We may, without great difficulty, infer the existence of purgatory from the truths known by faith. Our faith teaches us that in the Sacrament of Penance our sins are forgiven, together with the eternal punishment due to them. The temporal punishment due to them is not always forgiven, however, and consequently it remains to be endured either in this world or in the next. Call to mind the examples of David, Moses, Peter and Mary Magdalene. They were all forgiven their sins and the eternal punishment due to them, and yet how much did those dear servants of God bewail their offences during their whole lives and expiate the temporal punishment due to them! Again there is another argument and ground on which our reason demands the existence of a purgatory. It may be that a soul just departed this life is free from all mortal sin—even free from all temporal punishment due to grievous sin, but perhaps not free from certain light and venial sins, which, though not destroying the grace of God in the soul, still darken and stain its full splendor. It may be that all those venial sins are atoned for and wiped away by the patiently borne agony of death, but how often it happens that the Christian is suddenly surprised by death in different forms, and when least expecting it. It would be contrary to God’s mercy and justice to cast that soul into hell, or to receive it at once into heaven. Prayer. Release, O Lord, etc., etc. Sixteenth Day. The doctrine that sinners, even after the guilt and eternal punishment due to sin are remitted, have still, as a rule, to satisfy the justice of God in some way, has been acknowledged by the Church both in deed and by express word. By deed, because of her severe penitential discipline in the early days of the Church, because of the works of penance enjoined in the confessional, and the granting at all times of indulgences. By express word because of the definition of the Council of Trent. Now if according to the certain doctrine of faith, some temporal satisfaction remains to be made after the remission of sin and eternal punishment, what, we ask, will become of those souls who are suddenly called away before they have done such penance as their sins required—before they have given full satisfaction? Into heaven, where nothing impure can enter, they cannot be received until the full debt is paid. Into hell they cannot be cast, because they died in a state of grace and are friends and children of God. Therefore, reason says, there must be a place where those just and holy, though not yet thoroughly cleansed souls, must linger till purified completely, and fully worthy of God’s sacred presence. Were it otherwise our reason would be darkened and troubled by doubts, either as to the justice or as to the infinite mercy of God. Reason tells us that there is a state of virtue not good enough for heaven, and a state of vice not bad enough for hell. Common sense tells us that there is a difference between