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 THE
UNIVERSITY
OF CHICAGO
LIBRARY
THE CATHOLIC OFFERING,

&c., &c.
 class,which,
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COUNSELS TO THE YOUNG

O N T H E I R L E A V IN G. S C H O O L.

And

ENTERING INTO THE WORLD.

BY A MEMBER OF THE URSULINE COMMUNITY,

§lack 30th, Cork.
Authoress of “THE spirit of PRAYER,” “The Month of MARY,” “Love of
The Good shephend,” “LENTEN MonitoR,” Etc., Etc.

“Be thou faithful until death.”–Apoc. ii. 10.

L)|URLIN :
J AM ES DUF FY, 7, W E L L ING TON-Q UAY,
1859.
 \º

| Slſº º 2
UNIVERSITY
OF CHICAGO
Lif. RARY

Y|V
 TO THE

§ºf joly my 3Millt jºurt ºf jºus,

THIS

LITTLE BOOK IS HUMBLY CONSECRATED

1N REPARATION,

THANKSGIVING, AND LOVE.

*
 0 0 NT ENTS,

Page.
CHAPTER I.-Happiness, the great object of Man's
Desires—God its only Source, - - - -

CHAPTER II.—Faith, the Guide to God, and there

fore the Christian's First Treasure, . - - -
21

CHAPTER III.-Humility and Fortitude the Guardians

of Faith, 89

MEANS or MAINTAINING THE SPIRIT OF FAITH.

CHAPTER IV.-First Means—Fidelity to the Duty of

Prayer, . - - - - - - - -
60

CHAPTER V.—Second Means—Frequent Confession and

Communion, . - - - - - - -
74

CHAPTER WI.-Third Means—Devotion to the Holy

Sacrifice of the Mass, and to the Sacred Hearts of
Jesus and Mary, . - - - - - -
99
CHAPTER VII.-Fourth Means — Devotion to the
Blessed Virgin, . - - - - -
116

CHAPTER VIII.-Fifth Means—Flight of Idleness, 136

CHAPTER IX. — Sixth Means—The Profitable Em
ployment of Time, . - - - -
158
vi CONTENTS.

Page.
Fruits OF THE SPIRIT OF FAITH.

CHAPTER X.-First Fruit—The perfect discharge of

home duty, . - - - - - - -
188

CHAPTER XI.-Second Fruit—The regulation of Tem

per, . - - - - - - -
207

CHAPTER XII.-Third Fruit—Practical Charity, -

229

CHAPTER XIII.-Fourth Fruit—The regulation of Con

versation, - - - -

CHAPTER XIV.-The Spirit of the World inimical to

the Spirit of Faith, - - - -

CONCLUSION, . - - - - - -
 INTRODUCTION,

THAT a religious education is among the most

precious of God's gifts to us, no reflecting mind
can doubt;-yet, while experience and observa
tion daily concur in bearing testimony to the
multiplied blessings of which it is the source,
the same wise teachers unhappily point to but
too many instances in which the grace has been
rendered partially or wholly fruitless by want of
due co-operation.—If the maxims of practical
piety so constantly inculcated in convent years
are forgotten; – the precautions against the
world's evil influences, so frequently recom
mended, neglected;—the principles of duty so
perpetually instilled, laid aside;—then will the
object of religious training clearly be defeated,
and the blessing of a Christian education ren
dered abortive;—then will many a fair promise
be crushed in the budding, and many a high
and holy purpose blighted, before it has had
time to reach maturity.
viii INTRODUCTION.

The object of the following little book is to

place before the young and inexperienced, at the
important and critical period of their departure
from school, an abstract of the lessons which
formed the habitual subject of the teaching of
their early guides, that occasional recurrence to
its pages may keep the memory of those lessons
alive in the heart, and the warning voice of the
silent monitor either recal better resolutions,
should they have been swerved from, or stimu
late to perseverance if the narrow road is still
happily that preferred.
May it through God's goodness prove the !
means of reviving, in even one unfaithful heart,
the pious emotions of holier years, or of encou
raging even one true child of God to steady
fidelity in his service, and may the divine
!
blessing so frequently invoked in its progress,
descend on it now, and abide with the reader
and writer for ever!

:
 THE

CATHOLIC OF FERIN G,

CHAPTER I.

HAPPINESS, THE GREAT OBJECT OF MAN's

DESIRES.. GOD ITS ONLY SOURCE.

HAPPINESs is the one absorbing object of man's

desires—the end of his pursuits—the stimulus to
his exertions—the term of his aspirations—the
anticipated haven of his rest—his waking dream
and his sleeping vision. Varied as may be the
occupations which engross his days, diversified
the scenes of his chequered existence, fluctuating
the impulses of his restless heart, in one respect
he is ever constant, to one occupation ever de
voted, to one impulse ever true. Through all
the vicissitudes of the external universe, and all
the mutations of the interior world of thought
and feeling, still is his aim the same; still are
his eyes riveted with never-tiring gaze on the
fair vision of perspective happiness; still does
fancy keep hovering round the flitting phantom,
and hope whispering that, perhaps, after all, .
B
2 THE CATHOLIC OFFERING.

men err in calling it a phantom, and that a

little more time and a little more pains were
well worth expending in the effort to grasp at
last its tangible reality. And so life goes on—
all competing for the prize, but few attaining
it; all running in the race, but few reaching the
goal; because, though all pursue the same end,
all, unfortunately, do not take the one and only
path that leads to it.
And where is that path? Happiness, it is
said, dwells somewhere, but in what region
shall it be sought? What propitious star points
out the far off shore to which its golden wings
have borne it? “Who hath gone up into heaven,
and taken it, and brought it down from the
clouds? Who hath passed over the sea, and
found it,” and made for it a tabernacle of rest,
and where? (Baruch, iii. 29, 30) As long as
this question remains unanswered, and the road
to happiness unknown, the only course open to
the anxious inquirer, is to explore on chance
the path that looks most promising, in the vague
hope that it may perhaps prove the right
One.

In accordance with this conclusion he deter

mines to try that which leads to riches, as appa
rently the most level and secure, and so sets
forward on his way.
Years flow on in the accomplishment of the
 THE CATHOLIC OFFERING. 3

journey—the young, joyous years of vigorous

health, enthusiastic anticipation, and abounding
energy. They are spent in toil, it is true, and
dimmed by passing shadows of doubt as to ulti
mate success; but the soul's sunshine is yet too
powerful to vanish at the lowering of a cloud,
and its hopes too strong to fade before a mere
possibility of disappointment. Mature age suc
ceeds in time to buoyant youth, deepening the
shadows, yet bringing no relaxation in the toil;
but at last life's autumn comes, and with it the
long desired hour which is to indemnify the
patient traveller for all his pains and privations.
His journey is completed; his term attained.
Riches are realized; distinction, consideration,
self-indulgence, have followed in their train;
every wish is gratified; every want, nay, every
caprice anticipated. Has he not now found hap
piness, and is he not therefore satisfied? Alas!
far from it. Wealth he has amassed, but the
happiness he fondly deemed identical with it has
eluded his grasp; and as he wearily gazes on
its dim, distant shadow, he begins to question
whether that shadow is not indeed a creation
of his own imagination rather than the reflection
of a reality; whether happiness is not a phantom
possessed only of the ideal existence conferred
by the yearnings of the empty heart which
vainly sought to enfold it in its embrace. Verily,
4 THE CATHOLIC OF FERING.

for that deluded spirit, it has none other | Hap

piness lies not buried under mountains of gold,
nor does it sparkle in the diamond's lustre, nor
nestle in beds of roses, nor smile from amidst
fairy scenes of earthly grandeur, nor sleep en
folded in the mantle of royalty, nor mingle its
music with the song of noisy mirth, nor blend
its accents with the shouts of boisterous revelry,
nor build its home within the magic circle of
exciting pleasure; wealth cannot purchase it,
nor any of wealth's attendant enjoyments confer
1t.

Neither is it hidden in the mines of learn

ing, which to some other weary wanderer seem
to enclose the treasure. He may explore them
patiently to the depths, never faltering by day,
never fainting by night. He may work his way
through all the mazes of the labyrinth—now
groping in darkness, now advancing boldly in
a momentary gleam of light. His labours may
be finally rewarded by the satisfactory solution
of some abstruse problem—the revelation of some
secret hitherto veiled from human genius. He
may find himself on the very pinnacle of the
temple of science, and thence gaze exultingly
on the multitude who crowd to pay homage to
the power of mind; but does the gem of happiness
glitter in the crown of intellectual pre-eminence
awarded him by his fellow men? Alas, no! He
 THE CATHOLIC OFFERING. 5

has not discovered happiness in the sun, which he

has balanced; nor in the moon, which he has
measured; nor in the stars, among which he has
rambled; nor in the sea, which he has sounded.
The sweet flowers have not imparted it, al
though he has catalogued their varieties; nor
the warbling birds, although he has classified
their species; nor the bright butterfly, although
he can describe its transformations; nor any of
the tribes of nature, although he can discuss
their habits and enumerate their characteristic
features. The secrets of nature he has disco
vered, but the secret of peace is still impene
trable; the wonders of all other sciences he has
looked at face to face, but of the science of true
content he is in utter ignorance.
If happiness is allied neither with the attain
ment of profound science, nor with the renown
which men attach to its possession, perhaps it
may be found in political eminence, in lofty
station, in superior authority, and commanding
influence? No; the realization of ambition's
wildest imaginings cannot confer peace of soul;
the attainment of the highest dignities cannot
still the restless throbbings of the heart; the
success of the most brilliant worldly speculation
cannot repress its sighs, nor the possession of the
universe replenish the void within it. The gra
tification of one desire is but the awakening of
B 2
6 THE CATHOLIC OFFERING.

another; the accomplishment of one enterprise

the signal for embarking in a new. What seemed
at first the term of the journey, is found on a
nearer view to be no more than its commence
ment, just as in our childish days we fancied
we should quite easily lay our hands on the clear
sky, could we by any process reach the opposite
mountains, which seemed to hide their heads
in its blue depths, and wondered much to
hear that if transported to those mountain sum
mits we should find the sky as much beyond
our reach as ever; looking as if it had lifted
its transparent canopy still higher into the fields
of space, in pure ridicule of our simple credulity.
“I said in my heart, I will go and abound with
delights, and enjoy good things. And I saw
that this also was vanity. I heaped together for
myself silver and gold, . . . . and I surpassed in
wealth all that were before me: my wisdom also
remained with me. And whatsoever my eyes
desired, I refused them not. And I withheld
not my heart from enjoying every pleasure, and
delighting itself in the things which I had pre
pared; and esteemed this my portion to make use
of my own labour. And when I turned myself to
all the works which my hands had wrought, and
to the labours wherewith I had laboured in vain,
I saw in all things vanity and vexation of mind,
and that nothing under the sun was lasting,” or
 THE CATHOLIC OFFERING. 7

capable of imparting true peace (Eccl. ii. 1, 8,

9, 10, 11).
If happiness is not in wealth nor in pleasure,
nor in fame, nor in learning, nor in gratified am
bition, nor in any earthly pursuit, where then is
it? Does it really exist, or is the radiant form
so often portrayed in our day-dreams, a mere
delusion of over wrought fancy? its bright smile,
an airy vision? its gentle promises, a cruel mock
ery? No, surely. . . . In the ceaseless yearning
of the heart for happiness, we recognise an in
stinct emanating from Him, who when He
formed our immortal souls to His own likeness
endowed them with each of their varied faculties
and feelings; and as we know by faith that God
does nothing in vain, but destines each of His
works for an appointed end, we may reasonably
conclude that the inherent desire of peace im
planted by His hand must admit of realization;
that long cherished hope will ultimately be
absorbed in fruition, and the panting spirit be
permitted at last to ſold its fluttering wings, and
find repose. -

We must not, however, confound happiness

with frivolous gaiety, or fictitious excitement, or
thoughtless levity, or mere natural buoyancy of
spirit. Happiness, in the true and holy sense of
the word—that in which alone we now consider
it, is something far too sacred, too deeply seated,
 8 THE CATHOLIC OFFERING.

