{"collection":"scripture-revelation","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_76888/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_76888","id":"gutenberg_76888","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/76888","summary":null,"tags":["Category: Religion/Spirituality","Lord's Supper -- Prayers and devotions -- English","Meditations"],"text":"CORAM SANCTISSIMO\n\n\n\n\n                          BEFORE THE MOST HOLY\n\n                          (CORAM SANCTISSIMO)\n\n\n                                   BY\n\n                           MOTHER MARY LOYOLA\n\n                        OF THE BAR CONVENT, YORK\n\n\n                               EDITED BY\n\n                         FATHER THURSTON, S.J.\n\n\n                             ST. LOUIS, MO.\n\n                               B. HERDER\n\n                           17 SOUTH BROADWAY\n\n                          LONDON: SANDS & CO.\n\n                                  1904\n\n\n\n\n  Nihil obstat.\n\n       HERBERT THURSTON, S.J.,\n                  _Censor Deputatus_.\n\n\n  Imprimatur.\n\n       HERBERTUS CARD. VAUGHAN,\n                  _Archiep. Westmonast._\n\n  _15th September, 1900._\n\n\n\n\n                                   TO\n\n                              JESUS CHRIST\n\n                               YESTERDAY\n\n                                 TO-DAY\n\n                              AND THE SAME\n\n                                FOR EVER\n\n\n\n\nPREFACE.\n\n\nThe custom of honouring the Eucharistic presence of Christ our Lord by\npaying \u201cVisits\u201d to the Blessed Sacrament may be quoted as one of the\nmost conspicuous examples of development in the devotional practice\nof the Catholic Church. Down to the latter part of the Middle Ages\nsuch an usage seems to have been entirely unknown. As far as regards\nEngland, the late Father Bridgett, if I mistake not, says that in\nall the researches made by him while compiling his _History of the\nHoly Eucharist in Great Britain_ he had not come across one clear\nexample of a visit to the Blessed Sacrament in pre-Reformation times.\nEven on the Continent the idea of any extra-liturgical _cultus_\nof the Blessed Eucharist seems to have grown up very tardily. There\nwere many saints as late as the fifteenth century, say, for example,\nSt. Frances of Rome, whose lives show no trace of such a conception,\nthough nothing could be more strongly emphasised than their devotion\nto the Blessed Sacrament in Holy Communion.[1] It is remarkable to\nnotice that even St. Ignatius Loyola, in the book of the _Spiritual\nExercises_, when directing attention to the abiding presence of God\nwith His creatures as a motive for awakening love, says not a word of\nthe Blessed Sacrament. One must not, of course, press the negative\nargument too far. No prudent man would infer in this latter case that\nthe practice of visiting churches to commune with our Lord in the\nTabernacle was unknown in the sixteenth century, but it is reasonable\nto conclude that the uninterrupted Eucharistic presence of God with His\npeople did not then play the same conspicuous part in the devotional\nlife of the faithful that it does in our day.\n\nThis late and gradual development of a devotion, which seems to us\nnow so natural and so unmistakably involved in premises that all men\naccepted, is certainly a remarkable fact. Even to the present day\nthe Greek Church, though its belief in transubstantiation is no less\nexplicit than our own, has never drawn the inference that our Lord has\ncome in the Blessed Sacrament to be our companion and refuge as well\nas our food. It seems to have been part of the Divine dispensation,\nin this as in some other matters, to hold men\u2019s eyes that they should\nnot know Him. Throughout the long centuries our forefathers seem to\nhave regarded the Eucharistic presence as if Christ had wished to\npreserve His _incognito_ while He dwelt amongst them, or as if\nHe were sleeping as of old in the bark of Peter and would rebuke the\nwant of faith of those who too importunately disturbed His repose.\nBut surely we are right in thinking that if they so apprehended God\u2019s\npurpose in remaining on our altars, their appreciation of His boon\nwas but inchoative and imperfect. To us now it seems so obvious that\nthe work of Jesus Christ in the Blessed Sacrament was not meant to be\nintermittent, limited to the time of Mass and Holy Communion, that it\nis hard to believe that Christians who truly recognised this presence\nin their midst can ever have conceived otherwise. Perhaps we may draw\nthe lesson that if the fulness of understanding were long delayed in so\nplain a matter, it is not surprising that in other dogmas and practices\nwhich justify themselves less obviously there may be developments\nin the Church\u2019s teaching not suspected or at least not clearly\napprehended by our forefathers in the faith.\n\nAs things are, no devout Catholic would wish to be deprived of the\nprivilege of drawing near to our Saviour in the Tabernacle and making\nHim the daily confidant of hopes and fears, of joys and troubles. But\nwhat distresses many pious souls is that having Him ready and willing\nto listen they should so often find themselves tongue-tied in His\npresence. The set forms of prayer which they know by heart are worn\nthreadbare by routine, and books too often prove stiff and artificial.\nThe heart has many wants and longings, but hardly knows how to put them\ninto words. In such a case real help, I think, is likely to be found\nin this very miscellaneous collection of musings, self-arraignments,\nout-pourings of spirit, to which the authoress has given the apt name\nof _Coram Sanctissimo_, \u201cin the presence of the Most Holy\u201d. They\nare not intended to be taken in rotation, or to be used every day, but\nthere are times when a troubled worshipper, turning over the leaves,\nmay light upon something here which will chime in with his mood and\nwill make the task of prayer more easy to him. And if for one or\nanother the thoughts of this little book may serve to break the ice and\nto render the soul for the nonce more at home in that holy presence, I\nfeel sure that the authoress will consider the labour spent in writing\nit to have been abundantly repaid.\n\nIt will be noticed that in the pages which follow verse finds a place\nas well as prose. It would not be fair to let this go forth to the\nworld without stating that it has been written, so to speak, under\nprotest, and that without strong encouragement Mother Mary Loyola would\nhardly have suffered it to see the light. Although the verses are\nperhaps unequal, I do not in any way repent the share I have had in\nurging the writer to let them stand. It would have been worth a greater\nrisk of failure and a longer expenditure of time to have secured even a\nfew such happy lines as may be read for instance in the chapter headed\n\u201cIn Silence and in Hope,\u201d describing St. Mary Magdalen:--\n\n    She came with her crushing memories,\n      She came with her secret fears,\n    She brought Him her hidden misery\n      And her bitter, burning tears.\n\nOr again:--\n\n    Absorbed in her loving ministries\n      She knelt at His feet apart,\n    The scandal of every eye save one\n      That soundeth the secret heart.\n\nThe verses at best are only an experiment. They were written in each\ncase for the sake of the thought, not of the metrical form, and if the\nauthoress could have found, as she long endeavoured to do, any suitable\nreligious poetry which expressed kindred ideas, and which would have\nafforded that variety which is meant to be characteristic of this\nlittle booklet, she would have been glad, I know, to escape the seeming\npresumption of appearing as a writer of verse. But I do not think that\nthe many friends who use and appreciate Mother Loyola\u2019s _Confession\nand Communion_ and her other devotional books will be disappointed\nin anything which may meet their eye in this new effort of her pen.\n\n  HERBERT THURSTON, S.J.\n\n _11th September, 1900._\n\n[1] The earliest satisfactory example of visits to the Blessed\nSacrament which I have so far come across occurs in the life of Blessed\nMaria de Malliaco (A.D. 1331-1414), who, it is stated, \u201cin\nfestis solemnibus vigilabat in ecclesia coram corpore Christi\u201d. The\nstory of St. Louis of France, who in a grievous storm placed himself on\nhis knees before the Blessed Sacrament on ship-board, does not appear\nto me to belong to quite the same category. I should be grateful to\nany readers of this note who may be able to supply me with earlier\ninstances.\n\n\n\n\n                         CONTENTS.\n\n\n  CHAPTER                                            PAGE\n        I.  VISITS                                      1\n       II.  PRAISE                                      9\n      III.  \u201cPOSSUMUS\u201d                                 14\n       IV.  THE SON OF MAN                             18\n        V.  WHAT THINGS?                               21\n       VI.  VENITE AD ME OMNES                         30\n      VII.  THE HIDDEN GOD                             33\n     VIII.  LOOKING THROUGH THE LATTICES               37\n       IX.  LORD, COME AND SEE!                        41\n        X.  NEGLECT                                    43\n       XI.  FAITH                                      47\n      XII.  AFTER A DEFEAT                             52\n     XIII.  AFTER A VICTORY                            55\n      XIV.  A DIVINE FRIEND                            57\n       XV.  AN EVENING VISIT                           59\n      XVI.  PRIVILEGED                                 63\n     XVII.  THE IMPROVIDENCE OF LOVE                   67\n    XVIII.  CHANGES                                    70\n      XIX.  I HAVE SOMEWHAT TO SAY TO THEE             73\n       XX.  A DIVINE PLAINT                            77\n      XXI.  THANKSGIVING                               80\n     XXII.  DARKNESS                                   85\n    XXIII.  \u201cWHAT IS TRUTH?\u201d                           91\n     XXIV.  HIS SECOND COMING                          95\n      XXV.  OUR EARTH                                  99\n     XXVI.  CHRIST OUR STUDY                          104\n    XXVII.  OUR FATHER                                109\n   XXVIII.  HEREAFTER                                 111\n     XXIX.  MY VINEYARD                               115\n      XXX.  WHERE WE ARE TRUE                         118\n     XXXI.  IN SILENCE AND IN HOPE                    121\n    XXXII.  GOD\u2019S WORK                                124\n   XXXIII.  A STRONG CRY                              129\n    XXXIV.  \u201cBE READY\u201d                                133\n     XXXV.  \u201cDOMINE, ECCE QUEM AMAS INFIRMATUR\u201d       137\n    XXXVI.  AFTER A DEATH                             142\n   XXXVII.  GOD\u2019S WAYS                                145\n  XXXVIII.  TWILIGHT AND NOON                         153\n    XXXIX.  RESPONSIBILITY                            159\n       XL.  LIFE                                      166\n\n\n\n\nI.\n\nVISITS.\n\n Go to Him early in the morning, and let thy foot wear the steps of His\n doors.--_Ecclus._ vi. 36.\n\n\nHow careful we are to observe the courtesies of life! How uneasy till\nsuch social duties are discharged! In the making and returning of\ncalls, how fidgety if hindered, how sensible that delay demands apology!\n\nAnd this where mere acquaintances are concerned. But what when there\nis question of a friend, a benefactor, one devoted to us and to our\ninterests? If formal visits are here uncalled for, it is only because\nour heart needs no prompting. Uninvited, inconsiderately often, we come\nand go, \u201cwearing the steps of his doors\u201d.\n\nAnd our best of friends--do we treat Him thus?--as affectionately, as\nfamiliarly? If not, why not? Is He not among the benefactors whose\ngifts deserve thanks, the friends whose feelings have to be considered,\nthe acquaintances, at least, whose attentions must be acknowledged?\nIs it because He puts Himself so completely at our disposal that He\nis to be neglected? Or because He is King of kings that He is to be\nconsidered outside the circle where courtesy is exacted?\n\nAh, Lord, how unmindful we are of what is due to You! How unmindful I\nam of Your unfailing devotedness to me! Sent into this world as into\na strange neighbourhood, I found You waiting to receive me, to make\nme welcome, to offer Your services, to show me all manner of graceful\nkindness. You have thrown open Your house to me. You invite me to Your\ntable. You press upon me Your gifts: \u201c_All ye that thirst, come to\nthe waters.... Come, buy wine and milk without money and without any\nprice_\u201d.[2] \u201c_Come to Me and I will refresh you._\u201d[3] \u201c_Him\nthat cometh to Me, I will not cast out_.\u201d[4] You make use of every\nmotive to draw me to Yourself; yet have to complain after all: \u201c_You\nwill not come to Me that you may have life_.\u201d[5]\n\n\u201cThey began all at once to make excuse. I have bought a farm ... I pray\nthee, hold me excused. I have bought five yoke of oxen ... I pray thee,\nhold me excused. I have married a wife, and therefore I cannot come.\u201d[6]\n\nThus it was long ago; thus it is now. We have time for other\nduties--for our correspondence, our shopping, our afternoon calls on\nother more favoured friends. But no time for a visit to Him. Is it so\nfar then to the nearest church? So far that He may well accept the\ndistance as sufficient reason for our absence, except at times when\nattendance is of obligation? Can I urge home duties and necessary\noccupations, when I see who those are that can and do find time to\nvisit Him?\n\nO my Lord, why these wretched subterfuges with You \u201cthe God of\ntruth\u201d?[7] Why not fall at Your feet and own that it is not distance,\nnor lack of leisure, nor any reasonable plea that keeps me from You,\nbut simply and solely _the want of love_? It is a reason I\ncould not give to any other friend. I should have to find some other\npretext with which to colour my neglect. But with You there need be\nno dissembling. Your friendship stands alone in the perfect frankness\nand confidence permissible on both sides. We may own to being cold\nand half-unwilling visitors, yet we are not for that unwelcome. The\npetulance, the selfishness, the waywardness of our moods that in the\nvery interest of other friendships call for self-restraint, may show\nthemselves in all their ugliness before the All-pitying, the Friend\n\u201cmore friendly than a brother,\u201d[8] whom nothing can shock, disgust,\nestrange.\n\nHe wants our intercourse with Him to be perfectly free; nothing\nstudied, nothing strained. He desires to have us as we are, no less\nthan as we would be. He wants to be taken into our confidence, to be\nlet into the secret chambers of our souls, into which we only peep\nourselves at stated times and with half-averted glance. He would\nshare in the interests and troubles of the moment; be called upon for\nsympathy in every event great or small that interrupts the even flow\nof our home life or of our inner life; take part in every experience\nwhether of sorrow or of joy. The soldier off to the front, the baby\nwith its broken toy, the girl with her first secret, no less than the\nwife, the mother, the priest, with their burdened hearts--He wants\nthem all. He sees us going off here and there for help, and comfort,\nand counsel. He hears our feet as they hurry past His door to wear the\ndoorsteps of other friends, and He calls to us in those tones divine in\ntheir tenderness of reproach: \u201c_You will not come to Me. My people\nhave forsaken Me, the Fountain of living water, and have digged to\nthemselves cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no water._\u201d[9]\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nHow long, O Lord, how long? When shall we wake up to the reality of\nYour Presence in our midst, and to the purpose of that Presence? We\nwould die for it if need be, and yet we heed it not. Shall I wait\ntill it is brought home to me by the remorse of my last hour, or by\nthe long, long hours of purgatory? Oh, why did I not make use of my\nEmmanuel, my God with me, whilst I had time, \u201cwhilst He was in the way\nwith me\u201d?[10] Why during my dream-life down there did I not realise the\nneed of Him that is the one need in this real life of eternity?\n\nA child at catechism said: \u201cWon\u2019t it be dreadful for those who don\u2019t\nbelieve in the Real Presence to find at Judgment that it _was_\nreal, that our Lord was there after all! Even if they didn\u2019t know any\nbetter, and so it was not their fault, and our Lord is not angry with\nthem--I think they will be so dreadfully sorry all the same.\u201d\n\nBut if these will be sorry, what will be the case of those who did know\nand neglected Him? Those to whom He will say, \u201c_So long a time have I\nbeen with you, and you have not known Me!_\u201d[11] \u201c_I was daily with\nyou in the temple._\u201d[12]\n\nLord Jesus, let not that be my bitterest thought in purgatory, that\nland of bitter thoughts. It is time that Your love should be returned,\nthat I should make amends for the past, that I should hasten to You\nwith my sorrow and my love.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\n_Go to Him early in the morning._ Is daily Mass an impossibility\nin my case? He waits for me there, to offer, for me and with me, His\nsacrifice and mine for the interests we share together.\n\n_And let thy feet wear the steps of His doors._ More especially\nin the afternoon or evening, when the church is quiet and He is left\nall alone. With a little goodwill and ingenuity could I not include a\nvisit to Him in my weekly, if not in my daily programme? Could I not\nso arrange my calls to other friends as to leave a few moments for my\ndearest and my best? How blessed a remembrance when He is brought to my\ndoors at the last, to be my viaticum, that in life I was faithful to\nthe duties of friendship and wore the steps of His doors!\n\n    O blessed, self-sufficing God\n      Athirst for me,\n    Coming a beggar to my door\n      All suppliantly,\n    Craving with meek persistence alms\n      Of my poor heart,\n    A thought, a word of sympathy--how sweet,\n      How sweet Thou art!\n\n    And must Thou knock and ever knock\n      Till life is flown,\n    Seeking vain entrance to a heart\n      That is Thine own?\n    Or wilt Thou rather work this hour\n      Such change in me\n    That hither I may come \u201cwearing Thy steps\u201d\n      Athirst for Thee!\n\n[2] Isa. lv.\n\n[3] Matt. xi.\n\n[4] John vi.\n\n[5] _Ibid._ v.\n\n[6] Luke xiv.\n\n[7] Psa. xxx.\n\n[8] Prov. xviii.\n\n[9] Jer. ii.\n\n[10] Matt. v.\n\n[11] John xiv.\n\n[12] Luke xxii.\n\n\n\n\nII.\n\nPRAISE.\n\n Give praise to our God, all ye His servants, and you that fear Him,\n little and great.--_Apoc._ xix. 5.\n\n\nWhen heaven is opened for an instant it is to let out a burst of\npraise. \u201c_Glory to God in the highest!_\u201d[13] \u201c_Thou art worthy,\nO Lord our God, to receive glory, and honour, and power!_\u201d[14]\n\u201c_The Lamb that was slain, is worthy to receive power, and divinity,\nand wisdom, and strength, and honour, and glory, and benediction.... To\nHim that sitteth on the throne, and to the Lamb, benediction and honour\nand glory and power for ever and ever._\u201d[15]\n\nWe lift up our heads; we are rapt. It is an unexpected strain from\nfatherland that catches the exile\u2019s ear and thrills through every\nfibre of his being. It finds an affinity, that burst of praise, in\nevery human soul on which the sense of exile weighs. For it is the\nstrain to which every soul is attuned by the very fact of its creation.