order, tranquillity, and peace, as we have already seenthey are in their "right mind," like the man in the miracle before us, after he had been set free from the devils, and the only pain that they can suffer is that which is required for the satisfaction due to the justice of God, not that which arises from any present interior imperfection or discord in them.

6. It is hardly necessary to dwell on the obvious difference, as to the next two heads, between Purgatory and Hell. It is true that many writers have placed Purgatory, locally, close to Hell, and have held that there is in each the same kind of fire. This need not be called in question, but if it be not permitted, as we have seen above, that in ordinary cases the devils should be the tormentors of the Holy Souls, the actual juxtaposition of place would still leave a great difference between the two classes of sufferers with whose state we are concerned. As to the company in each, the difference is hardly less. than that between Hell and Heaven itself. All the suffering souls in Purgatory love God and love one another, and although they are not allowed that fulness of intercourse and mutual consolation, which is the lot of the Blessed in Heaven, still their wills and hearts are all one, the union of peace between them reflecting the internal peace of each soul, as the discord and savage tumult of Hell reflect the internal miseries of the souls there, preying upon themselves, and as it were tearing themselves to pieces. And then, in the next place, we must add to whatever differences we have already considered the circumstance which multiplies the weight of misery in Hell so infinitely-the circumstance of the eternal duration of the pains which are there to be suffered. One single ray of hope that a change or an end might come after an all but endless series of ages would go far towards changing Hell into Purgatory. But that one ray of hope can never shine. And, on the other hand, let the pains of Purgatory be far more intense than they are usually conceived to be, still they would be endurable as long as

the certain hope-not less a hope because it is a certaintyremains, that the end will come, and that it can be hastened on indefinitely by the mercy of God and the prayers of the Church. And when this hope, or rather knowledge, falls like a stream of light upon souls whose condition is already one of peace and resignation under their heavy sufferings, it gives an ineffable and heavenly firmness and strength to all the happier elements of their condition in other respects.

7. But that which, after all, is the true essence of the difference which we are considering, lies not so much in any external circumstances of place, or pain, or companionship, or even of duration, as in the radical truth that the souls of those who suffer in Purgatory are united to God and turned to Him with the whole force of nature and of choice, while the poor prisoners in Hell are altogether averse from Him, their only end, and have thus, by their own deliberate and now irreversible choice, rejected the end for which they were made. This aversion from God of the soul which has died in mortal sin, and which, according to the law of its creation, must remain for ever in the state in which it was when the time of its probation closed, is that which makes Hell what it is. This is so true, that the sufferings of Hell, the pain of sense, the pain of banishment from God, the pain of evil companionship, and the like, might conceivably be suffered eternally by a soul that had the love of God and underwent them by His will, and yet that soul could not find Hell in them. The will of God would make all things sweet to such a soul. And, in the same way, if it were possible for a soul which was averse from God, as are the souls of the lost, to be in the midst of Heaven itself, it could not find Heaven there. The mere aversion from God would make Heaven itself a place of torment. This aversion from God is the root and principle of all the other interior torments of the soul of which we have been speaking-its hatred of itself and all other creatures, the discord and indescribable misery which convulse it for

ever. But, when we cast our eyes on Purgatory, we see nothing of this aversion there, but rather the most entire conformity to God's will and the most perfect love of Him, which is the root of all else in the condition of the souls there, which is so happy and peaceful.

8. The comparison between Purgatory and Hell is one of those considerations connected with our general subject which may be used with the greatest possible profit to help us to avoid most carefully even the shadow of deliberate mortal sin. Every such sin, in truth, bridges the abyss between Purgatory and Hell. We all carry about with us, as it were, the seeds of Hell in our souls, because we all bear in our hearts the evil passions and propensities which, if allowed to grow to full maturity, issue in mortal sin. And in our wills, which may consent to the indulgence of such passions or turn away from them, we have the issue of life or death. Indeed, whenever mortal sin has been consented to, the hell of the soul, the essence of all that can be suffered throughout all eternity, has been already kindled, and its flames can never be extinguished but by a turning again of the soul to God by the assistance of His grace, an assistance denied to no one, but made most easy for the children of the Church by means of the life-giving sacraments. Again, the same consideration brings out into fuller light the truth that the love of God and the union of the will with Him is the essence of Heaven, and of all happiness elsewhere that is the forerunner of Heaven. Through all their intense sufferings, the love of God keeps the Holy Souls happy and content, as it would keep the souls in Hell, if it could penetrate there, happy and content. This is a lesson of much practical power in every way, and in none more so than in helping us to bear joyously whatever sufferings and afflictions God may send us, far inferior as they must be to those which are so patiently borne in Purgatory. In truth, we might have little satisfaction to pay hereafter, if we bore well here the Purgatory which God sends us in the course of His providence.

Intention for the Apostolate of Prayer for November.

VOCATIONS TO THE PRIESTHOOD.

SINCE the Ministry of the Altar enters as a constituent part into the formation of the Church of Christ, we possess a Divine guarantee that there shall be priests and Church students as long as the world lasts. God Himself stands pledged to grant vocations in sufficient number for the discharge of all essential duties. Whatever belongs to the existence of the Church is safe in all contingencies, however much the Gentiles may rage, and the princes of the earth desire to shake themselves loose from the yoke of the commandments. But beyond this limit of indispensable provision, and in matters which concern rather the more efficient working of the Church than its preservation, men can and do interfere for evil as well as for good. The prayers of our Apostolate can increase, and the efforts of the "liberal" league can diminish, the supply of Church students. The enemies of God are quite aware of the harm which they can do. It is no time for timid inactivity on our part.

The persecution of the Church is taking form and shape. More plainly from year to year the sons of Belial avow their principles. It is true that the public expression of impiety has not even yet attained the fulness of that first wild cry of revolutionary atheism, when men, possessed in body and soul by the foul fiend desecrated the altars of Paris in sheer hatred of God; but the principles of the Revolution have made steady progress, and threaten to absorb into one grand refusal

to serve God all fainter thoughts of infidelity. That, which even anti-Christian philosophers in their cooler moments heretofore condemned, or only attempted to excuse as a paroxysm of revenge inevitable under the circumstances which provoked it, is now accepted by the more advanced as a line of action deserving of commendation. The total destruction of the Church at any cost is the dream of the modern Revolution.

We happen to know that it is only a dream, and that the Church cannot be destroyed; but this is a lesson of history which her enemies do not choose to recognize. The stones of the sanctuary must be shaped by hard blows, the saints must be provided with persecutors, and emperors and demagogues and chiefs of banditti come forward as they are wanted, to volunteer their services in procuring the sanctification of the souls of others and the ruin of their own.

It has occurred to some of the bitterest enemies of the Church that it would be a masterstroke of policy to stop vocations to the priesthood. They are reckoning without God, and we do not fear them. But their intentions must be turned back upon themselves. The Church will have to carry the war into the enemy's camp, according to that of the Psalmist: "For strangers have risen up against me, and the mighty have sought after my soul, and they have not set God before their eyes. For behold God is my helper: and the Lord is the protector of my soul. Turn back the evils upon my enemies.* Their knives are at our throats, and they are thirsting for our blood. Yet all the time they would be at our mercy if we but knew our strength; that is, if we said our prayers as we ought to say them. We seek only a Christian revenge. We must wrench the weapons from their grasp, and bring them on their knees to us and to God. If every path in life, but one, is overcrowded; if, while eager claimants present themselves to sue for every vacant place in shop or * Psalm liii. 5-7.