children, love one another,” it is clear that, however contemplative the bent of his mind, he did a work of vast importance for his fellow-men. Indeed he is the great human model of the grace of Charity. And I may remind you that the inspired description of this grace (the highest of all the Evangelical Virtues) sets it forth almost exclusively in its aspect _towards man_. Charity is the sweetest flower which grows in the garden of the soul. And in what spots does this flower flourish? St. Paul’s panegyric of Charity plainly shows that its place is in the world, where are oppositions, collisions, provocations, suspicions; “Charity _suffereth long_, and is kind; doth not behave itself unseemly, _seeketh not her own_, _is not easily provoked_, thinketh no evil; _beareth all things_, believeth all things, hopeth all things, _endureth all things_.” But the most conclusive of all arguments against a life exclusively contemplative in a world of sin and sorrow is the pattern of Our Blessed Lord Himself. One would have thought that at least His Example might have saved His followers from this miserable delusion. If His contact with Society was the closest; if He went about doing good; if His active works of mercy did not cease even at the moment of His apprehension; if the Cross itself could not silence His tongue from words of consolation, nor make Him unmindful of the sorrows of others; how shall any one profess to follow Him, who on principle ignores the claim which the sins and sufferings of men have upon Him; how shall any one presume to think that he has found a higher walk of the spiritual life than that in which Our Lord Himself walked? My Sisters in Christ, it is because this yearning after a complete withdrawal from the active works of mercy, this false ideal of a life holier than Christ’s life, has unhappily shown itself in some of the English Sisterhoods, that being here by the invitation of your Superior, I speak thus strongly and plainly on the subject. Be well assured that any life, the plan of which is out of conformity with the Word of God and the Example of Christ, will be attended with the worst results upon the character of her who adopts or seeks to adopt it. The mind recoils (and that not at all in virtue of its sinfulness) from mere contemplation. It was made by God for action, and for the reciprocation of sympathy; and mischief is sure to ensue from any attempt to alter the laws of its constitution. Without healthy exercise in Acts of Mercy it must grow morbid, narrow, superstitious, fanatical. I know that your rule in this Institution is to devote yourselves to works of Benevolence; still it cannot be out of place to warn you against dangers, which beset similar Communities with your own; and I find a trace of your Founder’s jealousy of your diversion from these works in the ninth of your Primary Statutes: “No Sister shall be required to spend more time in her private devotions than her own