any man sick among you? Let him call in the priests of the
Church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil.'" What the
Christians of the first centuries did, we do; and we do it by the
direction of Jesus Christ and of St. James.

Penance, Holy Eucharist, and Extreme Unction are administered to the
sick and are known as the last sacraments. The priest first hears the
sick person's confession, then he administers holy communion. Afterward
he administers the sacrament of Extreme Unction--last anointing.

This sacrament aids the sick to bear their sufferings with patience. It
wipes away sin, even mortal sin if the person is unable to confess; and
it purifies the soul for its entrance into heaven. The other sacraments
assist us in making our lives holy like the life of our divine Model.
This sacrament assists in making our death holy, like the death of
Jesus. The sacrament of Baptism met us at our entrance into this world;
the sacrament of Extreme Unction will be our guide at our departure to
the other world. Religion, which rocked us in the cradle of life, will
lull us to sleep in the cradle of death.

Go to the bedside of the dying Catholic and you will see the
reasonableness of the practice of calling the priest to administer the
last sacraments. After the sacraments have been administered, peace and
joy and contentment are visible on the countenance of the sick person.
He clings no more to the things of earth. His thoughts are centered in
heaven. The minister of God consoles him with the thought of immortality
and the resurrection of the body. He soon hears the singing of the
angelic choir; and breathing the sweet names of Jesus, Mary, and Joseph,
his soul takes its flight to the _regions of eternal bliss_.

IX. Praying for the Dead

"It is therefore a holy and wholesome thought to pray for the dead, that
they may be loosed from their sins" (_2 Mach_. xii. 46).

NO ONE will deny that the practice of praying for the dead is
reasonable, if the dead are benefited by our prayers. That our prayers
are beneficial to the departed we will endeavor to show. We are taught
by revelation that besides heaven and hell, a state of everlasting
pleasure and a state of eternal pain, there also exists a middle state
of punishment for those who die in venial sin, or who have not
sufficiently satisfied the justice of God for mortal sins already
forgiven.

The people of God in the Old Law believed, and Jesus Christ and