The end of our pilgrimage, like that of the three wise men, my brethren, is union with our Lord. Of course union with God, through his power and his being present everywhere, always exists, whether we are his friends or not. But the state of grace is the union of love. By that union God rules our souls. By that union the Holy Spirit of God, the third person of the most Holy Trinity, really dwells within us. In the state of grace we are brought into loving contact with the divine Spirit. {60} Now the Apostle, in the words of our text, wishes to teach us one effect of that wonderful union. "For the Spirit himself giveth testimony to our spirit that we are the sons of God." That is to say, when the Holy Spirit enters into your heart he announces his coming, he assures you of his friendship, he excites within you a sentiment of filial affection for your Heavenly Father. How could it be otherwise? Could God be long in our hearts and we be altogether ignorant of it? Of course he does not take away the natural fickleness of our minds; the star sometimes shines faintly, or even for a while disappears from view. God does not reveal himself as he is; he does not interfere at all with his external work in the holy church; he does not substitute his interior action on the soul for that exterior action of visible authority and sacramental symbols. It is, indeed, by means of this external order that the Holy Spirit enters into our hearts; it is, besides, only by means of the church's divine marks, her divine testimony, her divine influence in the sacraments, that we can be quite sure that Almighty God has come down into our souls. Yet the Holy Spirit really has a secret career within us. "Deep calleth unto deep"; that is, the infinite love of God calls into life our little love. He has his inner church in our souls, so to speak; or rather he brings into his spiritual and hidden temple all that is outside, spiritualizes the external order, joins the purely mental with the sacramental, and, having set our faces in the right direction and started our feet moving in the right road, he sets us to thinking right, he stirs up noble aspirations, he purifies our feelings, and finally gives us testimony that it is really himself, the Spirit of God, who has thus been at work making our inner life such as befits the sons of God. {61}