in the golden books. Angels will sing it to their harps of gold. Our little orphans will be there to tell it, and, in chorus with their voices, will be heard those other voices of our holy nuns; the voices, too, of dear St. Francis and of sweet St. Clare. And, even if all these be thankless and silent about you, Christ Himself will proclaim your praise. His hand will rest on His hero's shoulder. His smile will beam out on His hero's face. His own Cross of Honour will be pinned to His hero's breast, and, before all heaven, He will pronounce you His Friend and Comrade for evermore!

VII.

ON IMPURE THOUGHTS.*

Nor long ago, my dear Brethren, the Sixth Commandment was explained for your instruction. You were then told that all outer acts of impurity are abominations before the Lord; that he holds such sins in special and peculiar horror, and that, more

*This short instruction was first preached in Maynooth College as one of a series of collegiate exercises in preaching. It is now printed in the precise form in which it was then preached. The actual audience to which it then addressed itself consisted, in the first place, of the Vice-President of the College, the eloquent, and learned, and beloved Dr. Whitehead; and, in the second place, of, as it happened, the body of students then residing in the Senior College. But though these made up the audience actually present, it was not to these that the instruction was supposed to be really given. They were regarded by the preacher as representing that audience which a student preparing for the Irish Missionary Priesthood might fairly calculate upon being afterwards commissioned to teach. To such an ideal audience, this sermon really speaks.

The purpose of the foregoing remarks will be sufficiently obvious to every reader.

than once, He has made this horror known by swift and terrible vengeance.

And you were moreover told that external impurities are not the only sins forbidden by the Sixth Commandment; that, though less directly, and less prominently, it forbids also the internal impurities, that is to say, the thoughts that defile the soul. But, lest there should be any mistake about the matter, the Lord has, for those sins of thought, made a special commandment, saying, “Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's wife." Hereby, the Catechism tells you, are forbidden all the inner sins, as by the Sixth Commandment are forbidden all the outer sins, opposed to purity. It is about these inner sins that I shall speak to-day.

And, because for all of you this is a subject of the first importance, it is well that we examine it, not loosely and clumsily, but bit by bit and with the greatest care. We shall therefore consider, first, the origin of impure thoughts-that is, the causes from which they come; then, their several degrees of sinfulness; and, lastly, what are the remedies against their actual or possible injury to the soul.

And, my Brethren, on the first point, the origin of these sins is oftentimes not hard to account for. Here, as in other things, what a man looks at, or listens to, or reads, or remembers, that he is sure to think of, must think of, at least in some small way, And hence, will impure thoughts be suggested to us by the very things among which we live, by books, and pictures,

and memories of past sins; and, very often, by the words and actions of our fellow-men.

Of themselves, however, these could do us little harm. But they do not work alone. For, within us abides an enemy that takes them as its assistants, and with them and through them wages against our purity a fierce and endless war. And this second enemy, by all men found so dangerous, is called by many names. For present purposes it is enough to give it the one name-Concupiscence.

When I speak of concupiscence you all know what I mean. Among you that are grown up there is not one but has become aware of the power in our corrupted nature, struggling against the Law of God, urging you to desire and do what you know to be impure and foul. Every one knows, as St. Paul knew, that "the flesh lusteth against the spirit ;" and every one knows, as St. James knew, that "each man is tempted by his own concupiscence." Thus are there within us two great powers dwelling together, not peaceably, but in endless war; the one fighting for the Law of God, holy, and just, and of good repute; the other fighting for the Law of the Members, unholy, unjust, and of evil name. And in some such sense as this is it specially true that man's life down here is one long battle.

Broadly, and generally thus, you are all acquainted with concupiscence. But just now we are concerned to know it more closely, to see the manner of its working, the plan of its warfare, that we, on the Lord's side, may be able to give it successful battle.

I have already told you that impure thoughts are oftentimes excited by what we see, and hear, and read, and remember. Now it is only through concupiscence that the thoughts so excited could have power to do us harm. For their bare existence within us could not, as we shall presently see, in anywise work evil to the soul. But concupiscence makes even their presence a matter of extreme danger. For it takes up the impure thought, presents it to our hearts as a pleasant and desirable thing, urging us the while most hotly to love it, or, if not that, then at least to give it our attention. And this is the first way in which concupiscence attempts our ruin.

But this is not all. Not only does concupiscence make use against us of our eyes, and ears, and memories, but it moreover, of its own proper strength, brings improper objects before the mind. How this comes about you may not easily understand; but that it does come about the greater number of you know. Holy men whose eyes saw nothing but the sights of the wilderness, whose ears heard nothing but the sounds thereof, whose souls were all unsoiled by any impure memory as their bodies were all unsoiled by any impure deed, were yet tempted by their own concupiscence. And what happened unto them I take, without inquiring further, to have happened to the majority of you.

Thus is it, my Brethren, that man is prone to evil all his days. We know it all of us, know it very well. And we were wise to keep that knowledge con