scraped the corrupt matter, sitting on a dunghill. And his wife said to him: Dost thou still continue in thy simplicity? bless God and die, and he said to her: Thou hast spoken like one of the foolish women; if we have received good things at the hand of God, why should we not receive evil? In all these things Job did not sin with his lips” (ii, 7, 8). Such is the grand example of patience that Job gave for all subsequent ages. After his trials were ended, the Lord rewarded him abundantly in his wealth and in the excellence of his later children; “and Job lived after these things a hundred and forty years, and he saw his children and his children’s children unto the fourth generation, and he died an old man and full of years.” In the New Law, in which we live, the rewards of patience are far more precious than those here mentioned in the case of Job; for “The sufferings of this time,” says St. Paul, “are not worthy to be compared with the glory to come that shall be revealed in us” (Rom. viii, 18). And St. James writes: “Blessed is the man that endureth temptations; for when he hath been proved, he shall receive the crown of life which God hath promised to them that love Him” (i, 12). IV We must remember, however, that _not all our temptations are from the evil spirit_. He is wicked enough to cause them all; but he need not do so. Of course they never come from God; for St. James says: “Let no man, when he is tempted, say that he is tempted by God; for God is not a tempter of evils, and He tempts no man. But every man is tempted by his own concupiscence, being drawn away and allured” (i, 13-14). As concupiscence belongs to our fallen nature, it cannot be altogether suppressed; but its power can be very much increased or diminished; and therefore the temptations it causes are to a considerable extent under our own control. If a St. Aloysius, a St. Stanislaus and many other chaste youths scarcely felt any rebellions of the flesh, it was due in great part to the care with which they had from their early childhood guarded the gates of their senses, their eyes, their ears, their touch; and instead of flattering them, they had constantly mortified them in various ways. On the other hand, very many persons allow themselves liberties of an indelicate nature; these need not wonder why they find it so difficult to lead chaste lives. However, even the most mortified souls may be severely tempted to carnal sins; thus we read of St. Anthony, that, even in his frightful desert, he was one day assailed by such temptations; and when the victory was won, he exclaimed: Lord where wast Thou when those vile images beset my mind? And the Lord answered him: Anthony, I was in the midst of your heart. But the danger of the sin is certainly much greater when a person is, partly at least, the cause of such disorderly affections, when he heaps fuel on the fire of concupiscence.