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 either because  they  bring  in  themselves  no fresh  stimulus,  or  because  the  energy  is  already fully employed  elsewhere,  and  the  liturgy  and sacraments are  all  that  is  needed  to  maintain spiritual strength  and  vigor.

It were  but  an  unreasonable  optimism  to deny  that  there  are  practices  of  piety  which spring rather  from  temporal  greed  than  from spiritual earnestness. Not that  they  are  to be  condemned  simply  because  they  are  the expression of  material  needs.

Our "daily  bread"  comprises  that  of  the body as  well  as  that  of  the  soul,  and  Christ had pity  on  physical  suffering  as  well  as spiritual  disease. But again  it  is  a  case  of distinguishing,  not  between  what  is  bad  and what is  good,  but  between  what  is  good  and what is  better.

It is  commonly  urged  in  defense  of  the  countless devotions,  directed  almost  exclusively  to the  obtaining,  of  temporal  favors,  that  they both prove  and  foster  a  strong,  childlike faith, and  that,  consequently,  even  if  they dip occasionally  to  the  side  of  superstition, they should  not  be  ruthlessly  eradicated,  lest we root  up  the  wheat  along  with  the  tares. True as  all  this  may  be,  we  are  surely  urging the proposition  to  a  most  false  extreme  if  we go  on  to  assume  therefrom  that  no  one  can