too beautifully calm, too solidly permanent, to

claim kindred with the empty, superficial, evan
escent emotions of worldly joy. Were we, like
the world, to dignify those emotions with the
name of happiness, like the world, too, we might
be tempted to substitute the figure for the
reality, and to pursue the shadow for the sub
stance; but knowing from the declaration of
Christ Himself, that the peace He bequeathed
to His disciples was not as the peace which
the world gives, we at one glance discern that
there never can be any connexion between the
two, and that the paths leading to each must
therefore be diametrically opposite.
God assuredly destines us for happiness, but
a happiness based solely on a supernatural ſoun
dation; the world's mistake is, that building on
an earthly one, the edifice totters and crumbles
sooner or later with the frail prop on which it
rests. God destines us for happiness, but a hap
piness to be realized only through union with
Himself; the world's error again is, that seeking
peace in everything but God, it finds the bend
ing reed on which it leant to break at last, and
discovers too late that the support it clung to
was hollow as the hopes which reposed on it.
God, the exhaustless source of the bliss of saints
and angels, invites us to plunge boldly into the
ocean, and drink freely at the fountain, instead
 THE CATHOLIC OFFERING. 9

of hollowing for ourselves broken cisterns that

contain too little water to refresh the fevered soul,
and He has decreed that on our compliance with,
or rejection of His loving invitation depends our
happiness or misery in this life and in the next.
In selecting as our path to happiness the path
that leads to God, we need dread neither illusion
nor disappointment; for He, the infallible Truth,
is our security, that so surely as happiness will
ever elude the grasp of those who seek it out of
Him, so surely will it be found by all who seek
it in Him.
We must not however imagine that the road
to God and to happiness, is necessarily a road
abounding only in delights. If true happi
ness is not to be confounded with the wild
delirium of worldly pleasure, neither is it to
be supposed identical with a total exemption
from suffering. This is the happiness of which
the world dreams, but not that which forms the
subject of the Christian's aspirations. Knowing
that the royal way of the cross is the only way
to the kingdom of heaven, the disciple of Christ
rather rejoices than repines at the transient tri
bulations, in which he recognises so many helps
for reaching the goal towards which his steps are
ever bent, as his desires are ever directed.
Taught by faith that “the souls of the just
are in the hands of God,” (Wisd. iii. 1,) even
10 THE CATHOLIC OFFERING.

at the very time when “evils happen to them

as though they had done the works of the
wicked,” (Eccl. viii. 14,) he concludes that those
apparent evils must necessarily be real blessings;
consequently, when such fall to his own lot, he
accepts and embraces them as precious pledges
of the watchful love and solicitude of his hea
venly Father, and even while nature writhes
under the infliction, exclaims with his heart still
more than with his lips, “It is good for me,
O Lord, that thou hast humbled me!” (Ps. cxviii.
71.)
Identifying his happiness absolutely and solely
with the possession of his God, he is sustained
under every misfortune, by the invigorating
thought, that no temporal calamity, however
overwhelming, can deprive his soul of this, its
only Good; and he feels that heavily as sorrow
may press on him, it cannot be called an un
mitigated evil, while he is blessed in the enjoy
ment of God's friendship, and rich in the posses
sion of his grace. That heavenly Master, who
never permits himself to be outdone in liberality,
will reward the struggles of his generous ser
vant just in proportion to the noble constancy
with which they have been sustained, descend
ing with him even into the fiery furnace of tribu
lation, and there opening to him sweet sources of
supernatural comfort, whence he may drink at
 THE CATHOLIC OFFERING. 11

will to refresh his soul, and strengthen his resolu

tion. Is it indeed nothing in the hour of trial to
be allowed recourse to God, the sovereign Con
Soler? Is it nothing to raise the drooping eye
to the holy mountain, and invoke the fortitude
which, commingled with the blood of the Man
of sorrows, flows from its height as a rapid
river? Nothing to rest the aching brow against
the cross on which once wildly throbbed a burst
ing head pierced through with thorns? Nothing
to deposit the burden of care in the broken heart
of the meek Sufferer of Calvary, and unite the
bitterness of humiliation with the gall which
burned His lips, and the mockery that pierced His
soul? Nothing to drown the sense of loneliness
and bereavement in the sea of desolation that
engulfed his spirit, and bear away in the heart's
depths the memory of his last tear of agony, and
his dying glance of love? Nothing, when the
frame is spent, and the steps are slow, to think of
Him who toiled so ceaselessly in the pursuit of
His wandering flock, and dragged His weary feet
so painfully up the hill of ignominy on the day
of the crucifixion? Oh! these are solid comforts,
which only God can give, and none but those
who love God can know; and since experience
teaches that suffering is, to a greater or less extent,
the lot of all men, we cannot but conclude, that
those are happiest even in this world, who seek
12 THE CATHOLIC OFFERING.

ing their happiness in God alone, find their grief

alleviated by the sweetness of His presence, and
the weight of their sorrows diminished by their
tranquil submission to the all-wise and all-loving
dispensations of His providence.
There are times, it is true, when the spirit
seems utterly crushed by trial; its elasticity
broken; its energies paralyzed; its perceptions
so dulled and blunted, that it can no longer
grasp the motives of comfort which religion sup
plies, or even realise the idea that once it had
known, because it had tasted, that the Lord is
very sweet, and his service very consoling. Yet,
even then, amidst that dreary night of the soul,
one beam from heaven will work its way; one
solace will come, in the thought that at least
God is supremely happy, and that, incompre
hensible as it seems, there exists at this moment
a region where all are happy; where the answer
to earth's groans is the everlasting alleluia of
angels, and the echo to earth's wailing the tri
umphant canticle of Saints. Hope points to that
region as the true term of the Christian's desires;
faith tells him that the happiness which God
has promised his servants, although to a certain
extent foreshadowed in this life, is not destined
to receive its consummation until the next, and
raising his tearful eyes and heavy heart to the
bright home above, he renews his courage,
 THE CATHOLIC OFFERING. 13

resumes his journey, and resigns himself to wait

for the full realization of the divine promise,
until the hour when every tear shall be wiped
away, and every pang assuaged.
The soul devoted to God must be prepared
to contend against domestic enemies, as well
as to encounter external trials. In her, as in the
worldly heart, perverse propensities will assert
their claims, and passion clamour for indulgence.
Temptation will spring from the heart's native
corruption, and snares will be laid for it by its
mortal foe, but ever true to God, ever con
sistent in seeking its happiness in the fulfilment
of His holy will alone,—it renounces its dearest
inclinations, when at variance with His law, and
learns from sweet experience that there is more
real, soul-soothing consolation in the most diffi
cult sacrifices, than in the full indulgence of every
vicious tendency and the free gratification of
every sinful impulse. Calmly happy in the
testimony of a good conscience, it feels and
owns that were no other recompense attached to
God's service than that of emancipation from
the wretched slavery of passion and self-love, it
would be in itself a rich indemnification for the
temporary pains endured in casting off the fetters
of tyrants so insatiable and pitiless. “There
is no pleasure above the joy of the heart,”
(Eccl. xxx. 16); but joy cannot breathe in the
C
14 THE CATHOLIC OFFERING.

atmosphere of passion, consequently the subjec

tion of passion leads to happiness, and as the
service of God rightly understood demands that
subjection, in his service, again, alone is happi
TheSS.

And so, pursuing our investigations through

life's varied scenes and unnumbered vicissitudes,
and observing the opposite influence of its alter
nations on the worldly mind and the Christian
heart, we shall come to the conclusion, again
and again, as each new subject of reflection is
developed, that even in this world, happiness, as
far as it is attainable, belongs by exclusive right
to those who seek it in the service and the love
of God, and flits before the eyes of the world's
slaves, only to tantalize them by its taunting
smile, and then take to itself the wings of the
dove and fly away to its rest,-the Christian
spirit. “God hath given to a man that is good
in his sight, wisdom, and knowledge, and joy;
but to the sinner he hath given vexation, and
superfluous cares.” (Eccl. ii. 26).
The period of leaving school, at which you
have now arrived, is an especially critical and
important epoch in life. The restraints to which
you have for some years been wisely subjected,
are about to be removed, and the first taste
of that freedom is full of peril. The simple
pleasures of early days are on the eve of being
 THE CATHOLIC OFFERING. 15

exchanged for the more exciting but less inno

cent amusements of the world, and on the first
awakening to the contrast, depend momentous
results. The desire of happiness which you
share in common with the rest of men will ere
long burst into new life and activity, and on
the nature of the measures adopted for its realiza
tion your eternity may be said to hang. The
paths to happiness explored by the world's older
worshippers are not those likely to attract you in
your young light-heartedness; but if the road of
riches and of fame offer you no allurements, it is
to be feared the ways of pleasure will. Deeming
liberty the source of untold joys, and the sunny
world the very fountain-spring and well of bliss,
you may perhaps seek in the free indulgence of
the one, and the unlimited enjoyment of the
other, that happiness for which, like the rest of
mortals, you eagerly pant. But what matters it
whether the spirit be bound to earth by a golden
chain, a leaden fetter, or a silken thread? So
long as it is enslaved, so long is it powerless to
soar to God, and so long therefore will its hopes
of peace be frustrated. If it be true of the world
at large, that this earth cannot confer real happi
ness, how much more true is it of those, who
like you, have known the gift of heaven, and
tasted its sweetness; who have been fostered under
the wings of God's providence, and passed years
16 THE CATHOLIC OFFERING.

under the shadow of His tabernacle; who have

been carefully instructed in His law, and deeply
impressed with the great fundamental truths of
faith; who have so often seen, as in a mirror, the
shade of the eternal years, and watched it ex
tending, deepening, darkening; until, at last, it
not only overspread, but absolutely absorbed, nay
effaced that world which now glitters so invit
ingly, only because viewed through a different
medium? For persons trained to serious reflec
tion, and formed to solid piety as you have been,
it were indeed vain to seek happiness out of
God. They may try to find it elsewhere, but
they never can succeed. They may plunge
bravely into the vortex of dissipation, but only
to find the grave of their hopes, and perhaps
the death of their souls. They may endeavour
to discover, by a personal test, whether happi
ness is not co-existent with constant self-indul
gence, but the attempt will end in discom
fiture, and their reluctant testimony blend, at
last, with the far echoing voice which proclaims
that the heart made for God, shall find its rest
in God alone. “The rivulet parted from the
sea,” writes the Italian poet, “now bathes the
fertile valley, now winds its way across the
mountain's path, now traverses the rock-bound
streamlet, now mingles its waters with the
river's tide, but wheresoever its troubled pro
 THE CATHOLIC OFFERING. 17

gress leads it, still and ever does it moan over

its separation from the ocean whence it derived
its origin, and in whose bosom it hopes, after
its weary wanderings, at last to find repose.”
Oh! how true to nature is this beautiful com
parison, and how perfectly does it depict the
condition of the human heart, seeking rest for
ever, but finding none, until, like the wave from
the ocean, it has returned to its home, the bosom
of its God! There no disappointment awaits it;
there no coldness will chill its ardours, no alarm
ruffle its peace, no dread anticipation disturb its
security, no repulse check its trustfulness. The
bliss of heaven consists in the possession of God,
and to the heart which possesses him here,
heaven has already begun on earth. Sweet
hymns of jubilee are ever rising from its depths,
where lies a chord tuned to unison with that far
resounding voice of universal nature, whence ever
flows rich melody, inaudible to the indifferent
listener, but clear as the bird's note to the ear of
a heart refined and spiritualized by union of desire
and affection with its Maker. To such a heart the
bright sun brings gladness, for like all the works
of creation it speaks of God. It reveals the love
of Him who made it so glorious for the comfort
of His creatures. It looks like a beam from the
land which no sun illumines, because the Lord is
its sun, and the Lamb that was slain, its lamp;
c 2
18 THE CATHOLIC OFFERING.

and thus it is converted into a spiritual medium

of communication between that eternal home and
the patient traveller to its gates, who derives new
vigour for his journey from this partial glimpse
of its happy term. The silvery moon, and the
golden stars, and the lovely flowers, and all the
varieties of nature's magnificence, which to the
philosopher are objects merely of scientific obser
vation, are to the soul which seeks but God,
suggestive of thoughts of overflowing joy, speak
ing of the hour when it shall behold the Queen
of Saints, fairer in her beauty than the moon
which lies beneath her feet; crowned with her
sparkling diadem of twelve stars, and enveloped
in her flowing robes of never-fading light; and
when it shall inhale the fragrance of odorous
incense, waſted from angels' censers, before the
everlasting throne; and when, instead of nature's
beauties, the splendours of paradise will burst on
it in their ever new variety, and ever dazzling
glory. And even when the sun hides his head
behind murky clouds, and the moon refuses to
unveil her face to the night; when the smiles of
nature are exchanged for frowns, and the fresh
ness of earth's youth has yielded place to the
wrinkles of her age; when howling winds have
chased away soft breezes, and mounds of autumn
leaves mark the tomb of summer roses; even
here, in the very midst of gloom and desolation,
 THE CATHOLIC OFFERING. 19

the heart at peace with God, still sings its sweet

song, the song of Hope. It knows that mourn
ing nature will throw off her sable garb in time,
and the poverty stricken trees bend again beneath
their burdens; that dark skies will put on their
garment of blue, and faded meadows assume their
robes of green; that cheerless winter will resign
dominion, and beauteous summer reign, once
more, a queen; and turning from the symbol to
the reality, it swells with joy at the anticipation
of another summer, the eternal summer, whose
sun is ever cloudless, and whose skies are ever
bright; whose fields are ever verdant, and whose
flowers are ever blooming; and so, in the obscurity
of dreary night, as in the glory of golden dawn,
the heart's music flows on unchecked, and its
lamp shines undimmed.
If after maturely weighing the comparative
chances of happiness held out even in this brief
existence, by the service of God and the service of
the world, you have come to the conclusion that
it is “religiousness" alone which “gives joy and
gladness to the heart” (Eccl. ii. 18), will you not
faithfully and steadily act on that conclusion in
defiance of all temptations to the contrary? If,
on the other hand, some hesitation as to its justice
still linger around you, oh! beware of attempting
a practical solution of your doubts, for thus would
you too surely plunge into sin, and consequently
20 THE CATHOLIC OFFERING.

into misery. Beg for light to see all earthly

things now, as they will appear on your dying
bed. Believe on the word and experience of all
who have made the trial, that the yoke of the
Lord is light, and the chains of the world very
weighty; that the narrow road of self-denial leads
to peace, and the broad road of self-indulgence
to anxiety and remorse; that “it is a sweet
paradise even on earth to be with Jesus, and an
anticipated hell to be without Him" (Following
of Christ); and impressed with these convictions,
resolve that in “the beautiful ways of wisdom”
alone will you ever seek happiness, and in the
paths of virtue, peace (Prov. iii. 17); and pray
that neither the pleasures of the world, nor its
reverses, “nor death nor life,” nor joy nor
sorrow, “nor things present, nor things to come,
nor tribulation, nor distress, nor any creature, may
ever have power to separate you from the love of
God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Rom.
viii. 35, 38, 39).
 THE CATHOLIC OFFERING. 21

CHAPTER II.

