ne Lord left with His Church the power of granting indulgences,
as we learn from His words taken from St. Matthew: "Whatsoever you shall
loose upon earth shall be loosed also in heaven." This promise implies
the power of loosing not only from sin and its eternal punishment, but
also the power of releasing the bond of temporal punishment, of freeing
from everything that would prevent the soul from entering the kingdom of
heaven. St. Paul granted an indulgence to the incestuous Corinthian, as
we learn from the 2d chapter of his Second Epistle to the Corinthians.
By the power and authority which he received from Christ, he granted the
Corinthian pardon from performing a certain penance. This penance was a
temporal punishment. The apostle took away the temporal punishment. That
is an indulgence.

Non-Catholics grant a kind of plenary indulgence to every one by saying
that works of penance are unnecessary. The practice of the Catholic
Church of granting an indulgence only to the deserving is certainly more
conformable to Scripture as well as more reasonable.

Experience teaches us the utility of indulgences. They encourage the
faithful to frequent the sacraments, to repent, to do acts of penance,
and perform works of piety, charity, and devotion.

A practice productive of such beneficial results is reasonable; it is
also reasonable because it is sanctioned by Scripture and the Church of
every age. For God would not sanction it nor could the Church practise
it if it were _not conformable to reason_.

VIII. The Last Sacraments

"Is any man sick among you? Let him bring in the priests of the Church,
and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the
Lord: And the prayer of faith shall save the sick man, and the Lord
shall raise him up, and if he be in sins they shall be forgiven him"
(_James_ v. 14, 15).

BY THESE words St. James admonishes Christians when sick to do that
which Our Saviour had previously directed to be done. This you will
learn from the 6th chapter of St. Mark: "And [the apostles] anointed
with oil many that were sick."

The historians of the first centuries tell us that the early Christians
were as anxious to receive the last sacraments as are the Catholics of
our own day. St. Cesarius, in the fifth century, writes: "As soon as a
person falls dangerously sick, he receives the body and blood of Jesus
Christ. Then his body is anointed, and thus is fulfilled what stands
written: 'Is