\nThe language of praise is our mother-tongue. _Gementes et flentes\nin hac lacrymarum valle_ was no part of God\u2019s original design for\nus. We took the golden harps out of His hand and strained and broke\nthe strings, and now the notes are plaintive when not discordant. But\nChrist has restored all things. He has brought back our joy by taking\nour sorrow on Himself. Because here on earth He prayed \u201cwith a strong\ncry and tears\u201d[16] the song of praise is to be put again upon our lips.\nYet a little while and \u201cGod shall wipe away all tears ... and death\nshall be no more, nor mourning, nor crying, nor sorrow shall be any\nmore\u201d.[17] He is here upon the altar, waiting to catch up the faint\naccents of my praise, and bear them with His own before the throne of\nGod.\n\nDo this for me, O dearest Lord. Praise does not come easily to these\nlips of mine. The cares of life, and its failures, and its pains;\nheaviness of soul, and the weight of the corruptible body, with all\nthe engrossingness of self, wring my heart dry of praise. A sudden\nrevelation of Your goodness in the removal of a trial, or the advent\nof an unlooked-for joy, will lighten it for a moment and lift it up to\nYou in benediction. Yet even this impulse of thankful love is weak and\ncannot long sustain itself, and I fall again humbled at Your feet, to\nfeel how little I can do and say even at my best. As to the pure praise\nof heaven--free of all thought of self, where self is drowned in the\nglad, triumphant, all-absorbing sense of Your greatness, and grandeur,\nand all-sufficingness--of this I know nothing. Yet it is the language\nof my country, the tongue I shall speak for ever--should I not be\nlearning it here in time? A language may be learned in a foreign land\nthough the accent we only catch on its own soil.\n\nOften and often, dear Master, I say to You with the Twelve, \u201cTeach\nme to pray\u201d. I say to You now, \u201cTeach me to praise\u201d. Teach me that\nhighest, purest prayer which will be the incense rising for ever from\nmy heart when other prayer has ceased.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nFuller and richer every hour grows the heavenly harmony, as part after\npart is taken up by the blessed choristers arriving from earth and\npurgatory. But for whom are reserved the richest notes in the anthem\nentoned with human voice by Christ Himself? Surely for those who have\npractised that praise even here _in hac lacrymarum valle_. Whose\nhearts have never been allowed even in exile to forget the tongue\nof fatherland. Which have leaped up day by day in the _Gloria in\nexcelsis_ and the _Magnificat_, in the _Benedictus_ and\nthe _Te Deum_. Which have persisted in praise when the heart was\nweighted heaviest, when doubt, repining, rebellion even, sought to\nstifle its voice. They heard the call: \u201c_Arise, give praise in the\nnight_\u201d.[18] And answered: \u201c_The Lord gave, and the Lord hath\ntaken away, as it hath pleased the Lord, so is it done: blessed be the\nname of the Lord_\u201d.[19] It is this praise in the night that sounds\nsweetest in the ear of God. It is of these His faithful servants that\nHe says: \u201c_They shall praise Me in the land of their captivity, and\nshall be mindful of My name_\u201d.[20]\n\nWhat wonder that their song shall be sweetest in the City of Peace;\nthat their voices shall mingle more intimately than the rest with hers\nwhose heart was singing _Ecce ancilla_, even in its agony, with\nHis Who having sung a hymn went forth to Calvary!\n\n[13] Luke ii.\n\n[14] Apoc. iv.\n\n[15] _Ibid._ v.\n\n[16] Heb. v.\n\n[17] Apoc. xxi.\n\n[18] Lament. ii.\n\n[19] Job i.\n\n[20] Baruch ii.\n\n\n\n\nIII.\n\n\u201cPOSSUMUS.\u201d\n\n \u201cCan you drink of the chalice that I drink of?\u201d--\u201cWe\n can.\u201d--_Mark_ x. 38, 39.\n\n\nFar back in the ages before the world was, \u201cin the beginning,\u201d I hear\nthe Eternal Father treating with His co-equal Son about my redemption:--\n\n\u201cCanst Thou for that soul and for its salvation go down from heaven and\nbe made man?\u201d\n\nAnd the Divine Word answered: \u201c_I can_\u201d.\n\n\u201cCanst Thou live a life of thirty-three years, toiling and teaching\nand instituting Divine means for its salvation, and end that life of\nhardship and suffering by a death of pain and shame?\u201d\n\n\u201c_I can._\u201d\n\n\u201cCanst Thou perpetuate that Incarnation and annihilation even to the\nend of time; hiding Thyself under the form of bread in order to meet it\non its entrance into life, to be its companion, its refuge, its food\nall the days of its pilgrimage?\u201d\n\n\u201c_I can._\u201d\n\n\u201cAnd when, O Lover of that soul, it shall meet Thy love, Thy advances,\nThy sacrifices as Thou knowest it _will_ meet them, canst Thou\nbear with it still, supporting its coldness, its waywardness, its\nindifference, its ingratitude?\u201d\n\nAnd Jesus said, \u201c_I can_\u201d.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nAnd now my Redeemer turns to question me in my turn:--\n\n\u201cCan you for the sake of your salvation co-operate with Me and turn\nto your own profit all I have done and am ready to do for you,\nresolving to avoid everything that would imperil the great work we have\nundertaken--all grievous sin and all venial sin that leads to mortal?\u201d\n\nWhat can I answer but, \u201cO Lord, _I can_\u201d?\n\n\u201cCan you, as some return for My love, find it in your heart to avoid\nnot only sin, but the infidelities which impede My work in your soul,\nobstruct My grace and hinder union between us?\u201d\n\nWhat is my answer now?\n\n\u201cCan you with the eye of faith see Me in My suffering members, the\npoor, the sick, the outcast, the unprotected, the little helpless\nchildren, and for My sake sacrifice leisure, or ease, or worldly means\nto succour and serve them?\u201d\n\n\u201cGive me the faith, Lord, to recognise You in all these, and in the\nstrength of that faith, _I can_.\u201d\n\n\u201cCan you come after Me by taking up your cross daily, the cross I have\nlaid upon you to liken you to Myself?\u201d\n\n\u201cYes, Lord, for beneath will be the everlasting arms. You will not\nleave me alone, and with Your help, _I can_.\u201d\n\n\u201cCan you uphold My cause in the face of ridicule and disgrace, ready,\nif not glad, to suffer reproach for My name?\u201d\n\n\u201cIn Him Who strengtheneth me, Lord, _I can_.\u201d\n\n\u201cCan you bear to be overlooked, set at naught, despised by the world as\none at variance with its principles, as following another leader? Can\nyou bear the taunt: \u2018And thou also wast with Jesus of Nazareth\u2019?\u201d\n\n\u201cLook on me, Lord, in hours of trial as You looked on Peter, and\nsustained by that glance, _I can_.\u201d\n\n\u201cCan you drink still deeper of My chalice--the chalice I drained for\nyou--bearing with constancy desolation of spirit and the hiding of the\nFather\u2019s Face, content to serve Him for Himself rather than for His\ngifts?\u201d\n\n\u201cIn union, O my Lord, with Your desolate soul on Calvary, _I\ncan_.\u201d\n\n\n\n\nIV.\n\nTHE SON OF MAN.\n\n \u201cI also have a heart as well as you.\u201d--_Job_ xii. 3.\n\n\nOur Lord does quite simply what some of us are too proud to do. He owns\nto the yearning felt by every human heart for the sympathy of its kind.\nHe speaks plainly of His desire to share His joy and sorrows with His\nfriends, and is at no pains to conceal His need of their support, His\ngratitude for their devotedness, His distress at their unfaithfulness\nand desertion. \u201cFather, I will that where I am, they also whom Thou\nhast given Me may be with Me: that they may see My glory.\u201d[21] \u201cYou are\nthey who have continued with Me in My temptations.\u201d[22] \u201cMy soul is\nsorrowful even unto death: stay you here, and watch with Me.... Could\nyou not watch one hour with Me?\u201d[23] \u201cThe hour cometh ... that you\nshall be scattered every man to his own, and shall leave Me alone.\u201d[24]\n\nHe comes to a weak woman for her compassion and her help. He asks her\nto spread abroad among His friends the words in which He unburdened His\nheart to her, and beg them to come and bear Him company in His life of\nsolitude and neglect. To each one of us He says from the tabernacle:\n\u201cStay you here, and watch with Me.... Could you not watch one hour with\nMe?\u201d Or if not one hour, one quarter?\n\n_Stay with Me_ because I am going to offer My morning sacrifice,\nand men are too busy to assist at the oblation of Myself for them.\n\n_Stay with Me_ for a few moments at midday, when the glare of\nthe world and its rush and its din are fiercest. Turn off the crowded\npavement into the quiet church. \u201cCome apart ... and rest a little.\u201d[25]\n\n_Stay with Me_ because it is towards evening and the day is now\nfar spent. There will be no more visitors for Me to-day, none through\nthe long hours of the night. Stay with Me because it is towards evening.\n\nO Lover of men, so lonely, so forsaken, if Your object in staying with\nus day and night was to win our love, have You not failed? Has it\nbeen worth Your while to work miracle after miracle to produce Your\nReal Presence upon the altar? Have I made it worth Your while to be\nthere _for me_? Jesus, dear Jesus, I bury my face in my hands;\nI know of no heart more ungrateful, more callous than my own. I have\nbeen miserably unmindful of Your Presence here _for me_. I have\nlet self, pleasure, troubles even--anything and everything furnish an\nexcuse for keeping away from You and neglecting You in that sacramental\nlife which is lived here _for me_.\n\n[21] John xvii.\n\n[22] Luke xxii.\n\n[23] Matt. xxvi.\n\n[24] John xvi.\n\n[25] Mark vi.\n\n\n\n\nV.\n\nWHAT THINGS?\n\n \u201cArt Thou a stranger and hast not known the things that have been done\n in these days?\u201d To whom He said: \u201cWhat things?\u201d--_Luke_ xxiv. 18,\n 19.\n\n\nSome of us, maybe, are deterred from visiting our Lord in the Blessed\nSacrament by a false conception of what a visit should be. We suppose\nthat the occupations which fill our heads and our hands from morning\ntill night must all be laid aside at the church door and sternly\nforbidden entrance, much in the same way as we bid our dog lie down in\nthe porch and wait for us. We read that St. Bernard thus dismissed all\nsecular thoughts, and we conclude--though his biographer does not say\nso--that they returned at the end of his prayer, _and not before_.\nSelf-mastery such as this demands an effort to which few of us feel\nequal. Do what they will, the mind of the doctor and the lawyer will\nrun more or less upon their anxious cases, the student\u2019s head will be\nfull of his examination, the mother\u2019s of her household cares. These\nthoughts if indeliberate will be at least persistent, and if quite\ndeliberate will become sinful. In either case they render prayer an\nimpossibility--hence we stay away.\n\nNow do we find this view of prayer borne out by the practice of\nGod\u2019s servants? Of David in perplexity and trouble we read: \u201cAnd the\nPhilistines coming spread themselves in the valley of Raphaim. And\nDavid consulted the Lord, saying: Shall I go up to the Philistines? and\nwilt Thou deliver them into my hand? And the Lord said to David: Go up,\nfor I will surely deliver the Philistines into thy hand.... And the\nPhilistines came up again.... And David consulted the Lord: Shall I go\nup against the Philistines?... He answered: Go not up against them.\u201d[26]\n\nOf David in a mood of joy and thankfulness we are told: \u201cAnd King David\ncame and sat before the Lord, and said: Who am I, O Lord God, that Thou\nshouldst give such things to me?\u201d[27]\n\nSee, too, the simplicity and confidence of Ezechias on receiving the\nthreatening message of Sennacherib: \u201cAnd Ezechias took the letter from\nthe hand of the messengers, and read it, and went up to the house of\nthe Lord, and spread it before the Lord\u201d.[28]\n\nA common complaint is that daily worries and anxieties so invade our\nminds that our prayer has no chance. But is this our feeling about a\ntalk with a trusty friend--a man of sound judgment, wide experience and\ninfluence, on whose interest in all that concerns us we can count with\ncertainty? Should we say: \u201cI had half an hour with him this morning,\nbut my mind was so full of that affair I could find nothing to say\u201d;\nor: \u201cI had it all out with him this morning, and am ever so much better\nalready\u201d?\n\nWhy not deal thus familiarly with our best Friend? If Ezechias could\nspread out his letter before the Lord in that old Temple, which was but\na shadow of the better things to come, why may not we carry our good\nnews and our bad before the pitying human Heart of Christ, with us all\ndays on purpose to hear every day, and, if we will, every hour of the\nday, all we have to tell Him, and hearing all, to help in all?\n\nHad our Lord said to us: \u201cI will prosper any spiritual concerns that\nyou commend to Me, but really you must look after your own temporal\naffairs, and I shall count it an irreverence if you bring such things\ninto My presence\u201d--had He said this, there might be some excuse for the\npains we take to shut Him out of the cares and business of everyday\nlife.\n\nBut has He said this, or does all we know of Him go to prove the exact\ncontrary? Did He count it an irreverence when the sick were thrust upon\nHim at every step; when a paralytic let down from the roof and laid at\nHis feet stopped His teaching; when messengers came one upon another\nto draw Him here and there for some temporal need: \u201cLord, he whom Thou\nlovest is sick\u201d;[29] \u201cLord, come down before that my son die\u201d?[30]\nDid He refuse the invitation at Cana? And if for a brief space He\ndelayed the miracle designed from all eternity to manifest His tender\ninterest in the joys as well as in the sorrows of home life, was it\nnot obviously to show how Mary\u2019s heart beat in unison with His, and to\nhonour His Mother\u2019s prayer?\n\n\u201cLord, come and see,\u201d said the weeping sisters as they led the way to\nthe grave. Look at Him between them, listening now to one, now to the\nother, as they tell the history of the past three days--how they had\nwatched and waited for Him, and counted on His coming, and He came not.\nSee their tearful eyes. See the eager Heart, longing for the moment\nwhen He may reward their trust and turn their mourning into gladness.\n\nWhat should we have felt and said that day at Bethany if, after raising\nLazarus, He had turned to us and made Himself our listener, placing\nHimself, as was His wont, at the complete disposal of the one who\nwanted Him? Should we have felt shy of trying to interest Him in the\ndetails of our life, in our little joys and troubles? Or would our\nhearts have opened out to Him, and simply emptied themselves in His\npresence?\n\nDo we want an ideal visit to Christ? Let us seek it in Nicodemus\u2019\ntalks by night; in the centurion\u2019s urgent pleading for his servant; in\nthe unburdening of soul that we see in Zaccheus and in the sisters at\nBethany. And let us frame our own visits on such models. If a big worry\nthreatens to invade prayer, why not take it straight away into prayer,\ngiving it the place and time it wants, making it the subject-matter of\nour intercourse with God, and so turning a hindrance into a help!\n\nOf course we must do all this with reverence and a certain amount of\nwatchfulness, or our prayer will be no prayer at all, but distraction\npure and simple. But if we put our case before our Lord and talk\nit over with Him, representing our difficulty, asking His advice,\nlistening to His whispered word in answer, our time of prayer will be\nwhat He wants it to be--a time of rest, and light, and strength.\n\nSome may say that this so-called prayer is very unsupernatural, and\nthat the results of such a compromise between prayer and distraction\nwill not be very satisfactory. It may be so; we can only reply that\nthere are times without number when this is the only method of getting\nresults at all, and that our Lord\u2019s method of dealing with His own and\ntheirs with Him was _eminently natural_.\n\nNo, surely, our difficulty is not due to want of sympathy on the part\nof Christ our Lord. It can only come from our failing to recognise the\nfull purpose of the Incarnation and its bearing on every detail of\nhuman life. Had His act of Redemption been His one motive in coming\namongst us, He might have come straight from His throne at the right\nhand of the Father to the cross on Calvary. But the proof of love\ngreater than which no man can give did not satisfy Him. He wanted as\n\u201cFirst-born amongst many brethren,\u201d[31] as Head of the human family,\nto place Himself in intimate communication with it on every side, to\ntouch as far as might be every point, every experience of human life,\nentering personally into its mysteries of joy, and fear, and love, and\nsorrow. And so we have the years of infancy and childhood and youth,\nand--precious above all--the blessed years of the public life, when\n\u201cthe Lord Jesus came in and went out among us,\u201d[32] proving by every\nword and act His desire to be associated with us His brethren, His\nright to His name of predilection--_the Son of Man_.\n\nHe it is Whom we find waiting for us when our turn comes to pass across\nthe short stage of life on earth. He calls us to Him, calls us by our\nname, one by one. He bids us take Him to our hearts as the nearest and\ndearest of our friends, Who alone can stand by us when all others fail.\nHe bids us cultivate His friendship, and try it and prove it. And He\npromises that we shall find Him what all have found Him who have put\ntheir trust in Him--what Martha and Mary, and Paul and Bernard, and\nTeresa and Margaret Mary have found Him--the \u201cFaithful and True,\u201d[33]\n\u201cJesus Christ yesterday, and to-day: and the same for ever.\u201d[34]\n\n[26] 2 Kings v.\n\n[27] 1 Par. xvii.\n\n[28] Isa. xxxvii.\n\n[29] John xi.\n\n[30] _Ibid._ iv.\n\n[31] Rom. viii.\n\n[32] Acts i.\n\n[33] Apoc. xix.\n\n[34] Heb. xiii.\n\n\n\n\nVI.\n\nVENITE AD ME OMNES.\n\n --_Matt._ xi. 28.\n\n\n    \u201cCome to Me, heavy-laden ones, come all!\u201d\n    I hear, I rise, I hasten at His call;\n    \u2019Neath burden bent, across the threshold steal,\n    The curtain lift, and in His Presence kneel:\n        There loose my load--and wide,\n        With none to check nor chide,\n    Scattering, a sorry sight, on every side,\n\n    They fall--pains, troubles, cares--lying, how meet,\n    About the weary, way-worn, wounded Feet;\n    Under the Eye of yore bedimmed with tears,\n    The Heart Gethsemane oppressed with fears,\n        The Heart that sore afraid\n        Strong supplication made,\n    And with a sweat of blood the Father prayed.\n\n    Beneath His glance, as snow \u2019neath sunny ray,\n    Some of my cares dissolve and melt away,\n    And some He takes and smoothes a little space\n    The less to chafe, and lays again in place.\n        \u2019Tis mystery to me\n        How some He smiles to see,\n    And how on some His tears fall tenderly.\n\n    One I hold up to Him, and pleading pray,\n    \u201cThis, Lord, just this, in pity take away!\u201d\n    And ever comes His word with cheering smile:\n    \u201cA little longer, trust Me yet awhile;\n        Each pang of keen distress,\n        Each prayer, I mark and bless,\n    Each in its hour shall show forth fruitfulness\u201d.\n\n    _That_, my life\u2019s woe, against a bleeding Side\n    Is pressed, and lo! transfigured, glorified,\n    It glows as crystal flushed with rosy ray.\n    \u201cO gem unprized! Restore it, Lord, I pray;\n        As costly gift from Thee\n        Dear shall it be to me\u201d;\n    And in my heart I hide it lovingly.\n\n    A lightened load He lays on me, all sweet\n    With words of love--and thus I leave His Feet,\n    With steadier step to plod on day by day,\n    With stouter heart to climb the upward way;\n          And when anew life\u2019s strain\n          Frets me with weary pain,\n    I take my load and go to Him again.\n\n\n\n\nVII.