FAITH, THE GUIDE To GOD, AND THEREFORE THE

CHRISTIAN's FIRST TREASURE.

WE have seen that all happiness, even here

below, is in God, and have, it is to be hoped,
fully admitted the truth of the great principle.
In order, however, to realize in our own persons
the happiness of which we believe the Almighty's
service to be the only source, we must not confine
ourselves to mere mental acquiescence in a truth
which reason itself recognizes as incontrovertible,
but proceeding from theory to practice, we must
resolutely adopt for our path through life the path
alone that leads to God, and having once adopted,
steadily pursue it in defiance of all difficulties and
impediments. Humble submission of mind to
the doctrinal tenets of Faith, and firm adherence
of will to its practical lessons, will not only open
for us that blessed road, but guide us securely to
its blissful term; for the more entirely mind and
heart are subjected to God by Faith, the more
perfectly also are the obstacles which pride and
self-love oppose to union with Him removed—
and union with God once attained, all of happiness
that belongs to earth is realized.
22 THE CATHOLIC OFFERING.

Looking on our Faith as the heavenly beacon

to guide us directly and most surely to God and
happiness, we should, it is evident, value one
ray of its light more than all the united treasures
of earth, and in order to acquire due love and
esteem for a gift so priceless, should make it a
constant aim to render ourselves familiar by
study and prayer, with all the reasons we have
to cherish it. It may be that we have not
hitherto prized as dearly as we ought, the fami
liar blessing of our Faith, precisely because it is
familiar; yet should it not in truth acquire addi
tional value in our eyes from the very fact that
we have never known its want? Should we not
love it the more, that it cost us nothing in the
acquisition, but was bestowed with a munifi
cence of generosity which so vastly enhances the
magnificence of the favour? If we had hearts
capable of appreciating the boundless goodness
of God, what grateful love would warm them
as reflection unfolds the divine liberality dis
played in His gratuitous gift of our holy Faith !
not merely in the gift itself, precious as it is, but
also, and perhaps equally, in the manner of con
ferring it. We came into the world enemies of
God, objects of His wrath, participators in His
malediction, captives of Satan, aliens from hea
ven, heirs of hell — destitute, degraded, and
powerless. A more entirely wretched and for
 THE CATHOLIC OFFERING. 23

lorn condition cannot surely be imagined. But

the very magnitude of our misery excited the
sympathy of our heavenly Father; its mute elo
quence appealed strongly to His pity; its utter
helplessness touched His heart, and yielding to
the suggestions of compassion alone, He deter
mined to remedy our evils with a prodigality of
mercy nothing short of God-like. Calling on
the infinite riches of His love, and the immense
resources of His power, He commanded the mys
terious waters of regeneration to flow, and lo!
at their wonder-working touch, the hideous stain
of original guilt disappeared ; our sin-Sullied
souls were in a moment made pure as the spot
less angels, and transformed from temples of
the prince of darkness into sanctuaries of God's
all Holy Spirit; the chains of our ignominious
slavery were sundered, and our names but now
inscribed on the list of the demon's trophies,
transferred to the register of the adopted children
of the Most High. Heaven's richest boon, our
precious Faith, was granted us with our baptis
mal robe, long before we were capable of under
standing its excellence, and the honour of mem
bership with the Church conferred, ere we were
even conscious of the privilege. Our infant
heads reposed on the bosom of that holy Mother;
our tottering steps were guided by pious parents
to her temple; our little hands were clasped to
24 THE CATHOLIC OFFERING.

invoke her blessing; our baby lips were trained

to lisp her worship, and with our advancing
years we were initiated in her practices and
taught the mystic meaning of her beautifully
significant ceremonies. And so her saving faith
grew with our growth, and strengthened with
our strength; and when we were able at last to
look around us, and take in at a comprehensive
glance the divisions and subdivisions of the reli
gious world, we found ourselves Catholics, with
out almost knowing how, until a little reflection
showed us, that to God's great, gratuitous, and
unbounded mercy we were indebted for a favour
which as far exceeds the power of human lan
guage suitably to describe, as it surpasses the
force of human gratitude adequately to feel.
Had the holy light been withheld until the
mature years of existence, and come to us then,
not as it played around our cradles—clear and
bright as the heaven it came from; but fitful,
glimmering, and uncertain — now steady for
awhile, as the magi's star of old—now disap
pearing like the same celestial messenger, and
leaving us to grope our way in darkness and
perplexity; had it been revealed at last in its
full effulgence, only to point the path to an
agonising ordeal of suffering, and privation, and
severing of sweet ties, and breaking up of home
affections—all to be passed through before we
 THE CATHOLIC OF FERING. 25

could “walk confidently in its rays,” and advance

boldly to our eternal country “in the brightness
of its rising”—then, indeed, we should better
comprehend the value of that Faith which it had
cost us so much to attain; then we should esteem
more highly the priceless pearl, to purchase
which we had sold all we possessed, and deemed
ourselves well repaid in the exchange. And if
the invaluable gift has been imparted to us
“without money and without price” (Is. lv. 1);
if the treasure which others have sought through
sleepless nights of prayer, and anxious days of
enquiry, and amid agonies of uncertainty, and
through mazes of bewilderment, has been laid at
our feet before the eyes of our souls had cast
their first glance on the wonders of the world of
grace, or the voice of our hearts sung its first
canticle of praise to the Author of those won
ders; if the rich deposit for whose preservation
multitudes have shed their blood, and endured
every imaginable species of torture, has been
confided to us without an attendant penalty or a
previous conflict, should we not at least prove our
esteem for it by locking it fast in our deepest
hearts, inclosing it carefully within impregnable
ramparts, loving it with our best affections, and
looking on it as our first treasurel
We shall, perhaps, learn more fully to value
our happiness as members of the true Church, if
D
26 THE CATHOLIC OFFERING.

we consider the spiritual condition of the multi

tudes for whom the day-star of Faith has never
risen, and then contrast our own more favoured
position with theirs. Casting our eyes first on the
nations who “sit in the darkness” of idolatry,
and are enveloped in the gloomy “shades of
spiritual death” (St. Luke, i. 29), we find minds
which the knowledge of God has never en
lightened; hearts which His love has never
softened; intelligent beings ignorant of their
Creator's name; accountable beings restrained
by no sense of moral responsibility; immortal
beings closing a life of sin and misery by a death
worthy rather of irrational animals than of rea
sonable creatures endowed with undying souls.
Turning from these benighted tribes to that
more enlightened portion of the human race
included within the pale of Christianity, but not
of Catholicity, we find the knowledge of the
true God prevalent, his dominion recognised,
and his worship enforced; but we also discover
an endless variety of views as to the true method
of performing the solemn duties of that worship.
We meet opposition of belief on the fundamental
mysteries of faith, and hear varied expositions
of its vital doctrines. We see mutable opinion
substituted for fixed principle; man's fallacious
judgment usurping the dominion of infallible
authority, and the right of self-guidance estab
 'THE CATHOLIC OFFERING. 27

lished as a fundamental rule; and knowing each

of these to be a most sure and prolific source of
division, we are quite prepared for the inconsis
tencies in theory, innovations in doctrine, and
variations in practice which meet us on every
side; quite ready to admit that diversity must
necessarily constitute, as it invariably does, the
prominent feature of the countless creeds of
sectarians, and equally prompt to conclude that
religion thus utterly bereft of fixed doctrines
and steady principles, and resting wholly on a
bewildering multiplicity of conflicting statements,
can neither satisfy man's innate desire of peace,
nor satiate his instinctive yearning for the one,
undivided and indivisible Truth.
If in point of dogma, the Protestant religion
cannot, as it is clear, impart, in any of its mul
tiplied branches, that feeling of security so in
dispensable to the solidity and stability of faith,
shall we find on farther enquiry, that its follower
may look to it more successfully for direction
in the practical details of his conduct, and
guidance in the ways of Christian holiness? No,
assuredly, for it professes to guide neither his
practice nor his belief, but teaches him, that aided
by the Bible alone, he can form for himself a
code of morality, as well as a system of faith;
adding that as mere belief in God will justify
him equally at the last, whether his life has been
28 THE CATHOLIC OF FERING.

one of virtue or of vice, and a sterile faith in the

merits of Christ save him, irrespectively of per
sonal merits, it is more than needless to concern
himself about the supererogatory, unavailing,
inconvenient practices, styled good works. If,
true to the beautiful instinct which impels the
yet uncorrupted heart to love virtue for the sake
of its own attractions, he perseveres in his first
determination to take it to his soul, and make for
itakingdom there, whence shall he derive courage
for the undertaking, even supposing him inde
pendent of the necessity of guidance or direction?
Where shall he find strength to bear him un
scathed through the struggles between his heaven
ward aspirations, and the human infirmity which
drags him back to earth? Where shall he acquire
fortitude to practise that death to self which lies
at the basis of the perfection he fain would realize?
Again, not in his Church. It provides him no
sacraments, offers for him no sacrifice; holds out
no example of Saints orintercession of angels; gives
him no help, or comfort, or support in his need,
but leaves him to combat and struggle, and suffer
alone. Prayer, he has, no doubt, in common
with all God's children, but how difficult it is to
maintain the fervour of prayer, unassisted by the
other means of grace which our beneficent Father
in heaven has provided for his frail creatures on
earth ! How difficult to fix the mind on heavenly
 THE CATHOLIC OFFERING. 29

things and resist the many influences which

conspire to divertit from them, unless the stimulus
of the external helps of religion be added to the
resources which she internally supplies!
What a contrast between this picture and our
own happy lot! Safely moored in the haven of
Catholicity, we watch the waves of fluctuating
religious opinion as they roll along, each bearing
on its crest a fragment from some new wreck,
and we feel that high as the billows may swell,
and loud as the winds may roar, the vessel which
bears us is proof against their violence, because
fast chained to a rock—may itself a rock—and
we learn to love our holy religion with daily
increasing warmth, because of the blissful sense
of perfect security which it imparts.
We love it too, because it satisfies the year
ning of our nature for truth, a yearning which,
as the soul's own testimony proclaims, nothing
short of truth can ever appease. Subtle argu
ment may assume the rich ornaments of oratory,
and sophistry attempt to disguise itself in the garb
of reason; but as the truth is not in them, they
can never content the heart; never feed it, or
fill it, or silence it. So we see in the case of
many, who not favoured like ourselves with early
initiation in the truth, yet feeling its want and
conscious that their own religion cannot supply
it, pursue the invisible good with unremitting
D 2
30 THE CATHOLIC OF FERING.

ardour, until they discover it at last in the bosom

of Catholicity, and there establish themselves to
enjoy repose beneath its shade. The truth is in
our holy Church, because the Spirit of Truth
overshadows her with his wings and will abide
ever in her heart's inmost core for ever. All
her doctrines are true, and therefore inaccessible
to doubt, or change, or cavil, or contradiction.
They bear the most elaborate investigation, the
closest criticism, and the deepest study, which,
as truth lies at their basis, result only in a clearer
revelation of their divine simplicity, their
heavenly beauty, their perfect consistency, and
admirable uniformity. The more minutely the
Catholic searches into the grounds of his faith,
the more distinctly is each feature of the magni
ficent whole revealed to his fascinated vision.
The longer he gazes, the brighter grows the
light; the deeper he excavates, the steadier
become his steps. He feels he cannot stray
while guided by the inextinguishable lamp of
Truth lighted at the fires of the holy Catholic
altars. He knows that submission to the authority
of that Church over which the Paraclete is to
preside for ever, will ensure him a share in the
total exemption from error which has been from
the beginning, and will be to the end her precious
heritage, and, happy in the conviction, he aban
dons himself most confidently to her guidance,
 THE CATHOLIC OFFERING. 31

gladly substituting her infallible wisdom for his

own erring judgment, and casting away the frail
reed of inconstant opinion, to lean instead on
that firm “pillar of truth,” (1 Tim. iii. 15,)
which even “the gates of hell shall not prevail”
to shake. (St. Matt. xvi. 18.)
These are strong grounds of attachment to our
Holy Church, but they are not the only grounds.
We love her, not alone because her doctrines
fully satisfy the mind, but also because her prac
tices and observances, at the same time, sweetly
console the heart. Ours is not a religion merely
of words, an abstract theory, a vain speculation,
a cold ceremonial. It is a substantial reality. We
can clasp our arms around it, and fold it to our
hearts; we can warm ourselves at its fires, and
bask in its sunshine; we can apply to it for
strength in our weakness, and consolation in our
woes; we can sleep tranquilly under its wings,
and awake confidently in its smile. It is adapted,
not by a fanciful fiction, but verily and indeed,
to the nature of man, supplying all his wants,
and remedying all his evils. Its sacraments
nourish and strengthen him, maintaining the
freshness and vigour of the soul's life, which,
without their aid, would soon decay. A creature
of sense, and, therefore, incapable of soaring to
the contemplation of purely spiritual objects ex
cept through the medium of the senses, the
32 THE CATHOLIC OFFERING.

