man; here lie sanctified the marriage and the feast with his presence; here he multiplied the loaves to fill a famished multitude; here he checked his disciples who wanted to bring fire from heaven upon a criminal city; here he deigned to hold converse with a woman of Samaria; here he suffered the children around him, and rebuked those who wanted to drive them away; here he restored sight to the blind, made the lame to walk, delivered those possessed of devils, made the dumb to speak, and the deaf to hear. At these words our fathers felt themselves transported with a holy joy; they shed tears of tenderness and of religion upon that blessed land; this sight, these images, carried them back to the times, to the actions, to the mysteries of Jesus Christ, inspired them with fresh ardour, and consoled their faith; sinners found there a sweet trust, the weak a new force, and the righteous new desires.
Ah, Christians! it is not necessary that you cross the seas; salvation is at your hand; the word which we preach to you will be, if you wish it, upon your mouth and in your heart; open the eyes of faith, behold these altars; they are not places consecrated formerly with the presence, it is Jesus Christ himself: approach in remembrance of him; come to rekindle all that your heart hath ever felt of tender, affecting, and lively, for this divine Saviour. Let the remembrance of his meekness, which would not permit him to break the reed already bruised, nor to extinguish the yet glimmering lamp, quiet your transports and impatiencies: let the remembrance of his toils and of his troublesome life overwhelm you for your effeminacy; let the remembrance of his modesty and of his humility, which made him fly when they wanted to make him king, cure you of your vanities, of your schemes, of your frivolous pretensions: let the remembrance of his fast for forty days reproach you for your sensualities: let the remembrance of his zeal against the profaners of the temple teach you with what respect, and with what holy dread, you ought to enter there: let the remembrance of the simplicity and frugality of his manners condemn the vain superfluities and the excesses of yours: let the remembrance of his retirement and of his prayers warn you to fly the world, to retire sometimes into the secrecy of your house, to pass, at least, some portion of the day, in the indispensable practice of prayer; let the remembrance of his tender compassion for a famished people give you bowels of compassion for the unfortunate: let the remembrance of his holy discourses teach you to converse innocently, holily, and profitably with men: in a word, let the remembrance of all his virtues, there more lively, more present to the heart and to the mind, correct you of all your weaknesses. This is what is called to communicate in remembrance of him.
But, to bring continually to the altar the same weaknesses; to familiarize ourselves in such a manner with the body of Jesus Christ, that it no longer awakens in us a new sentiment, but leaves us always such as we are; to nourish ourselves with a divine food, yet not to increase; frequently to approach this burning furnace with-
