his repose, my spikenard," says the spouse in the Canticle, "sent forth the odor thereof." (Cant. i. n.) "The spikenard," says St. Bernard, "is a low plant, and an emblem of humility. Be, therefore, ready to prepare such food for your Guest, as you know He will gladly feed on." Seek, therefore, the virtue of humility in every action of your life.
III. This Guest of our souls is so liberal, that He brings gifts and presents with Him, for those who receive His visits worthily. In this spirit of liberality, He in a Pharisee's house cured a person laboring under the dropsy. If you examine yourself accurately, you will more than: probably discover, that you labor under some spiritual complaint which requires immediate relief. Discover your spiritual ailment, and then humbly and fervently implore the Giver of all good things, to grant you His assistance to effect a lasting cure.
MONDAY.
The Sick Man at the Probatic Pond — I.
I. God bestowed a great benefit on the Jews, in making the " probatic" pond a cure for all diseases. It was situated near the temple, and the sheep that were to be offered in sacrifice, were washed in it. The water in this pond was stirred by an angel, and hence it received the virtue of curing all diseases in the person who first entered it, after the waters were moved. This probatic pond was a type of the sacraments of baptism and penance, in which those, who wish to follow Christ, are washed for" the sacrifice of justice." (Ps. 1. 21.) These sacraments possess a heavenly virtue, which is given to them by "the angel of the testament," that is, in the lan-