\n\nTHE HIDDEN GOD.\n\n Vere Tu es Deus absconditus!--_Isaias_ xlv. 15.\n\n\nThere is no use denying that with the exception of rare intervals,\nour intercourse with God in this life is more or less laborious and\ndifficult. This is only saying that Heaven is not yet come. Faith was\nmeant to be a trial, and a trial it certainly is. The evidence of sense\nis against us; the levity of imagination is against us; the inconstancy\nof our desires and of our will is against us when we kneel down to pray.\n\n\u201cBehold He standeth behind our wall.\u201d[35] We know He is there, close\nas the priest in the confessional, with attention to every word we\nsay. Yet, for all that, the words and the confidences come slowly. It\nis hard to prolong a conversation that is all on one side, and this,\nso it seems to us, is the case in prayer. Useless to tell us that our\nfaith is at fault. That in the presence of the Pope, or the King, we\nshould be all attention. Where the conditions are so different, there\ncan be no parallel. The voice, the look, the question and answer, the\nsurroundings--all these are wanting. Such admonitions irritate us by\ntheir injustice, and we look away wearily for help elsewhere. But\nwhere to look? We cannot alter the present state of things or fix our\nwandering thoughts and unstable heart. No, but we can accept all things\nas they are in truth, and in the truth find a remedy.\n\n\u201cBehold He standeth behind our wall.\u201d But the barrier between us is\nnot a drawback, an obstacle to union with Him--inseparable indeed\nfrom the present condition of things--yet an obstacle for all that.\nIt is distinctly willed by Him as a necessary part of our trial, a\nwholesome discipline, a purification of love. It has in it all the\nprivileges, advantages, blessings, that in this life belong to pain,\nand can be won by pain alone. It is a present blessing as well as a\npledge of blessing to come. \u201cBlessed _are_ they that have not\nseen and have believed.\u201d[36] It is a pledge of that full clear vision,\n\u201creserved in heaven for you, who, by the power of God, are kept by\nfaith unto salvation, ready to be revealed in the last time. Wherein\nyou shall greatly rejoice, if now for a little time you must be made\nsorrowful.... That the trial of your faith (much more precious than\ngold tried by the fire) may be found unto praise and glory and honour\nat the appearing of Jesus Christ: Whom having not seen you love; in\nWhom also now, though you see Him not, you believe, and believing shall\nrejoice with joy unspeakable.\u201d[37]\n\n\u201cWe see now in a dark manner: but then face to face.\u201d[38] \u201cI shall\nsee Him, but not now.\u201d[39] How will that face to face vision be the\nbrighter and the sweeter for the dimness now! How will the joy of that\nmoment when we part for ever with faith be intensified by what faith\nhas cost us in the past!\n\n    O days and hours, your work is this,\n      To hold me from my proper place,\n      A little while from His embrace,\n    For fuller gain of after bliss.\n    That out of distance might ensue\n      Desire of nearness doubly sweet,\n      And unto meeting when we meet,\n    Delight a hundredfold accrue.\n\n                                                    --_In Memoriam_\n\n[35] Cant. ii.\n\n[36] John xx.\n\n[37] 1 Peter i.\n\n[38] 1 Cor. xiii.\n\n[39] Numbers xxiv.\n\n\n\n\nVIII.\n\nLOOKING THROUGH THE LATTICES.\n\n                                                   --_Cant._ ii. 9.\n\n\nBut meanwhile the Beloved _is_ behind the wall. And He is there\nwith all the sympathy for our difficulty which His perfect knowledge\nof it enables Him to have. \u201cJesus ... needed not that any man should\ntell Him ... for He knew what was in man.\u201d[40] He knows the weariness\nof praying on against apparently unanswered prayer; against the pain\nof physical restlessness, the labour of thought, the irksomeness of\nconcentration, the perpetual gathering together of the forces that are\nplaying truant in a thousand fields, recalled for a brief space only\nto be off again more wayward for their capture. All this He knows.\nAnd our remedy is to remember that He knows it. He Who has appointed\nprayer to be the channel of grace, means such prayer as we can bring\nHim. He does not ask impossibilities. He does not place us amid\ndistracting work all day long and expect us to shut it out by an effort\nof will the moment we kneel down to pray. Nor even to shut it out by\nrepeated efforts. He would have us turn our distractions and weariness\nnot so much into matter for self-reproach, or humiliation even, as into\na loving, trustful plea for His pity and His help. This is prayer. Lay\nthe tired brain, the strained muscles, the aching head--lay them all\ndown at His feet without a word, just for His eye to rest on and His\nHeart to help and heal.\n\nThere are times when physical lassitude, cold or heat, an importunate\nthought, a trial with its sting still fresh, baffles every effort to\nfix the mind on the subject of prayer, and concentrates the whole\nattention on what for the moment is all-absorbing. Times harder still\nto manage, when mind and heart are so absolutely vacant and callous\nthat there is no rousing them to action. This reflection will sometimes\nbe helpful then--What should I have to say were I in the presence of\nthe one I love best in the world; with whom I am quite at my ease;\nmy friend _par excellence_; to whom my trials, difficulties,\ncharacter, the secrets of my soul are known; that one in whose concerns\nand welfare I take the deepest interest; whose plans and views are\nmine, discussed again and again together; in whose company time flies\nand the hour for parting comes too soon--what should I find to say?\n\nSay it, make an effort to say it to Him Who is in the tabernacle yonder.\n\nO Jesus, hidden God, more friendly than a brother,[41] I believe most\nfirmly that You are present, a few feet only from where I kneel. You\nare behind that little wall, listening for every word of confidence,\nand love, and thanksgiving, and praise. Listening when my heart is\nfree to pour itself out to You as the brook to the river in the days\nof spring. Listening more tenderly when the stream is ice-bound; when\nI kneel before You troubled, wearied, anxious about many things, about\nmany souls perhaps, yet dry and hard, without a word to say. Make my\nheart so perfectly at ease with You, O Lord, that it may be able to\nturn to You even in its coldness and inertness; to confide to You\nnaturally all that most intimately concerns it; to be content with\nthis, when discontented with all else, with self most of all--that You\nknow all men and need not that any should give testimony of man, for\nYou know what is in man.[42]\n\n[40] John ii.\n\n[41] Prov. xviii.\n\n[42] John ii.\n\n\n\n\nIX.\n\nLORD, COME AND SEE!\n\n                                                   --_John_ xi. 34.\n\n\n    Come to my heart as unto Bethl\u2019hem\u2019s grot,\n    A hovel-home that love despises not:\n    Can love transform it to a pleasant spot?\n          Lord, come and see!\n\n    Come to my heart as once to Bethany:\n    A brother\u2019s grave is there, and piteously\n    Are tears and supplication calling Thee:\n          Lord, come and see!\n\n    How flocked of yore unto Thy blessed feet\n    The sick, the sad, Thy mercy to entreat!\n    I too have needs Thy pitying eye to meet:\n          Lord, come and see!\n\n    Come, lay Thy hand upon each leprous stain;\n    Come with Thy word of might the fiend to chain;\n    The open festering sore, the hidden pain,\n          Lord, come and see!\n\n    Come to my heart, this dull cold heart of mine,\n    All irresponsive to a love divine;\n    What lacks it to become Thy hallowed shrine?\n          Lord, come and see!\n\n    Happier by far than in the olden days\n    Judea\u2019s glorious Temple--what delays\n    Its song and sacrifice, its prayer and praise?\n          Lord, come and see!\n\n    Perchance, like Temple Courts, doth sinful stain,\n    The world\u2019s loud trafficking, the greed of gain\n    Thy Father\u2019s house, the house of prayer profane:\n          Lord, come and see!\n\n    Come, Holy One, I yield myself to Thee;\n    E\u2019en scourge in hand, come, Lord and Love, to me.\n    What change shall make me Thine, Thine utterly?\n          Lord, come and see!\n\n\n\n\nX.\n\nNEGLECT.\n\n He came unto His own, and His own received Him not.--_John_ i. 11.\n\n\nHow strange it seems, O Lord! For You had been promised so long. You\nhad been so ardently desired by the best and noblest of our race; so\ngloriously prefigured, so set forth in prophecy, as to awaken the\nkeenest expectation and enkindle the most glowing love. How was it,\nthen, that Your own received You not? How is it that even now You come\nunto Your own and are not welcomed, are not wanted, are left alone, not\nthrough the night only--that perhaps were to be expected--but through\nthe long day hours, with Your so-called friends, and the weary and the\nheavy-laden within a stone\u2019s throw of Your door? Ah, Lord, the outrage\nand the sacrilege that mark the hatred of Your enemies are less to be\nwondered at, less to be deplored, than the coldness of those You call\nYour own. You are not given to complain. But when along the ages a meek\nremonstrance does break upon the silence, it is always the same--the\nprotest wrung from You by the desertion of those You love. \u201c_Behold\n... my familiar friends also are departed from me.... My brethren have\npassed by me._\u201d[43] \u201c_Do you now believe? Behold ... you shall\nbe scattered every man to his own, and shall leave Me alone._\u201d[44]\nHow Your Heart felt the desolation of abandonment; how, to speak human\nlanguage, You feel it still, You made known in that cry of unrequited\nlove, \u201cBehold this Heart which has so loved men and is so little loved\nby them\u201d.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nWho would have thought that God could upbraid so tenderly, or that men\ncould hear such reproach without being touched and won! If not to make\ngreat sacrifices for Him, if not to give up all, at least to go a few\nsteps in order to keep Him company in His loneliness, and sympathise\nwith Him in His sorrows--surely He might have looked for this!\n\nDearest Lord, one would have expected You to be in such request upon\nthe altar, expected that there would be crowding and crushing in Your\npresence as in the days of Your earthly life; that we should be seen\nflocking to You early and late, to show our appreciation of Your love,\nand to pour out our troubles into Your willing ear. Where is our faith\nto leave You thus deserted? \u201cDo you believe? Behold you shall be\nscattered every one to his own, and shall leave Me alone.\u201d\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\n_He came unto His own_--that is, He comes as far as He can--from\nheaven to the Host, and down to the altar rails. Further He cannot\ncome. The rest of the way must be ours. We must meet Him there in\nHoly Communion, or His loving journey to us will have been in vain.\nHe will not force our free will. But He does so want to come. Shall we\ndisappoint Him? Oh, if our own love will not draw us to Him, at least\nlet us have compassion on His! If we think ourselves at liberty to\ndeprive ourselves of our communions, surely we are not free to deprive\nHim of His.\n\nYou long, O Lover of my soul, to come to me. Your delights are to be\nwith me, cold, inhospitable as I am. Come, then; come, Lord Jesus, and\nin satisfying Your own desire, enkindle mine.\n\n[43] Job vi.\n\n[44] John xvi.\n\n\n\n\nXI.\n\nFAITH.\n\n Sola fides sufficit!\n\n\nWhat mainly hinders the freedom and happiness of our intercourse with\nChrist our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament is the account we make _of\nfeelings_. In spite of all that can be said to us, we persist in\napplying this untrustworthy test to our relations with God, the result\nbeing discouragement and all its evil consequences.\n\nFeelings are wayward children, all the more refractory often for\nblandishments and coaxing. Our wisest plan is not to notice them\novermuch; to be glad certainly when they show themselves friendly, and\nwhen they are unpropitious to let them alone.\n\nFeelings we may dispense with, but faith never. Faith we must follow,\nlean upon, cling to, with all the more tenacity as the days draw on\nof which our Lord said: \u201cThe Son of man when He cometh, shall He find,\nthink you, faith on earth?\u201d[45] With the vehemence that will take no\nrefusal we must constrain her, saying: \u201cStay with us, because it is\ntowards evening\u201d.[46] Where faith enters and takes full possession, all\ngood things enter with her. We need not go about to seek anxiously for\nanything else: _Sola fides sufficit!_\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nGive me, my God, a deep and lively faith in all Your Holy Spirit has\nrevealed and Your Church teaches. Give me this one thing necessary, and\nit is enough for me. _Sola fides sufficit!_ The faith I ask is a\nliving faith that must needs prove its vitality by good works. Give\nme the faith that lit up the lives of Your saints. Strengthen my hold\non all revealed truth. But give me above all an intense, ever-growing\nrealisation of the mystery of the altar, the central Mystery of our\nfaith.\n\nRealised by me as it was by Your saints, what a change that Presence\nwould make in my life! Mind, heart, imagination, will, views, aims,\ndesires directed to it, absorbed by it--O Jesus, what a transformation\nthis would be! _Sola fides sufficit!_ Lord, increase my faith!\n\n    Thou Who of old didst love Thy hand to lay\n      On the dull, vacant eyes that craved for light,\n    Behold, I come to Thee, and crying, pray:\n      O Christ, O Son of David, give me sight!\n    A faith scarce clouded by the mists of earth,\n      A faith that pierceth heaven I ask of Thee,\n    Faith to prize all things by their lasting worth:\n      Thou canst, Thou wilt--O Lord, that I may see!\n\nIf we would think more about arousing our faith than exciting our\nfeelings, would not our visits and our communions be the gainers? And\nwould not the affections of the heart often follow the lead of faith? A\nfew minutes spent in trying to bring home to ourselves that He Who is\nreally present a few yards from where we sit or kneel is the world\u2019s\nlong-promised Messiah, Whose advent kings and prophets desired to see;\nWhom in His own time all men desired to see and hear; He at Whose feet\nMary sat at Bethany, unmindful of all but that Face and that Voice; He\nWhose words--\u201cPeace be still,\u201d \u201cThy brother shall rise again,\u201d \u201cGo,\nand now sin no more\u201d--brought hope and joy to the troubled heart; He\nWho fell on His Face under the olive trees, crushed to the earth by my\nsins; Who died with the thought and the love of me in His Heart that\nGood Friday long ago; Who is to come again in the eastern sky where\nevery eye shall see Him--a few minutes of earnest dwelling on thoughts\nsuch as these will rouse in our souls faith and hope and charity, will\nkindle humility, sorrow, gratitude, desire--for fuel is furnished for\nthe fire.\n\n\u201cLord, I believe, help Thou my unbelief.\u201d I believe that beneath Your\nhumble veils You are here truly present, O hidden God! I believe the\nday draws near when You will be the hidden God no more; when I shall\nsee You coming in the clouds of heaven with great power and majesty,\nall nature trembling at Your approach; whilst the elect lift up their\nheads because their redemption is at hand.\n\nO Judge of the living and the dead, in that awful day remember me!\nRemember me when You come to gather Your own into Your kingdom!\nRemember, I beseech You, in that second coming, how often I have\nwelcomed You at Your hidden coming, and let my heart welcome and leap\nup to meet You then.\n\n    Jesu, quem velatum nunc aspicio,\n    Oro, fiat illud, quod tam sitio,\n    Ut, Te revelata cernens facie,\n    Visu sim beatus Tuae gloriae.\n\n    O Jesu, Whom by faith I now descry\n      Shrouded from mortal eye;\n    When wilt Thou slake the thirsting of my heart\n      To see Thee as Thou art,\n    Face unto face in all Thy glad array,\n      \u2019Tranced with the glory of that everlasting day.\n\n                                                                 --G. T.\n\n[45] Luke xviii.\n\n[46] _Ibid._ xxiv.\n\n\n\n\nXII.\n\nAFTER A DEFEAT.\n\n Let not this thing discourage thee, for various is the event of\n war.--2 _Kings_ xi. 25.\n\n\nThe cheery words You have for me, O Lord and Leader, when downcast and\ntroubled I come to tell You of another reverse to our arms! Truly Your\nways are not our ways. With us results are everything. A general may do\nhis best, take every precaution, be skilful in preparation, and brave\nin action. Yet repeated mishaps will beget mistrust, and he will find\nhimself superseded in command. It must be so. But it is not Your way\nwith us.\n\nI have not done my best. I have been careless in preparation, and weak\nand cowardly in action. Yet You have nothing but encouragement for\nme after a rout. No reproach, no withdrawal of confidence: \u201cFight\nlike a good soldier; and if sometimes thou fall through frailty, rise\nup again with greater strength than before, confiding in My more\nabundant grace\u201d.[47] At my first call for help reinforcements are sent\nto the front, not _less_, by reason of my unfaithfulness, but\n_more_, because of my need. And if I am superseded in command, it\nis only by Your coming Yourself on to the field, and so strengthening\nmy hands, that all must give way before us.\n\nI am sorry, O my Chief, for the dishonour to Your name and the loss\nto Your cause through my fault. But I do not despond. I may fail in\neverything else, but in trust I will never fail. If I am overthrown\nseventy-seven times in the day, I will return to the charge as often,\nmy resolution the same, my confidence the same as at first. These\nperpetual beginnings are painful, weary work, but Your patience, Lord,\nwill never fail: neither shall my goodwill. I know that the struggle\nitself brings You glory. I know that if I keep up the struggle to the\nend, You will meet me when the time of trial is over with the welcome\nword: \u201c_Well done!_\u201d\n\n    Fearful of self, with sore temptation pressing,\n      I hasten, God of armies, unto Thee,\n    My every power, my every sense confessing\n      Its insufficiency.\n    Taught by the past there is no help in me,\n      I cast myself on Thee.\n\n    This is not hard. But false in face of Heaven,\n      To turn with trusting heart again to Thee,\n    Not once, not twice, but seventy times seven,\n      In brave humility:\n    When smarting self would hide its misery,\n      To cast myself on Thee--\n\n    Lord, _this is hard_. Thine eye alone can measure\n      The weary pain of each relapse to me:\n    Yet fraught with grace, all stored with hidden treasure,\n      Is my infirmity;\n    Strongest of pleas, the creature\u2019s frailty,\n      That casts it upon Thee.\n\n[47] Imit. of Christ, iii. 6.\n\n\n\n\nXIII.\n\nAFTER A VICTORY.\n\n Thanks be to God, Who hath given us the victory through our Lord Jesus\n Christ.--1 _Cor._ xv. 57.\n\n\nSo often, dear Lord, so very often I come to You with my defeats, that\nit is a refreshment to have something more cheering to offer to Your\nSacred Heart.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\n_Thanks be to God_--It was Your grace, my God, throughout--before,\naccompanying, crowning--my share just the co-operation that did not\nreject the help You gave.\n\n_Who hath given us_--given _me_, so weak, so cowardly, so\nlittle to be depended on in moments of trouble and conflict; _me_,\nsuch a disgrace to the colours often, such a sorry soldier at best--\n\n_The victory_--nothing much for anyone else, but something of a\ntriumph, dear Lord, for me. Our small successes are not accounted small\nby You, O generous Leader. You welcome all, are proud of all, lay up\nreward and praise for all against the day of reward.