ence to allow Satan to gain mastery over our lives.

Second Thought.-Christ our Lord has no bond-servants in His house, save those who must unwillingly or unwittingly do His will. The beasts of the earth and all lower creatures are His servants, doing His will instinctively, without moral choice. The devils and wicked men are his servants because willingly or unwillingly they must carry out His purposes; no one may resist His will. But His faithful followers He will not reckon as servants, having no claim upon Him for any higher place than that of slaves in His house, and thankful that we are permitted even thus to minister to Him, yet He will not have it so. As He says in another place, "Henceforth I call you not servants; for the servant knoweth not what his lord doeth but I have called you friends; for all things that I have heard of my Father, I have made known unto you." He will have His faithful ones in His house only as friends, not as servants. Those who outwardly do His will, members of the Church who seem to comply with the conditions of their Christian privilege, yet at heart do not care for their Lord, nor are undivided in their allegiance, are tolerated in His house for the time being, as if they were friends; He will not treat them otherwise than

as friends, though in very truth they are but servants, because they have not the heart of friends. Even Judas He called "friend" in the very hour of that false one's darkest treachery. But He reminds us that such servants abide not in the house for ever; only sons can do that. If we be not sons of God, as well as His servants; if we be not such as acknowledge themselves, though rightfully no more than slaves, yet actually, through His infinite goodness, His children, it is certain that we must sooner or later be expelled from His house. Let us see to it that our lives declare our filial relation, not our servitude.

Third Thought.-Who is sufficient for these things? It is certain that none of us can in his own strength rise up out of servitude into sonship. And SO the Master adds very graciously, "If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed." All depends upon our personal union with our Lord Christ. He is the well-beloved Son, Who does always those things which please the Father.

1. The first perfect result of our union with Him through sacramental life is the purging of our souls from sin, so that Satan's dominion over us shall be utterly destroyed. There is no fiction about this: the precious Blood of

Christ, applied to the individual soul in absolution, actually removes all the guilt of sin, and remits its eternal penalty, beside aiding the believer in no small degree to endure the temporal penalty which remains.

2. The second perfect result of our union with Him is that we become able wholly to do the Father's will. Nor is there any fiction here. For the soul united to Christ, through the sacramental life, does nothing of itself, but all things along with Him; His infinite merit overmastering all our insufficiency. Thus it is that all whom the Son makes free become free indeed.

LXIX.

"I know that ye are Abraham's seed; but ye seek to kill me, because my word hath no place in you. I speak that which I have seen with my Father: and ye do that which ye have seen with your father. They answered and said unto Him, Abraham is our Father. Jesus saith unto them, If ye were Abraham's children, ye would do the works of Abraham. But now ye seek to kill me, a Man That hath told you the truth, which I have heard of God: this did not Abraham."-St. John viii. 37-40.

Exposition.-St. Chrysostom says: "Gently and by little doth He expel them from that relationship, teaching them not to be highminded because of it. For as freedom and bondage depend on men's actions, so also doth relationship. He said not directly, Ye are not the seed of Abraham, ye the murderers of the righteous, but for a while He even goeth along with them, and saith, I know that ye are Abraham's seed. Yet this is not the matter in question, and during the remainder of this speech He useth greater vehemence.

Repeatedly handling their murderous intention,

He maketh mention of Abraham. And this He doth desiring to draw off their attention from this relationship, and to take away their excessive boasting, and also to persuade them no longer to rest their hopes of salvation in Abraham, nor in the relationship which is according to nature, but in that which is according to the will. For what hindered their coming to Christ was this, their deeming that relationship to be sufficient for them to salvation."

Isaac Williams comments thus: "Sons of God or of the Evil One all must be; the spirit of good or of evil must have place in each heart. I know that ye are children of Abraham after the flesh; but there is a truer sonship which is shown by likeness of spirit; as this likeness shows me to be the Son of God; there is a likeness which shows whose children ye are. They were children of Abraham, says Augustine, according to birth in the flesh; but not sons of Abraham through instigation of the devil. In like manner they were of God, as created by Him; they were not of God, as having corrupted themselves. To this we may add, we are sons of God by adoption through Christ, Who was a Son by nature; we are children of Abraham after the Spirit through Christ, Who was the seed of Abraham after the flesh. 'Whatever of evil is in us,' says Augustine, 'is of ourselves,