3. _The life of the Soul._ This is the most important life of all, and it is the life usually least regarded. This is the life that is divine in us, the breath of God. It has a double aspect (_a_) as to God, and (_b_) as to man. That is to say, it lives in two relations, one to God, the other to man. This spiritual life is the life of the spiritual faculty in man which enables him to see God, to delight in His presence, to love and to fear Him, to find pleasure in prayer and in meditation on the things that are invisible. It enables him to look beyond time into eternity, and to desire those things that God has promised. Sin, when it has touched the soul, weakens its faculties. Its power of vision is affected. "Blessed are the pure in heart," said our Lord, "for they shall see God," but impurity is like a film over the eye, clouding its vision. As the soul ceases to see God, it ceases also to love Him, it takes less delight in prayer; the body, or the mind, gains advantages over it, the compound life is no longer maintained in due balance, but one factor or other overlaps, and chokes the spiritual life. Again, the spiritual life is the life of the spiritual faculty in man which enables him to observe God's law, and Sin lames and weakens man's moral powers. As long as the spiritual life is healthy, man's moral life is also healthy, for indeed the moral life is only another aspect of the same divine life in man. But if man delivers himself up to Sin, then this moral power in him is weakened, it ceases to speak distinctly, it becomes confused, and finally ceases to speak altogether. It is possible by continuance in sin to extinguish the spiritual life altogether. If the mind be not employed, then it sinks into inertness and death of the rational and intellectual faculties, and unless the soul be allowed to grow and expand, it also will languish. And if by continuance in Sin the soul be subjected to wound after wound, and its voice be never listened to, then finally it will die. [Illustration] Fifth Sunday in Lent. _THE DEADLY VICES._ 1. Certain Vices go by the name of Capital or Deadly Vices, because they lie at the head or source of all sin; and because they mortally affect the soul. But they are not in themselves acts, but principles or springs out of which sins issue. They are reckoned as seven in number, but neither does Scripture indicate this number, nor has the Church come to any decision on this point. It is rather common sense, and common observation, that have led to this classification, and it is a classification simple and intelligible, and of practical use.