Odious as sin is in itself, offensive as it is to God, yet it acquires a considerable accession of deformity, in proportion to the deliberation with which it is committed. The same sin, committed by different persons, may widely vary in the degree of offence, according to their different degrees of advertence respecting the act they perform. Ignorance will sometimes entirely exculpate a transgressor of the law of God.

But he, who knows, or ought to be sensible, that the act he performs is sinful, incurs all the guilt, all the malice of the crime.

Such a man, in an eminent degree, is he, who relapses into sin after penance. He has prostrated himself before the representative of Christ, has acknowledged himself in humble confession a guilty criminal, and has been impressed with all the enormity of his transgression. The commission of sin, after such a knowledge of its enormity, involves, besides the depravity that is connected with the act, a contempt of God, and a virtual retraction of the sorrow expressed in the confession. Relapse, though thus heinous, is not uncommon; and therefore it may be advantageous to dwell a short time on the examination of the causes whence it originates. These causes may be classed under two heads. The recurrence to the occasions of the first transgression, and the neglect of the means necessary for perseverance in grace. To show the danger of each shall be my present endeavor.

Whatever object, whether external or mental, whether of itself or by reason of its circumstances, conveys to the heart dangerous impressions, is called an occasion of sin. These occasions are various, according to the various dispositions and sensibilities of different persons. What is calculated to induce one man to sin, is not always dangerous to another. Some things, indeed, of their own nature, incline the heart to evil; but, generally, each man must judge from his knowledge of his own dispositions (his own knowledge of past sins), what, peculiarly, it will be fatal for him to approach. If, with this knowledge, he voluntarily exposes himself to that occasion, is he not answerable for the evil results that arise from it? He, who is indifferent to the placing of a cause, cannot wish to avoid the effect; especially if he has already experienced his own frailty in that occasion. Can he have better hopes of victory in the second, than in the first instance? Not only do the same causes mostly operate on the same persons the same effects, but the human heart becomes weakened by defeat. It has a natural disposition to habituate itself to what once has gratified it. Guilt is consequently more readily incurred a second, than the first time.

But, perhaps some will say, "Sin often results from diversions, actions, and company, in themselves most innocent." Whatever it be, that occasions sin, it must be avoided. If thy right eye, says our Saviour, scandalize thee, pluck it out. And Solomon says : There is a way that appeareth to man just, and the ends thereof lead unto death. Satan lurks under specious disguises. His attacks on the heart are not made openly. To show his hideous form would foil his deadly aim. It is in the moments when the soul is off her guard, in the hours of relaxation from business, in convivial hilarity, when the passions are stimulated, and the heart is carried along the tide of dissipation, that he makes the fatal approach. Ever on the alert, and knowing our particular infirmity, he watches the opportunity when we are dallying with the occasions that before were our ruin, to replunge us into vice.

The most innocent enjoyments in life, if they thus lead to spiritual ruin, must be abandoned. The dearest connections, if they interfere with the love of God, must be broken: for, in this respect, those words of Christ are extended to every Christian: If any one cometh to me, and hateth not father and mother, and wife, and children, and brothers, and sisters, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple. Thus jealous is God of our exclusive adoration. He will not suffer any thing to be for a moment balanced against Him. What, though the enjoyments that are a man's ruin be in themselves harmless? What, though the company in which he experiences spiritual detriment be of approved morality? Still are they forbidden to him. The dangerous shelves that sleep beneath a milky surface, may be escaped by many; to some they will be fatal; and if the mariner carefully mark the spot, which others' experience has taught him to avoid, how culpable is he whom self-experience has not taught the lesson of caution?

Vain are your hopes of escape, vain are your best resolutions, vain is all your circumspection, vain are your petitions for succor, as long as you continue to court those occasions which you know to be dangerous. He who loves the danger, shall perish in it. Man adheres very implicitly to this saying of Scripture in what relates to corporal dangers. He, who has been on the verge of the grave, in consequence of some imprudence in trusting too much to the strength of his constitution, seldom fails to make a prudent estimate of his strength, when he becomes convalescent. The horrors of death are cautiously averted at any expense. But the separation of the soul from God is not deemed an object deserving even the retrenchment of superfluous indulgence: the death of the soul has no horrors sufficient to convince Christians of their weakness. Though they are sensible that God is the only object worthy of their love, and though they live constantly in danger of having their love of Him impaired by the familiar habit of hearing and seeing Him offended; though they have been allured from the love of Him, and know by experience the spot where the entangling snare is concealed, they wander again over the fallacious ground:--though still trembling from recent rescue, they hover again within the attractions of the vortex that had swallowed them, and again experience its fatality. Better were it for them, says St. Peter, never to have known the way of justice, than, after knowing it, to turn their back on the holy ordinance that was delivered to them. Whence can this weakness originate? whence is it that the resolution of not returning to sin and its occasions is so readily forgotten? From that neglect of the means necessary for perseverance in grace, which I have already mentioned, as the second cause of relapse.

