just, as well as for the sinner. "After baptism," says St. Thomas, "continual prayer is necessary for man that he may enter heaven." The just man can not practise virtue without prayer, for, says St. John Climacus, "prayer is the source of all virtue; it is the channel through which flow to us all Christ's graces and all divine gifts; it is the best and most indispensable means of advancing in virtue."
The just man, although he is in the grace of God, is nevertheless naturally weak, prone to evil, and beset with many temptations from the world and the devil, and especially from his own passions. He can not escape temptation, and without God's assistance he can not overcome it. St. John Chrysostom says: "As water is required to keep plants from withering, so also prayer is necessary to preserve us from destruction. As fire is quenched by water, so are our passions extinguished by prayer."
The same misfortune will befall the just man who neglects to pray in time of temptation as befell St. Peter when he failed to pray according to Our Saviour's injunction. St. Peter loved Our Lord truly and dearly, and, we may say, with a greater love than that of any of the other apostles. And nevertheless he
