when exhorting us to pray, urges us to do it with confidence, saying, "All things whatsoever you shall ask in prayer, believing, you shall receive." "All things whatsoever you ask when you pray, believe that you shall receive, and they will come unto you.' " Hence the Apostle St. James compares those persons who pray without confidence, to the waves of the sea, which are always agitated; and expressly declares, that such persons will never obtain the object of their petition. And St. Augustine says, that when the confidence fails, then the prayer also loses its value.' Si fides deficit, oratio perit.

As the confidence with which we ought to perform our prayers is not founded upon our own justice or merit, but simply on the mercy and goodness of God through the merits of His beloved Son our Redeemer, Jesus Christ, who has promised to grant our petitions, so also we must never allow it to be diminished on account of our sins and imperfections, however great they may be. But the more weak and sinful we feel ourselves in the presence of God, the more ought we to approach with firm confidence to the throne of His mercy, beseeching Him to look down upon us with pitiful eyes, and to deliver us from our miseries.

SECTION V.

Of perseverance in our prayers.

The last condition necessary for the good success of our prayers is that of perseverance. We are sure-and our assurance rests on the solemn promise of the Son of God-that our petitions, when made with proper dispositions, cannot be disregarded, but must, sooner or later,

1 Matt. xxi. 22.

3 James iv. 6.

2 Mark xi. 24.

4 Serm. xxx.

attain their effect. We cannot entertain a shadow of doubt respecting this; "for heaven and earth shall pass away, but the words of Christ shall last for ever." But though certain of this, yet we have no certainty whether Almighty God will be moved to grant us immediately the object of our prayers; for we know that God sometimes defers to grant our petitions, in order to try our virtue, or to increase our merit, or for some other reason known only to His infinite wisdom. Hence it is necessary that we should continue to pray to God without ceasing, as the Apostle teaches, supported and animated by the thought that our perseverance will be crowned with a happy success. "Blessed is the man," says the Wise Man, "that heareth me, and watcheth daily at my gates, and waiteth at the posts of my doors." To animate ourselves to this perseverance, let us often reflect on that beautiful parable of the two friends, related by our Saviour in the holy Gospel, by which He teaches us to pray to Him unceasingly, until we obtain from Him the object of our request. Our Saviour relates that the friend, who had already retired to bed, at first refused to lend his friend the loaves which he asked, because he came at an unseasonable hour; yet afterwards, on account of the importunity of his demand, he rose from his bed and granted what he desired. And then our Saviour immediately adds, "Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and you shall find; knock, and it shall be opened to you. For every one that asketh receiveth, and he that seeketh findeth, and to him that knocketh it shall be opened." And as if all this were not sufficient to infuse great confidence into the breast of His disciples, and animate them to perseverance in prayers without despondency, He reminds them of the conduct of a tender and

1 Proverbs viii. 34.

loving father, who feels the greatest delight in giving good things to his well-beloved children, and concludes by saying, that we must expect still more from the goodness and love of our heavenly Father. "Which of you," says He, "if he ask his father bread, will he give him a stone? or a fish, will he for a fish give him a scorpion? If you, then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father from heaven give the good Spirit to them that ask Him!"

Let us not, then, be discouraged nor cast down if God at first seems to be insensible to our prayers; but let us urge ever more and more our petitions, and persevere in them with perfect confidence that at length we shall obtain our request.For God,' as St. Gregory says, 'wishes to be invoked, wishes to be compelled, wishes to be overcome by a certain importunity.' And St. Jerome says, that our prayers are pleasing to God according to our earnestness and perseverance.' We have in the Gospel two beautiful examples of the wonderful efficacy of the persevering prayer. One is that of the Cananean woman, who, though seemingly repulsed by our Lord as unworthy of His gifts, yet continued her petitions with greater fervour, and at last heard those consoling words: "O woman, great is thy faith; be it done unto thee according to thy word." The other is that of the blind man of Jericho, who, though commanded by the disciples of Christ to hold his peace, persevered in crying out, "Jesus, son of David, have mercy on me!" and so merited to receive the favour requested. When, therefore, it happens that we do not succeed in obtaining the object of our petitions so soon as we expected, let us wait patiently for God's hour; let us persist in knocking with

1 Luke xi.

out ceasing at the door of His mercy, until He is pleased to open to us. "Expect the Lord, do mindfully, and let thy heart take courage, and wait thou for the Lord." Let us take courage by reflecting on the words of St. Teresa, that the person who perseveres in prayer, whatever be the obstacles which the devil raises against her, may stand assured that God, sooner or later, will draw her out of danger, and lead her to the port of salvation.'

We have a most convincing proof of this truth in the life and actions of those Saints who, from the depths of sin, passed, by the help of Divine grace, to the height of perfection. St. Mary of Egypt, after her conversion, was attacked by the most severe temptations for eighteen years; and it was by means of constant and fervent prayer that she was enabled to resist them, as she declared to the holy Abbot Zosimus. St. Augustine also had to endure, during twelve years, the most violent temptations, on account of his former evil habits; and he likewise overcame them by humble and constant prayer. The same also is related of St. Margaret of Cortona, and of other holy penitents, who, by their constancy and perseverance in prayer, have been enabled to overcome all their spiritual enemies, and to attain to a high degree of perfection.

ARTICLE VI.

ON MENTAL PRAYER.

The holy patriarch Jacob, flying from his brother Esau through a desert land, laid himself down to rest; and, whilst he was sleeping, he saw in a vision a ladder that reached from earth to heaven.. On this ladder he beheld a multitude of angels constantly ascending and de1 Psalm xxvi. 14.

scending; and upon the summit of the ladder he saw Almighty God Himself, who looked down upon him, and renewed to him the promises He had formerly made to Abraham and Isaac, that their children should possess the Land of Promise, and be multiplied like the stars of heaven, or the sands of the sea-shore. This mystical ladder which was shewn to the holy patriarch during his journey through the desert, is a symbol-an image of mental prayer or holy meditation. As the ladder reached from earth to heaven, so mental prayer, which is performed here upon earth, reaches to the throne of God, and unites as it were heaven and earth. The angels whom Jacob saw ascending and descending represent those pious souls who exercise themselves in the practice of meditation; for they ascend into heaven by the consideration of the eternal truths, and descend to the earth again by fulfilling their duties amongst men. Almighty God, who was sitting at the top of the ladder, looking down upon Jacob, and renewing to him His gracious promises, represents the same omnipotent and bountiful Lord, who, from the throne of His glory, looks down with merciful eyes upon those who practise holy meditation, and promises to watch over them in all their ways, to guide them in the path of perfection, to enrich them with the treasures of His grace, and finally to grant to them the possession of the true land of promise-the heavenly Jerusalem.

SECTION I.

On the necessity of meditation for the purification of the soul and the advancement in perfection.

When treating of the necessity of meditation, I do not intend to speak of any particular form or method in which it may be performed; but I take the subject of meditation,