In our present condition, the human heart inclines rather to what is depraved than to what is good. It is impossible, therefore, to persevere in rectitude without divine assistance. In Thee shall I be delivered from temptation, says the psalmist. It is from God we are to expect the graces necessary for perseverance in that pure state in which penance places us. But can we hope for those graces, without using the means to obtain them? God owes nothing to man. He has nevertheless bountifully and gratuitously provided everything necessary for his salvation. What is there, says He by the prophet Isaias, that I ought to do more for my vineyard, and I have not done it? Graces, says St. Augustine, could be given to those who do not ask them; but God would have us admonished, by our praying for them, from Whom we receive those blessings. Prayer, therefore, is one of the means which we must employ. It is a homage due to Him, through Whom we are whatever we are. It is an acknowledgment of our dependence on Him, and a means by which we cultivate His friendship, and through which we invigorate our frailty. Can man claim an independence of his Creator? he, who, from the cradle to the grave, of whatever condition he be, is indebted for existence to others, lives in mutual dependence on his fellow mortals, subject to a hundred contingencies, and often the slave of one like himself? Such subjection he is compelled to undergo; and shall he say, he stands in no need of his first Author? of Him, Who redeemed him from the bondage of Satan? of Him, at Whose pleasure he breathes, by Whose permission he moves, by Whose supporting hand alone he is prevented from sinking into lifeless clay, and who, at the minute counted by his all-ruling Providence, is to benumb the vital arteries, and to deprive them of their mysterious power? Yet, he, who neglects to pray, does virtually say, that he stands in no need of God. And can he expect God to shower down His graces upon him? The favors of temporal princes are, in great measure, proportionate to the assiduity and services of their courtiers. Absence, or neglect of duty, is followed by privation of honors, and it must not be thought that God is less jealous of the homage which we owe Him. He will withdraw his saving hand from the tepid, and abandon them to the feeble strength on which they presume.

Let us then beware of mistaking that calmness of soul which follows a sincere conversion to God, and that internal satisfaction which attends a conscience freed from the load of sin, for a perpetual exemption from the attacks of Satan, or even for a respite from his snares. If we slumber, the enemy of our souls will be wakeful. Nothing exasperates his malice more, than to see his malign intentions foiled by repentance. If we allow ourselves to be lulled into a fatal security, he will seize that favorable moment to regain the habitation from which penance had dislodged him: I will return into my house, whence I came out. The practice of virtue admits of no intermission. There is no point whereat to pause. We must either advance, or go back. We must either commit ourselves to the guidance of grace, or become the victims of Satan's delusion. As he is ever vigilant, our endeavors must never be relaxed; and if, after the performance of penance, the self-satisfaction, which such an act tends to produce, arise in the breast, we must not imagine ourselves secure; we must still watch and pray, lest we enter into temptation.

But we cannot be always abstracted in prayer. Even that portion of our time which remains on hand, after we have satisfied the claims of business and of friends, will often appear too long to be devoted to that holy exercise. On the manner in which these intervals of leisure are spent much will depend. For the mind, though it is soon fatigued by too intense an application to any single object, yet can never be in a total state of rest. It must exert its activity; and, if not usefully engaged, it will indulge in vain and sinful reveries. Hence idleness has been represented by all moral writers as the source of a multiplicity of spiritual evils. In idle hours our thoughts are sure to turn to what is most congenial to our depravity. It is then the self-destroyer fixes his purpose; it is then the infidel fortifies himself in his irreligion; it is then the debauchee feeds his lustful heart; it is then the revengeful mind works up its anger for the direful deed; it is then, in fine, that every sinful act is projected.

Nothing can prevent such consequences but to keep the mind occupied in something useful. And what more agreeable manner of engaging its attention than spiritual reading? We might, at least, expect that dull leisure which the affluent often experience, and those spare hours which the poorest can frequently call their own, to be appropriated to this necessary exercise. But, alas! even the day appointed by God Himself to be kept holy is spent without its practice: the obligations of Sunday are supposed to be complied with after mass has been attended to; whilst the rest of the day is devoted at best to frivolous amusements. Can such dispersion of thought, such neglect of God be suffered without injury to the soul? It is absurd to suppose it.

Ye, therefore, who may have relapsed into sin, reflect on your state. Whatever may have occasioned it, endeavor now to repair your fervor and to renew your resolutions. But take care to provide against the cooling of the one, and the failing of the other, by the means which I have suggested; by avoiding dangerous occasions, (prayer), and by spiritual exercises.