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chief means whereby we obtain pardon from God for our sins. That original stain which we inherit with our nature, as well as all actual sins of the unchristened adult, are removed by the grace of Baptism. The remedy for sins committed after Baptism is Penance. " Penance," says St. Jerome, " is, as it were, a plank from the wreck of his baptismal innocence, on which depends the Christian's sole hope of salvation." Faith and fear and hope and love are necessary, yes, but of themselves they do not suffice. They are as so many steps by which the sinner ascends to such exalted virtue that he conceives and manifests a heartfelt sorrow for his sins, not only on account of their intrinsic malice, but more especially because they are offensive to God. Sin's remedy must be as drastic as sin itself. " The sinner," says the Psalmist, " puts on iniquity like a garment, and it goes like water into his entrails, and like oil into his bones." Sin palsies the soul more completely than did his disease the poor cripple of to-day's Gospel, and nothing but that thorough revulsion of its whole being which we call Penance can ever effect its recovery. In the Old Law the virtue of penance was the only means by which forgiveness of sins could be obtained. From Adam to John the Baptist the scriptural message to the sinner was to be converted to the Lord by bringing forth fruits worthy of penance and pardon. It was on account of, and in recognition of, their repentance, and their repentance alone, that God led Israel out of captivity, averted the doom impending over the great city of Ninive, and