\n\n_Through our Lord Jesus Christ_, by Whom, with Whom, in Whom we\novercome. We can do all things in Him Who strengthens us. _Jesu, Tibi\nsit gloria!_ Thanks be to God, Who has given us the victory through\nour Lord Jesus Christ.\n\n\n\n\nXIV.\n\nA DIVINE FRIEND.\n\n The woman ... came and fell down before Him, and told Him all the\n truth.--_Mark_ v. 33.\n\n\n_The whole truth._ Only to one Friend can we tell that. Only\none friendship could bear the strain of that revelation. The very\nexigencies of other friendships call for restraint. Can we own to want\nof confidence, to utter coldness and callousness, to a want of sympathy\nin joys and sorrows that move to its depths the heart of our friend?\nCould the most self-forgetting of human friendships bear up against\navowals such as these?\n\nNo; we must draw the line here unless we want the free flowing waters\ngradually to freeze into a glacier. Owning to mistrust will hardly be\naccepted as a mark of trust, nor will the acknowledgment of coldness\nbeget love. Poor affection of these human hearts of ours!--jealous\nand suspicious at the least show of reticence, yet unable to bear the\ndisclosures of unreserve. We cannot be hard upon a weakness common\nto us all, but we long for a heart human like our own, yet strong\nenough to support the weight of all we would put upon it. Nor are\nwe disappointed. Here in the tabernacle is what we seek. Here is a\nHeart waiting for all, ready for all. Here we may unbosom ourselves\ncompletely. Here we may tell _the whole truth_. Narrowness and\nfickleness, heartlessness, mistrust, selfishness--ingratitude even, we\nmay tell. We may trust all to this Beloved without fear. For He knows\nwhat is in man. No revelation will surprise Him, no misery disgust\nHim. He will welcome each painful avowal with the tenderest sympathy,\nand take all we tell Him as tokens of trust for which He is infinitely\nobliged to us.\n\n\n\n\nXV.\n\nAN EVENING VISIT.\n\n Stay with us, because it is towards evening.--_Luke_ xxiv. 29.\n\n\nIt is at night especially that the shepherd looks well to his sheep.\nGood Shepherd, I gather round You to-night the sheep of Your world-wide\nflock and commit them to Your keeping. Wherever they are to be found,\nthere are You in the midst of them. In crowded cities--the guardian\nof the multitudes sleeping around You on every side. In the one spot\nof the quiet village where a light will burn to-night--the Keeper\nof the simple souls around You there. In many a hut the wide world\nover--content among savage tribes to share the poor shelter of Your\npriest. Everywhere warding off the prowling wolf and the evil that\nwalketh in the dark.[48] With us not only all days, but all nights\nunto the end of time.\n\n_Stay with us_, Lord, to-night. Stay to adore, and praise, and\ngive thanks for us whilst we sleep; to draw down mercy and grace upon\nthe world; to succour from earth\u2019s tabernacles the holy suffering souls\nin purgatory in their long night of weary pain.\n\n_Stay with us_, to ward off the anger of God from our crowded\ncities with their dens of vice, their crimes that call to Heaven for\nvengeance.\n\n_Stay with us_, to guard the innocent, to sustain the tempted, to\nraise the fallen, to curb the power of the evil one, to prevent sin.\n\n_Stay with us_, to comfort the sorrowing, to bless the death-beds,\nto grant contrition to the dying, to receive into the arms of Your\nmercy the thousands that this night must come before You for judgment.\nO Good Shepherd, stay with Your sheep! Secure them against the perils\nthat beset them. Stay, above all, with the suffering and the dying.\n\u201cGrant us a quiet night and a perfect end.\u201d Be our merciful Shepherd to\nthe last, that without fear we may appear before You as our Judge.\n\n_Stay with us, Lord, to-night._ More favoured than the camp of\nIsrael slumbering under the guardianship of the pillar of fire, we\nsleep with the Presence of God Incarnate shielding us on every side.\nWell may we say: \u201cIn peace, in the self same, I will sleep and I will\nrest\u201d.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\n\u201cVouchsafe, O Lord, this night to keep us without sin.\u201d\n\nI map out the whole world into districts, and place each under the\njurisdiction of the nearest tabernacle. From that centre let the\nradiance of the Divine protection go forth to every soul within its\ncircuit, enlightening, guarding--above all, strengthening against sin.\nO Lord, from every tabernacle send forth to-night a strong efficacious\ngrace, to stop not one but a thousand sins. Because we have made the\nMost High our refuge,[49] let no evil come near to hurt us. \u201cSave us, O\nLord, waking, and keep us while we sleep, that we may watch with Christ\nand rest in peace.\u201d\n\n[48] Psa. xc.\n\n[49] Psa. xc.\n\n\n\n\nXVI.\n\nPRIVILEGED.\n\n My lots are in Thy hands.--_Psa._ xxx. 15.\n\n\nSuppose, my God, You had told us that as we know the worth of our soul,\nYou were going to trust us with the choice of the means by which its\nsalvation is to be worked out; You were going to put before us riches\nand poverty, sickness and health, success and failure, a long life and\na short one, and we might take which seemed best for us. Should we be\ncontent? Should we not say, if we were wise: \u201cMy God, do not trust this\nto me. I shall choose, I know I shall, what I like, not what is best\nfor me.\u201d\n\nAnd suppose You were to tell us there were souls to whom You would\nnot entrust such a decision. Either they were too weak, or You were\nso anxious to save them that You had left the choice of means, not\nto themselves, but to those who love them better than they love\nthemselves, and who would choose for them more wisely--to their\nguardian angel, to their patron saint, even to the Seat of Wisdom\nherself--and if we wished You would let us be one of those favoured\nsouls. Should we be content then? Or should we say: \u201cMy God, forgive\nme for being mistrustful still. I know my guardian angel and my holy\npatrons, and most of all my Mother Mary, love me dearly and would\ndo their best for me.\u201d But their wisdom after all is not infinite.\nThey might make a mistake, and that mistake might mean the loss of\n_everything_ to me. I cannot afford any risk here. My soul is my\nonly one; I must save it whatever happens. I dare not keep it in my\nown hands, and I dare not trust it even to the highest and holiest and\nwisest of those around Your throne.\n\nAnd suppose once again You were to say to us: \u201cThere are a few, a\nvery few, whose salvation is so dear to Me that I will trust the\nchoice of means to no one. I will plan and arrange all Myself. Nothing\nshall happen to them but what has been foreseen and prepared from all\neternity by My Infinite Wisdom and Goodness. No one shall touch them;\nno joy nor sorrow shall come in their way--no, nor a hair of their head\nfall to the ground without My knowledge and permission.\u201d Should we not\ncry out: \u201cMy God--I hardly dare to ask it; but, oh, that I might be one\nof that happy chosen few, for surely they are safe!\u201d\n\nYou check me by a warning: \u201cThese souls will not have all their own way\nin life. Their road will sometimes be hard and rugged. They will see\nthings prosper in the hands of others and fail in theirs. They will\nbe hardly used by those around them--misjudged, set aside, unjustly\ntreated; life to many of them will be uphill work.\u201d Do I draw back now,\nor do I cry out again: \u201cNo matter that, oh, no matter that at all!\nWhat will they care when they know Your arm is round them as they go\nuphill; Your hand sends the cross and the failure and the pain! No, my\nGod, that does not frighten me. Let me only be one of those whose lot\nis altogether in Your hands, and I will fear nothing; I will complain\nof nothing; nay, I will be grateful for all that comes to me. I will\nkiss Your hand even when You strike me. I shall feel peaceful and happy\nalways in the thought that it is the wisdom of my God that orders all\nfor me, and the love of my heavenly Father that provides everything to\nhelp me. Let me be one of those chosen ones, and You will see how I\nvalue my privilege, how I prize whatever You send.\u201d\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\n_Suppose_--I have been saying. But this is no supposition. I am\nthat privileged one whose life in its minutest details is Your ordering\nand Your care. How can I complain, my God! How can I be mistrustful or\neven anxious--\u201cMy lots are in Thy hands\u201d.\n\n\n\n\nXVII.\n\nTHE IMPROVIDENCE OF LOVE.\n\n My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor your ways My ways, saith the\n Lord.--_Isa._ lv. 8.\n\n\nHow often I kneel here before the tabernacle and make my genuflection\nand my act of faith without realising in the very least what I believe,\nwhat I adore. How little I heed that where I stand is holy ground. That\na few paces from me lies the most mysterious of all mysteries, \u201cthe\nmystery of faith,\u201d the mystery of love--love that with infinite wisdom\nand infinite power at its service has here reached its limits, has\nfound bounds which God Himself cannot overpass.\n\nAnd yet _is_ the Eucharist after all the greatest of mysteries?\nHas it not its source in a deeper mystery still? Is anything wonderful\nafter the Incarnation? Does not the marvel of God made Man outstrip all\nother marvels? If the Creator out of love for man must needs annihilate\nHimself so far as to assume a created nature, where will such love\nstop? Into what further extravagances of love will it not be betrayed?\n\nBut how was it, my God, that Your infinite wisdom did not fear the\nconsequences of such prodigality; did not remember who those are with\nwhom You have to deal; did not consider that too great lavishness\nblunts the edge of our appreciation and our gratitude? Had You taken\ncounsel of us, O loving Lord, we should have bid You in the very\ninterests of love not to overdo its manifestation, not to make Yourself\ntoo easy of access, lest familiarity should endanger reverence. Daily\nCommunion; the easy, easy conditions on which You come to us; the\ntarrying day and night in every church throughout the world--this we\nshould have said would bring about a contempt of these sacred mysteries\nand deprive You of the love which is the end of their institution.\nYou would have had to own to the justice of our remonstrance, to\nacknowledge that such fears were well grounded. It was not safe to ask\ncounsel--except of Your own Heart. \u201cWho hath known the mind of the\nLord? and who hath been His counsellor?\u201d[50] Only His Heart. O Sacred\nHeart, how sadly You have laid Him open to every sort of indignity--to\nindifference, coldness, outrage, sacrilege. Yet, in spite of all, this\nGift of God is without repentance,[51] \u201cfor My thoughts are not your\nthoughts, nor your ways My ways, saith the Lord\u201d.\n\n[50] Isa. xl.\n\n[51] Rom. xi.\n\n\n\n\nXVIII.\n\nCHANGES.\n\n Behold, I make all things new!--_Apoc._ xxi. 5.\n\n\nHow easily changes come about under Your hand, O Lord! Noiselessly,\nalmost unnoticed, every hour of the day and night, all the world over,\nthe most stupendous change is taking place--the change of the lowly\nsubstance of bread into Your Sacred Body, of wine into Your Precious\nBlood.\n\nSo is it in the world of souls. The most marvellous transformations\ncost You but a word. _Follow Me!_ And instantly apostle after\napostle leaves all and follows You--mind, heart, views, ambitions,\nthe whole aspect of life changed. _Saul, Saul, why persecutest\nthou Me?_ And he who had \u201cbeyond measure persecuted the Church of\nGod\u201d[52] rises to his feet ready to carry the name of Jesus \u201cbefore\nthe Gentiles, and kings, and the children of Israel\u201d.[53]\n\nWith a word You can change _me_. The apathy for spiritual things\nwould go--the dulness of sight, the slowness of heart, the low aims,\nthe weak desires, the feebleness in the conflict with self, the\nniggardliness in Your service--all these would go. You could draw\nme within Your attraction; You could make me follow You, not simply\nthrough duty or interest, but with the quick step of one to whom Your\nservice is the absorbing interest of life. You could make Yourself so\nmuch the need of my soul that it would turn to You as the flowers to\nthe sun for warmth and colour, for growth, for beauty, for its very\nlife. With a word You could work a change such as this. And what is\nthere to hinder it? You are there in the tabernacle, O Sun of Justice,\nnear enough to warm me through and through with Your heat; and oh, how\noften, did I only desire it, You would come still nearer, entering my\nvery heart to make it live by You!\n\nSay the word that You desire to say more than I to hear. Speak, Lord,\nfor Thy servant heareth. Say the transforming word each morning over my\nheart when You stand at the altar and say it over the bread and wine.\nSay the word that will change the lowliest, the vilest thing of earth\n_into Yourself_. See my heart, see the hearts of all I love upon\nthe paten, awaiting there Your creative word. Change them from what\nthey are to what You would have them be.\n\n[52] Gal. i.\n\n[53] Acts ix.\n\n\n\n\nXIX.\n\nI HAVE SOMEWHAT TO SAY TO THEE.\n\n                                                  --_Luke_ vii. 40.\n\n\n    A word to me? a word for me apart\n    No other ear to hearken--heart to heart?\n    A word Thy hidden pleasure to impart?\n          O Master, say it!\n\n    Is it a word of love, entreating mine--\n    Poor recompense indeed for love divine,\n    Yet precious to that human Heart of Thine?\n          Dear Master, say it!\n\n    A word of blame? Lord, I deserve it--nay,\n    No word of Thine can I deserve--yet may\n    I know what chiding love would have Thee say?\n          O Master, say it!\n\n    A word to cast aside my craven fears,\n    And bravely bear the cross these many years\n    Dragged after Thee with protest and with tears?\n          O Master, say it!\n\n    Perchance a dreaded word, not once or twice,\n    But often suing for a gift of price;\n    Can I invite that call to sacrifice?\n          Yes, Master, say it!\n\n    A word from Thee the rightful course will trace,\n    A word from Thee the shrinking spirit brace,\n    A word from Thee bestow all needful grace,\n          O Master, say it!\n\n    No word of Thine but gives before it takes,\n    And taking, generous compensation makes,\n    And effort asking, energy awakes,\n          O Master, say it!\n\n    A warning maybe--frighted love\u2019s disguise,\n    How stern soe\u2019er in seeming, kindly wise,\n    Unveiling danger to unwary eyes?\n          O Master, say it!\n\n    Thy voice is ever music to mine ear,\n    Silence alone o\u2019erwhelms my soul with fear\n    Say all, say freely what I crave to hear,\n          O Master, say it!\n\n    One tender word to Thomas brought belief,\n    One pitying word, a kingdom to a thief,\n    One only word would bring my soul relief,\n          O Master, say it!\n\n    New shape would aims, desires, affections take,\n    New power of sacrifice within me wake,\n    New need of toil and suffering for Thy sake,\n          O Master, say it!\n\n    One word, I know, Thou hast for me--a word\n    In the still hours of prayer how often heard,\n    Not long, perchance, its welcome sound deferred,\n          O Master, say it!\n\n    Word life\u2019s incessant prayer must wrest from Thee;\n    Word holding my eternal destiny,\n    Word I must hear or perish utterly,\n          O Master, say it!\n\n    When past my little day of time and grace,\n    Lone in another world I seek my place,\n    And trembling fall before Thy unveiled Face,\n          Dear Master, say it!\n\n    _Come!_--blest recall from exile\u2019s weary years,\n    Rest from the awful strife \u2019twixt hopes and fears,\n    Sweet word of welcome after toil and tears,\n          O Master, say it!\n\n    Though silent now, keep Thou that word in store,\n    The word to make me Thine for evermore;\n    By all Thy loving-kindness, I implore,\n          Dear Master, say it!\n\n\n\n\nXX.\n\nA DIVINE PLAINT.\n\n My people have done two evils. They have forsaken Me, the fountain of\n living water, and have digged to themselves cisterns, broken cisterns,\n that can hold no water.--_Jer._ ii. 13.\n\n\nWhat heart so hard but could find a motive for contrition in this\ntender reproach! No question here of the Divine majesty outraged, the\nDivine rights infringed. The harm _to ourselves_--this is the evil\nwe have done by forsaking God. And He stands sadly by, watching our\nfutile efforts to fill with earth\u2019s sorry pleasures the hearts created\nfor Himself.\n\nThe plaint is echoed by the Incarnate Son. \u201c_You will not come to\nMe that you may have life._\u201d[54] And echoed not once, nor from\nJerusalem only, but through all time and from the countless tabernacles\nwhere the Eucharistic Life is being lived for us. How is it that\nthat cry does not arrest us as we go heedlessly on our way? What a\ndifference it would make to our round of daily toil and worries and\nanxieties if we carried away oftener from the altar the Life Who is\nwaiting there to give Himself to us. He would not encroach upon our\ntime. He is the most considerate of guests, and knows we are no more\nable to lay aside our domestic cares than was His own blessed Mother\nin her little cave-home at Nazareth. He would not interfere with our\nprojects, our occupations, our amusements even. But He would act the\npart of a helpmate throughout, guiding our plans, sanctifying our work,\nennobling our pleasures--above all, sharing and soothing our sorrows.\nIs an ally such as this so easily found that we can afford to turn a\ndeaf ear to the invitation from the tabernacle: \u201cWhom seekest thou--a\nfriend? I am He.\u201d\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nO Loving One, who are we that You should so earnestly entreat our\nfriendship? Have You not thronging about You legions upon legions of\nangels? What need can You have of us? Yet You not only tolerate our\nsociety but beg for it. The little troublesome children whom strangers\nfind a nuisance are a solace to the father, who feels something to\nbe missing unless he has them pressing and chattering all about him.\nSo is it with You. To satisfy Your Heart You must have us, needy and\nclamorous, all about You, besetting You on every side.\n\nLord, had we always treated You as You deserve, could You be more in\nlove with our company? Surely Your eagerness should drive away fear\nthat our uncouthness and coldness will disgust You. Love \u201cis patient,\nis kind, ... beareth all things, ... hopeth all things, endureth all\nthings.\u201d[55] O Lord and Lover, we will not disappoint You. Since You\nare content to have us as we are, we will draw near to You without\nfear: \u201cBehold we come to Thee; for Thou art the Lord our God\u201d.[56]\n\n[54] John v.\n\n[55] 1 Cor. xiii.\n\n[56] Jer. iii.\n\n\n\n\nXXI.\n\nTHANKSGIVING.\n\n And he fell on his face before His feet, giving thanks.--_Luke_\n xvii. 16.\n\n\nJust as I do to-day, dear Lord, in the fulness of my heart, in the\nfirst transport of joy and praise and gratitude that comes with the\nsense of answered prayer. My happiness is all from You. In all that has\nhappened I trace the workings of Your hand, and see how it has moved\nall secondary causes, and ordered all things sweetly.\n\n\u201cThou, O my God, hast made me joyful with great joy.\u201d[57]\n\n\u201cBlessed be the Lord God this day.\u201d[58]\n\n\u201cWe bless Thee, O Lord God, because it hath not happened as we\nsuspected. For Thou hast shewn Thy mercy to us, and Thou hast taken\npity.