magnificence and solemnity of its glorious cere

monies impress him with feelings, which, for
a time at least, decrease the force of earthly
influences, and elevate his thoughts and desires
to heaven. Its divine lessons raise him above
himself, and inspire him with courage to shake
the dust of the world's contagion from off his
feet. They refine his mind, and exalt his views;
purify his understanding, and soften his whole
nature; so that, after having long studied, and
faithfully practised them, he is transformed, as it
were, into another being, an unearthly being, to
whom virtue has become as the breath of his life,
and religion, pure, beautiful, and undefiled as
the atmosphere he inhales.
But, weak as we are by nature, and ever
tending to the earth, it will happen that, though
deeply enamoured of the divine beauty of virtue,
and earnestly desirous to possess the treasure,
many among us will be tempted to shrink from
the difficulties which oppose its acquisition, and
even sometimes to doubt how the sublime lessons
of entire self-denial, profound humility, heroic
charity, all-enduring patience, and total disen
gagement, which form the ordinary and ever
repeated teaching of the Church, can possibly
apply to us, or such high perfection ever be
realized in our persons. But the gentle accents
of that loving mother fall on our desponding
 THE CATHOLIC OFFERING. 33

hearts, as the genial sunbeam on the benumbed

limbs of the paralysed—to invigorate and to cheer.
She unfolds the records of her struggles; she
points to page after page on which stand inscribed,
in letters of light that looks like the light of glory,
names, countless names, of Christian heroes and
heroines, who, by the practice of those self-same
lessons, became glorious saints; names, countless
names, of brave martyrs, who, rather than act in
opposition to those lessons, gave up their lives,
and thought the loss a gain; names, countless
names, of self-sacrificing victims, who, to avoid
the mere risk of practically denying those life
giving maxims, fled from the world to bury
themselves in the deep wilderness, and there
passed their years in the exercise of uninterrupted
prayer, and the practice of appalling penance.
“And, aided by God's grace, cannot you do,” she
softly whispers, “what these have done, if not
all, at least in part? Had not the saints the very
same nature as yourself? Had they not similar
inclinations to repress, similar passions to subdue,
similar temptations to resist? Was not the world
as alluring for them, pleasure as fascinating, self
gratification as sweet? Was not the observance
of the Gospel maxims as difficult in former years
as now, humiliation as painful, self-denial as
trying? Is it to the heaven of the martyrs you
aspire, or has another been created for souls less
34 THE CATHOLIC OFFERING.

generous, and hearts less resolute? Ah " she

exclaims, “with so great a crowd of witnesses
over your head, lay aside every weight and sin
which surrounds you, and run by patience to the
fight proposed to you.” (Heb. xii. 1.) And thus,
by not merely confining her instructions to verbal
lessons, but exhibiting practical illustrations of
their efficacy, the Church, like a true mother,
arouses our fortitude in the moment of dis
couragement, and animates us to exertion in the
hour of nature's weakness.
Again, in all our troubles and trials, she pro
vides us with ample sources of sweet consolation.
She teaches us that when our souls are sorrowful
and oppressed—ſainting and falling under the
weight of temptation; well nigh weary of the
life-long contest against self; disheartened, dis
spirited, and apparently helpless, an all-sufficient
though invisible resource lies quite within our
reach. She whispers that a divine Physician,
who came, not for the healthy, but for the in
firm, is close at hand. She reminds us that the
heart which for love of us was once sad even
unto death, still beats just near our own; and
she says: “O you of little faith ! instead of sink
ing under the burden of the cross, go to Jesus,
ever present on the altar; confide your griefs to
Him; unite your tears to those which compas
sion for mortal miseries drew from His eyes, and
 THE CATHOLIC OFFERING. 35

learn by experience that there is no sympathy

like the sympathy of the Man of sorrows, no
comfort like that which flows from the lips of
the most loving, as “the most lovely among the
sons of men.”
She teaches us, that all-desolate and friendless
as we may seem, we have a mother beyond the
skies, who loves us with more than a mother's
love, and holds in her rich right hand a balm for
all our wounds and a remedy for all our wants.
She teaches us, that destined as we are to be
one day the associates of the angels, the blessed
intercourse is suffered to begin even here, where
a spirit of light ever walks at our side by day,
and bends over our couch by night; hovers near
us in our hours of pain; speaks to us in our hours
of solitude, and never diverts from us His loving
eyes, whether beaming with heaven-born joy,
when we steadily follow the ways of virtue, or
heavy with the sadness which even an angel may
feel, when we unhappily swerve from the path
of duty.
She teaches us, that through the communion
of saints we claim companionship also with “the
spirits of the just made perfect” (Heb. xii. 23),
who having “kept the faith, and finished their
course” (2 Tim. iv. 7), have preceded us by a
short time in the home to which our own steps
are journeying; and by presenting to our view
36 THE CATHOLIC OF FERING.

the rewards lavished on those who, once our

brethren on earth, will one day be our kindred
in heaven, she stimulates us to a renewal of
exertion, while for the farther encouragement of
our weakness, she holds out the promise of their
powerful and acceptable intercession on our
behalf.
And when death lays its hand on one beloved,
and deaf to our supplications, casts its icy arms
fast round its prey, who comes to comfort us in
our sorrow? Who wipes away the tear, and
stills the heaving breast, and checks the groan
of agony—perhaps despair—as it rises to the
lips? Religion, again; our sweet religion, which
says, that the lost are “not dead, but only sleep
ing” (St. Luke, viii. 52); and that lifeless as
lies the form, and pulseless as is the heart, and
pale the brow, and cold the once warmly throb
bing bosom, our love can still reach the departed
spirit; our prayers refresh it; our alms relieve
it; our patient resignation assuage its anguish,
and still its moanings. And not satisfied with
having thus smoothened our path through life;
alleviated our griefs, and brightened our joys—
it is religion again which hangs over our death
pillow, to chase away the appalling terrors of
the grave; to support our fainting hearts by the
vision of God's mercies; to revive our expiring
eyes by the image of the crucified Redeemer; to
 THE CATHOLIC OFFERING. 37

invoke the divine clemency in our behalf, and

enlist in our favour the interest of all the angels
and the prayers of all the saints. And when at
her bidding, the Christian soul has fled from its
earthly tabernacle, and gone to meet the bright
army of martyrs, and the glorious phalanx of
confessors, and the glittering choirs of radiant
angels, and the dazzling band of white-robed
virgins, she breathes over it the suppliant “Re
quiem,” which none can hear without a prayer
that the same sweet solemn strains may one day
plead at heaven's gate for them; without a feel
ing that it is well to be of that Church whose
heart is the heart of a mother, and whose very
forms and external rites are, as already observed,
so beautifully adapted to man's nature, that in a
mannerinexplicable by words, they touch on some
sensitive spot hidden far down in his deep soul,
and there awaken emotions which silently tell
of heaven's sweetness, and raise the loving soul
to heaven's God.
In life and death, in joy and sorrow, in sick
ness and health, our holy religion, the holy
Catholic religion, is our light and our strength;
our refuge and our home; our treasure and our
comfort; for it is our God, or at least the medium
of union with Him. Who then that calls her
self a Catholic, will not glory in the title, and
cling with hourly increasing love to that one,
E
38 THE CATHOLIC OF FERING.

pure, holy Church of which she is a child,

however unworthy?—“the spotless bride” of
Christ, unwrinkled by time, and untouched by
decay; venerable for her years, yet vigorous in
energy, fresh in heart, and comely in counten
ance as in the early days of blooming youth;
the Ark of Salvation, unscathed by the tempests
of ages;–" the house of our holiness,” where
God himself ever dwells; the sanctuary “of
our glory where our lovely things" are deposited,
(Is. lxiv. 11,) and our precious things all stored;
—the morning beam, to guide our steps through
the perilous journey of life's weary day;-the
evening star, to brighten its close with the
haven-gilt light of humble hope; the glorious
sun, to cheer us eternally by its ray, and to warm
us in its splendours even when the material orbs
above our heads are extinguished, and the mighty
“heavens have departed as a book that is folded
up.” (Apoc. vi. 14.) Oh! “let us love” her “not
in word, nor in tongue, but in deed and in truth;”
(St. John, iii. 18,) and sing for ever with the
Psalmist, “How lovely are thy tabernacles, O
Lord of hosts my soul longeth and fainteth for
the courts of the Lord!” (Ps. lxxxiii. 2.)
 THE CATHOLIC OFFERING. 39

CHAPTER III.

HUMILITY AND FORTITUDE, THE GUARDIANs of

FAITH.

AN exhortation to attachment to your holy Faith

may seem at best superfluous, now, when in the
first fresh ardour of piety, and the blessed igno
rance of inexperience, you deem that treasure
safe beyond the reach of danger, and fancy that
although it is right to be prepared for minor
perils at your entrance into the world, an assault
against your principles of belief is something
quite too dreadful to be apprehended. But you
should not forget that precisely in proportion to
the value of the treasure, is the eagerness of man's
spiritual enemy to rob him of it, wholly or in
part. That merciless foe knows the priceless
worth of the holy Faith at least as well as you
do, and considers something gained if he succeed
in weakening the influence of its principles on
the conduct, even though he cannot entirely
eradicate them from the heart. He has many
and very potent allies to aid him in the unholy
work—allies in the religious world, from the
fanatical zealot to the calumnious tract writer;
allies in the intellectual world, from the self
40 THE CATHOLIC OFFERING.

styled rationalist to the specious sophist; allies

in the literary world, from the scientific author
to the music breathing poet, and the vendor of
paltry romance; allies in general society, and in
domestic privacy; allies in man's innate love of
independence and aversion from restraint; allies
in our natural desire of enjoyment, and repug
nance to suffering; allies, in a word, countless,
energetic, powerful, subtle, and intelligent.
Considering how vast and how formidable is the
host of Satan's agents, you cannot but perceive
that the chances are fairly in favour of your en
countering some one or more of them in your
journey through life, and surely the alarming
discovery must suggest the necessity of substi
tuting holy fear and salutary self-diffidence for
excessive confidence and security, as well as the
prudence of anticipating, that so you may ward
off, if possible, the approach of adversaries so
numerous and insidious. It may, no doubt, be
your privilege to pass through the world without
meeting any of the external dangers which there
menace Faith; but as in the event of your being
much thrown into society of mixed religions, the
contrary is equally likely, caution and foresight
cannot but prove advantageous. It is, alas! too
true, that many, not more frail than you, have
encountered the peril unprepared and unarmed,
only to perish in it.
 THE CATHOLIC OFFERING. 41

Pride is, as you know, the great fountain

whence originally flowed the troubled waters of
heresy and infidelity; but so ancient is the date
of that first destructive inundation, that it would
seem as if the spring should ere now be ex
hausted—drained to the very last drop. Yet,
not so. It appears, on the contrary, gifted with
a magic power of perpetual self-reproduction—
the rushing torrent it sends forth on the work of
devastation, abundant and impetuous now as in
the day when that work began. To intellectual
pride, heresy and infidelity are still indebted, as
of old, not merely for their existence, but also to
a great extent for their growth and propagation,
and thus it is that the process is carried on.
Man, an insect of the clay, an atom of the air, a
vapour of the morning; man, a dependent crea
ture, indebted to his Almighty Creator for every
spiritual faculty which distinguishes him from
the senseless beast of the field—for the power to
think, and to connect thought; for the capacity
to comprehend, and analyze, and argue; man,
whose splendid endowments are but lent, and
whose glorious intelligence may in an instant
find itself shrouded in darkness deeper than that
of the miserable idiot who now perhaps excites
more of his disgust than his compassion; man,
so frail, so ignorant, so lowly, dares to measure
his wisdom with God's wisdom—to scrutinise
- E 2
42 THE CATHOLIC OFFERING.

