he ceased even to deify his own vices, and made a rule for himself out of the lives of animals whom he envied and copied and worshipped. But God in His pity interposed, and gave man a rule by Moses, and finally, by His own Son, He gave a law and an example of life.

And if we would sum up this rule and the teaching of that Exemplar in one word, St. Paul gives us that word; it is the Cross. This, he says, is his own rule; by this he guides his life, in this he glories. The wise of old were not altogether wrong; they all preached the Cross more or less. Self-denial, self-sacrifice, as we have seen, have been everywhere accepted as the first elements of well-doing and good results.* The moral maxims and precepts of the ancients, and even of the worldly-wise, were not altogether out of harmony with the voice of the word of God, "Crucify the flesh, with the affections and lusts."

The Cross has four dimensions-length and breadth, and depth and height; that is, it reaches every whither. The Cross has two directions, upwards and across; upwards, for thither it lead us always, always upwards, always to something higher and better: this attained, go on to that; first morality, then sanctity; first abstinence from sin, then the practice of holiness. And across; for we meet it ever, crossing, arresting us, barring

*"Nothing really elevated, beautiful, or good has been done upon earth except at the cost of suffering and self-abnegation.”— Lacordaire.

the way to sin, to selfishness, to a lower standard, when the higher is open.

Here, then, is the Christian soul's rule of life; and of it St. Paul says, "As many as walk by this rule, peace be on them, and mercy." What, peace by self-denial! peace by sacrifice! peace by the pain of the Cross! Aye, peace so and by nothing so much; nay, by this alone, and by nothing else. And "mercy;" mercy by the bitter atonement of the Cross of Christ; mercy to those who cling to it, who take it up, who crucify themselves upon it, who bear henceforth its marks upon them.

For not Christ only the Saviour must be crucified, but they also, the saved by His Cross, must be crucified. Here is the great lesson to be learned and daily said and practised; here is the devout soul's rule of life, the Cross. Here it is that so many break down. The rule points ever upward, but they are content, settled on their lees, fixed in their habits, never reforming, never becoming holier. The animals remain the same; man must always progress. The animal has no ambition, no burning desires, no hunger of unrest; man has, and ought to have all these, and ought to gratify them, specially those of the soul, that strain upward towards the perfections of God, in whose likeness it was made. Some men have two rulers, and are always vacillating between them, following sometimes one, sometimes the other, sometimes neither.

Others acknowledge the

dignity of the higher way and intend to follow it, but through cowardice shirk the pain of duty, put off the time of obedience, and so lose peace now, and will lose mercy hereafter.

And what do we? Do we walk according to this rule? Is the Cross our rule of life? Do we feel it every day, and many times a day? To-day-how has it ruled our conduct to-day? How have we followed its upward guiding? In what have we met with its restraining cross-bar? And did it hinder us? Did we stop when it tried to stop us? It is so easy to listen; so easy to talk; so easy to daydream; and then go to eating and sleeping and daily work, and never once meet with the Cross of Christ; or, if we do, ignore it, put it out of our path, or politely bow to it, and go on our own selfish, sordid, sinful way.

Take we, then, evermore the Cross of Christ as our rule of life; place we its straight, upright limb beside our crooked, grovelling ways, to rectify them and draw them upward, to make what is bad good, what is good better. Lay we its crossbar upon our wantonness and waywardness, to check, to turn back our trespassing and wandering steps, and force them again into the upward path. This is the plain way of the Cross; "the wayfaring man, though a fool, shall not err therein."

"As many as walk according to this rule, peace shall be upon them, and mercy.”

CHAPTER XXXIX.

THE SANCTIFICATION OF THE SOUL.

"This is the will of God, even your sanctification."-1 THESSALONIANS iv. 3.

"Meek souls there are who little dream

Their daily strife an angel's theme,

Or that the rod they take so calm

Shall prove in Heaven a martyr's palm."

Christian Year.

"" They who are not made saints in a state of grace, shall never be saints in glory. The stones which are appointed for that glorious temple above are hewn and polished and prepared for it here."-J. TAYLOR.

666

"She shall be brought unto the King in raiment of needlework;' that is, the preparation which is to make the soul fit to appear before her Lord is not the work of a moment, but is to be precept after precept, line upon line, just as stitch after stitch makes up needlework."-AYGUAN.

SALVATION is one thing and sanctification is another, and yet they are often ignorantly confounded, till the greatest confusion prevails. Salvation is a work done for us by Christ, a small thing only remaining for us to do ourselves. But sanctification is a work done in us, requiring time, labour, and

endurance, and depending at every step upon our active co-operation. Salvation has but one condition-a man is or he is not in a state of salvation. But sanctification has all degrees, from lowest to highest. Salvation was purchased by Christ on the cross for all mankind, and it rejoices us to believe that multitudes who have never heard of Christ may yet be saved by Him. But sanctification is specially the outcome of Christianity. The heathen have no word to express the idea. The Israelite merely understood it as separation from the rest of mankind.

It is the indwelling of the Holy Ghost in the Church, and in the heart of the Christian, that renders sanctification possible. It is supernatural, beyond and above the realm of nature; it is heaven upon earth, God with us. It is the renewal of the lost or defaced image of God upon the soul; the imitation of Christ. It is begun at Baptism; our fallen nature is cleansed and sanctified; salvation and sanctification there and then coincide. The baptized has sanctification as far as cleansing is concerned; it is a negative, not a positive condition; a freedom from sin, not the acquisition of positive graces and virtues. And with the majority of Christians this condition is but little altered. If their baptismal cleanness is soiled, they turn to the Fountain of the Precious Blood, wash and are clean. They repent and are pardoned. But they do not go on to perfection as they are bidden; they remain all their lives but