\u201d[59]\n\n\u201cBless the Lord, O my soul, and let all that is within me bless His\nholy name. Bless the Lord, O my soul, and never forget all He hath done\nfor thee.... Who satisfieth thy desire with good things.... The Lord is\ncompassionate and merciful.... He hath not dealt with us according to\nour sins.... The mercy of the Lord is from eternity and unto eternity\nupon them that fear Him.\u201d[60]\n\n\u201cGive glory to the Lord, for He is good: for His mercy endureth for\never. Let them say so that have been redeemed by the Lord, whom He hath\nredeemed from the hand of the enemy.... They cried to the Lord in their\ntribulation, and He delivered them out of their distresses.... Let the\nmercies of the Lord give glory to Him and His wonderful works to the\nchildren of men. For He hath satisfied the empty soul, and hath filled\nthe hungry soul with good things.\u201d[61]\n\n\u201cPraise ye the Lord, for the Lord is good; sing ye to His name, for it\nis sweet.\u201d[62]\n\n\u201cWho healeth the broken of heart, and bindeth up their bruises.\u201d[63]\n\n\u201cThe Lord hath granted me my petition which I asked of Him.\u201d[64]\n\n\u201cBlessed be God, Who hath not turned away my prayer, nor His mercy from\nme.\u201d[65]\n\n\u201cO Lord our God, all this store ... is from Thy hand.\u201d[66]\n\n\u201cO Lord, there is none like Thee.\u201d[67]\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\n_He fell on his face before His feet giving thanks._ The right\nplace, the right posture for thanksgiving. My whole self, body and\nsoul, seeks to pour itself out in praise. And yet, my God, when do we\nfeel ourselves more helpless, more bound in by our narrowness than\nwhen we come to thanksgiving! Our heart is freer on the path of sorrow\nthan on that of joy. It knows its way better. It can go further. There\nare novenas of Ten Fridays, Masses and Communions, year after year of\npersistent prayer. But when the answer comes at last; when suddenly\nthe burden is lifted; when the thrill of gladness and the stillness of\npeace succeed one another in sweet alternations within the soul--how\npoor, how soon ended is our _Te Deum_! A rush to Your feet--a few\ntears perhaps--a few broken words of gratitude, and--our heart fails\nus. In vain do we lift it up in David\u2019s heart, that censor of glorious\npraise. There weighs upon it still the stifling sense of oppression. We\ncan but sink back in our helplessness and long for the full freedom of\nall our powers that is to come.\n\nOh yes, the soul never feels so powerless, so imprisoned as when the\ncall upon it is for thanksgiving. It is a caged bird always, but it\nnever beats more hopelessly against the bars than when it would soar\nupward in the free flight of praise.\n\nIt is then we turn to our God with us on the altar, to the Victim of\ninfinite worth placed at our disposal to be offered to God as a full,\nworthy, adequate return for all His goodness to us.\n\n\u201cWhat shall I render to the Lord for all He hath rendered unto me?\u201d\n\nI will come to the altar of God to unite my thanksgiving and my praise\nwith the divine gratitude of the God-Man.\n\nI will offer with Him His sacrifice and mine, a gift of infinite value\nfrom my grateful heart.\n\nI will receive into my poor heart, whose powers, stretched to their\nutmost, fall infinitely short of what is due to Him, the Heart of the\nMan-God.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nMy God, I rejoice beyond measure that in Mass and Holy Communion I\ncan offer You a thanksgiving that is adequate because infinite, a\nthanksgiving worthy of Your acceptance. Look not on the poverty of my\npraise, but \u201clook upon the Face of Thy Christ\u201d.[68] _Per Ipsum, et\ncum Ipso, et in Ipso ... omnis honor et gloria. Amen._\n\n[57] _Cf._ 2 Esdras xii.\n\n[58] 1 Kings v.\n\n[59] Tobias viii.\n\n[60] Psa. cii.\n\n[61] _Ibid._ cvi.\n\n[62] Psa. cxxxiv.\n\n[63] _Ibid._ cxlvi.\n\n[64] 1 Kings i.\n\n[65] Psa. lxv.\n\n[66] 1 Par. xxix.\n\n[67] _Ibid._ xvii.\n\n[68] Psa. lxxxiii.\n\n\n\n\nXXII.\n\nDARKNESS.\n\n My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?--_Matt._ xxvii. 46.\n\n\n_My God!_ as if You belonged to no one else in the wide world.\nAs if You and I were alone in creation. As if neither in heaven above\nnor in the earth beneath, nor in the waters under the earth, You had a\nsingle other creature!\n\n_My God!_ as if for me alone you had done all in the orders of\nnature, grace, and glory; working for me from the beginning, through\nall causes, by all creatures, in all events. As if for me alone were\nthe earth and the sea and all within them. For me all the ordering\nof Your Providence in the affairs of time. For me the heaven of\nheavens and all the concourse there. For me the Saints and Mary; the\nIncarnation, the Life, and death, and teaching of Christ; the Church\nand Sacraments; the Eucharist, and Mass, and Communion. For me life\neverlasting and the Blessed Vision of Yourself.\n\n_My God!_ for Whom I am made. Without Whom happiness for me were\nthe wildest of impossibilities. The Supreme Good able to satisfy to the\nfull every want of my complex nature. Infinite Goodness providing for\nall and for each with an exquisite discrimination of my need.\n\n_My God!_ in a sense known to myself and You alone--father,\nmother, sister, brother, lover, friend--all in all to me.\n\n_My God!_ as if You belonged to me rather than to Yourself;\nbelonged to me rather than I to You. As if You were for my sake rather\nthan I for Yours. Or at least as if we so belonged to one another as of\nnecessity to imply and supplement each other--as hill and valley, light\nand shade, the ocean and the void it fills.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\n_My God, my God, why hast Thou forsaken me?_ Why this darkness in\nwhich I grope for You in vain, in which I seek in vain to find Your\nFace? Why these nameless fears, this dread of You, this shrinking from\nYou?\n\nOr, harder still to bear, this heaviness of soul, this hardness of\nheart, this weariness of You, my God, this restlessness in Your\npresence, this impatience of Your ways--why all this inconsistency and\nperversity?\n\nWhy, O Supreme Good, do You show Yourself to me as infinitely\ndesirable, only to elude my grasp when I stretch out my hands to\nfeel for You and draw You to myself? Why do You brush past me in the\ndarkness to leave me all the more desolate and disconsolate because\nYou were so near? Why are You deaf when I cry? Why, here in this\ntabernacle, are You so near and yet so far away? Why do You make it\nmore and more impossible for me to find rest out of You, and then deny\nYourself to my soul? Why have You sought for me so persistently when I\nfled from You, to hide from me now that I seek You? _My God, my God,\nwhy hast Thou forsaken me?_\n\nIs Your answer to me this--that I have forsaken You first? Is the\nhiding of Your Face the just punishment of wilful deafness to Your\nvoice and resistance to Your leading? Are You waiting for some act\nof mine as the price of Your turning to me? Is it pride or any other\npassion that interposes as a cloud between us? What is it, my God? Take\nit away at any cost. I am sorry for my insincerity; for all meanness in\nmy dealings with You; for all wilful blindness and deafness; for the\ncowardice that fears to see what will call for effort and for sacrifice.\n\nIf conscience does not reproach me, I am not hereby justified, because\nYour all-seeing eye may note, does note what escapes mine. I own to\nwhatever You see that is amiss. I am perfectly conscious that there is\nmore--oh, a thousand times more than enough to make You turn away Your\nFace and forsake me utterly. Show me what You will have me see, that I\nmay amend it, and bear with what You dare not show me, lest I should be\nutterly cast down and despair.\n\n_My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me!_ You have taught me\nby Your own meek complaint that I too may complain lovingly. I look up\nthrough the darkness of Calvary. I hear above me that cry from Your own\nlips, and I am instructed and comforted. If the well-beloved Son for\nbearing the appearance of sin was thus shut out from the Father\u2019s Face,\nhow shall a sinner complain? If this was done in the green wood, what\nshall be done in the dry?\n\nAnd if all through the blackness of that desolation He remained still\nthe well-beloved Son, so may the weakest of His brethren, so may I\nremain--dear to the Father\u2019s Heart through all the discipline of\nchastisement, through all the needful purification of my imperfect love.\n\nIn the very midnight of His dereliction He called on the Father, clung\nto the Father, threw Himself on the Father with absolute trust. So may\nI, so _must_ I, in the darkness that is but the faintest shadow of\nHis.\n\n_Father, into Thy hands I commend my spirit_--for this trial, for\nevery trial, for the last trial, when the shadow of death will close\nround me, and it will be hard to find Your Face. Into the hands that\ncreated me, that redeemed me, into which I shall pass at the moment of\ndeath, Father, into Thy hands I commend my spirit.\n\n    \u201cMy God, My God!\u201d--into the night went forth\n        That lonely cry,\n    Piteous as never plaint from burdened breast\n        Its misery.\n\n    Went forth _for me_ into the night, that wail\n        Of woe divine;\n    His bitter dereliction bared, to draw\n        The sting from mine.\n\n    And yet another cry ere shades of death\n        Around Him stole,\n    Revealed the sanctuary dark and lone\n        Of Jesu\u2019s soul:\n\n    \u201cFather, into Thy hands\u201d--a Son\u2019s bequest,\n        That we might know\n    The filial, all unshaken trust, beneath\n        That depth of woe.\n\n    \u201cFather, into Thy hands\u201d--that we might learn\n        Since Jesus died\n    Theirs first the right to claim the Father\u2019s love,\n        His crucified.\n\n\n\n\nXXIII.\n\n\u201cWHAT IS TRUTH?\u201d\n\n                                                --_John_ xviii. 38.\n\n\n\u201cPilate saith to Him: What is truth? And when he said this he went out.\u201d\n\nToo often, O Lord, in my dealings with You I am like Pilate. Moved by\nYour grace to desire the things that are for my peace, I come to You to\nknow my way: \u201c_What shall I do to possess everlasting life?_\u201d[69]\n\u201c_Make the way known to me, wherein I should walk._\u201d[70] \u201c_Teach\nme to do Thy will, for Thou art my God._\u201d[71] And when I have said\nthis I go out. I do not wait to hear an answer which may exact more of\nme than I am prepared to give. I am afraid to remain in Your Presence,\nlest You should beckon whither I am not willing to follow. And so I\nask lightly: \u201cWhat is truth?\u201d without waiting to hear what the Lord my\nGod will speak in me.[72]\n\nHow much more readily I pray for light than for strength. \u201c_Lord,\nthat I may see!_\u201d And when the scales begin to fall from my eyes, I\nturn away lest I should find what I am seeking.\n\nIt is not Your way, O Lord, to constrain our free will. You meet us\nhalf-way, more than half-way by a great deal. But You have decreed\nthat further and more abundant grace, the grace that is efficacious,\nshall be the reward of correspondence. If we withhold this, we enter\nupon a terrible contest between Your invitation on the one hand and the\nshrinking of nature on the other.\n\n\u201cPilate saith to Him: What is truth? And when he had said this he went\nout again to the Jews and said to them: I find no cause in Him.... Then\nPilate took Jesus and scourged Him.... And went forth again and saith\nto the Jews: Behold I bring Him forth unto you that you may know that\nI find no cause in Him.... Take Him you and crucify Him for I find no\ncause in Him.... The Jews answered: He ought to die because He made\nHimself the Son of God. When Pilate therefore had heard this saying\nhe feared the more. And he entered into the hall again and said to\nJesus: Whence art Thou? But Jesus gave him no answer. From thenceforth\nPilate sought to release Him.... And he saith to the Jews: Behold your\nKing.... Then he delivered Him to them to be crucified.\u201d\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nOh, the agony of mind, the risk, the misery we bring upon ourselves by\nour vacillations and trifling with grace! Surely the remedy is to gain\nby prayer strength proportioned to the light God gives. It is as easy\nfor Him to give the one as the other, for \u201cthere is none strong like\nour God\u201d.[73] But I must ask, for \u201cstrength cometh from Heaven\u201d.[74]\n\u201cAsk and it shall be given to you.\u201d \u201cGod is my strong One, in Him will\nI trust ... my rock, and my strength, and my Saviour.\u201d[75] He will\nnot leave me in my weakness. If He shows me His ways, He will give me\nstrength to walk in them. \u201cMy God is made my strength.\u201d[76]\n\n[69] Luke xviii.\n\n[70] Psa. cxlii.\n\n[71] _Ibid._\n\n[72] Psa. lxxxiv.\n\n[73] 1 Kings ii.\n\n[74] 1 Mach. iii.\n\n[75] 2 Kings xxii.\n\n[76] Isa. xlix.\n\n\n\n\nXXIV.\n\nHIS SECOND COMING.\n\n They shall see the Son of Man coming in the clouds of heaven ... and\n then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn.--_Matt._ xxiv. 30.\n\n\nDearest Lord, is there a sadder word than this in the whole of the\nwritten Word? Did a sadder ever fall from Your sacred lips? That when\nYou come again to finish the work of redemption by the destruction of\nthe last enemy, death; to gather to Yourself those for whose salvation\nYou came down from heaven, and were incarnate, and suffered, and died,\nand founded Your Church, and gave Your sacraments; those whom You bade\nto watch and wait for You and lift up their heads at Your coming; that\nwhen at last You come, this shall be Your reception--\u201c_then shall all\nthe tribes of the earth mourn_\u201d!\n\nWhat an awful testimony to the decay of truth among the children of\nmen, to the unchristianising of the world! \u201c_All the tribes of the\nearth_,\u201d as if the elect would be but as the ears of corn left\non the field after the harvesting. O Messiah, so long promised, so\nearnestly expected--is this the return of those to whom You were sent,\namong whom You have lived as one of themselves, for whom You have\nsacrificed everything You took from our nature?\n\n\u201cThey shall see the Son of Man coming\u201d--not now in the midnight silence\nas once to Mary, not hidden under lowly accidents as through long\ncenturies upon the altar, but \u201cin great power and majesty,\u201d \u201cthe King\nin His beauty,\u201d revealed to every eye. \u201c_And then shall all the\ntribes of the earth mourn._\u201d\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nThe awfulness of these words must have struck the Twelve as they sat\nabout Your feet that day on Olivet looking down upon Josaphat, for John\nre-echoed them from Patmos half a century later: \u201cBehold, He cometh\nwith the clouds, and every eye shall see Him.... And all the tribes of\nthe earth shall bewail themselves because of Him.\u201d[77]\n\nHow our hearts would sink within us were it not for those other words\nequally with these the words of truth: \u201cHe shall send His angels to\ngather together His elect from the four winds, from the uttermost\npart of the earth, to the uttermost part of heaven.\u201d[78] From every\ncorner of the earth will those blessed ones come trooping in--\u201ca great\nmultitude, which no man can number, of all nations, and tribes, and\npeoples, and tongues\u201d.[79]\n\nLord Jesus! Who would not desire with desire to be one of that great\nmultitude, were it only to console Your Heart for the losses of that\nday! Let this happiness be mine, and that of as many as can be reached\nby the utmost stretching of Your mercy, the fullest and farthest\nflowing of Your precious Blood!\n\n    Quaerens me sedisti lassus,\n    Redemisti crucem passus:\n    Tantus labor non sit cassus.\n\nHave mercy, O Lord, on all the tribes of earth, that they may not\nperish, nor bewail themselves because of You when You come to judgment.\nHave mercy, that when the day of the Lord, that dreadful day shall\ncome, the number of the elect may be multiplied, and the thirst of Your\nHeart appeased.\n\n[77] Apoc. i.\n\n[78] Mark xiii.\n\n[79] Apoc. vii.\n\n\n\n\nXXV.\n\nOUR EARTH.\n\n _Coeli enarrant gloriam Dei._--_Psa._ xviii. 1.\n\n\n_The heavens declare the glory of God._ There are hours when the\ngrandeur of the midnight skies draws from our hearts: \u201cCoeli enarrant,\u201d\nand conversely: \u201cQuam sordet tellus!\u201d \u201cHow vile earth appears when\nI look up to heaven!\u201d[80] When we would wish to be so far away from\nearth, so near to God, that we could cover it with our two hands and\nshut it out with all its sinfulness from His sight.\n\nAnd there are hours when we re-echo David\u2019s other cry: \u201c_The earth\nis the Lord\u2019s._\u201d[81] Studded with millions of stars--its sanctuary\nlamps--here in grand constellations, there in solitary beauty amid the\ndarkness, it lies outstretched before its Creator, a very heaven. Yes,\nspeck as it is in creation, our world has a beauty all its own in the\neyes of Him Who made it. \u201cThere is not found the like to it in glory.\u201d\nMarred and sin-stained, it is still the dear world of the Incarnation,\nthe world God so loved as to give to it His Son. Its highways, its\nfields, its waters have felt the tread of His feet; to the end of\ntime He has made it His home. \u201cI have chosen and have sanctified this\nplace, and My eyes and My heart shall be there always.\u201d[82] Always.\nHis interest in it is as keen, as human, as when, a wayfarer here, He\nshared its joys and sorrows. Its every man, woman, and child to-day has\na distinct place in His heart.\n\nHis sacramental Presence sanctifies it from pole to pole. On each of\nits altars a divine sacrifice is offered day by day. In each of its\ntabernacles is gathered up the worship of all creation. From each an\nunceasing praise goes up to the Throne of God, infinitely transcending\nthe paltry outrages of man. From each radiates a divine life,\ncommunicating itself to all the members of the Body of Christ. From\neach as from a well-spring go forth all graces of light and strength;\nall holy impulses and high resolves; all courage, steadfastness,\nperseverance in well-doing; all works of love to the members, born\nof love to the Head. All spiritual energy, from the robust virtue of\nthe saint to the weakest supernatural act of the repentant sinner, is\nflowing this hour from earth\u2019s countless tabernacles, giving to God a\nglory before which the material glory of the starry heavens pales into\ninsignificance.\n\nO hidden God, I adore You as the source of all this glorious life. Who\nwould not love the world, which You have so loved as to make it Your\nhome all days even to the end of time? Who would not strive with You\nand for Your sake to light up its dark places, to cleanse its foul\nplaces, to spread far and near the saving knowledge of its Redeemer,\nthat so the love poured out upon it, the Blood shed for it, may not\nhave been in vain?\n\nWhat can I do, O Lord, within my narrow sphere to help on the coming of\nYour Kingdom in the world? What have You given me to give away again in\nYour service? As to what do You say to me: \u201cFreely have you received,\nfreely give\u201d?[83] Is it health, wealth, talent, influence, leisure for\ngood works in any of the various fields calling for my aid and open\nto me? Is it devotedness and self-sacrifice in the apostolate of home\nlife? Or is it the noblest and most far-reaching of works for God, the\ntraining of young souls in His love and service? Am I doing good work\nfor You in my allotted sphere? What account am I preparing to give You\nof the talents entrusted to me? How could I bear it, O my Lord, should\nYou ever have to reproach me, as \u201can evil and slothful servant,\u201d with\nhiding the talent given me for Your service? What am I doing with my\nlife, with its energies, its opportunities, its responsibilities, its\ngraces? Where are the souls I am helping to save? Where is the lot I\nam brightening, the cross I am lightening for Your dear sake? In what\ndirection am I furthering Your interests and sacrificing self to Your\nglory? Unless I can lay my hands in Yours, and look up trustfully into\nYour Face with \u201cLord, Thou knowest\u201d my daily prayer, \u201cThy Kingdom come\u201d\nis a mockery, a self-delusion, a sham.