mysteries which in this life are meant to be im

pervious—to subject the doctrines of Faith to
the test of human criticism, and then, either in
the uncompromising spirit of unmitigated infi
delity, altogether to deny the existence of reve
lation, or in the modified unbelief of heresy, to
sweep from his creed those articles which, because
they do not meet his comprehension, or suit his
practice, he thinks fit to stigmatize as inconsis
tent with the right of human reason to judge for
itself. And this he terms philosophy | And
this he deems a legitimate assertion of mental
independenceſ
The unbelief thus born of pride has still to look
for its dissemination to the concurrence of the
originating principle, without which it could
neither extend its sphere, nor consolidate its
power. Werethe doctrine of mentalindependence
to appeal to none but humble hearts, it would
make no proselytes, notwithstanding the ver
satility of its resources, and the plausibility of
its arguments; but, addressed to self-sufficient
spirits, inflated with their own imaginary in
tellectual superiority, it readily evokes from their
pride a responsive echo, and rapidly gains dis
ciples in their ranks. Blinded by self-conceit,
these deluded beings cannot see the web of
inconsistencies in which they involve themselves
by asserting that the subjection of reason's powers
 THE CATHOLIC OFFERING. 43

to the dominion of God, is an infringement on

reason's rights, and so, enrolling themselves
among the advocates of those rights, they fall
unconsciously into a deep-laid snare of Satan.
If you should ever come in contact with these
proud, but specious theorists, shrink with terror
from their insinuating, and for that reason,
peculiarly pernicious doctrines. Recur to God
with ardour and earnestness proportioned to the
imminence of the danger. Tremble, lest that
fatal pride, which you inherit in common with
the rest of Adam's children, should addits weight
to the external influences already enlisted against
you. Silence, boldly and at once, the first faint
interior whisper that dares but breathe in op
position to the Church's lessons. Ask yourself
whether it is inconsistent with reason to recognize
in that exalted faculty the noblest gift of your
Creator's hand; and whether, viewing it as such,
the spontaneous impulse of mere gratitude should
not prompt you to subject it absolutely to Him,
who exacts from his creatures the homage of
the understanding, no less than of the heart?
Ask yourself whether it would not be simply
rational to admit in the study of religion, as you
are continually compelled to acknowledge in
every other species of investigation, that there
are certain immovable barriers beyond which our
intellectual powers are not permitted to pass, and
44 THE CATHOLIC OFFERING.

then consider whether, consistently with the

admission of this undeniable truth, reason itself
should not concur with religion in suggesting
reverential subjection to an ordinance we are
powerless to resist? Ask yourself, again, whether
the most enlightened mind can justly deem it
dorogatory to its privileges to bow to the unin
telligible mysteries of faith, while it daily assents,
without hesitation, to the equally impenetrable
mysteries of science? Whether it is inconsistent
with reason humbly to confess our incapacity to
penetrate abstruse religious truths, when hourly
experience shows that we cannot understand the
laws which regulate our own being, or point out
the hidden springs which set the mind's wondrous
machinery in motion, or account for the strange
connection between thought and action, or ex
plain the ceaseless alternations of our mysterious
feelings? Whether it is irrational in us, whose
sphere of information, and capabilities of judging
are so limited, to believe what the highly gifted
in mind, and richly abounding in stores of deepest
learning, have believed without cavil or question
for ages? And then, enquiring dispassionately
what the upholders of reason's claims have done
for either reason or religion, by their arrogant
attempts to draw aside the veil, and send an un
hallowed glance within the Holy of Holies, on
which God has said no man shall dare to look,
 THE CATHOLIC OFFERING. 45

you will find them to have produced a tissue

of errors so gross, contradictions so palpable,
arguments so untenable, and in many cases,
extravagancies so absurd, that, were proof
wanted of the weakness of minds, deluded by
pride and blinded by passion, none more con
vincing need be sought than that furnished by
those very persons who vaunted the powers of
the human intellect, and undertook to maintain
its authority in opposition to the authority of
God. Fly from them on the wings of holy fear;
beseech your heavenly father to “keep you as the
apple of his eye from those that resist his right
hand.” (Ps. xvi. 8.) Take refuge in the im
pregnable fortress of humility, for there faith is
safe, but there alone. Humility is self knowledge,
and that once attained, you will feel no inclination
for lofty flights to which you believe your strength
inadequate. You will not only confess your in
capacity to unravel the deep mysteries of religion,
but recoil in alarm from the presumption which
could suggest even awish to do so. You will study
your holy religion and investigate the grounds of
your belief, not in the captious spirit of criticism,
nor in the impious spirit of infidelity, but with
an humble sense of your incapability to compre
hend, unless help be given from above, through
the teaching of your appointed guides. You
will read not to become learned but to become
46 THE CATHOLIC OFFERING.

holy; you will examine, not to raise questions

or start objections, but to bring understanding
and will more and more perfectly under the cap
tivity of faith; and while rejoicing at each new
light which God vouchsafes you through your
teachers, you will be equally satisfied to ac
quiesce blindly in such truths as are not destined
to be comprehended yet, waiting patiently for a
clearer manifestation, until the eternal sun arise,
and the bright dawn of unclouded vision chase
away the shadows of faith. Pray unceasingly
for humility, the shield of faith; strive for it
with earnestness proportioned to its importance
and the difficulty of its attainment, and when
you have put on its strong armour you will
become invulnerable against the assaults of “the
wicked one, whose fiery darts,” instead of in
juring you, will only recoil against himself.
(Ephes. vi. 11, 16.)
In your intercourse with Protestants your
faith may be exposed to a trial of another
description, and one which has sometimes
been found to tell with fatal effect on minds
destitute at once of moral courage and Christian
fortitude—the trial of ridicule. The usages
of society are, to a certain extent, a safeguard
against an overt manifestation of contempt for
any particular class of religious opinions; yet
 THE CATHOLIC OFFERING. 47

it is certain that bigotry and intolerance

have been found to preponderate over good
manners, and break the barrier of conventional
restraints.
The mantle of affected politeness sometimes
but ill conceals the half suppressed smile or
gesture of mock pity for the superstition of
narrow minded papists. Distant echoes may now
and then reach you of the oft repeated, though
equally often refuted charge of the idolatry of
benighted Catholic image-worshippers; and it
will, perhaps, fall to your lot to hear the holy
and venerable faith of ages stigmatised as ple
beian and unrefined, its adversaries meanwhile
claiming for themselves superiority, both intel
lectual and social, as members of a newer church
and followers of a more fashionable creed. Alas!
alas! shall the child of the holy church envy
their superiority, and not rather rejoice to be of
the religion of the poor, whom Jesus loves; the
religion of apostles, and confessors, and martyrs;
the religion which her Redeemer taught and
founded, which he sorrowed and toiled, and bled
and died for? Shall the child of a mother so
pure, so saintly, look on her sweet face with less
of reverential love, because impiety has called
her superstitious, and incredulity has declared
her idolatrous? Shall she waver in her belief
because the lip of ignorance has curled disdain
48 THE CATHOLIC OFFERING.

fully, or blush at her privileges because the brow

of fanaticism has worn a frown? Oh no The
true child will love her parent the more dearly,
the more that parent is despised; she will cling
to her the more tenderly when all the world
beside abandon her. Fly trembling to her arms
and hide your head in her bosom when scepti
cism mocks at her practices, and impiety tries to
falsify her oracles; when infidelity rejects her
existence, and the pen of calumny circulates
spurious versions of her doctrines. Let no dread
of scorn or sneer weaken the tie that binds you
to her; no false shame induce you to disown her
by even a gesture or a look; no force of ridicule
tempt you to deny your veneration for even the
least of her ceremonies, or to neglect in practice
the slightest of her ordinances. Trample gene
rously on human respect, opposing to it the
noble courage which apprehends nothing but the
risk of offending God. Rise superior to the
opinions of men, which have in truth as little
weight as the light column of smoke that floats
for a moment on the air, then mingles with it,
and vanishes. Always remember that those
opinions can in no wise affect your intrinsic
merits or demerits, for, that which you are before
God, that alone you really are Keep ever in mind
the declaration of Christ, “He that shall deny me
before men, I will also deny him before my
 THE CATHOLIC OF FERING. 49

Father who is in heaven, (St. Matt. x. 33), and

feel that it were indeed better and happier to
incur the contempt of all creatures, than to run
the hazard of standing one day, terror-stricken
and confounded, among the wretched group
whom Christ will disown in presence of his
angels, because they had not the fortitude to
confess him before poor creatures of clay lik
themselves. -

You need not be told that patient silence is

the most dignified, as well as the most Christian,
course you can adopt under trials such as those
now under consideration. “In your patience
you shall possess your soul,” and not alone gain
much merit in the sight of God, but farther make
a favourable impression of the religion which
inculcates and enforces even the heroism of the
Gospel virtues. These trials would not have
seemed much to the noble martyrs, and neither
should they to you, whose glory and happiness
it is to be the descendant of the martyrs.
When religion forms the subject of discussion
between persons of varying persuasions, it is again
obviously your safest and most suitable plan to
abstain from any part in the conversation, unless
actually called on for a defence or an explanation
of your religious principles. The character of
controversialist, generally speaking, ill becomes
the female, whose very instinct should be her
F
50 THE CATHOLIC OFFERING.

prompter to reserve; and most especially is it

inappropriate in the young and inexperienced,
who should naturally shrink from putting them
selves needlessly forward in debate or otherwise.
As a rule, you may take it for granted, that the
object of those who seek to draw you publicly
into controversial discussions is, either to under
mine your faith, or ridicule what they deem your
over-credulity. Sincere inquirers will be more
likely to address themselves to guides of maturer
age and wider experience; or, should they be
tempted to propose a doubt to you, will assuredly
select some fitter opportunity than that afforded
by a social meeting or a morning visit. Let
your life be not only irreproachable, but exem
plary, and this will be the most eloquent defence
of your faith, as well as the most conclusive reply
to all the arguments of its adversaries; while, if
your conduct be at variance with your belief,
although you should speak with the tongues of
men and angels, you will make no impression on
your hearers, and will advance the cause of reli
gion in nothing. Silence may, no doubt, some
times be distorted into an admission of the charges
of infidelity, and consequently an occasional
necessity may arise for breaking it. It may
happen, too, that a word of explanation will
weaken or remove a prejudice, and a correct
statement overturn a false one. A direct and
 THE CATHOLIC OFFERING. 51

sincere appeal for information should always elicit

it, and thence arises the obligation of a thorough
comprehension of the grounds of your faith, and
of a perfect acquaintance with all its doctrines,
those especially which form the ordinary subject
of controversy between us and persons of different
religious persuasions. Ignorance in these matters
would be grievously reprehensible, first, because
entailing a risk that the plausible, and to you
unanswerable, arguments of Protestants or infidels
might, because apparently unanswerable, create
in your own heart any lurking doubt on the point
in debate, and, secondly, because your incapacity
to render an account of the hope that is in you
(1 St. Pet. iii. 15), might deter earnest-minded
inquirers from pursuing a topic which gave
promise of so little satisfaction. As the memory
is apt to lose more or less of its acuteness, unless
it be kept in exercise, you should be careful to
refresh yours from time to time on the important
subject of the Church's doctrines, not confining
yourself wholly to works of practical instruction
on your personal duties, but extending your
research, with cautious steps and an humble
spirit, into the fields of controversy, there to glean
information for the help of others, should they
ask it of you, and to seek for yourself an in
crease, less of knowledge, than of faith, and hope,
and love.
52 THE CATHOLIC OFFERING.

You must never, however, forget, that if faith

is indispensably necessary to salvation, so also is
charity, whose sweet spirit should be the ani
mating principle of all your communications
with those opposed to, as well as those united
with you in belief. You know that “he who
believes not shall be condemned” (St. Mark, xvi.
16); for that “without faith it is impossible to
please God" (Heb. xi. 6); yet while thanking
the Almighty for that first and best of gifts, and
praying that all men may one day participate in
the blessing, you are not to look on any one as
personally excluded from the pale of salvation,
or to presume to decide on the spiritual condition
of any particular individual. “Only the Searcher
of hearts,” observes Dr. Milner, “can know who,
and in what numbers are the individuals, exte
riorly of other communions, but by the sincerity
of their dispositions, belonging to the Catholic
Church; therefore, while bound in charity to
assert that nothing short of this sincere disposi
tion, and the actual use of the means afforded by
providence for discovering the true Church, to
those out of it, can secure their salvation" (End
of Controversy), you must hope that such is, per
haps, the disposition of those you encounter, and
pray that if it be not now, at least it may yet be.
Of one thing you are sure—that whatever be
the irresponsibility of others on the score of ignor
 THE CATHOLIC OFFERING. 53

ance, you never can claim a share in it, and

whatever the allowances for those less favoured,
there can be none for you, on whom heavenly
light has been so profusely lavished. “Neglect
not then the grace” of faith “that is in you”
(1 Tim. iv. 4); but cherish it ardently, and cul
tivate it assiduously. Humility will be its pro
tection against the attacks of proud philosophy;
and Christian fortitude its defence against the
assaults of human respect. Pray to the Giver of
all good gifts to grant you these strong arms in
the day of combat, and beseech Him to fill
your heart with an ardent love of your holy re
ligion, that you may prefer the loss of all things
here below, to the misfortune of forfeiting that
pure, precious, and glorious Faith which binds
you to God through His holy Church.
As a counterpoise to the dangerous maxims
which it may fall to your lot to hear in your in
tercourse with society of mixed religions, certain
fundamental principles should be established in
your mind and heart, so firmly, so immoveably,
as to become in a manner a constituent portion
of both, extending their influence to the whole
tenor of your existence; lending their colouring
to the entire body of your actions, and giving a
bias to your every thought and opinion.
The first of these vital principles—the foun
dation on which the structure of religion rests,
F 2
54 THE CATHOLIC OFFERING.

