d the evangelical life, which He elsewhere explained
more fully, bidding the youth become poor and then come and follow
Him in perfect chastity and obedience (Suarez, "De Religione," lib.
iii, c. 2).

The teaching thus presented by Christ has never been fruitless in the
Church. Myriads of chosen souls, more magnanimous than the young man,
have heeded the Saviour's admonition and hastened to sacrifice all for
His sake. The nature of the evangelical life--so called because taught
in the "Evangelium," the Latin word for Gospel--consists in the
practice of the three counsels, voluntary poverty, perfect chastity
and obedience. And why is the exercise of these three counsels so
excellent? Because by them a Christian parts with everything that is
most pleasing to mere nature. By poverty he renounces his possessions
and the right of ownership; by perfect chastity, the pleasures of the
body; and by obedience, his free will. Could one do more than to give
up everything he owns, and then complete the renunciation by
dedicating his body, aye, his very soul, to Christ? Nothing is left
that he may call his own. He is a stranger in the world, without home,
parents or family, money or earthly ties; he is all to God, and God is
all to him.

While a person may be in the _way_ of perfection, by observing the
counsels privately, with or without a vow, if he takes perpetual vows
in a religious order or congregation approved by the Church, he is in
what is called "the _state_ of perfection," or "the religious state."
The vows give a final touch to the holocaust in either case, since by
them he offers all he has and is and forever, so that it becomes
unlawful for him to retract his offering. He who exemplifies all
Christian virtues to a high degree of excellence, according to his
condition of life, may be called perfect, and to this perfection all
Christians are called. But, religious, that is, they who live in the
religious state, bind themselves by _profession_ to aim at living a
perfect life. They have heeded Christ's invitation, "If thou wilt be
perfect," and engaged themselves, under the sanction of the Church, to
the obligation of striving for perfection.

No one could claim that all religious men and women are actually
perfect; but they are in the state of perfection--that is, by virtue
of their state and profession they are bound to the observance of
their vows and rules, which observance, in the course of time, will be
able to le