follows it. His life becomes wasted and dissipated—that is, scattered and squandered, full of weariness and a tediousness in all things, which at last invades even his acts and duties of religion. A priest may be chaste and temperate in all things; but weariness is the descending path which leads to sloth, and sloth is the seventh of the sins which kill the soul. To have too much to do is for most men safer than to have too little.
5. There is still one more danger to which the last directly leads, and that is lukewarmness. It was to a Bishop our Lord said: "Thou art neither cold nor hot. I would thou wert cold or hot; but because thou art neither cold nor hot I will begin to vomit thee out of My mouth."[1] The rejection is not yet complete, but it is begun; and if the priest does not know himself it must come at last. A lax priest is of all men most to be pitied. When his priesthood ceases to be sweet to him, it becomes first tasteless, and then bitter in the mouth. The perpetual round of the same actions and the same obligations becomes mechanical and automatous. Sancta sancte, as the Council of Carthage enjoins. But when holy things cease to be sustaining and refreshing, they are a yoke which galls, and a burden
- ↑ Apoc. iii. 15, 16.