the pivot on which the fabric turns, is faith in the

existence of God; not mere acquiescence in the
abstract truth—though even this some are found
daring and senseless enough to deny—but firm
belief, first, in the great truth itself, and then,
as a consequence, in the results which flow from
it. There is a God—a self-existing Being, from
whom all existence proceeds as from its fountain.
The united accents of many-voiced creation pro
claim the fact. “The heavens show forth the
glory of their Maker, and the firmament declareth
itself the work of His hands” (Ps. xviii. 1).
“The light, when He calleth, obeyeth with
trembling, and the stars shine forth with cheer
fulness to Him that made them” (Baruch, iii. 33,
35). “Ask the beasts and they shall teach thee,
and the birds of the air, and they shall tell thee.
Speak to the earth, and it shall answer thee:
and the fishes of the sea shall tell. Who is
ignorant that the hand of the Lord made all these
things?” (Job, xii. 7, 8, 9). It needs not much
argument to establish the point; a moment's re
flection will convince any but the deliberately
self-deluded, that “the Lord who made us is our
God” (Ps. xcix. 3); and, admitting His exis
tence, we shall quickly pass on to the next fun
damental principle of our faith—belief in His
absolute dominion over the creatures of His
hands, and consequently in the unlimited sub
 THE CATHOLIC OFFERING. 55

jection of those dependent creatures to His su

perintending providence. It is not unusual with
the infidel in theory, and the irreligious in prac
tice, to take shelter under the argument that
God is too great and exalted to concern His
mighty Majesty about the petty affairs of mortals,
and that therefore it matters nothing what may
be the extent of our creed, provided only it
embrace faith in the Divine existence; or what
the form of our worship, provided we worship at
all. Yet, His own infallible Word assures us,
that insignificant as we are, and nothing worth,
His providence over His creatures embraces
details so minute, that a hair cannot fall from
our heads without His knowledge (St. Mat. x.
30), nor a bird alight to the ground without His
notice (ibid. 29), nor a raven cry to Him for
food unheeded (Job, xxxviii. 41).
And after this, shall we venture to assert that
that all-embracing Providence excludes from its
observation and its rule, only the precious in
terests of our immortal souls? that the wisdom
which governs the material creation, even to its
least subdivision, has overlooked, as secondary,
the claims of the spiritual world? revealed no
religion to fix the method of our worship?
taught no law to regulate our lives? lighted no
lamp to guide our steps? This would be to im
pute inconsistency to eternal Wisdom, and short
56 THE CATHOLIC OFFERING.

sightedness to Omniscience — a blasphemous

thought from which the Christian heart recoils
with horror. Rejecting this idea on the ground
merely of its evident absurdity, we must admit
as a necessary consequence of our belief in the
existence of God, and in the wondrous workings
of His wise and loving Providence, another fun
damental principle of faith—the revelation of a
religion, and the establishment of a church.
Under one denomination or another, from the
beginning of time, religion held dominion on
earth; religion, not arbitrary, but fixed, both in
principle and practice; religion, at first silently
impressed on the heart by the hand of God,
under the law of nature; then more distinctly
promulgated in its details by His own Almighty
voice under the written law, and finally brought
to its full perfection by Christ Himself, under
the new law, or law of grace, of which the old
law was but a dim shadow and imperfect type.
That now, as ever, there is a true Church, we
know—that there can be but one we are also
aware, for truth must necessarily be undivided;
and that our own holy Church is that one, we
believe, because it alone possesses the four cha
racteristic marks which none but the true Church
can justly claim. Admitting the truth, the in
fallibility and indefectibility of the holy Roman
Catholic Church, we not only at once recognize
 THE CATHOLIC OFFERING. 57

her authority to direct us in matters of faith, but

farther, value as one of our highest privileges,
the right to appeal to her unerring tribunal for
guidance in all our uncertainties, and direction
in all our practical difficulties; and we feel that
the grace conferred on us on the day which re
ceived us into communion with her, is one for
which we can never sufficiently thank our Al
mighty Benefactor. If deeply impressed with
your happiness in having been admitted through
God's mercy into the one and only fold, out of
which there is no salvation, and if thoroughly
convinced that this privilege is incomparably
greater than any the world can bestow, and
therefore worth maintaining at the expense of
any sacrifice, you will find in this strong convic
tion an effectual antidote against the poison of
infidelity, and a powerful counterpoise to all the
temptations which may assail your religious
principles in your passage through this region of
probation.
A third fundamental principle to be engraven
on your heart and intertwined with its very fibres,
is, belief in the immortality of the soul—not a
mere theoretical, speculative belief, but such as
brings in its train an ever-present consciousness
of accountability for every thought, word, action,
and omission of each passing hour—a sense of
responsibility which extends its influence over
58 THE CATHOLIC OFFERING.

every feeling, and regulates every desire—which

never wearies of its duties or slumbers at its post
—which never declines in its vigilance, or relaxes
its control." Thrice happy they whose faith in
the immortality of the soul leads to practical
results like these ! Impressed, imbued, penetrated
with this all-important truth, they will be in
little danger of risking the interests of that
undying spirit for the attainment of any
temporary advantage, or the avoidance of any
transitory suffering. In heaven they know that
joys await the good, which eye hath not seen,
nor ear heard, nor mind of man imagined; in
hell, tortures equally beyond the reach of mortal
sense to realize, or mortal intellect to grasp, and
little do they dream of imperilling the one, or
hazarding the other, for the sake of anything
here below. According to the counsel of the
Imitation, their left eye is for earthly things, the
right for the things of heaven. Time, with its
cares and solicitudes, its pursuits and enjoyments,
engages their moderate attention, but eternity
engrosses their hearts. They would not displease
God to secure the approval of the universe.
They are not ashamed to be classed among the
disciples of Christ. They do not blush at
their connection with his holy Church, or hesitate
to avow it openly to the world, even when human
respect might suggest to the pusillanimous Chris
 THE CATHOLIC OFFERING. 59

tian a compromise of principle. They are not

carried away by the specious arguments of free
thinkers, nor led astray by the false light of their
own reason. “There is a God; to Him I am
accountable; in His hands are eternal rewards
and eternal punishments, one of which must fall
to my lot, according to my deserts. I am the
child of Saints, and look for that life which God
will give to those who never change their faith
from Him.”—(Tobias, ii. 18.) Oh! what a
shield against the world's temptations! what a
defence against the native corruption of the heart
what a support against the infirmity of nature
Who that lived on this thought would ever risk
her salvation? And why do we not all live on
it? Of what use is the teaching of Faith, if its
lessons are suffered to lie dormant in our hearts?
“As the body without the spirit is dead, so also
faith without good works is dead" (St. James,
ii. 26); nay, worse than dead, since it will serve
to our more severe condemnation in the terrible
day of final retribution. “Hold the mystery of
faith in a pure conscience” (1 Tim. iii.9), so that
“when the Lord Jesus Christ shall come to be
glorified in his saints, and to be made wonderful
in all them who have believed” (2 Thes, i. 10),
you may be found rich in that faith, which
having wrought by charity (Gal. v. 6), has
merited the crown of everlasting life.
60 THE CATHOLIC OFFERING.

CHAPTER IV.

FIRST MEANS OF MAINTAINING THE SPIRIT OF

FAITH-FIDELITY TO THE DUTY OF PRAYER.

THE precious virtue of Faith was granted us

through God's great mercy, at a time when we
were unable either to appreciate the favour, or
to thank our Benefactor for it; but although for
its original donation we are indebted solely to His
pure and most unmerited bounty, nevertheless,
for its preservation and increase, we must employ
our own personal exertions, always, of course,
subordinate to, and aided by divine grace. Al
mighty God has prepared the soil, but we must
cultivate it, else its fertilizing properties will
soon be dissipated. He has planted the seed;
but we must watch and tend it, or it will never
spring to maturity. He has enkindled the hea
venly fire; but we must supply fuel, or it will
smoulder and die. He created us without our
aid, and regenerated us without our knowledge;
but He will not save us without our co-opera
tion. While our mental faculties lay undeve
loped in the years of infancy and early childhood,
He took care of the treasure which we were
ourselves unable to protect; but now in our
 THE CATHOLIC OFFERING. 61

maturer age, He has confided it to our own

guardianship, and appointed us stewards over
the precious possession—but stewards only. We
cannot suffer it to remain useless; neither can
we squander and dissipate, and cast it away.
The day approaches when He will enter into a
minute inquiry concerning the use made of it;
and in that awful day, He will be satisfied with
nothing less than ample profit on the original
deposit.
You have already reviewed the dangers which
may possibly menace that invaluable treasure of
faith in your future intercourse with society;
you have considered the consequent necessity of
adopting precautionary measures against them;
and have also seen the nature of those precau
tionary measures. But that you may indeed
prove a faithful steward of your heavenly Father,
and safely “keep the good thing committed to
your trust by the Holy Ghost” (2 Tim. i. 14),
you have to extend your views still farther; and
to guard not only against the external influences
opposed to the open profession of your faith, but
likewise against another peril of no less magni
tude—the gradual decline of its interior spirit,
which in general thrives but ill in the world's
ungenial atmosphere. As it is your holy pur
pose to employ the arms recommended to you
for the defeat of the visible enemies of your
G
62 THE CATHOLIC OF FERING.

faith, so should it equally enter into your good

resolutions at this critical epoch, to omit none of
the means suggested for sustaining and strength
ening its life giving spirit.
You already know that the first and most effica
cious of those means is, fervent attachment to, and
inviolable fidelity in the discharge of the great
duty of prayer. The necessity of prayer is obvious.
It is to the Christian what the beacon is to the
mariner—his security; what the polar star is to
the wanderer in the wilderness—his guide; what
food is to the wasted victim of famine—his life;
what the whisper of hope is to the despairing—
his salvation; what the gentle voice of sympathy
is to the mourner—his solace; what gold is to
the miser—his treasure; what sunshine is to the
bird—its joy; what the bright smile of childhood
is to the withered heart of age—its gladness;
what the rudder is to the ship—its propelling
principle. In temptation and in sin; in doubt
and in difficulty; in all the vicissitudes and
casualties of life; in all the trials and struggles
attendant on the spiritual warfare, prayer is the
one great refuge, the one unfailing resource of
the soul; what then must the soul be without it?
Alas! “a reed shaken by the wind.” (St. Luke,
vii. 24); a dismasted vessel drifting helplessly
among rocks and quicksands; a sapless tree, that
bears no blossom and grows no fruit; a drooping
 THE CATHOLIC OF FERING. 63

flower, that boasts no beauty and diffuses no fra

grance. There is no elasticity in that soul; no
vigour, no youth, no freshness. It cannot run
in the way of holiness, or bound forward in the
paths of virtue; it can at best but creep along,
with slow, faltering, irresolute steps. It is left
to itself, and therefore it is weak. It has dis
carded the prop on which it might have leant so
securely, and therefore it totters. It has rejected
the light, and therefore it gropes in obscurity
and consequent danger. “All who go far from
thee, O Lord, shall perish” (Ps. lxxii. 27); and
this they do who, neglecting to pray, close up
the only avenue which leads to thee!
If a very little reflection suffices to manifest
the necessity of prayer, a very little experience
will likewise prove its efficacy. Who that has
partially or wholly neglected it for a day, or a
week, or a month, has not felt her heart grow
colder, and her spirit heavier with each new
omission; and when at last the habit of neglect
was formed, so that the pious practices of earlier
years came to be numbered among things for
gotten, how much deeper grew the darkness of
the understanding; how much stronger the do
minion of passion; how much more intense the
love of the world, with its transitory goods, its
fading glories, and its hollow joys!
The vast difference in the spiritual condition
64 THE CATHOLIC OFFERING.

of those who neglect, and those who pursue the

exercise of prayer, is in itself sufficient to prove
the wondrous power of that great remedy of
human evils, and refuge of human wants. The
soul attached to prayer derives support from an
invisible source—she has food to eat, of which
men know not. Prayer is to her what corporal
nourishment is to the body; each time she par
takes of the heavenly banquet she renews her
vigour, and as she constantly returns to the
supernatural feast, so does she constantly acquire
an increase of strength. Her steps never falter;
her hope never sinks; her heart never faints;
her ardour never cools. She knows that what
ever be her difficulties and her frailty, she can
always pray, and that prayer is omnipotent;
therefore, she never permits the consideration of
her weakness to depress her courage, or suffers
the intervention of obstacles to oppose her pro
gress, but triumphs over the one, and tramples
on the other, by a speedy recourse to the ever
present, and never failing remedy.
The habit of prayer creates the habit of virtue;
the soul that prays frequently is always recol
lected, consequently on her guard against tempta
tion from without, and on the watch against
surprises from within. She cannot spend much
time with God, without experiencing the calming
influence of His sweet presence. It allays her
 THE CATHOLIC OFFERING. 65

irritation; dispels her disquietude; checks her

impetuosity; softens the asperity of her feelings;
and silences the suggestions of evil. She comes
to the feet of her heavenly Physician restless,
anxious, doubting, fearing; alarmed at her own
impotence, and terrified at the power and malig
nity of her spiritual foes. Like a trembling
dove she flies to his bosom, and in a moment she
is secure, as in an impregnable fortress; for when
God arises his enemies are put to flight, and they
that hate Him vanish from before his face.—
(Ps. lxvii. 2.) Oh! who that has tried, has not
experienced it? Who that has turned a sorrow
ing heart to God, has not felt sweet drops of
healing balm distilled into it from above? Who
that has sought in Him the comfort which
creatures were powerless to give, has not ex
claimed from her deep soul, as the refreshing
breeze of divine consolation sighed softly over it,
“Who, oh! who is like unto God!” Who that
has fled to his paternal arms, has not owned, as
they gently folded round her, that it was good
to be there; sweet to be encircled by that pro
tecting love? Who that has looked up into His
face when clouds were dark, and winds were
wailing, has not felt the sunshine of its smile
reflected on her heart, making the barren spots
verdant, and the waste spots fertile, and “the
wilderness to flourish like the lily” (Is. xxxv. 1)?
G 2
66 THE CATHOLIC OFFERING.