\n\n[80] St. Ignatius.\n\n[81] Psa. xxiv.\n\n[82] 2 Par. vii.\n\n[83] Matt. x.\n\n\n\n\nXXVI.\n\nCHRIST OUR STUDY.\n\n You have not so learned Christ.--_Ephes._ iv. 20.\n\n\nIt behoves us to have right conceptions of the great spiritual\nrealities which affect our life here and our destiny hereafter. Above\nall must we learn aright Him Who is the Way, the Truth, and the Life.\nGradually, from our earliest childhood, the idea of Christ has been\nforming, developing, taking definite shape in our minds. May-be it\nis stereotyped by this time. It is all-imperative for us that the\nChrist we have so conceived should be the true Christ--\u201cthe Christ,\nthe Son of the Living God\u201d. _Tout sort des id\u00e9es._ Our idea of\nHim will not affect Himself or alter our fundamental relations with\nHim, but it will affect the whole moulding of our spiritual life, our\nwhole character, our every thought, word and deed here, and our whole\neternity hereafter. Surely, then, we must examine our impression of\nChrist, and should we find that the influence of early education, of\na false creed, of unwholesome reading or association, or the trend of\nour character has distorted in our minds the true Christ as reflected\nin the Gospels, we must at all costs correct that impression. If it has\nbecome stereotyped we must break up our mould and start our work afresh.\n\nMeditation upon the Gospels; the quiet, steady gaze of the inward eye\non Christ; the study of Him day after day under all circumstances and\namid ever shifting scenes, and not of His outward bearing, His words\nand actions only, but of the Heart from which these spring--thus it was\nthat the saints built up His image in their souls, a true living image\nwhich transformed them into the likeness of itself, and became a power\nwithin them, drawing all things to Him Who was to them all in all.\n\n_You have not so learned Christ._ If Christ our Lord has not as\nyet drawn _me_ wholly to Himself, it is because my conception\nof Him is faulty. Whether this is the result of simple carelessness\nwhich has allowed His image in my mind to take shape anyhow, or of\nJansenistic habits of thought that have fashioned for me a Lord\nstern, exacting, repellent, a very caricature of the Christ of the\nGospels, Christ our Lord; or whether it is my own character, timorous,\nsuspicious, selfish, unsympathising, that has inspired my present idea\nof Him--from whatever source the misconception has come, it must be\nset right, or its results will be simply fatal--fatal to the growth of\nanything like personal love and familiar friendship with Him; fatal to\nHis influence on my life, my actions, my work for Him in the souls of\nothers.\n\nNot any Christ, the creature of my own distorted fancy, but Him Whom\nthe Father has sent, I am to fall down and worship. He alone has power\nas He alone has right to occupy and absorb my whole interest, my whole\naffection, my whole self. He alone can be a living influence radiating\nfrom my own life to the lives of others.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nO Christ my Lord, give me so to know You that my knowledge may be\nglory to You, and life to my own soul and the souls of others. \u201cThis\nis eternal life: that they may know Thee, the only true God, and Jesus\nChrist, Whom Thou hast sent.\u201d[84] Be Yourself my Master in this one\nthing necessary. And let me go to the source to draw--learning You\nfrom the scenes of Your life. Let me stand by the well of Samaria, and\nthe pool of Bethsaida, and the bier at Nain--and watch and listen. Let\nthe charm of Your divine Person subdue and win me, and the sound of\nYour voice be familiar to me. Let the knowledge of Your ways with the\nsinner, the sufferer, the little children, grave such a picture of You\nin my heart that not even its perversity can bring before me when I\nsay \u201cJesus\u201d any other form than that of the most beautiful, the most\ntender, the most compassionate of men.\n\nVeronica wiped Your sacred suffering Face, and received as the greatest\nof rewards, stamped on her veil, and still more upon her heart, that\n_vera icon_--that true image of Christ which was thenceforth to be\ninseparable from her memory, the very name by which all ages were to\nknow her.\n\nStamp on my heart, dear Lord, _the true likeness_ of Yourself. And\nas this likeness must be ever growing, let me come often to the altar\nrails to learn You more and more. The tabernacle is the Gospel history\ncontinued. Time has not dimmed Your fairness, O beautiful One, nor\ndulled the sympathy of Your human Heart. All that You were to Your own\nin this world, all that You are to them this hour in heaven, is here\nwithin the tabernacle, is here _for me_. Here then let me come to\nstudy You--patient, tender, obedient still, meek and humble of heart,\nJesus, yesterday, to-day and for ever!\n\n[84] John xvii.\n\n\n\n\nXXVII.\n\nOUR FATHER.\n\n O clap your hands, all ye nations; shout unto God with the voice of\n joy.--_Psa._ xlvi. 1.\n\n\nMy God, what would have become of us had You shown Yourself to us as\nthe All-just instead of the All-loving One You are? Had You been more\nmindful of Your Majesty than of our need? We know so little how to\ncomport ourselves in Your presence, that it might have seemed more\nfitting You should remain in the recesses of Your Godhead, manifest\nYourself but dimly and rarely, and restrict our worship of You to\nthe most distant homage. It would have been but the manifestation of\nanother attribute in place of that sweet mercy which has shaped the\nwhole course, not of redemption\u2019s plan only, but of the inner life of\neach one of us.\n\nMy God, it might have been so--and what then would have become of us?\nWhere would praise have been, and trust, and loving return to Your arms\nafter a fall? Blessed be Your name that You willed to show Yourself our\nFather, willed that with the younger race, Your human family, mercy\nshould ever be in the ascendant.\n\n\u201cBlessed be You for ever, my God, my Mercy,\u201d[85] for having shown\nYourself to our weak sight in this softened light, the light that\nbegets love--as One easily appeased, as One constraining trust, as\nOne with arms widespread to Your timid children--the All-forgiving,\nAll-tender, All-compassionate--_our Father Who art in heaven_.\n\n[85] _Cf._ Psa. lviii.\n\n\n\n\nXXVIII.\n\nHEREAFTER.\n\n Thou knowest not now, but thou shalt know hereafter.--_John_\n xiii. 7.\n\n\nI look forward into the eternal years and see myself at last in my\nrest on the bosom of God. All over! Life, and uncertainty, and death,\nand judgment, and purgatory. And with my head on the Heart of Him Who\nhas loved me to the end, I look back. How clear everything is from\nthis height, in this unclouded light and this untroubled peace! All\nmists swept away; all doubts dispelled; all questions set at rest; all\ncravings satisfied.\n\n_Thou shalt know hereafter._ Why that persistent prayer remained\nunanswered; why evil prospered and good was overcome; why in spite\nof every effort those difficulties remained difficulties to the\nlast--how plain it all is now! I see now the everlasting results of\nthe thoughts, and words, and acts that sped so quickly by. I see the\ndistinct work of each in shaping my eternity. I see the relation of\ngrace to glory; why I enjoy the blessed vision of God thus far and no\nfarther. Where I guided my steps by the light of faith, clung to God in\nthe darkness, \u201cjoined myself to Him and endured\u201d--what fruit of joy for\neternity! Where there was cowardice, self-seeking, above all, mistrust\nof God--what loss that can never, never be repaired! Oh, why did I\nnot realise that I was meant to live by faith during my little life\ndown there, in order to enjoy the fruits of faith in this real life of\neternity!\n\n_Thou knowest not now, but thou shalt know hereafter._ But I\n_may_ know now if I pray for light and strength. I may know now\nthe things that are for my peace. I may have now the spiritual insight,\nthe _lumen cordium_ which the Holy Spirit gives to all who ask.\n\nLord Jesus, here really present, make me see now by the light of faith\nwhat I shall see almost directly in the light of eternity; when I look\nback on life, and grace, and sacraments, and opportunities, on worldly\naims and worldly honours--from my place in heaven. By the tears You\nshed over Jerusalem that knew not the day of her visitation, grant that\nI, that all I love, that all men may know in this our day the things\nthat are for our peace.\n\n    Dawn now--the hours of earth\u2019s expectancy,\n    From the grey heaven enough of light to guide\n    The wary feet--no more; enough to trace\n    Against the sky in outline faint and blurred\n    Fair forms, their fairness shrouded for the nonce:\n    In every line of grace and symmetry\n    And tender hue to be revealed, when day\n    This hazy scene shall flood with living light,\n    Bathing all things in beauty. Now we know\n    In part, the noontide comes and _we shall see_.\n\n    O restless heart! resenting mystery,\n    Angry with night, that by Divine decree\n    Divides with day the task of perfecting\n    God\u2019s world of souls--fret not against the gloom\n    That, baffling, humbles thee. Why this reverse,\n    This wrong defeating right, brave effort crowned\n    By failure, good with itself at variance,\n    Thou know\u2019st not now; _now_ the strong trial of faith,\n    The clinging, blind with tears, unto thy God\n    In patient trust--_hereafter thou shalt see_.\n\n\n\n\nXXIX.\n\nMY VINEYARD.\n\n Let us see if the vineyard flourish.--_Cant._ vii. 12.\n\n\nThe vivid lightnings of the East that reveal in all the brightness of\nday what lay hidden in darkness, have their parallel in the flood of\nlight flashed at times upon the soul. Without warning, without apparent\ncause, it comes--a momentary brightness, but lasting in its effects.\nImagination, mind, heart, all have been steeped in it; henceforth the\ntruth it has lit up becomes a force to influence our life here and our\neternity hereafter.\n\nHas our responsibility to others been ever thrust upon us in one of\nthese bursts of light? Have we realised, as it were for the first time,\nthe influence which in God\u2019s inscrutable designs we have over the\ndestiny of others; the dread power which wittingly or unwittingly,\nfor good or for evil, we are ever exercising over those around us; the\naccount which will be demanded of such a trust?\n\nO God, You have given \u201cto every one of us commandment concerning our\nneighbour\u201d.[86] What kind of influence has mine been thus far? At the\nsixth, the ninth, the eleventh hour it was said to me: \u201cGo you into\nMy vineyard\u201d.[87] What has been the result of that call and of that\nmission? There has been a corner of that vineyard marked out for me\nto tend. Am I labouring in it with earnestness, with self-sacrifice,\nwith the purity of intention that overcomes difficulties, and survives\ndisappointment, and is undisturbed by failure, because it looks to You\nalone, works not for self but for Your glory? Or am I slumbering at my\npost? With what feelings do I hear You say to me: \u201cLet us see if the\nvineyard flourish, if the flowers be ready to bring forth fruits\u201d![88]\nIs it of me You say: \u201cI passed by the field of the slothful man, and\nby the vineyard of the foolish man. And behold it was all filled with\nnettles, and thorns had covered the face thereof, and the stone-wall\nwas broken down\u201d?[89] Must I own in my shame, \u201cMy vineyard I have not\nkept\u201d?[90]\n\nO Lord of the vineyard, Whose love and trust are shown in this, that\nYou have called me to labour for what is dearer to You than Your very\nlife--how have I justified Your trust? Do not punish my slothfulness\nby making over to another\u2019s more earnest toil what has been given into\nmy care. But rather stand by and help me to work according to Your\nwill, that nothing may perish or suffer loss through fault of mine.\nHelp me to watch vigilantly the little plot committed to me; to cast\nout carefully all noxious weeds; to dig, to prune, to bind up and\nstrengthen what is weak; \u201cin solicitude not slothful, in spirit fervent\nserving the Lord\u201d.[91] Then shall my vineyard flourish and bring forth\nfruit to Your glory in due season.\n\n[86] Ecclus. xvii.\n\n[87] Matt. xx.\n\n[88] Cant. vii.\n\n[89] Prov. xxiv.\n\n[90] Cant. i.\n\n[91] Rom. xii.\n\n\n\n\nXXX.\n\nWHERE WE ARE TRUE.\n\n Thou sayest, I am rich, and made wealthy, and have need of nothing:\n and knowest not, that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and\n blind, and naked.--_Apoc._ iii. 17.\n\n\nIt seems to me, dear Lord, that You can hardly reproach me with this. I\nknow but too well how deficient I am in humility; how I fire up at even\na hint implying blame, suspicion, mistrust; how reluctantly I own to\nthose about me that I am in the wrong.\n\nBut alone with You, my inward witness, it is otherwise. There is no\ndifficulty, no reluctance here. Once in the Presence Chamber, the\ncurtain dropped behind me, the gaze of creatures turned aside, I am\nmyself, _and true_, without disguise, feint, tricking out of any\nsort. I do not trim my speech, or tone down my \u201cPeccavi,\u201d \u201cto make\nexcuses in sins\u201d.[92] I conceal neither my failings nor my needs. With\nthe privilege of the creature in presence of the Creator, I lie on my\nface before You just as I am, for Your eye to see, Your ear to hearken\nto, Your Heart to pity and to bless.\n\nHow could there be pretence with You or affectation? I know and feel\nthat \u201cThy eyes are upon me,\u201d[93] \u201cbeholding the good and the evil\u201d;[94]\nthat \u201cGod Who seeth all\u201d[95] \u201cis the weigher of spirits\u201d.[96] Before\nthat all-seeing Eye self-delusion, conceit, untruthfulness in every\nshape must melt away.\n\nI cannot indeed know my nothingness and sinfulness as they are known\nto You. I do not fathom one of the thousand motives I have for\nself-abasement in Your sight. But I think my self-knowledge as far\nas it goes is true. I am ready to see with You that I am wretched\nand miserable and poor and blind and naked. I know and feel with the\nmost intimate conviction that in my soul are the seeds of every evil\npassion; that they will choke the good seed and ruin me unless Your\npower represses them; that unless Your Almighty hand checks the weight\nof temptation, my enemy must prevail over me; that it is owing to Your\ngoodness I have not been tempted as others; that of myself I am nothing\nbut weakness and misery and sin.\n\nHow it comes to pass that my self-knowledge does not bear better\nfruit; that when occasion requires I am not more ready to own to what\nI am thus conscious of, am not more indulgent and compassionate in\nmy judgment of others--I know not. But I thank You for what You have\ngiven; and ask earnestly for more and stronger light to bring about\nconformity between my interior conviction and my exterior words and\nactions.\n\n    Veni, Pater pauperum,\n    Veni, Dator munerum,\n    Veni, Lumen cordium.\n\n[92] Psa. cxl.\n\n[93] Job vii.\n\n[94] Prov. xv.\n\n[95] Ecclus. vii.\n\n[96] Prov. xvi.\n\n\n\n\nXXXI.\n\nIN SILENCE AND IN HOPE.\n\n  --_Isa._ xxx. 15.\n\n\n    She came with her crushing memories,\n      She came with her secret fears,\n    She brought Him her hidden misery\n      And her bitter burning tears.\n\n    And all alone at that cheerless board\n      Prepared Him her own sweet feast,\n    Offering her heart with her spikenard\n      And the kiss that \u201cnever ceased\u201d.\n\n    She marvelled when He upbraided\n      The cruel thoughts of men,\n    And tears fell fast as He lauded her--\n      Her, Mary Magdalen.\n\n    As she marked how His Heart no token\n      Of her contrite love had missed,\n    The love that had given of its best,\n      Anointed, and washed, and kissed;\n\n    And tendered a heart with penitence\n      Filled to the very brim,\n    And braved the scorn of a carping crowd\n      To stake its all on Him.\n\n    Absorbed in her loving ministries\n      She knelt at His Feet apart,\n    The scandal of every eye save one\n      That soundeth the secret heart.\n\n    She knew that her unforgiven past\n      Lay open to His ken,\n    Yet no word of supplication\n      Spake Mary Magdalen.\n\n    Love taught a sublimer pleading,\n      Elected a better part--\n    Calm trust in Him Who spurneth not\n      The humble contrite heart.\n\n    From out the fulness of His own\n      Came plenary release:\n    \u201cHer many sins are pardoned her:\n      Arise and go in peace\u201d.\n\n    O Christ, Who that poor sinner\u2019s love\n      So gloriously hast crowned,\n    That through all time her name with Thine\n      Shall through the world resound;\n\n    Who waitest here the penitent,\n      All-pitying now as then,\n    Give me the brave, unfaltering trust\n      Of Thy dear Magdalen.\n\n\n\n\nXXXII.\n\nGOD\u2019S WORK.\n\n To the Lord was His own work known from the beginning of the\n world.--_Acts_ xv. 18.\n\n\nWere Your work known to us, my God, as it is to You, how well ordered\nour minds and hearts, our views, affections, lives would be! How all\nthings would fall into their proper places--events public and private,\nevery detail of Your Providence affecting ourselves and others! Our\ndesires especially, how tranquil, how subordinated they would be! Or,\nrather, would there be any desire save for the furtherance of Your work\nby the fulfilment of Your will?\n\nBut may not this be our disposition now by means of faith? May we not\nsee in all that happens the action or the permission of God, to Whom\nHis own work is known?\n\nA child in the midst of a crowd is conscious of nothing but its\nimmediate surroundings. Crushed and stifled, it can see and feel only\nthe objects actually touching it. But let the father take it up in his\narms and hold it aloft--what a difference the elevation will make!\n\nI am in a crowd; in the dark, with the narrowest views and interests;\nknowing but dimly for what we are come together; finding no meaning\noften in what is stirring around me. But should God deign to raise me\nto His point of view, what a change would come over me! How differently\nI should look on all things! In all that happens I should see the good\npleasure or the permission of His Providence: \u201creaching from end to end\nmightily, and ordering all things sweetly\u201d.[97] This would not dull my\nsusceptibilities, nor cramp my desires. Far from it! With the widened\nprospect interests would multiply on every side. But all things would\nbe seen in their true light. In all I should recognise the Divine\nwill unfolding itself in the course of events, and guiding all things,\nundeterred by the action of man\u2019s free will, to its own predetermined\nends. In a deadly contest involving my country\u2019s honour and welfare,\nmy patriotism would run high. But too violent regrets at the reverses\nof our arms, too vehement anxiety as to the issue, would be held in\ncheck by my ignorance of God\u2019s designs. Once known by the issue, His\nwill would be accepted loyally, simply because it was His will. \u201cThanks\nbe to God, Who hath given us the victory.\u201d[98] Or--in spite of human\nfeeling and repugnance--\u201cThe Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away:\nblessed be the name of the Lord\u201d.[99]\n\nSo in family trials, the hidden sorrows of the heart, the vicissitudes\nof the spiritual life--there would be the habit of looking up into my\nFather\u2019s Face to see His meaning in it all; and where I could not see,\nlearning to bow my head and kiss His hand. \u201cYea, Father; for so hath\nit seemed good in Thy sight.