irritate anybody; and yet another to be merciful and beneficent.
The characteristics opposed to the eight we have just considered are these: — the spirit of possession or of riches; bitterness; love of pleasure; injustice and hardness; corruption of heart; a spirit of quarrelsomeness and misunderstanding; impatience under afflictions; and lastly a cowardice that makes us leave off following the law of truth and justice.
We find in St Luke an abridgment of the Beatitudes reduced to four: — to poverty, hunger, mourning, and being hated and persecuted for love of the Son of God. [1] To these four Beatitudes Jesus Christ adds four denunciations on men of the world: — ' Woe to you that are rich, for you have your consolation. Woe to you that are filled, for you shall hunger. Woe to you that now laugh, for you shall mourn and weep. Woe to you when men shall bless you. For according to these things did their fathers to the false prophets.' [2] Let us, then, be afraid to have our consolation on earth; afraid to seek it, afraid to receive it, afraid of the praise and approval of the world; but let us cherish this series of Beatitudes which carries us on from the love of
