important to you. " We beseech you, brethren, .... to do your own business." Let us then be persuaded that eternal salvation is for us the concern of the last importance the one concern; and that it is an irreparable concern if ever we make a mistake.
It is the most important concern: yes, since it is an affair of the greatest consequence; it concerns the soul, which if lost all is lost. S. Chrysostom tells us that the soul ought to be more precious to us than all the goods of the world. It is sufficient to know, in order to understand this, that God Himself has given His Son to die to save our souls: " God so loved the world, that He gave His only-begotten Son." (S. John iii. 16.) And the Eternal Word did not refuse to purchase them with His own Blood. "Ye are bought with a price." (i Cor. vi. 20.) So that, as a holy Father observes, " The redemption of man was effected at so precious a price, that man seemed to be of equal value with God." Hence our Blessed Lord said, "What shall a man give in exchange for his soul?" (S. Matt. xvi. 26.) If the soul, then, be of so great value, for what worldly goods truly, shall a man exchange and so lose it?
S. Philip Neri had reason to call him mad, who does not attend to the salvation of his soul. If on this earth there were men mortal as well as immortal, and the mortal men beheld those who were immortal wholly concerned with the things of this world in the acquiring honours, possessions, and in worldly amusements they would certainly exclaim, " Oh, madmen that ye are. You are able to gain eternal goods, and do you strive after these alone which are miserable and transitory? And is it for these that you condemn yourselves to eternal pains in the next life? Leave us, unhappy, who can only think of these earthly things, for whom all will end in death." But no since we are all immortal, how is it that so many endanger the soul for the miserable pleasures of this world? How is it, says Salvian, that Christians believe that there is a judgment, a hell, an eternity, and yet live without fearing them.
Affections and Prayers.
Ah, my God, how have I spent the many years which Thou
