birthright? Will you, by sin, take the course that leads you away from your heavenly home? "Oh!" I hear you say, "I will choose heaven." But, remember, heaven is to be won. "Heaven," says St. Philip Neri, "is not for the slothful and cowardly." Strive then, henceforth, for the rewards that are at God's right hand. Strive to attain abundant merits for eternity. Remember that he that soweth sparingly shall reap sparingly, and he that soweth plentifully shall reap plentifully. God is not unmindful of your works and labor that proceedeth from love. Things so small as not to be taken notice of, things that happen every day, add a new glory to our mansions in heaven. With this aim, then, let us henceforth work. "Oh, happy I," says St. Augustine, "and thrice happy, if, after the dissolution of the body, I shall merit to hear the songs that are sung in praise of the Eternal King, by the inhabitants of the celestial city!" Happy I, if I myself shall merit to sing those strains, and to stand before my Lord and King, and to see Him in His glory, as he promised! "He that loveth me shall be loved by my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him." "How amiable are thy tabernacles, Thou Lord of Hosts! My soul hath a desire and a longing to enter into the courts of the Lord." Grant me this, O Lord. Give and withhold what Thou wilt. I do not ask length of days. I do not ask for earthly honor and prosperity. I do not ask to be free from care, or labor, or suffering. But this I do ask, O Lord: when this life is over, shut not up my soul in hell, but let me look on Thy face in the land of the living. Make me so to pass through things temporal that I lose not the things eternal. {263} Hail, Heavenly Queen! our life, our sweetness, and our hope! to Thee do we cry, poor, exiled children of Eve. Oh, then, from Thy throne in heaven, lift upon us, who are struggling in this world, those merciful eyes of Thine! and when this our exile is over, show us the blessed fruit of Thy womb, JESUS! Note.--This was the last Sunday-Sermon which F. Baker preached, two weeks before he was seized with his last illness. -------------------- Sermon V. The Duty Of Growing In Christian Knowledge. (First Sunday in Advent.) "The first man knew not wisdom perfectly, no more shall the last find her out. For her thoughts are vaster than the sea, and her counsels deeper than the great ocean." --Eccles. XXIV. 38, 39.