is once filled with the Holy Ghost is always led to prayer, contemplation, and solitude. Besides, our Lord retired to avoid the applause of the people, which was the natural consequence of the wonderful signs which had been seen at His baptism. Before He commenced His preaching, He retired forty days from the conversation and ways of men, to teach you to love solitude and retirement, and when you have it in your power to separate yourself from your ordinary occupations, and, for a short time at least, to enter into spiritual retreat, to converse with God on the important affair of salvation.
II. Christ is said after His baptism to have followed the conduct of the Holy Ghost, intimating that all who are baptized ought to follow the direction of the Divine Spirit and not their own judgments. Examine what spirit guides you in your actions, whether it be the spirit of perfection or of vanity. If you be a child of God, you must be led in everything by the Divine Spirit; for according to the Apostle, " whosoever are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God." (Rom. viii. 14.)
III. St. Mark says of Christ, "And He was with beasts." (Mark i. 13.) Admire the humility of the Son of God, who, although He was creator of all things, did not disdain for forty days to live among brute beasts. He might truly have said with Job, " I was the brother of dragons, and companion of ostriches." (Job xxx. 29.) Be confounded at your want of virtue, when you cannot live contentedly except with companions of your own choice and humor. Learn to bear patiently with the crosses arising from troublesome associates; for, as the great St. Gregory says, "No one is perfect who is impatient among bad or troublesome neighbors."
