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sin. Plato's disciple, Trochilus, having barely escaped with his life from a shipwreck, ordered that all windows of his house looking seaward should be walled up, lest some day seeing it calm and beautiful he should again be tempted to go a-sailing. A valuable lesson this. How often spiritual shipwreck has overtaken us, and though we barely escaped by clinging to life-saving penance, yet next day, next week, we patched up our shattered bark and launched it forth again! Trochilus's philosophy may seem rigorous, but it has this merit that it coincides with the teaching of Christ. "When a strong man, armed, keepeth his court," says Christ, " those things which he possesseth are in peace." To feel secure against the devil, you must not only guard the inner apartments of your soul but also its outer court, and the moat and trench beyond, else the enemy will use your own defences for your undoing. The nearer he approaches, the harder it is to repel him. Aristotle beautifully illustrates this by citing the conduct of the Trojan senators. The Greeks were besieging Troy to get possession of Helen, and the senators in her absence wisely decided to give her up; but when she came before them they were so dazzled with her loveliness that they determined to defy the Greeks and fight them to the death. So, too, his powers of resistance desert the gambler in the gaming den, the drunkard in the saloon, and the lustful in the presence of a dissolute woman. Ah, how wickedly wise the devil is! When he tempted Christ he was not content with describing to Him, or showing Him on