ignatius, who, step by step, and as it were insensibly, leads us on to this high degree of perfection, whereas had he, at

start, proposed to us this third degree of humility,

frightened by the difficulty of the task, we should have shrunk back from attempting it.

To this highest degree of virtue-the complement and ultimate end of the Exercises-S. Ignatius gives the name of “the third degree" of humility, because in it, as in a germ, is contained the seed of every virtue; and since the attainment of it means being true imitators of Christ, S. Ignatius is anxious that during the whole of this day we should turn over in our mind these three degrees of humility, and should have recourse to the Blessed Virgin, begging of her that, by her intercession, she would obtain for us the third degree from her Divine Son; and of the Divine Son Himself, that He would obtain it for us from His Eternal Father. And here one's fervour must be redoubled; for, if fervour was necessary in the past, it now becomes essential in order to derive due fruit from the Exercises.

SECOND MEDITATION.

On the Three Classes of Men.
FIRST POINT.

Reflect on the perverseness of those who belong to the first class, and who, with the full light of the Holy Spirit shining on them, know what it is they ought to do, and even feel inclined to do it, but never can summon up courage enough to execute that which they have already resolved on. They keep putting things off from to-day till to-morrow, and they would put them off till the hour of death if

circumstances only permitted. What downright folly this is to know that there is a good you ought to do; to know why it should be done, and how to do it; nay more, to feel within you a desire to embrace a life of a certain kind—and yet, to play the poltroon-to be neither this nor that; and not to have the courage of making up your mind one way or the other this is to be either a downright coward, or ill-prepard to act fairly with God.

But woe to the man who knows what he ought to do, and does it not; for " he shall receive greater judgment" (a). If, in the course of these exercises, Christ had not spoken to him, his sin would have been the less (b). But once he has heard so many eternal truths; once he has discovered the path of virtue ; after the lights he has got, and the impulses he has received; if he still hesitate, he cannot have even a faint hope of his salvation.

Ah! my sweetest Jesus, what is it that I have done? Why is it that I have resisted such powerful calls that you are making on me. The dread sentence thunders in my ear, "Out of thy own mouth I judge thee, thou wicked servant" (c). I beg of Thee, O Lord, suspend thy judgment; now do I commence in earnest; and I shall never, never leave off until I attain that degree of perfection to which you call me.

SECOND POINT.

Reflect on the fatal folly of the men who belong to the second class, and who, in their pursuit of

(a) Mark xii. 40.

(b) John xv. 22,

(c) Luke xix, 22.

virtue, will adopt such means only as suit themselves; not the means that are pleasing to God.

They see the necessity of leading a better life they detest their evil habits: they have already resolved to serve God by imitating Christ: they even propose to themselves some means towards this end, but such only as are not opposed to their self-love.

But oh how badly this system tells! how evil are the effects it produces! for, (1.) They lose the fruit of these Exercises, the higher degree of perfection they might obtain, and the higher degree of future glory they might truly merit. Many are the graces prepared for us, and which slip every day through our hands, because we are not generous with God. Many are the souls whom God would save, and who will not be saved by him.

(2.) Such as these, because of their obstinacy, fall into grievous temptations, into many defects, into protracted tepidity, and, mayhap, the risk of damnation, as some very respectable authors fear happened in the case of that young man whom Jesus bade sell all that he had, and give it to the poor, and come and follow Him (a). This young man was so very perfect that, according to his own account of himself, he had kept all the commandments from his youth; he was anxious moreover to lead a more perfect life, but poverty was a thing he could not bear, and he went away sorrowing". Unhappy

wretch, what has become of him!

3. By acting in this fashion, such persons not only fail to avoid, but, on the contrary, multiply a

(a) Matt. xix.