be digged; but briers and thorns shall come up; and I will command the clouds to let fall no rain upon it." Meditate on the misfortunes that all these evils would entail upon you, and resolve to avert them.
III. Nothing ought to be wanting to convince you that it is your duty to prepare for His visit. Prune away all superfluities by salutary mortification. Discover the nature of the soil of your soul by a thorough self-knowledge. Destroy the briers and growing weeds of passion, and let the tears of compunction fertilize the aridity of your soul. In fine, " let your vineyard be before you, and it will bring forth its fruits in due season." (Cant, viii. 12; Ps. i. 3.)
MONDAY.
Christ invites all to Contemplate His Passion.
I. Christ with good reason complains, that after having suffered so much for men, He still finds them ungrateful and forgetful. " I looked for one," He might truly have said during His passion, "who would grieve together with Me, but there was none; and for one who would comfort Me, and I found none." (Ps. lxviii. 21.) "The just perisheth, and no man layeth it to heart." (Is. lvii. 1.) Meditate on this pitiful state of your Jesus; tell Him that you will not leave Him alone; that you will sympathize with Him; and that the just one shall not perish without your notice and condolence.
II. We can do nothing more pleasing to our Redeemer than to meditate frequently on His passion. He invites all mankind to this holy exercise by the mouth of His prophet: " O all ye that pass by the way, attend, and see if there be any sorrow like to My sorrow." (Lament, i. 12.) He calls the attention of all mankind to His suffer-
