sient enjoyments of this world, is far removed from the fulfilment of the will of God; borne along by the tide of passion, he indulges in the gratification of his licentious appetites: in this gratification he places all his happiness, and pronounces him blessed, who succeeds in its attainment. We, on the contrary, beseech God, in the language of the Apostle, that " we make not provision for the flesh in its concupiscence; [1] but that his will be done."
It is not without a struggle with corrupt nature, that we can bring ourselves to beg of God not to satisfy our inordinate appetites; this disposition of soul is difficult of attainment; and by offering such a prayer we seem in some sort to hate ourselves. To those who are slaves to the flesh such conduct appears folly; but be it ours cheerfully to incur the imputation of folly for the sake of him, who has said: " If any man will come after me, let him hate himself." [2] Better to desire what is right and just, than to obtain what is opposed to reason and religion, and to the laws of God. Unquestionably the condition of the man, who attains the gratification of his rash and inordinate desires, is less enviable than that of him, who obtains not the object of his pious prayers.
Our prayers, however, have not solely for object, that God should deny us what accords with our inordinate desires, vitiated as they are in their source: but, also, that he would not grant us those things for which, under the persuasion and impulse of the devil, who transforms himself into an angel of light, we sometimes pray, believing them to be good. The desire of the prince of the Apostles, to dissuade our Lord from his determination to meet death, appeared not less reasonable than religious: yet our Lord severely rebuked him, because it originated, not in supernatural motives, but in natural feeling. What stronger proof of love towards the Redeemer than that evinced by the request of St. James and St. John, who, filled with indignation against the Samaritans for refusing to entertain their Divine Master, besought him to command fire to descend from heaven and consume those insensible and in human men? Yet they were reproved by our Lord in these words, " You know not of what spirit you are; the Son of man came not to destroy but to save." [3]
We should beseech God that his will be done, not only when our desires are inordinate or appear to be inordinate, but, also, when they are not inordinate; when, for instance, the will obeys the instinctive impulse which prompts it to desire what is necessary for our preservation, and to reject the contrary. When about to pray for such things, we should say from our hearts, " thy will be done;" in imitation of the example of him, from whom we receive salvation and the discipline of salvation; who, when agitated by a natural dread of torments, and of a cruel and ignominious death, bowed in that agonizing hour with meek
