Eighteenth Day
Extent of Christian Perfection. — Matt. v. 46-48.
EXAMINE yourself on these three degrees: — to love, to do good, and to pray.
‘If you love them that love you what reward shall you have? Do not even the publicans this? And if you salute your brethren only, what do you more? Do not also the heathens this? ’ Remember, that is, that you have not been offered an eternal inheritance, with indestructible happiness, for nothing: not that you may remain merely the equal — or, perhaps, the inferior — of the heathen. Let the Christian soul remind itself of this with regard to every point of conduct. What reward, O Christian woman, do you deserve for merely despising vain ornaments? The heathen have despised them. And what great glory will you have for despising riches? The philosophers did so. So also with chastity. It was heartily observed by the