\u201d[100]\n\nDoes the Creator ask too much of His little creature when He bids\nit submit itself thus to Him? Or is it not rather a marvellous\ncondescension on His part to invite the fusion of our will with the\nDivine, thus associating us with Himself in the work known to Him from\nthe beginning?\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nWhat You want, my God, You shall have, and as cheerfully as I can\ngive it. To give without cost or pain is not always in my power. You\ndo not ask this: nay, You accept the cost and pain as proving greater\nlove. You value above all things the faith that gives in the dark, not\nseeing Your open hand, nor the smile which would be its instant reward;\nnot understanding as yet the joy our fidelity is to Him Who deigns to\nrealise His eternal designs through the instrumentality of our free\nwill.\n\nO God, let not mine be wanting! Take all I have, take it at any cost.\nI make You welcome to all. My reward shall be to kneel at Your feet one\nday, and follow Your finger, showing how, here in brightness, here in\nshade, Your work was entrusted to me, and--my God, what joy! I have not\ndisappointed You.\n\n[97] Wisd. viii.\n\n[98] 1 Cor. xv.\n\n[99] Job i.\n\n[100] Matt. xi.\n\n\n\n\nXXXIII.\n\nA STRONG CRY.\n\n They rebuked him, that he should hold his peace. But he cried out much\n more: \u201cSon of David, have mercy on me\u201d.--_Luke_ xviii. 39.\n\n\nThere are moments when we fling ourselves before the Tabernacle with a\ndesire too vehement for words. These translate our thoughts and needs\nup to a certain point. Beyond that, we must betake ourselves to the cry\nof the heart.\n\nWhat a relief to know that that cry passes instantly into the presence\nof Him Who made us, and is welcomed there. Nay, it has not even a\npresence-chamber to seek, for \u201cHe is not far from any one of us\u201d.[101]\n\u201cHis ear lies ever on our lips.\u201d And this is yet too far. As the sponge\nin mid-ocean so are we borne up, environed, penetrated, saturated with\nHim. \u201cIn Him we live and move and have our being.\u201d[102] This is He to\nWhom we cry. Nor need we even cry. For \u201call things are naked and open\nto the eyes of Him to Whom our speech is\u201d.[103] Our God is nigh unto\nus; He is within us; more present to us than we are to ourselves. He\nknows the need that casts us on our face before Him. He saw our trouble\nbefore it took shape in our soul. He knows each thrill of pain, and the\nagony of helplessness, and the fear that holds us as in a vice. All\nthis He knows. And He is not displeased with the passionate earnestness\nof our cry for help. Job was blameless before God when his misery\nforced from him bold words of expostulation. Jacob was blessed for\nbeing strong against God. Our Almighty Father loves to be overcome by\nHis children. He is willing to have His gifts wrested from Him by the\nintensity of prayer. Nor will He have such prayer to be disconcerted or\nturned aside by the evidence of its untimeliness. No, not even when He\nignores or denies it. He loves the trust that catches up the rebuff and\nflings it back, a passionate plea for mercy:--\n\n\u201cIt is not good to take the children\u2019s bread and to cast it to the\ndogs.\u201d[104]\n\n\u201cYea, Lord; for the whelps also eat of the crumbs that fall from the\ntable of their masters.\u201d\n\nOh, that I had this strength of purpose, this trust that sweeps all\nbefore it! Here on the altar I have my model in prayer--Him \u201cWho\nin the days of His flesh with a strong cry offered up prayers and\nsupplications[105]: Abba, Father, all things are possible to Thee,\nremove this chalice from me, but not what I will, but what Thou\nwilt.\u201d[106] \u201cAnd being in an agony, He prayed the longer.\u201d[107] \u201cAnd He\nprayed the third time, saying the self same word.\u201d[108]\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nOur prayer can never be too urgent, too persistent, if only we\nkneel by Your side and follow Your lead, O Lord. We may return again\nand again upon the same plea: _Abba, Pater, omnia Tibi possibilia\nsunt._ All things, all things are possible to Thee; take this\nchalice from me. Yet--for Thou knowest best, and I am shortsighted and\nself-seeking, and know not the things that are for my peace--_not my\nwill, but Thine be done_. Let that will be done which in a little\nwhile, when I look down upon this trial from the unclouded brightness\nof my place in heaven, I shall joyfully own to have been for the best,\nbetter a thousand times than anything I could have devised. \u201cFather,\nif Thou wilt, remove this chalice from me. But if this chalice may not\npass away, but I must drink it, Thy will be done.\u201d\n\n[101] Acts xvii.\n\n[102] Acts xvii.\n\n[103] Heb. iv.\n\n[104] Mark vii.\n\n[105] Heb. v.\n\n[106] Mark xiv.\n\n[107] Luke xxii.\n\n[108] Matt. xxvi.\n\n\n\n\nXXXIV.\n\n\u201cBE READY!\u201d\n\n (_A visit for the First Friday of the month._)\n\n\n\u201c_Be ready!_\u201d Your word of warning, Lord, and my one desire. And\nso I come to You to get ready.\n\nI shall be too weak and suffering on my bed of death, too appalled by\nthe sight of my past life to be able to do much by way of preparation\nfor the Last Sacraments. Yet I shall need all their grace, and I must\nbring to them at least the necessary dispositions. Take the care of\nall upon Yourself. See Yourself to my dispositions. Look upon all as a\ntrust committed to You long ago, committed to You again and again with\nthe more self-abandonment as the time and circumstances of my last hour\nare absolutely unknown to me. Let me find out in that hour how well it\nis to have hoped in the Lord. Let me find You, my Lord, in death equal\nto Yourself--to all I have found You in life.\n\nAnd when the hour for Sacraments has passed; when the Church has\nstretched her hand to the utmost to hold me to the last, up to the very\nconfines of that world where her jurisdiction stops; when my soul is\npassing beyond the reach of that hand which has stayed me up till then,\nand been help and healing all my life through--then, O my Saviour, do\nfor me immediately, by Yourself, what You have done for me through\nYour Church. Hear Yourself my last confession made straight to Your\nHeart. Hear my last avowal \u201cof my so many sins\u201d; of those for which I\nhave sorrowed most bitterly, which have been brought oftenest under\nthe absolving hand of Your priest. When my last words in this world\nare said; when my eyes are closed to the crucifix, and my hands can\ngrasp the rosary no longer; when my ears are shut to all the sounds\nof earth, and all things are sinking round me--then let me feel You\nnear. Inspire Yourself my last cry for mercy. Sweep away the clouds\nthat will gather thick and fast before the eyes of my soul, seeking to\nhide that mercy from me. Let Your hand hold me. Let Your arm be round\nme when all else is falling away. You have passed, O Lord, through\nthe agony of death: be with me in my agony. All the nameless terrors\nof that hour are known to You. All the dangers that await me then are\nclear to You here in the tabernacle--the weakness, the weariness, the\npains of spirit, and of sense, the temptations kept for the last, the\nloneliness, the unsuspected snares, the lack of human help. O human\nHeart, be my secure refuge in that awful hour. I call upon You now to\nfulfil in my favour then the promise to those devoted to Your sacred\nHeart: \u201cI will be their assured refuge in life and more especially at\ndeath.\u201d\n\n    Recordare, Jesu pie,\n    Quod sum causa Tuae viae\n    Ne me perdas illa die.\n\n    Quaerens me sedisti lassus,\n    Redemisti crucem passus:\n    Tantus labor non sit cassus.\n\n    Recollect, O love divine,\n    \u2019Twas for this lost sheep of Thine\n    Thou Thy glory didst resign.\n\n    Sattest weary seeking me,\n    Suff\u2019redst upon the tree:\n    Let not vain Thy labour be.\n\n\n\n\nXXXV.\n\n\u201cDOMINE, ECCE QUEM AMAS INFIRMATUR.\u201d\n\n                                                    --_John_ xi. 3.\n\n\nHow many Bethanies, Lord Jesus, have there been in the world since the\nday You stood with Martha and Mary by the grave of Lazarus! How many\nthere are at this hour! And each with all its pain is known to Your\npitying Heart. Every detail known--the fear, the anxiety, the weary yet\nunwearied prayer, the long, long waiting for Your coming; the hope that\nrises and falls and clings the faster for its less foothold to Your\npromises, Your mercy, Your dear human Heart. You know it all. You have\nseen all, heard all for years. And still You wait, just as You waited\nbeyond the Jordan whilst the sisters wept beside their brother\u2019s bed,\nbeside his grave.\n\n\u201cNow Jesus loved Martha, and her sister Mary, and Lazarus. When He had\nheard therefore that he was sick, He still remained in the same place\ntwo days.\u201d[109] Why, Lord, why--with Your heart so tender and Your\narm so strong, and danger near, and time short, and those You love so\nfearful and so sad? Why did you still remain, O Lord?\n\nTruly Your thoughts are not as our thoughts, nor Your ways as ours. Our\nlove stands sentry round its dear ones, to ward off pain or sorrow:\n\u201cFar be it from Thee, Lord, this shall not be unto Thee\u201d.[110] Your\nlove, seeking rather to sanctify than to spare, assigns to sorrow a\ndefinite work in behalf of Your beloved. \u201cWhom the Lord loveth, He\nchastiseth, and He scourgeth every son whom He receiveth.\u201d[111] \u201cNow\nJesus loved Martha, and Mary, and Lazarus. When He had heard therefore\nthat he was sick, He still remained in the same place two days.\u201d\n\n\u201cOur Lord Himself was perfected by His passion.\u201d[112] And in that\npassion it was not the nails which tore the flesh, but the anguish\nwhich rent the spirit, that drew forth His bitter cry. It was the\npassion of His Heart that was the hardest. It is by the crucifixion of\nthe heart that Christ is perfected in us. Therefore He stays away and\nleaves us to suffering harder far to bear than physical pain. We cry\nout. We send our messages to Him. And He does not come. \u201cMy God, My\nGod, why hast Thou forsaken me!\u201d He hears and does not come. The echo\nof His own cry of desolation moves His Heart. And still He does not\ncome. It is because Jesus loves that He does violence to His heart and\nlets the cross do for His friends what it alone can do. This is His way\nof showing love. He expects us to understand it.\n\nIn the cross, as in the sacred mystery of the altar, His love puts on\nstrange disguises. But puts them on so regularly, so frankly, that\nlosing by this time their power of disguise, they ought to reveal\ninstead of hiding Him.\n\nWe must be patient and wait. The time of His coming, with its ways and\nmeans, we can leave to His wisdom and His love. Our work is to send\nurgently and perseveringly the message whose trust vanquished His Heart\nat last and made Him say, \u201c_Let us go to him_\u201d.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\n\u201c_Lord, behold, he whom Thou lovest is sick._\u201d Before a thousand\ntabernacles that cry is rising. No prayer, but pleading more potent\nthan any prayer. Its perseverance is its power. Can it but hold out,\nignore neglect, support delay, it is sure to hear in God\u2019s own time:\n\u201cThy brother shall rise again.... Lazarus, come forth.\u201d\n\nListen, Lord Jesus, to that cry. By the pity it woke in Your sacred\nHeart--listen! By the tears You shed with the weeping sisters--listen!\nNot for one Lazarus only, but for each and every one throughout the\nworld, do we entreat You: _Domine, ecce quem amas infirmatur!_\nIf a miracle is needed, we ask it with confidence. Is there one\nYou would work more gladly? O Lord, make haste to help us. To-day,\nto-day--to-morrow, perhaps, it will be too late. _Ecce quem amas\ninfirmatur!_\n\n[109] John xi.\n\n[110] Matt. xvi.\n\n[111] Heb. xii.\n\n[112] Heb. ii.\n\n\n\n\nXXXVI.\n\nAFTER A DEATH.\n\n And his disciples came and took the body, and buried it, and came and\n told Jesus.--_Matt._ xiv. 12.\n\n\nPoor disciples! They had lost their master. Life lay a blank before\nthem; all its meaning gone, all its purpose changed. The support on\nwhich they had leaned was taken away--what was to become of them?\n\nPoor disciples indeed--yet happy too. For the hand that dealt the blow\nheld the remedy. It led them to Jesus. What does that mean but that all\nthey had lost was made up to them a thousandfold?\n\nThey took the body, and buried it, _and came and told Jesus_. We\ncan see Him receiving the forlorn little band. We can hear His words\nof tender pity and comfort as He drew them out and got from them\nall their troubled tale. We can feel the relief it was to tell Him\nall; feel the peace that stole into their hearts as He spoke to them\nof their master, and gently won them from their grief, and drew them\nto Himself. They yielded to the divine attraction of that Eye and\nthat Voice, to the irresistible sympathy of that Heart, to the grace\nthat spoke to their own hearts. And thus that bitter loss proved the\ncrowning grace of their lives, the cause of their eternal joy--because\nthey let it lead them to the feet of Christ--because _they came and\ntold Jesus_.\n\nO Master! I too come to Your feet to tell You all. I have buried my\ndead. I have lost what can never be restored to me in this world. I\nhave come from the grave with half myself buried there. I have come\nback to a life with all its meaning gone from it--a life without joy,\ninterest, anything to which my soul responds--a dreary waste stretching\nbefore me that I must cross alone. Where shall I turn for courage and\nfor strength? Where but to You to Whom the disciples of John turned in\ntheir desolation? Open to me Your arms and Your Heart. Listen tenderly\nto me whilst I tell You all my trouble. Speak to my soul and calm it\nand strengthen it. Make up to me for what You have taken away. And if\nYou ask what compensation I desire, I answer: \u201cNone other than Thyself,\nO Lord\u201d.\n\nLet us both be gainers by this bitter loss--You by the fuller surrender\ninto Your hands of all that I have and am; I by the fuller gift of\nYourself to my soul--a fulness satisfying its every craving with the\nlove of Him, from Whom neither life nor death, nor things present nor\nthings to come, have power to part me.\n\n\n\n\nXXXVII.\n\nGOD\u2019S WAYS.\n\n Wherein hast Thou loved us?--_Malach._ i. 2.\n\n\nMy God, I may tell You anything and everything. All I have to tell\ninterests You, more especially the difficulties and troubles which\ndo not easily come out to others, and are not for the most part very\nhelpfully met when they do come out. \u201cFor what man knoweth the things\nof a man, but the spirit of a man that is in him?\u201d[113]\n\nBut \u201cthe Spirit (of God) searcheth all things.\u201d[114] You know me\nthrough and through, and I am only owning to what You see and\nunderstand perfectly when I tell You of repinings aroused by gifts\nand opportunities bestowed on others, but denied to me. I find myself\nquestioning, if not Your wisdom, at least Your love, in that I am less\nrichly dowered than others with the happy temperament, the talents, the\nmoral and social qualities that we reckon among the better gifts of\nlife, that render life not a duty merely, nor a source of merit, but\na continual joy. I do not see that \u201cthe lines are fallen unto me in\ngoodly places\u201d; rather I ask petulantly, \u201c_Wherein hast Thou loved\nme?_\u201d\n\nThe source of such disquiet is selfishness. This is the dismal\nconsolation I should get were I to confide my trouble to the most\nindulgent of friends. But have You no better comfort for me, my\nCreator and my Father? To whom shall I go in my pains if not to Him\nWhose \u201chands have made me and formed me\u201d;[115] to my Father \u201cthat hath\npossessed me, and made me, and created me\u201d;[116] Who says to me, \u201cI\nwill have mercy on thee more than a mother\u201d?[117] There is no humbling\navowal I may not trust to You, and trusting it be sure of sympathy.\n\u201cWhy hast Thou done so to us?\u201d was the meek remonstrance of the most\nsubmissive of handmaids. \u201cWherein hast Thou loved us?\u201d was said by the\nmost cross-grained and thankless of peoples. And to both questioners\nYou vouchsafed a reply. I too, then, may ask: Why, Father, hast Thou\ndone so to me? In withholding what is good in itself, what would have\nmade me happier, _Wherein hast Thou loved me?_\n\nYour answer might be: \u201cShall the thing formed say to Him that formed\nit, why hast Thou made me thus?\u201d[118] But in place of rebuke You\nsilence my trouble by an invitation: \u201c_Come up hither_\u201d.[119] I\nam to take my stand by Your side, and from that height look around on\nthe design framed from eternity. Parts of a plan can be viewed aright\nonly in connection with the whole. To consider them independently is to\nmiss not only the meaning and grandeur of the scheme in its entirety,\nbut particular excellence also. This I know. Yet the tendency of\nselfishness is to contract the vision, and let the tiny portion\nassigned to itself in the universal design absorb the interest and\nwarp the judgment. I am too near to earth, too involved in its passing\ninterests to preserve the relative proportion necessary for viewing\nthings aright. I must move further off--look forward a few years--plant\nmy feet, not on this transitory world, but on the eternal shore, and\nfrom that standpoint look out upon creation.\n\n\u201c_He hath begotten us ... that we might be some beginning of His\ncreature._\u201d[120]\n\nWhat an unsealing of eyes awaits me the moment after death! What a\nvista all but infinite will open out before me as the divine plan\nunfolds! All this human race, which because it encloses my lot is\napt to engross my whole interest--if indeed my interest extends to\nthe race and is not absorbed by the little miserable me--all this\nvast assemblage of human souls to be--but _some beginning of His\ncreature_!\n\nIn eternity I shall see the part assigned to this beginning in the\nuniversal scheme. I shall see the part assigned to each unit. I\nshall grasp without effort, without reasoning, the self-evident fact\nthat the dignity of every human being lies in its having a place in\nGod\u2019s eternal design; that independent or solitary greatness is an\nimpossibility; that our happiness no less than our grandeur consists\nin filling that place in the vast mosaic which divine wisdom and love\nhas appointed us; that the significance of the creature, its beauty and\nwell-being are to be found only in its conformity with the ideal in\nthe Creator\u2019s mind. Those who on earth have worked out that ideal and\nthereby reached their appointed place are happy. Those who, absorbed\nby selfish aims, have failed to fit themselves for the place assigned\nthem, are necessarily cast aside as failures--and this whatever the\ngifts, station, influence that distinguished them in the momentary\ninterval between two eternities that we call Time. Nothing indeed will\nastound me more than the reversal of lots in the world beyond the\ngrave. I shall see how in innumerable instances paths of glory have\nled to everlasting confusion and oblivion. How, on the other hand, the\nunnoticed, the meagrely gifted, have made their way up to the highest\nhonour, and are placed \u201cwith the princes of His people\u201d. The beggar of\nthe Roman streets, shunned by every passerby, the shepherdess of an\nobscure village, the simple, illiterate Cur\u00e9 d\u2019Ars, as \u201cthe friends of\nGod are made exceedingly honourable\u201d. Whilst high above all, King of\nKings and Lord of Lords, is a village Carpenter of heretofore.