_POINT I. Consider that all our blessings have been the result of sacrifices._ When Adam had ruined our race by selfish indulgence, the Son of God restored us to favor by the most tremendous spirit of sacrifice. His blessings to mankind were propagated from land to land and from age to age by men distinguished for the spirit of sacrifice; the Apostles, the Martyrs, the missionaries, the founders of religious Orders, the saintly bishops and priests, to the present day. If we wish to take our share of this glorious task of saving souls, it can only be done by making sacrifices. The minister of Christ who shirks the toils and the privations of his vocation produces little fruit: “Unless the grain of wheat falling into the ground die, itself remaineth alone; but if it die it bringeth forth much fruit.... If any man minister to me, let him follow me” (St. John xii, 24-26). _POINT II. The spirit of sacrifice is necessary for our salvation and sanctification._ 1. For our salvation. For a person who is not accustomed to refuse himself many, even lawful, indulgences is very likely to fall into temptations and grievous sins. Therefore Holy Job said: “I made a covenant with my eyes that I would not so much as think upon a virgin” (xxxi, 1). On the other hand, Solomon said of himself: “Whatsoever my eyes desired, I refused them not; and I withheld not my heart from enjoying every pleasure, and delighting itself in the things which I had prepared” (Eccles. ii, 10). The result was that Solomon, “the wise man” by excellence, the special favorite of God at first, fell afterwards into most grievous sins: “And when he was now old his heart was turned away by women to follow strange gods ... he worshipped Astarthe .. and Moloch,” etc. (3 Kings xi, 4-8); and it is not certain that he saved his soul. History and constant experience teach, by frequent examples, that the spirit of sacrifice is necessary to secure our salvation. And our Divine Lord declares in express terms that “The kingdom of heaven suffereth violence, and the violent bear it away” (St. Matth. xi, 12). 2. This violence, or the spirit of sacrifice, is still more necessary to work out our sanctification. For this is to be achieved by the imitation of Christ, who says: “If any one will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross and follow me” (St. Matth. xvi, 24). And it is an axiom of the spiritual life that one advances in virtue in proportion to the violence he does to himself. Therefore the religious life, which is the school of perfection, calls at every step for generous sacrifices in the observance of that multitude of rules whose very purpose is the sanctification of the soul by the spirit and the practice of sacrifice. _POINT III. How should we practise the spirit of sacrifice?_