Page:The Eternal Priesthood (4th ed).djvu/72

60 greatest to the least, as charity is elicited into act, it is augmented by an increase poured out into the heart by the Holy Ghost, the charity of God. "God is charity, and he that abideth in charity abideth in God and God in him." But where God abides there is sanctity, for though charity and sanctity are distinct, they are inseparable, coming and going, growing or lessening in intensity together, like light and heat, which are never parted.

We might draw out this in other details as in humility, purity, piety, generosity, and the like, which are in continual exercise and in continual increase in the life of priests and pastors. But mortification and charity are the two conditions of perfection; and no more words are needed to show that they are called forth into the fullest exercise by the demands of a priestly and pastoral life.

As to the other means of perfection, it will be enough now to enumerate them, because they will come back hereafter on our attention.

First is the law and obligation of chastity, with all its safeguards and sanctities.

Secondly, the life and spirit of poverty which binds a priest in his ecclesiastical revenues, and counsels a pastor with a peremptory voice, in