If only we can bring ourselves to a sincere and steadfast resolution, like that of Job, "Though He slay me, yet will I trust in Him," we are thoroughly prepared for the worst that can befall us. Be the persecution what it may, the persecutor can but slay the body. Be the tyranny what it may, it will soon be overpast, and thereafter cometh rest and security.

A time of sharp and bitter trial may be at hand. At least, all things seems tending that way; at least, many of us, it is to be feared, have abused their day of grace, and so have deserved to be sifted like wheat, to be winnowed with the fan of vengeance. But come when it may, the faithful follower of Christ crucified has this pre-eminent consolation, that the sharper the humiliation, suffering, and persecution, the nearer will he be brought into the fellowship of Him Who was despised, and rejected, and mocked, and spit upon, and scourged, and crucified. And the trustful servant of God has this assurance, that he who trusts in God shall "never be confounded," and that that Catholic Church, of which he is a member, is guided and guarded by the Most High; that "God is in the midst of her, therefore shall she not be removed;" that the Lord will help her, and that right early:" that though the heathen make much ado, and the kingdoms are moved, God

hath but to show his voice, and the earth shall melt away: and finally, that in every conflict that awaits her," the Lord of Hosts is with us, and the God of Jacob is our Refuge!"

To be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace.

THE term "to be minded," here used, has reference, in the original Greek, to the affection which a person sets on any given object, and the great pains which he uses in obtaining it. Thus, in the third chapter of the epistle to the Colossians, where the same expression occurs, our translation renders it, "Set your affection on things above." It is, in fact, an exact equivalent to the common phrase among ourselves of setting one's heart upon a thing.

The minding of the flesh, therefore, or "the lust of the flesh," which, as we are taught in the ninth article of our Church, "some do expound the wisdom, some sensuality, some the affection, some the desire of the flesh," is the employing our whole

thought, and pains, and time, in gratifying and in providing for the gratification of mere bodily appetites: while, on the other hand, the being spiritually minded, or the .minding of the soul, is an earnest seeking after the things of the unseen world, a determined renunciation of every thing which may interfere with the soul's communion with God, and a steadfast walking by faith and not by sight.

The result of adopting this latter course, St. Paul informs us, will be life and peace,-peace, that is, even amid the trials and sorrows of this lower world, and life, eternal in duration and happiness in the heavens. But to be carnally minded, to mind the body to the neglect of the soul, is death, can only issue in everlasting misery and perdition.

The doctrine here set before us is repeated so continually in Holy Scripture, and lies so entirely at the foundation of Christian morals, that it will, no doubt, seem to many an exhausted subject, and one about which nothing more remains to be said. And this would be true, if it followed as a matter of course that men acted upon their convictions, and thought much about truths with which they are familiar. Unhappily, however, the reverse of this is the case. We admit the evil and exceeding danger of a carnal mind, but we remain carnalminded. We allow that to be spiritually-minded

is life and peace, but we go on from day to day as if life and peace were not worth having. We are exhorted to set our affections on things above, not on things of the earth, and to lay up for ourselves treasures in heaven, and we are reminded that our conversation and citizenship are in heaven. Of these things we acknowledge the truth, but it is to be feared that many go no further, or at most, resolve within themselves that they will become spiritual minded, when this world and its concerns are fading from their view, and the next is opening upon them. We all, perhaps, more or less, allow ourselves to think of spiritual-mindedness as a quality to be attained at the end of life, rather than as one which is an indispensable accompaniment of its whole course. It is, indeed, true that the higher a person advances in practical holiness, the nearer he goes on unto perfection, the more spiritual-minded will he become, so that the dying saint, who has been serving God diligently through a long career, may at last be only a little lower than the angels; his spiritual-mindedness may, and will at the close of his pilgrimage, be much more developed than it was at first, but it is worse than vain to suppose on that account, that spiritual-mindedness will grow up, men know not how, out of the dregs of carnalmindedness; that if they have served the world in