\n\nTruly God\u2019s ways are not our ways! When I see as He sees, there will\nbe no heartburnings, no pining for anything however good in itself\nthat has not found place in His designs for me. Narrow views will melt\naway so completely as to be deemed wholly inexplicable in the past;\negotism disappear in the burst of admiration at the design revealed\nin creation. What will be my delight to have a place, my particular\nplace, in that glorious scheme! What my regret, as I turn away to\npurgatory, that I have failed to co-operate in the perfecting of the\nwhole in the measure determined for me!\n\nAnd this I shall see soon! Soon I shall be viewing all things from\nGod\u2019s standpoint, the only one possible in the land of Truth.\nRecognising at last in my outfit a marvellous adaptation of means\nto the end, I shall see wherein He has loved me. I shall bless His\nwill that has ordered all things sweetly. I shall trace His love in\nwithholding as well as in giving, in ordaining my limitations and\ndeficiencies no less than my aptitudes as means for attaining to my\nplace in His kingdom. The greater or less glory and happiness of that\nplace will be a matter of indifference to me. To reach the degree\nin which _He_ would place me, to satisfy _Him_, to give\nHim throughout eternity the praise and reverence and service He asks\nof me--this will be the only ambition possible to my enlightened\nunderstanding and will. \u201cIn Thy light we shall see light.\u201d[121]\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nO Father, that it might be thus even now! That now, whilst my place\nin heaven is to be sought and reached, I might have the light and\nstrength to accept, not with resignation only--this were too poor\na gratitude--but with deepest, tenderest thankfulness, the means\nfashioned to my hand, designed by Your wisdom _for me_!\n\n[113] 1 Cor. ii.\n\n[114] _Ibid._\n\n[115] Psa. cxviii.\n\n[116] Deut. xxxii.\n\n[117] Ecclus. iv.\n\n[118] Rom. ix.\n\n[119] Apoc. iv.\n\n[120] St. James i.\n\n[121] Psa. xxxv.\n\n\n\n\nXXXVIII.\n\nTWILIGHT AND NOON.\n\n My eyes are ever towards the Lord.--_Psa._ xxiv. 15.\n\n\nHow marvellous is the vehemence of David\u2019s utterances when we consider\nthe dimness with which God revealed Himself in the time of twilight\nbefore the coming of Christ! He was not altogether the hidden God.\nThroughout His dealings with His people we are struck by the mingling\nof light and darkness, distance and nearness, terrific chastisement and\nthe tenderest blandishments of love. There was wonderful condescension\nand approach in the tabernacle of the wilderness, in the revelations\nto the prophets, in the interventions of mercy that times without\nnumber succoured the stiff-necked people. There are words of love in\nthe Old Testament unsurpassed perhaps in tenderness by any in the\nNew. Yet when His presence is nearest, when His reproaches are most\ntouching, His words most endearing, we are conscious of the measureless\ndifference between God\u2019s manifestation in the past and the intimacy and\nfamiliarity brought into our relations with Him by the Incarnation. We\nwho live in the full illumination of that day which kings and prophets\ndesired to see, cannot but feel how little earth\u2019s most enlightened men\nknew the God Who made them, before \u201cthe Word was made flesh and dwelt\namongst us\u201d.\n\nYet so powerfully were they drawn to Him, that their words are the\nfittest exponents of every human heart when by desire, praise,\naffection, thanksgiving, it leaps up to God. They give expression\nto our every need. But, alas! they give too much matter also for\nself-reproach.\n\n\u201c_My eyes are always towards the Lord_,\u201d said David. God revealed\nHimself with special intimacy to the man according to His own Heart,\nthat spoke in his own person of the sufferings and the glories of Him\nWho was to delight in the name of the Son of David. Yet after all what\ndid David know of the Lord compared with the knowledge vouchsafed to\nthe least enlightened of the Church\u2019s children! He had the memory of\npast mercies to the \u201cseed of Abraham His servant, the sons of Jacob\nHis chosen\u201d.[122] He had the shadowy presence of God in the Ark of the\nCovenant. And he had the dim foreknowledge of One to come, of the root\nof Jesse, \u201cbeautiful above the sons of men,\u201d[123] yet \u201ca worm, and no\nman, the reproach of men, and the outcast of the people,\u201d[124] of \u201ca\nHoly One Who should not see corruption,\u201d[125] but \u201csit on the right\nhand of God till all His enemies be made His footstool\u201d.[126] This was\nall. But it was enough to keep the eyes of David fixed on God: \u201c_My\neyes are always towards the Lord_.\u201d\n\nI think of myself. I think of the careful teaching from my childhood\nonwards: of the Gospel stories so familiar to me that I may follow\nthe life of the God-man from His crib to His cross; living in His\ncompany; listening to His teaching; noting His look and gesture and\nact; studying His ways and dealings with men, His likes and dislikes,\nthe human character which individualised Him and endeared Him to His\nfriends. I may watch Him at His work, I may mark the effect upon Him\nof kindness and appreciation, and, on the other hand, of ingratitude,\nscorn, cruelty and hate. I may see him thirsty, wayworn, footsore, and\nfeast the eyes of my soul on the absolute perfection with which all the\neventualities of life were met by Him Who, very God of very God, was\nyet the Son of Man and one of us.\n\nAgain, I may contemplate Him abiding ever with His Church, the source\nof every supernatural act throughout its length and breadth. I may see\nthe Divine sap flowing through the vine to its furthest extremities,\nthe principle of life and growth, of beauty and of fruitfulness in\nevery soul His grace has sanctified. I know that all His merits are\nplaced at my disposal; that He desires to make the meanest actions of\nmy life meritorious of an eternal reward by uniting them with His. I\nhave his invitation in the early morning to offer with Him His daily\nsacrifice that is offered for me. I hear Him asking of me, if not a\ndaily, at least a frequent invitation to my heart. I hear him calling\n\u201cCome aside and rest a little\u201d when in afternoon hours the day\u2019s tasks\nare lightening; calling me to Him for an evening blessing when the\nday\u2019s work is done. Through the long hours of day and night His eye is\nfollowing me--how often are my eyes towards the Lord?\n\nO eager heart of David, that has met, if not with adequate response,\nat least with all your strength, the advances of our God, become to\nours the stimulus they so sadly need! In our noontide splendour,\nin the fulness of fruition, we turn back to catch the glowing heat\nof your desires: \u201c_O God my God, to Thee do I watch at break of\nday. For Thee my soul hath thirsted; for Thee my flesh, oh, how many\nways!_\u201d[127]\n\nYour envying of our happier days and higher privileges shall make us\nappreciate them better: \u201cThey have seen Thy goings, O God, the goings\nof my God, of my King Who is in His sanctuary\u201d.[128]\n\nWe will prize His sanctuary in our midst; the sanctuary nearest to us,\nwhere most of all our homage and our love are due. Morning, afternoon,\nand evening we will seek Him there to bless Him and be blessed. \u201cIn\nthe churches bless ye God the Lord.\u201d[129] \u201cSeek ye the Lord, and be\nstrengthened, seek His face evermore.\u201d[130]\n\n[122] Psa. civ.\n\n[123] _Ibid._ xliv.\n\n[124] _Ibid._ xxi.\n\n[125] _Ibid._ xv.\n\n[126] _Ibid._ cix.\n\n[127] Psa. lxii.\n\n[128] _Ibid._ lxvii.\n\n[129] _Ibid._ lxvii.\n\n[130] _Ibid._ civ.\n\n\n\n\nXXXIX.\n\nRESPONSIBILITY.\n\n Behold I and my children, whom God hath given me.--_Heb._ ii.\n\n\nNo sympathy is so genuine and so ready, none so acceptable and helpful\nas that created by similarity of experience. \u201cWhat doth he know that\nhath not been tried?\u201d[131] \u201cWho can rejoice with them that rejoice, and\nweep with them that weep\u201d[132] like one whose heart has thrilled with\nthe same gladness, and found relief in the same tears?\n\nNothing more endears our Lord to us than the proofs of fellow-feeling\nthat come out in every act of His human life. The Incarnation was the\nsupreme gift of His sympathy. Every weary journey to and fro, every\ncure of soul or body, every word of warning and of comfort spoke of His\nsympathy. The Eucharist is His sympathy incarnate to the end of time.\n\nNo burden of ours is unshared by the Son of man. He has devised\nexpedients that bewilder us by their condescension, in order to bring\nhome to us the truth: \u201cI also have a heart as well as you.\u201d[133] He\nwill weep with his friends beside a grave. He will cower before pain\nand ignominy. He will be \u201ctempted in all things like as we are\u201d.[134]\nNay, He will even clothe Himself with the appearance of sin, be \u201cmade\nsin for us\u201d;[135] feel its burden and its shame; bear the penalty\nof its guilt, to prove His devotedness to us in His most winning of\nways--the sharing of our miseries out of love.\n\nAll the heavy-laden He invites to Him, but none, perhaps, are more\ntenderly welcomed than those who come bowed beneath the weight\nof responsibility. Whether this devolves upon them through their\nrelations with others as superiors, or is the consequence of kinship\nor friendship, it surely wins for them the sympathy of Him Who knows\nby His own experience the nature of all such responsibilities and the\nsolicitude they entail.\n\n\u201cYou call Me Master, and Lord, and you say well, for so I am.\u201d[136]\n\u201cIs not He thy Father that hath possessed thee, and made thee and\ncreated thee?\u201d[137] \u201cAs one whom the mother caresseth, so will I\ncomfort you.\u201d[138] He is our Elder Brother, \u201cfirst-born amongst\nmany brethren;\u201d[139] \u201cthe Physician of Whom we all have need;\u201d[140]\n\u201cthe Shepherd and Bishop of our souls\u201d.[141] He knows, therefore,\nexperimentally the peculiar trials of the charge with which we are\nladen, and we may pour out our hearts to Him with the freedom that\ncomes of perfect trust in One \u201csorrowful,\u201d \u201cheavy,\u201d \u201ctroubled\u201d--\u201cin all\nthings like as we are\u201d.[142]\n\nMy cares, dear Lord, are known to You, and not known only, but laid\nupon me by Your own hand. They weigh heavily at times. The interests at\nstake are so tremendous, and my ignorance and helplessness so great.\nOften enough I do not see what to do for the best; oftener still I\ncannot take the course that seems to me best. I am afraid of a false\nstep; I am afraid of missing opportunities. Where to make a stand, and\nwhere to yield; when to command, and when to entreat; when to offer\na word of remonstrance or of counsel, and when to say nothing and\ntrust to prayer--all these are perplexities in which I need and pray\nfor the guidance of Your holy Spirit. There is a time to speak and a\ntime to keep silence, but this is Your secret, O Lord! Give me the\nopportunities won by long prayer. Put upon my lips the well-timed word.\nSend me the success that comes of casting out the nets at Your word,\nunder Your eye, with Your blessing.\n\nAnd solve for me other problems--how to teach my children to take\ntheir place befittingly in the world without being of the world;\nhow to train them for the battle of life; to provide them with an\nequipment for mind and heart that will suffice for the needs of these\nperilous times; to strengthen them by self-knowledge, self-reverence,\nself-control against the intellectual and moral dangers they will\nhave to face, and prepare them for the burning questions of the day\nbefore they are flung into their midst. I tremble at the sight of these\ndangers beginning so early now when life is lived so fast. And the\nmother\u2019s words, the mother\u2019s arms do not reach as far as heretofore.\nShe can only pray and trust. How earnestly You bid us trust, O Lord!\n\n\u201cFear not: for the battle is not yours, but God\u2019s.\u201d[143] \u201cCast thy care\nupon the Lord, and He shall sustain thee.\u201d[144] \u201cBe quiet, fear not,\nand let not thy heart be afraid.\u201d[145]\n\n\u201cI shall fear but I will trust in Thee.\u201d[146] \u201cMy God is my helper,\nand in Him will I put my trust.\u201d[147] \u201cIn my affliction I called upon\nthe Lord, and I cried to my God.\u201d[148] \u201cHow long, O Lord, wilt Thou\nforget me, how long dost Thou turn away Thy face from me? Consider, and\nhear me, O Lord my God.\u201d[149]\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\n\u201c_Behold I and my children, whom God hath given me!_\u201d I gather\nthem round me here at Your feet. I trust them to Your care. Keep them\nin Your faith and in Your love, and bring them safely through the dark\nperils of this life to the haven of salvation.\n\n\u201c_Behold I and my children, whom God hath given me._\u201d Let me say\nthis one day as we stand in the brightness of Your Presence. Let me say\nin the fulness of my joy: \u201cOf them whom Thou hast given me, I have not\nlost one.\u201d[150]\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\n\u201cFear not! stand and see the great wonders of the Lord, which He will\ndo.\u201d[151] \u201cI will seek that which was lost, and that which was driven\naway, I will bring again; and I will bind up that which was broken, and\nI will strengthen that which was weak.\u201d[152] \u201cI will give them life\neverlasting; and they shall not perish for ever, and no man shall pluck\nthem out of My hand.\u201d[153]\n\n[131] Ecclus. xxxiv.\n\n[132] Rom. xii.\n\n[133] Job xii.\n\n[134] Heb. iv.\n\n[135] 2 Cor. v.\n\n[136] John xiii.\n\n[137] Deut. xxxii.\n\n[138] Isa. lxvi.\n\n[139] Rom. viii.\n\n[140] Luke v.\n\n[141] 1 Peter ii.\n\n[142] Heb. iv.\n\n[143] 2 Par. xx.\n\n[144] Psa. liv.\n\n[145] Isa. vii.\n\n[146] Psa. lv.\n\n[147] Psa. xvii.\n\n[148] _Ibid._\n\n[149] _Ibid._ xii.\n\n[150] John xvii.\n\n[151] Exod. xiv.\n\n[152] Ezech. xxxiv.\n\n[153] John x.\n\n\n\n\nXL.\n\nLIFE.\n\n As long as the heir is a child, he is under tutors and governors until\n the time appointed by the father.--_Galat._ iv. 1, 2.\n\n\nLife is a school--neither more nor less. _Not more._ Therefore we\nmust not expect to find it satisfying. We must not look here for the\nfreedom, the gladness, the warmth, the indefinable happiness of home.\n\nBut surely the eternal Home is worth waiting for! \u201cIt hath not yet\nappeared what we shall be.\u201d[154] \u201cEye hath not seen, nor ear heard,\nneither hath it entered into the heart of man, what things God hath\nprepared for them that love Him.\u201d[155] Yet we may infer something of\nthe grandeur and blessedness of the life to come from the study of\nour own souls, from the vastness of their capacity, their insatiable\nthirst for knowledge, the depth and tenderness of their affections.\nCapacity supposes complement. The aspirations God has given He will\nsurely satisfy. And therefore all that the noblest, the most highly\ngifted, the most loving of our race have desired for their perfect\nhappiness, will be given to them in a fulness of which they can form\nno conception--\u201cgood measure, pressed down, shaken together, running\nover\u201d.[156] The most far-reaching penetration of the secrets of nature\nand of grace; the perfect realisation and more a thousand times than\nrealisation of home; the satisfaction of all the cravings of kindred\nand of friendship, to say nothing of the essential joy of which these\nare but the redundance--this is what awaits us hereafter. Not here, nor\nyet. We must not look now for anything but the faintest anticipation of\nwhat is in store for us--_we are at school_.\n\nHow is it that this elementary truth has so little hold upon us? Life\nwould be much less of a disappointment if we remembered its true\ncharacter and purport, if we had more of the wisdom of the schoolboy\nwho lives with his heart in the future, and for the rough discipline of\nthe present is for ever promising himself the compensations of home.\n\nLife is a school. _Nothing less._ Therefore we must beware of\nsquandering the time given us to prepare for our final state. We are\nhere for our training, not for our enjoyment, and must go in for the\nexperiences and the work our education demands. We have to drill\nourselves in regard to our pleasures and our pains. Pleasure must not\nbe suffered to monopolize our interest. It is but the half holiday\nthrown into school life to make its pressure bearable. Pain must not\ncast us down utterly, but detach us from our surroundings here, and\nfoster in us the homesickness of the saints. And we have to work, work\nseriously at the formation of mind and heart--the task allotted us in\nthis world. Both have to be conformed to the likeness of Him Who is the\npattern of all the elect. Both have to be brought into harmony with the\nsurroundings in which they will find themselves directly. \u201cLet this\nmind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus.\u201d[157] \u201cOur conversation\nmust be in heaven.\u201d[158]\n\nMeantime we have with us, not only as Master, but as Father and Elder\nBrother, Him Who has passed through the experience of human life; Who,\n\u201cbecause the children are partakers of flesh and blood, hath also\nHimself in like manner been partaker of the same,\u201d[159] \u201clike to us in\nall things excepting sin\u201d;[160] Whose word of comfort as we take to Him\nour weary tasks is a reminder at once of their necessity and of their\nrecompense: \u201cWork your work before the time, and He will give you your\nreward in His time.\u201d[161]\n\nMy God, I thank You for the immortal spirit You have given me. I\nthank You for its vast capacity, which I recognise in a craving that\nnothing here can sate. Its very neediness appeals to Your beneficence,\n\u201cabyss calleth upon abyss.\u201d[162] Keep up the keenness of its desire,\nthe hunger and thirst which You have declared blessed, till the time\ncomes for satisfying it fully. Let me not seek to assuage it by\nanything transitory. Let me \u201cso pass through the things of time as not\nto forfeit those of eternity\u201d.[163] Let me be schooled by the tasks\nand trials, the little joys and sorrows and passing brightnesses of\nthis life for the great future, the true life that lies beyond. May my\nhappiness no less than my duty be found in preparing now for what I am\nto do and to be hereafter.\n\nAnd when my school days are over and my lessons here are learned--dear\nFather, take me Home!\n\n[154] 1 John iii.\n\n[155] 1 Cor. ii.\n\n[156] Luke vi.\n\n[157] Philip. ii.\n\n[158] _Cf._ _Ibid._ iii.\n\n[159] Heb. ii.\n\n[160] _Ibid._ iv.\n\n[161] Ecclus. li.\n\n[162] Psa. xli.\n\n[163] Collect for 3rd Sunday after Pentecost.\n\n\n\n\nTHE ABERDEEN UNIVERSITY PRESS LIMITED.\n\n\n\n\nTRANSCRIBER\u2019S NOTES\n\n This file uses _underscores_ to indicate italic text.\n\n In the footnotes, 1 Par. and 2 Par. refer to the first and second Books\n of Paralipomenon, which are also known as the Books of Chronicles.\n\n Footnotes have been renumbered and moved to the ends of their chapters.\n\n Missing italics markings in chapter subheads have been\n silently corrected.\n\n Itemized changes from the original text:\n\n On page 37, changed \u201cmay-be\u201d to \u201cmaybe\u201d,\n   near \u201care deterred from visiting\u201d\n On page 59, changed \u201cheavy laden\u201d to \u201cheavy-laden\u201d,\n   near \u201cwithin a stone\u2019s throw\u201d\n On page 69, changed \u201cfault \u201d to \u201cfault.\u201d,\n   in \u201cthrough my fault\u201d\n On page 69, changed \u201cfail \u201d to \u201cfail.\u201d,\n   in \u201cwill never fail\u201d\n On page 96, changed \u201c3 Kings\u201d to \u201c1 Kings\u201d,\n   in \u201cFootnote 58\u201d\n On page 115, changed \u201cPs. xxiii.\u201d to \u201cPsa. xxiv\u201d,\n   in \u201cFootnote 81\u201d","title":"Before the Most Holy = $b (Coram Sanctissimo)","tradition":"scripture-revelation","translated_text":null,"word_count":27247}