Page:Anecdotescatechi00spiruoft.djvu/92

 ''Q. What  is  actual  sin? ''

''A. Actual  sin  is  any  wilful  thought,  word,  deed,  or omission  contrary  to  the  law  of  God. ''

The sins  of  nations  are  followed  by  national calamities. In the  year  1870,  as  is  well  known, France and  Germany  were  at  war. On the  conclusion of  hostilities,  when  the  German  army  evacuated France, a French  officer  contemptuously  asked  a German  officer,  when  another  invasion  might  be looked  for. He answered: “ That  will  probably  be when  the  sins  of  France  are  greater  than  those  of Germany.”  Nations  are  punished  in  time  by  temporal misery.

''Q. How  many  kinds  of  actual  sin  are  there? ''

''A. There  are  two  kinds  of  actual  sin  — mortal  and venial. ''

We ought  not  to  take  part  in  reprehensible  transactions. Phelaris, the  tyrant  of  Agrigentum,  once commissioned an  artificer  to  cast  a metal  bull  of which  the  body  should  be  hollow,  so  that  if  a man were shut  up  in  it  and  a fire  lighted  underneath,  he should  be  slowly  burned  to  death. Accordingly the worker in  metals  manufactured  this  instrument  of torture,  and  fashioned  it  in  such  a manner  that  it should  bellow  horribly  if  the  unhappy  victim  inclosed within it  uttered  cries  or  groans. The first  individual