Who that has gone to Him labouring and heavily

laden has not realized in herself the truth of His
own promise, and found refreshment, and tasted
peace and contentment? Thus it happens that
the miserable feelings of our fallen nature, which
often cause us so much suffering, and in their
indulgence so much sin, lose power to harm us
or others in the purifying influence of God's own
presence. We, who, without the aid of prayer,
should be the slave of a host of petty domestic
tyrants, find them laid prostrate by its help, and
come from it strengthened to trample on them
bravely, and introduce into their vacated places
the virtues opposed to them. And thus it is, that
by its own efficacy, and almost unconsciously to
ourselves, the habit of prayer leads to the habit
of virtue.
The consoling influences of prayer are not
always, it is true, thus sensibly felt, nor its omni
potent efficacy thus vividly apparent. There are
many good and gracious reasons why our sove
reign Lord and most loving Father sometimes
sees fit to impart His gifts in so disguised a form,
that human senses cannot discern them, and
scarcely can even the eye of the heart discover
them, although its keenest powers be put forth
in the effort. Nevertheless, we know by faith
that before His ascension into heaven, Jesus pro
mised He would grant all we should ask of Him
 THE CATHOLIC OFFERING. 67

in His own sweet name, and leaning on that pro

mise as on a rock that cannot be shaken, we
firmly believe that prayer, accompanied with
suitable dispositions, will never be rejected, al
though sensible evidences of its acceptance may
be withheld. We know, for we feel, that though
prayer may impart no visible light, it commu
nicates invisible support. It may leave us, as it
found us, very desolate and lonely; still its silent
work has been accomplished, in the infusion of
strength to watch resignedly, though perhaps
sorrowfully, by the side of Him who tasted a
deeper desolation, and drained the cup of more
utter loneliness. It may not have removed the
harassing temptations against which we have
implored its aid; but besides bearing us safely
through the danger, it has sent us away richer
than we came, in the peerless, priceless treasure
of increased self-knowledge and consequent
humility. We must not, then, be discouraged
when prayer feels very difficult; when its exer
cise seems but a new trial added to those from
which we had fondly hoped for deliverance
through its means. Then especially is the time
to persevere in prayer, like Jesus in His agony,
and to us, as to Him, will be given strength to
suffer submissively, which we know is a greater
grace, and a higher favour, than to be altogether
freed from suffering.
If the difficulty you may sometimes find in
(38 THE CATHOLIC OF FERING.

prayer will never justify your neglecting it, still

less assuredly can such neglect be excused on
any of the various frivolous pretexts so often
alleged in extenuation of the omission. The
obligation is imperative; the precept uncondi
tional ; the rule general. “We must pray
always, and never faint” (St. Luke, xviii. 1);
never relax; never desist. You cannot imbue
your mind too deeply with this important maxim,
nor can you surround yourself with too many
safeguards against a failure in this most essential
duty. For this end two precautions are espe
cially necessary: First, you must not leave to the
impulse or caprice of the moment, the selection
of your spiritual exercises—overcrowding one
day with prayers, and perhaps omitting all, or
nearly all, the next. Your devotions for each
day should be fixed, or rather, as they no doubt
have been fixed in your retreat preparatory to
leaving school, your care should be to adhere
most punctually to the rule then laid down under
the guidance of your spiritual advisers, neither
increasing nor diminishing the number of your
stated prayers; never encumbering yourself with
a multiplicity of practices, which would only
overstrain and fatigue your mind; limiting your
self to as many as you can accomplish well, and
never giving up through whim or sloth any of
the few you have undertaken.
Secondly—If you mean to persevere long in
 THE CATHOLIC OFFERING. 69

the faithful observance of this first recommen

dation, you must not leave it to chance to supply
you with time and opportunity for the discharge
of your spiritual duties. If you do, you will
omit, quite as often as you fulfil them. As your
prayers for each day should be fixed by rule, so
likewise should be the hour for saying them;
and as the early part of the day is that most free
from interruption, it will be well to avail of its
quiet leisure for the due discharge of the most
important obligation which the day can bring;
not that it is advisable to compress all the prayers
of the day into any one given portion of it, for
as our days should be wholly sanctified, the
vivifying influence of prayer should extend to
each part of them; but for the important duties
of meditation and pious reading at least, the
morning is for many reasons the most suitable
time.
Among the pious practices to which you have
been habituated, during the late years of school
training, that of daily meditationisamong the most
essential, and in proportion to its great utility,
should be the inflexibility of your resolution to
adhere to it faithfully and undeviatingly. Short
lived, indeed, will be your holy resolutions,
and evanescent the fruit of the instructions you
have received, if you renounce the practice of
meditation, St. Teresa said she would answer
70 THE CATHOLIC OFFERING.

for the salvation of any one who should daily

make one quarter of an hour's meditation; does
not the converse of the assertion hold equally
good? The world cannot pause to think, and,
therefore, with “desolation is it made desolate.”
(Jer. xii. 11.) It is so busy, so bustling, so
intent on its own peculiar interests, that it has
not time to cast one passing glance on the ever
lasting world to come; but lo! quite suddenly,
just when it dreams the least of it, the gates of
eternity cast their shadow over it, and then—
ohl then—it finds time to think, but time too to
regret, with eternal tears, that its reflections came
too late.
You are just stepping forth into that busy
world, and about to become an actor in the
stirring scene. Beware, lest after a while you
too should learn to deem its concerns of superior
importance to the interests of your soul, and
carried along by the heedless crowd, awaken to
the terrible future, only when its long forgotten
horrors have become a dread reality. If you
give up meditation, you may consider the first
step very surely taken in the downward course
from grace to sin. The inclosure once broken,
the treasure within becomes the ready prey of
the spoiler. The joys of heaven will seem less
and less bright, and the torments of hell less and
less appalling, when you have for some time dis
 THE CATHOLIC OFFERING. 71

continued to remember their existence. Sin's

hideous malice and God's terrible justice will
lose somewhat of their deep colouring, when,
from ceasing to reflect on these momentous truths,
you have suffered the false maxims of the world,
and the evil suggestions of Satan, to supplant the
principles of faith, and eradicate the impressions
of piety. The first step in the descent once taken,
each that follows will but serve to accelerate
the downward progress. The great fundamental
truths of faith once buried in oblivion, the edifice
will soon totter and fall, for it has lost its main
pillar, its strongest prop. Meditation being
renounced, vocal prayer will quickly succeed;
so will spiritual reading; so will daily Mass; so
will the sacraments. The soul has lost its tone;
its energy is gone; its tastes are vitiated; there
fore the practices which once were its life and
its joy, have become simply a burden, to be
dragged on wearily for a little way, and then
flung aside altogether as too weighty and
fatiguing.
These are sad, sober truths, although to you
they may, just now, sound like fiction, as they
do to all who have not yet learned them by
personal experience, or by observation on the
personal experience of others. You are happy
in being permitted to reap the fruit of that
experience, without incurring its penalties.
72 THE CATHOLIC OFFERING.

Profit then of the privilege, and resolve, with a

resolution which nothing shall shake or weaken,
that every morning, before the duties of the day
have claimed your leisure, or its amusements or
cares divided your attention, you will devote at
least a quarter of an hour to the great duty of
meditation, preceded by the appropriate acts,
accompanied with the requisite dispositions, and
concluded by the customary prayer, and a prac
tical resolution on the correction of some definite
fault, or the practice of some definite virtue, in
the manner you have been taught; following up
this holy exercise, if possible, by the spiritual
lecture, to which you have also been in the habit
of daily devoting a quarter of an hour. If you
do so, your days will be full, for the blessing
invoked at early dawn will rest on them through
every moment of their progress. You will be
prepared, through God's mercy, for the sudden
assaults of the Evil One, and when his voice
clamours most loudly, the pleadings of another
voice will drown its accents; a sweet soft voice,
the echo of some encouraging reflection, some
good resolution, some heavenly impression pro
duced by your morning meditation, and thus the
very memory of that meditation, falling on the
heart as refreshing water on ſevered lips, will
allay the heat of temptation's fiery furnace, and
open for you a safe egress from amidst its flames.
 THE CATHOLIC OFFERING. 73

The holy thoughts, gathered like the manna of

heaven in the quiet morning hour, will ascend in
fervent aspirations to God many a time in the
day, keeping the eyes of the soul ever open to his
presence; and even when the sun has run its
course, the treasury will be found not only unex
hausted, but still more richly replenished than at
first. The same holy thoughts will arise again,
as the evening's devotions come round, and under
their shadow the day's final acts will be worthy
of the first. The heart will pour out its gratitude
for the many graces granted in the hours which
have elapsed since the morning oblation; its
sorrow for the faults which, on a careful examina
tion of its recesses, it may feel accountable for;
and its supplication for protection during the
unseen, and, therefore, unfeared dangers of the
night; and its latest memory, like its earliest,
will be of Him who is “the beginning and the
end;” (Apoc. xxi. 6) “the immortal King of
Ages, the only God, to whom be honour and
glory for ever and ever.” (1 Tim. i. 17.)
 74 THE CATHOLIC OFFERING.

CHAPTER V.

SECOND MEANS OF MAINTAINING THE SPIRIT OF

FAITH — FREQUENT CONFESSION AND COMMU

NION.

PRAYER, in general, is an efficacious means of

grace, and, therefore, an indispensable condition
for persevering in virtue. It may, in one sense,
be called the most indispensable of all other con
ditions; for though the sacraments are the imme
diate channels of grace, and the Holy Eucharist,
in particular, grace itself, yet it is certain, that if
neglect of prayer once become habitual, the use
of sacraments will, as an inevitable consequence,
be relinquished, and the fountain springs of grace
become to us as fountains sealed up.
You have already seen the value of that
precious gift of Faith, which is your privilege
and your blessing; and you have likewise seen
the imperative necessity of most cautiously
guarding against the extinction of its spirit in
your heart. You have, moreover, determined to
avert so dire a misfortune by the adoption of all
the requisite means, and viewing the great duty
of prayer as the first of those means, you have
determined on discharging it with punctual
 THE CATHOLIC OFFERING. 75

fidelity. Your next resolution will be, as a

sequel to the first, to approach, at regular stated
times, the holy sacraments of confession and
communion. This you will need no exhortation to
do, if you understand the advantages which accrue
from a frequent and worthy reception of both.
The tribunal of penance is, in a peculiar
manner, the tribunal of God's mercy, which,
above all His works, as His own word declares
it, may be said to surpass itself in this its own
seat by excellence—its very throne, and most
especial theatre. There a full, free, and generous
pardon at all times awaits the contrite and
humble sinner, on terms most easy compared
with the penalties his iniquities deserve. There
the very last and worst of criminals may, in a
moment, exchange the deeply dyed garb of
crime for a robe pure as that first imparted by
baptism's regenerating waters. There, “sins
deep as scarlet are made white as snow;” and
those red as crimson are made white as wool
(Is. i. 18). There the loving Father clasps
the ungrateful prodigal to his bosom, and the
tender Shepherd receives the long wandering
sheep to his arms; there angels hover round,
ready to bear to their own bright heaven the
tidings that “justice and peace have kissed” (Ps.
lxxxiv. 11), and all-powerful gracetriumphed over
sin and Satan—glad tidings that will impart new
76 THE CATHOLIC OF FERING.

joy to the beatified spirits above, and evoke new º

canticles of praise from their harmonious choirs.

