4. For the avoidance of sin we need supernatural aid, and this is Divine Grace. By Baptism we are placed in the Spiritual Realm, in which we are furnished with sufficient help to enable us to resist all temptations, overcome all bad habits, discipline all inclinations till they take the direction of good in place of evil, and obtain a clear illumination of our intellect, so that we can see, and see distinctly, what is God's Will for us. Moreover, we obtain the faculty of judging proportions, and of estimating what is near and transitory at its proper value, as also what is far off and enduring. Naturally we over-estimate what is close before us and is temporal, and hardly see at all and value what is far off and eternal, but by the gift of Divine Grace our spiritual vision is enabled to judge distances and judge values correctly. [Illustration] Fourth Thursday in Lent. _THE CONDITIONS OF SIN._ 1. Every sin is an act done by man endowed with free will, in the exercise of his freedom, and with consciousness what he is about. That is to say, certain conditions are requisite in order that an act may be really sinful, and these conditions are, a knowledge of what is proposed to be done, liberty to do it or to forbear, and the will engaged to accomplish what is proposed. 2. _Knowledge._ An act is only culpable when he who commits it knows what he is about, knows the character of his act, or has at all events a strong suspicion that the act is contrary to the law of God. This is what S. Paul repeatedly urges. "The law entered, that the offence might abound." "The motions of sin, which were by the law, did work in our members, to bring forth fruit unto death." "I had not known sin, but by the law; for I had not known lust, except the law had said, Thou shalt not covet." "Without the law sin was dead." The measure of sinfulness is largely the knowledge possessed by the doer of the deed. To such an extent is this the case, that S. Paul supposes the case of one who commits an act that is in itself harmless, but it becomes sin to him because he thinks it is forbidden. A corollary to this is that the degree to which an act is sinful depends largely on the degree of our knowledge. For instance, to one who knows that it is his duty to God to attend public worship every Sunday it is sinful if he, without excuse, stays away; but the sin is by no means as great to him who has never been taught his duty to God, and thinks that going to Divine worship is optional, and is merely for the sake of hearing a sermon, which very probably, and perhaps reasonably, he thinks he can do without. 3. _Liberty._ An act is only culpable when the person who does the act is free to do it, or to refrain from doing it. It is only when the will is free that it can act so as to make what is done guilty or innocent.