Page:Sermons for all the Sundays in the year.djvu/375

 erumpamus in vocem: Domine auxiliator meus." (Epist. 22, ad Eustoch.) 12. Should the temptation continue it will be very useful to make it known to your confessor. St Philip Neri used to say, that ” a temptation disclosed is half conquered." In assaults of impurity, some saints have had recourse to very severe mortifications. St. Benedict rolled his naked body among thorns. St. Peter of Alcantara threw himself into a frozen pool. But I consider the best means of overcoming these temptations to be, to have recourse to God, who will certainly give us the victory. ” Praising, I will call on the Lord," said David, ” and I shall be saved from my enemies." (Ps. xvii. 4.) And when, after asking aid from God, the temptation continues, we must not cease to pray, but must multiply prayers: we must sigh and groan before the most holy sacrament in the chapel, or before a crucifix in our own room, or before some image of most holy Mary, who is the mother of purity. It is true, all our efforts are useless unless God sustains us by his own hand; but he sometimes requires these efforts on our part, that he may supply our deficiency, and secure to us the victory. In such combats with hell, it is useful in the beginning to renew our purpose never to offend God, and to forfeit life rather than lose his grace; and then, we must make repeated petitions to him, saying: Lord give me strength to resist this temptation: do not permit me to be separated from thee: deprive me of life rather than allow me to lose thee.

ACCORDING to all laws, divine and human, the punishment of crime should be proportioned to its grievousness. "According to the measure of the sin shall the measure also of the stripes be." (Deut. xxv. 2.) Now,