Mary, were formerly slaves of the world and the passions, and who, latterly, touched with grace, like her, quit no more the feet of the Lord; it is here that you ought to remember that, in future, one of the most important duties of your new life is, that of continually demanding, like the sister of Lazarus, from Jesus Christ, the resurrection of your brethren, the conversion of those unfortunate souls who have been accomplices in your criminal pleasures, and who still, under the dominion of death and sin, sorrily drag on their chains in the ways of the world and of error. You ought continually, in the bitterness of your heart, to be saying to Jesus Christ, like the sister of Lazarus, Lord, he whom thou lovest is sick; those souls to whom I have been a stumbling-block, and who have less offended thee than I, are still, however, in the shadow of death and in the corruption of sin; and I enjoy a deliverance of which I was more unworthy than they! Ah! Lord, the delight I feel in appertaining to thee shall never be perfect while I behold my brethren thus miserably perishing before mine eyes: I shall but imperfectly enjoy the fruit of thy mercies, while thou refusest them to souls to whom I have myself been the fatal cause of their departure from righteousness: and I shall never think that my crimes are fully forgiven, while I see them existing in those sinners who have been removed from thee only through my example and my passions.
Not, my brethren, that you ought to place your whole dependence on the prayers of the good, or to expect from them alone a change of heart and the gift of penitence. For this is a very general illusion, and more especially among those who are high in the world: they suppose that, by respecting virtue, by showing favour to the good, and by interesting them to solicit our conversion from God, our chains shall drop off of themselves without any effort on our part; they comfort themselves upon that remainder of faith and religion which renders virtue in others still dear and respectable to us; they give themselves credit for not having, as yet, reached that point of freethinking and impiety, so common in the world, which makes virtue the public butt of its censures and derision. But, alas! my brethren, it availed nothing to king Jehu that he had publicly rendered honour to the holy man Jehonadab; his vices still subsisted with all that respect he had for the man of God. It availed nothing to Herod that he had honoured the piety of John the Baptist, and that he had even loved the holy freedom of his discourses: the deference which he had for the precursor left him still all the excess of his criminal passion. The honours which we pay to virtue attract aids to our weakness; but they do not justify our errors: the prayers of the good induce the Lord to pay more attention to our wants; but they do not render him more indulgent to our crimes: they obtain for us victory over the passions which we begin to detest; but not over those which we still love and which we still continue to cherish: in a word, they assist our good desires; but they do not authorize our impenitence.
The miracle of raising up Lazarus teaches just souls, then, to solicit the conversion of their brethren; but the conversion and deli-
