s
justice out of the bargain altogether. Yet God is one as well as the
other, and both equally. The offense to God consists in making Him a
being without any backbone, so to speak, a soft, incapable judge, whose
pity degenerates into weakness. And certainly it is a serious offense.

No, hope should be sensible and reasonable. It must keep the middle
between two extremes. The measure of our hope should reasonably be the
measure of our efforts, for he who wishes the end wishes the means. Of
course God will make due allowances for our frailties, but that is His
business, not ours; and we have no right to say just how far that mercy
will go. Even though we lead the lives of saints, we shall stand in
need of much mercy. Prudence tells us to do all things as though it all
depended upon us alone; then God will make up for the deficiencies.

CHAPTER XXVII.
LOVE OF GOD.

ONCE upon a time, there lived people who pretended that nothing had
existence outside the mind, that objects were merely fictions of the
brain; thus, when they gave a name to those objects, it was like
sticking a label in the air where they seemed to be. The world is not
without folks who have similar ideas concerning charity, to whom it is
a name without substance. Scarcely a Christian but will pretend that he
has the virtue of charity, and of course one must take his word for it,
and leave his actions and conduct out of all consideration. With him,
to love God is to say you do, whether you really do or not. This is
charity of the "sounding brass and tinkling cymbal" assortment.

To be honest about it, charity or love of God is nothing more or less,
practically, than freedom from, and avoidance of, mortal sin. "If any
one say, 'I love God' and hates his brother, (or otherwise sins) he is
a liar." Strong language, but straight to the point! The state of grace
is the first, fundamental, and essential condition to the existence of
charity. Charity and mortal sin are two things irreducibly opposed,
uncompromisingly antagonistic, eternally inimical. There is no charity
where there is sin; there is no sin where there is charity. That is why
charity is called the fulfilment of the law.

On the other hand, it sometimes happens that humble folks of the world,
striving against temptation and sin to serve the Master, imagine they
can hardly succeed. True, they rarely offend and to no great extent of
malice, but they envy the lot of others more advantageously situ