arrangement he may follow, the matter which will form the subject of his instructions will come back, in one shape or another, to the following heads:-I. The truths which we are bound to believe, as the Creed; II. That which we are bound to practise, as the Commandments of God and His Church; III. The vices which we are bound to avoid, as the Capital Sins; IV. The aids which we are bound to receive, as the Sacraments; V. The means which we are bound to employ in order to obtain our requests, as Prayer; VI. Although not, perhaps, so essentially, the History of Religion.

It is evident at a glance that there is no point of Christian belief or practice which will not fall under one or other of these heads, and be treated in its proper time.

It would, as we said above, be obviously impossible in this place to speak of all these matters in detail; neither is it necessary. In laying down the rules by which discourses on the Divine Perfections, etc., the Mysteries, etc., are to be regulated, we have sufficiently indicated the method to be followed, positis ponendis, in treating those subjects which will naturally come under the head of the Creed.

Then, again, it would be very difficult to assign fixed rules by which individual preachers, who differ so much in imagination and in perception, could be governed when treating such a subject as the History of Religion, which, after all, will probably be but seldom taken by the ordinary missionary priest as the matter of his course of instructions.

We shall, therefore, perhaps, best consult the wishes

of the student, and the necessities of the case, by laying down a few general rules which may be profitably employed in developing the subjects which come under the following heads :

I. Instructions on the Virtues and the Vices.

II. Instructions on the Sacraments.

III. Instructions on Prayer.

There is not much to be said regarding the mere composition of the instructions which form the parts of a Course; neither is it necessary to remind the young preacher that order and clearness will be their special characteristics.

The most fitting introduction to an instruction of this nature, will consist of a brief repetition of the discourse which preceded it, in order to show more clearly the order and connection, as well between the two, as between the various sermons which make up the series. After this introduction, the preacher will then proceed to unfold and explain the subject to be developed, either according to the general rules of eloquence, or those particular ones to be presently laid down. During the course of the instruction, he will not fail to intermingle with his mere explanations, such reflections as he deems most suitable to nourish piety, to enliven faith, and to produce solid reformation of manners. He will take sufficient care not unduly to break the thread of the discourse, and will conclude by a warm and earnest exhortation, suggesting such resolutions as may be most analogous to the subject in hand.

CHAPTER IV.

A COURSE OF INSTRUCTIONS ON THE COMMANDMENTS: THE VIRTUES AND THE VICES.

SECTION I.

GENERAL PRINCIPLES TO BE KEPT IN VIEW.

OREMOST amongst those matters which the pastor of souls will take, from time to time, as the subject of a Course of Instructions, will be the Commandments of God and His Church, since these Commandments contain an epitome of the great virtues to be practised, and the vices to be avoided, by the Christian man; and the Catechism of the Council of Trent lays down, with great clearness, the obligations of the pastor on this point.1

A course of instructions on the Commandments, whilst it is most simple and interesting, is, at the same time, of the greatest utility. The pastor of souls, exercising a prudent discretion in these matters, will, in such a course of instruction, proceed with order, method, and regularity. He will commence with the first Commandment, and thoroughly explain to his people as well the virtues which it enjoins as the vices which it forbids. If it should require half-a-dozen

1 Catechism of the Council of Trent, Part III. chap. i. quest. ii. Duffy: Dublin and London.

lectures fully to exhaust his subject, he will not consider either his own labour or the time of his hearers thrown away. When he is satisfied that he has sufficiently explained one Commandment, he may pass on to the next, and so until the course is complete.

It is obviously impossible to lay down rules for the treatment of each particular virtue or vice. The most we can hope to do-and, in truth, no more is necessaryis to establish great general principles, which the zeal and discretion of the pastor may apply to particular subjects; and this is the method which we propose to pursue in the consideration of this and kindred matters.

In order, then, to treat with due force and effect that class of subjects which will necessarily be embraced in a course of Instructions on the Commandments, we may lay down, as general propositions, that: The virtue or vice of which there is question must be defined and explained with the utmost clearness and precision ; The motives for embracing the one, or avoiding the other, must be urged with all the power at our command; The means to be adopted in either case must be lucidly explained; and, The whole discourse must be arranged and divided with the greatest care. And such is the order followed by M. Hamon in his learned work.1

1 Traité de la Prédication.

SECTION II.

METHOD OF EXPLAINING ANY VIRTUE OR VICE.

Those who require to know all that can possibly be said on the nature, character, marks, etc., of the different virtues or vices, will find such information in the magnificent Summa of St. Thomas.

It is needless to remark that the first great requisite in such instructions as we are now engaged in considering, is to give our hearers a clear, precise, and exact idea of the nature of the virtue or the vice which forms the subject of the discourse in hand. Many of the faithful, even of those who are well instructed in worldly matters, have but very indistinct and ill-defined ideas of the nature and characteristics of the great virtues which the Christian is bound to practise, or of the vices which he is bound to avoid; and, on this very account, they are placed, as it were, in the impossibility of acquiring the one, or of avoiding the other; for how can a man either practise in all its perfection, or avoid in all its nicety, that of which he is more or less in ignorance?

In commencing, therefore, an instruction on any virtue or vice, it is of the first importance to define and explain it clearly, and with the utmost precision. We may employ, for this purpose, either the definition. strictly so called, or the rhetorical definition, which is rather a description than a strict definition. The strict definition explains the nature of any subject, by