1. Having seen how Christ made a full, perfect, and sufficient sacrifice for the sins of the whole world, we will now see how we can apply the merits of His Sacrifice to our own souls, to _cleanse_ them from dead works, and to _strengthen_ them for obedience in His service. 2. The _atoning blood of Christ is applied in the Sacraments_. First, in the Sacrament of Baptism the blood of Christ is the efficient cause of the neophyte passing out of the bondage of Satan into the Kingdom of God. By that blood we obtain remission of original sin. But we sin after Baptism. How is past baptismal sin to be effaced? (_a_) There must be a _right disposition_ on our part. We must _come to a knowledge_ of our sinful state; then we must _bitterly grieve_ over our transgression, and we must then _resolve not to sin again_; in other words, knowing our sin we must acknowledge it, be contrite, and have full purpose of amendment. These three elements go to make up _true repentance_. And without true repentance there can be no pardon accorded us. (_b_) When there is this right disposition, then we must _plead the Sacrifice of Christ's death_. This we do in the way Christ Himself appointed, by the oblation of the Holy Eucharist. In this we show forth the Lord's death till He come. In this we offer up before God the atoning blood of Christ in expiation for our offences. Then we go before the Throne of the Eternal Father, and righteous Judge; we show that we are ourselves in the right disposition, _i.e._, truly repentant, we acknowledge our offences, show Him that we bewail them, earnestly entreat for grace to amend, and then plead that all-prevailing Sacrifice, through which alone our repentance can be accepted. (_c_) But all prayer is an echo of the great Eucharistic Sacrifice, for all prayer is offered through the name, the merits, and mediation of Jesus Christ. Prayer is availing, because we have access to the Father through Christ. 3. _The Sacrifice of Christ obtains for us strength_, and this is distributed to us in the Sacraments. At the Lord's table we are strengthened and refreshed with the Body and Blood of Christ, enabled through Him to resist temptation, overcome natural weakness, grow strong in His grace, and attain to the likeness of Christ. We should have no help from above were it not that Christ has won it for us by His Sacrifice. Thus through Jesus Christ, we who were sometime aliens are brought nigh to God, made the children of God, and perfected unto the Day of the Lord. [Illustration] * * * * * Transcriber's Notes: Italic text is denoted by _underscores_. The illustrations indicated at the end of each chapter are small, black Maltese-style crosses. Obvious printer's errors corrected. Every effort has been made to replicate this text as faithfully as possible, including obsolete and variant spellings, inconsistent hyphenation, unclear grammatical usage, and other inconsistencies.