III. Resist temptation at once.--Put a bad thought out of your heart as soon as it enters. Say an ejaculatory prayer, such as, "Lord Jesu, help me!" or, "Lead us not into temptation!" or, "I am Thine, O save me!" to send it away.

IV. Accustom yourself to meditation.-See what will be recommended under the head of meditations.

V. Use the sacraments.-You cannot get to heaven without them. You can not keep from sin unless you go often to confession and communion.

VI. Use pious practices.-Such as wearing a cross to keep your crucified Lord ever before you, signing yourself with the cross occasionally for the same purpose.

VII. Do works of mercy.-Either corporal or spiritual. Pray for those in temptation; for the clergy, for those out of the Church. Lend good books and do all you can to

win souls.

VIII. Never continue in mortal sin.—But seek absolution at once, lest death should come upon you with deadly sin on your conscience. IX. Mortify your appetites.-Deny yourself pleasures you like, and labour to obtain complete control over your desires, and lusts, and affections.

X. Strive after an interior life. That is, a spiritual life within, apart from your worldly life without.

THE MEANS OF OBTAINING AN INTERIOR LIFE.

1. Purity of conscience, or a great horror of sin. 2. Purity of heart, or a detachment of affections from all created objects.

3. Purity of spirit, or a constant direction of the thoughts towards divine things.

4. Purity of action, or disengagement from all unnecessary affairs; and a repression of all solicitude and uneasiness about how events turn out.

5. A spirit of self-denial, and crossing of the will and temper, and likings.

6. Modesty and simplicity in dress, conversation, thoughts and deportment.

7. Regularity of life, having fixed hours for prayer, rising, meals, rest, &c.

8. Regularity in devotion, not shortening them through indolence.

9. Realization of God's presence. Doing all things as conscious that His eye is on you; consulting Him in everything that befals you.

10. Resignation of will wholly to God.

II. Consecration of acts, meals, work, pleasure, to God.

12. Frequent communion.

You will obtain great graces, increase the power of your prayer, and avoid many sins, if you seek frequent times of retirement and silence; every day you should secure either in Church, or in your private chamber, a period of retirement, when you may be alone with God. It would be well in a family if some portion of each day, or meal time on a fast day, were set apart for silence. It is impossible to love much the things of God unless you delight in silence.

Thus you will acquire that interior "life which is hid with Christ in God," which will fill you with the peace that passeth man's understanding.

HOW TO OBTAIN SPECIAL FAVOUR FROM GOD.

Sometimes there is a great and special favour which we desire of God, a favour spiritual or temporal, such as the conquest of a besetting sin, the conversion of a dear friend, the recovery of a sick relative. To obtain some special favour, a special effort must be made.

1. Fast rigorously with prayer for a definite number of days."

2. Be present during that time as frequently as possible at the celebration of the Holy Eucharist, join your intention with the end of the sacrifice, asking the Father for the sake of Christ's offering of Himself to grant you your petition. b

a S. Matt. xvii. 21.

b S. John xiv. 13.

3. Obtain an Eucharist offered by a Priest for your intention. a

4. Ask others to join with you in prayer for the same intent.

b

5. Vow something to God."

Vows. The principle of a vow is that it is a solemn engagement made with God, in which man undertakes to execute certain things, with God's help, which help God on His part undertakes to give. The principle of vows is sanctioned by the Church, and indeed by the world. Thus an infant by its sureties makes a solemn vow to God, at Baptism. At Confirmation the youth reiterates this vow. At Ordination the candidate vows himself to God. In marriage a mutual vow of love and union, and fidelity is made, before God, between man and woman. Each of these is a life-vow. There are other vows besides which the Bible and the Church sanction. Such are the vows of religion, of poverty, chastity, and obedience, or the vow of dedication of a portion of our substance, or of our time to God. Let us take examples from Holy Writ. "Jacob vowed a vow, saying, If God will be with me, and will keep me in this way that I go, and will give me bread to eat, and raiment to put on, so that I come again to my father's house in

a Phil. iv. 6. "Let your requests be made known to S. Paul, "with thanksgiving." In the original it is Eucharist." b S. Matt. xviii. 19. c 1 Sam. i. 11.

God," says "with the

a

peace; then shall the Lord be my God: and this stone, which I have set for a pillar, shall be God's house and of all that thou shalt give me, I will surely give the tenth unto Thee." From chap. xxxi. 5-13, it is evident that the vow was accepted. Hannah vowed that if God would give her a son, that son should a Nazarite. God heard her vow and gave her a child, and she dedicated Samuel to God in fulfilment of her vow. David made a vow to build a temple to God, but God would not suffer him to execute it. b The books of Moses lay down rules for the taking and fulfilment of vows. And allusion to them is frequent in Holy Scripture." We have under the Gospel, moreover, the example of S. Paul taking on him a vow.

The following rules must be observed in the taking of vows :—

1. They must be seriously, deliberately, and spontaneously taken.

2. The thing vowed must be feasible.

3. The vow must be taken or registered before witnesses.

4. A thing affecting another must not be vowed without the ready agreement and sanction of that other.

Objects such as the following may be vowed, subject to the above conditions.

a Gen. xxviii. 20-22. b Ps. cxxxii.

Numb. vi.; Deut. xxiii. 21;

Job xxii. 27; Ps. lxvi. 12; Ecclus. v. 4.

d Acts xviii. 18.