(_d_) Avarice, or Covetousness, has several daughters. It produces in man--1. _Callousness_ to distress. He loses feeling for the distress of the poor and suffering. He begrudges everything given to them as something taken from himself. 2. _Dishonesty._ In order to increase wealth, the Conscience is hushed to pass over certain fraudulent or dishonest acts whereby money may be gained unfairly, by false representation, by selling a thing at what is beyond its worth, &c. 3. _Unrest._ The mind is engrossed by the cares and anxieties of the pursuit of wealth, so that no good seed can grow in it. The calm and peace of a Conscience at rest in God pursuing the true end is gone, and is replaced by constant uneasiness as to how certain speculations will turn out, what profit will come from a certain sale, or how certain losses are to be made up. [Illustration] Sixth Thursday in Lent. _LUXURY._ 1. Luxury incites to the indulgence of the senses excessively, beyond what God's law permits. As a vice, it consists in the love of what is sensuous, and the inclination to yield to the pleasures of the sense. It leads to forgetfulness of God and idolatry. That is to say, to the enthronement of self in the place of God. Everything is made to give way to the indulgence of the pleasures and caprices of self. God exacts of us the homage of the entire man--body, soul and spirit; luxury corrupts the body so that it can no longer be presented holy and without blame to God; stains and enervates the soul, and dulls the mind, filling it with lassitude and indifference. It leads to sacrilege, for sacrilege is the profanation of that which is dedicated to God. Now, man's body is the temple of the Holy Ghost, and S. Paul shews that sensuality is a defilement of this temple. Moreover, Christ took human nature upon Him to restore human nature, to purify it, and if we by indulgence desecrate the body, we are dishonouring that nature which Christ stooped to assume. 2. Luxury indulged in becomes a _servitude_. He that doeth sin is the servant of sin. (John viii. 13.) The more that the carnal nature is yielded to, the more exacting it becomes. It is never satisfied, it is ever crying out for fresh pleasures, and even when the faculty of enjoyment is over, the burning craving after new pleasures remains. Luxury indulged in _gives the Evil One power over us_. At first he advised, suggested evil, then he commands as a master, and will be obeyed. The sinner groans in his bondage and desires to escape, but remains in chains, his efforts to escape are powerless. Luxury indulged in _weakens the power of resistance_. The sinner becomes with every sin yielded to more frail and more cowardly. His will becomes more powerless every time he yields, he makes the next fall more easy, recovery more difficult.