October 23
Daily Gleanings of the Saintly LifeFourteenth Wednesday after Trinity
(Ember Day.)
The works of the flesh are manifest. Galatians 5:19.
"BE not deceived." "The works of the flesh, which are these; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the which I tell you before"—I solemnly warn you—"that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God." Sons of God, and inheritors of the kingdom, you must so live in the Spirit and walk in the Spirit as not to be tempted by these desires; you must not creep and crawl on the ground as heirs of death, and children of the serpent; but your walk, your hearts, your desires, must be above the world, governed by the grace of God. Thou who sayest thou abidest in Christ, ought so to walk as He walked. Thou hast given thy tongue to Christ, give not thy soul to the devil. Even a right faith, if it work not by love, maketh not men upright. Nor can works, although right, make the heart upright without faith. If then neither faith without works, nor works without faith, suffice to make the heart upright, let us who believe in Christ labour to make our ways and our deeds upright. Let us lift up our hearts with our hands unto God, that we may be formed wholly upright, proving by right deeds the rightness of our faith, loving and loved by the Bridegroom of the Church, Jesus Christ our Lord, God blessed for evermore.
Faith, hope, and charity—Father, these three Sweet graces give to me.
Faith, to believe myself in Christ forgiven, In Him a hope of heaven.
O! give me charity, my heart to bind In love to all mankind;
So let me live, that I in Thee may die, With Thee to reign on high.