God's liberality in the holy tribunal is not
restricted merely to the pardon of mortal sin,
but holds many rich blessings in reserve for those
also who approach it sullied only with the blemish
of venial faults, and, therefore, still possessed of
their heavenly Father's grace and friendship.
Venial sin, although a slight evil as compared
with mortal, is not in itself a slight, but, on the
contrary, a very grievous evil—an evil to be
detested with a vehemence, and shunned with an
earnestness, secondary only to those which mortal
sin demands. Venial sins, if committed deli !

berately and suffered to accumulate, lead to most

fearful consequences; but the all-loving Redeemer,
who knows the clay of which He formed us, has
provided a preventive to their accumulation in
the sacrament of penance, which remits not only
mortal, but also venial sin, confessed in the
spirit of humility and sorrow. Again, beside
cancelling venial sin, the miraculous virtue of
absolution communicates to the soul which re
ceives it in the state of grace, an augmentation
of strength to avoid future venial transgressions,
an increase of charity and all supernatural virtues,
renewed facility for leading a pure and saintly
life, and greater fortitude in overcoming all
obstacles to the pursuit of holiness. It is, more
 THE CATHOLIC OFFERING. 77

over, the best preparation for receiving the all

holy God in the sacrament of His love.
Happy they who, from the high motive of
becoming more and more pleasing to Jesus
Christ, frequently approach the marvellous sacra
ment whence proceed so many graces, and who
take care to secure an ample participation in
those graces, by presenting themselves in the
spirit of faith and confidence, humility and com
punction, grateful love and sincere determination
to improve in solid virtue!
In preparing for confession, two extremes
should be cautiously avoided; that of carelessness
on the one hand, and scrupulous anxiety on the
other. Impressed, as you should always be, with
the insufficiency of your own efforts for the
accomplishment of any supernatural work, ac
knowledge it most especially in this, convinced
that unless the light of God dispel the illusions
of self-love, your chance of seeing yourself as you
really are is small indeed. Placing your chief
dependence on prayer, implore God's aid with an
earnestness proportioned to your necessity for it.
Make your examination of conscience carefully,
as your catechism prescribes, but calmly and
tranquilly, without agitation, anxiety, or eager
ness, relying far more on the light of God than
on your own; and do not prolong it unreasonably,
for this serves only to weary and bewilder the
H 2
78 THE CATHOLIC OFFERING.

mind, to exhaust devotion, and to encroach on

the time which ought to be more profitably em
ployed in the disposing the heart and will for
absolution. St. Francis of Sales says that a
quarter of an hour's examination of conscience is
sufficient for those who go once a week to con
fession; you surely cannot err in following the
opinion of so great a light of the church.
To obtain contrition, beg it of God through
the sorrow of the breaking Heart of Jesus in the
Garden; and while endeavouring to excite it in
your soul by the attentive consideration of the
ordinary motives suggested for that end, feel that
it is God alone who can give it. Never be
alarmed or disquieted at the absence of sensible
contrition. St. Francis of Sales says again, that
the sincere desire of contrition fully implies its
existence; and another holy and enlightened
author tells us that contrition consists essentially
in an upright act of the will which detests sin
and firmly resolves never again to commit it.
These are dispositions, always through God's
grace, within your reach, although feeling may
not be under your control.
While receiving absolution, instead of occupy
ing your mind with a distracting examination
of the imperfections of your late confession,
imagine that you actually behold the scene which
is indeed mostreally being enacted, although invi
 THE CATHOLIC OFFERING. 79

sible to you. Draw near to the cross of Jesus, near

enough to note each movement of the agonizing
Victim. Raise your eyes to His, and you will
see a gentle, pleading, tearful glance turned on
you; not a reproachful glance, but a look of love
like that which rested on St. Peter, and pierced
his heart with inexhaustible compunction. Look
at the livid lips of the Divine Sufferer, and you
will see that trembling sounds issue from them;
very low, yet clearly audible to the ear of faith,
the holy words of absolution, which his minister
and representative but echoes in your corporal
hearing. Contemplate each one of His mangled
wounds, and feel that you can almost see—so
certain is the fact—the blood trickling from them
to your soul, and as it falls, purifying, cleansing,
strengthening, fertilizing, beautifying all before
it. With this view in prospect, you will need
no reminder to renew, with all the love and sorrow
and fervour of your soul, the act of contrition,
and firm resolution of henceforth devoting your
undivided heart to God, which should have been
made before entering the confessional, nor will
you require any other stimulus than the gratitude
of your own heart, to the discharge of the great
duty of thanksgiving. A holy author advises
that after confession you spend some time in
recollection at the feet of Jesus Christ, looking
on yourself as a person freed from a heavy burden,
80 THE CATHOLIC OFFERING.

and enjoying in God's presence the happiness of

emancipation; thanking your most merciful Bene
factor for providing so efficacious a remedy for
your infirmities; beseeching Him to preserve you
from abusing of the facility with which He deigns
to receive you every time you return to Him
sincerely; animating yourself to fidelity in the
observance of your good resolutions; invoking
the aid of the Blessed Virgin and all the Saints, and
concluding your devotions by saying yourpenance.
It must not be forgotten, that confession,
although in itself an effectual remedy for the
soul's maladies and infirmities, may, like all
things else, even the holiest and best, be abused
and perverted. Of this misfortune, there will
however, be no danger for you, if you always
approach it in the sincere and upright disposi
tions now recommended—if you adopt the safe
rule suggested by pious writers, to make each
confession as if you knew beyond a doubt it
would be your last; and finally, if you keep
steadily in view that vivifying principle of faith
which should be the spirit and life of every act
of the Christian, and of none more than that
which now engages our attention. The light of
faith revealing to you Jesus Christ Himself in
His representative, with what respect will you
not see the person, and hear the voice of God in
those of his minister! With what self-abase
 thE CATHOLIC OFFERING. 81

ment and generous renunciation of human feel

ing, will you not prostrate yourself at the feet of
Him, who, now your Redeemer, will one day be
your judge! Tremblingly alive to the dread
account to be hereafter demanded of all His
graces, and very particularly of this, how care
fully will you guard against the danger of fre
quenting confession as a mere matter of routine,
which is to exercise no practical influence on
your conduct, and produce no solid fruits of self.
reformation I Feeling every time you approach
as if that dread account were then and there
about to be required, how strongly will each
confession confirm your determination to profit
of those powerful graces—thus tending, according
to the designs of God, to the correction of your de
fects, and the progress of your soul in perfectionſ
Never speak of confession or confessors—sub
jects which religion, honour, and prudence equally
concur in interdicting as ordinary topics of con
versation. Religion tells you, that like all other
holy things, confession should be spoken of only
on suitable occasions and with becoming reve
rence, consequently, that it cannot, under any
circumstances, be made the subject of light, frivo
lous discussion. Honour adds, that as your con
fessor could not, for any possible consideration,
betray the confidence you repose in him, it is
ungenerous and unjust in you to take advantage
82 THE CATHOLIC OFFERING.

of your greater liberty for the purpose of repeat

ing counsels or decisions never destined for circu
lation; and prudence dictates that it is extremely
hazardous to disseminate opinions or directions
which, admirably adapted as they are to your
personal wants, may be totally unsuited to the
spiritual exigencies of those they were not
designed to reach. Make it, then, your fixed
principle and inviolable practice to manifest your
profound respect for God's sacred institution by
maintaining inflexible silence regarding it and
all things connected with it.
Among the many virtues for which a good
confession affords so vast a field, that of obedience
holds too prominent a rank to be overlooked in
these reflections, although its necessity, its merits,
and its utility, are so obvious as scarcely to need
even a passing comment. Like the obedience
due to ordinary superiors, obedience to directors
rests its foundation on the infallible word of
Christ, “He that heareth you heareth me" (St.
Luke x. 16). God's minister in the holy tribu
nal, once recognized as speaking in the name,
and acting by the delegated authority of the
Almighty, his direction necessarily becomes the
direction of God, as surely as if an angel
spoke the words. This conviction well estab
lished, arrests all cavilling, doubting, questioning,
and hesitating, and on this principle, as on its
 THE CATHOLIC OFFERING. 83

basis, rests the secure empire of obedience

Firm, humble, blind acquiescence of will and
judgment in a director's decisions is, no doubt,
an exercise of many virtues painful to nature,
but beside, that in its difficulty lies its merit,
that difficulty is counterbalanced by so many
advantages that the one is well worth endur
ing for the attainment of the other. In truth,
had we no other cause of gratitude for the insti
tution of the sacrament of penance than the
security of safe guidance amidst all the perils
and uncertainties of life, this alone should suffice
to call forth our unceasing thanks. It is, how
ever, quite clear, that to render the blessing
available, and merit a participation in the peace
of mind of which it is the source, we must
utterly renounce the guidance of self, and impli
citly submit to that of God's representative. To
him, divine light will be abundantly communi
cated for our direction; and while we follow its
ray we shall be quite sure not to wander,
although we may not ourselves be always able
clearly to discern whither our steps tend. To
conclude—value the holy sacrament of penance,
approach it regularly, prepare for it fervently,
profit of it faithfully, and you will ensure for
yourself the grace, the strength, the light, the
peace, and all the other multiplied blessings of
which it is the fruitful source.
84 THE CATHOLIC OF FERING.

Lengthened arguments to prove the utility of

a frequent participation in the bread of life,
would be superfluous in this little work, for you
are already familiar with them. We shall con
fine ourselves to one, and, as in our reflections
on the necessity of prayer, this one shall again Inul
be an appeal to the teaching of experience as to the
the different results produced by the opposite
habits of frequenting and of neglecting the holy
COnamun 10n.

As yet, fortunately for yourself, that wisest of

monitors points for you but in one direction.
It has hitherto been your happy obligation to
approach at stated intervals to the Banquet of
angels; and your experiences are all of the inex
pressible sweetness of the heavenly feast, where,
in the words of the “Imitation,” “sweetness is
tasted in its very fountain.” The days of com
munion have been to you festival days, in the
highest and holiest sense of the term; days of
calm enjoyment, days of rich benediction, days
of increased spiritual strength, days of fervent
and efficacious resolution to do something for
Him who did so much for you, to give yourself
wholly to the One who gave Himself wholly to
you; to sacrifice some favourite propensity, to
renounce some imperfect inclination or desire
for love of the God who concealed His glory ths
that He might abide hidden in your heart. The
 THE CATHOLIC OFFERING. 85

days following communion have been days of re

newed fervour in prayer, of greater vigilance over
feeling, of more constant self-denial, of improve
mentin piety,of progressin allvirtues. These have
hitherto been your experiences of the holy com
munion, and, oh! treasure them carefully, cherish
them fondly, that their memory may be your
safeguard and preservative should you ever be
tempted, as perchance you may, to turn over
another page in the book of experience, and
there acquire for yourselves the sad knowledge
which those can teach who have ceased at any
time to drink at the fountain of life, the
fountain of the precious blood of Jesus which
flows for ever on the altar. Look on this
suggestion if it should arise, as the most danger
ous temptation of your treacherous enemy, and
as such, resist it resolutely and at once. Conclu
ding that the best guides ought naturally to be
those who have once missed the way, and under
gone all the anxiety and fatigue of trying to
recover it through many a tortuous path, and
across many a rugged steep, believe implicitly
on their united and unhesitating testimony, that
none ever slighted with impunity the solemn
declaration of Christ, “Except you eat the flesh
of the Son of man, and drink his blood, you
shall not have life in you" (St. John, vi. 54);
and on their word also take it equally for granted,
I
 86 THE CATHOLIC OF FERING.

that an experimental trial of the practical truth .

of that declaration would inevitably lead in your
case as in theirs, only to a perilous, perhaps a
fatal, deviation from the road to heaven. Since
your own experience furnishes no grounds to
regret the frequency of your approach to Jesus
in the holy communion, while that of others, on
the contrary, provides so many reasons to deplore
their absence from him, determine to make your
profit of both, by faithfully persevering to the
end in the one course, and very cautiously avoid
ing the other.
If it is essentially necessary to regulate by fixed
principles the order of your daily spiritual exer
cises, it is at least equally so to follow a definite
rule regarding the frequency of your com
munions; that rule of course to be laid down by
your spiritual director, who is to you the repre
sentative of God, and the organ of the divine
will. Follow that rule with undeviating exac
titude, and never swerve from it on any pretext,
however plausible, or even unquestionable it
may seem. The faithful observance of it will
lead you securely to God; the neglect of it with
equal certainty from Him.
Many dangers await you in the world on
which you are about to enter; there “the con
cupiscence of the eyes, and the concupiscence of
the flesh, and the pride of life” hold dominion
 THE CATHOLIC OFFERING. 87

(1 St. John, ii.16); there, domestic and external

enemies will wage fierce war against your holy
determination to serve God steadily ; there,
many snares will beset your steps; many trials
shake your resolution; and where will you find
strength to maintain the conflict, if not in the
Bread of life, and Manna of heaven? whence will
you derive light to discover the machinations of
your foes, if not from union with Him who is
the light of the world? where will you obtain
courage to trample nobly on human respect, if
not in the divine food which fortified the glorious
martyrs to despise the frowns of men, and smile
at the horrors of a violent death? When terrific
instruments of every species of appalling torture
were displayed to intimidate the brave cham
pions, they heeded them not, for their eyes had
looked on the sacramental veils of the King of
martyrs, whom, in anticipation of the coming
trial, they had received into their hearts. And
when, bruised and mutilated, mangled, and bleed
ing, they were sent back to await in their dun
geons the hour of final sentence, their only
desire was for the Bread of heaven; their only
apprehension, lest any untoward event might
deprive them of it; for in it lay their strength;
and after partaking of it they seemed to have
cast off the fears and feelings of ordinary mortals.
Recurtothe same powerful antidote against human
88 THE CATHOLIC OFFERING.

frailty, and you will find that it has lost none of

its primitive virtue—none of its divine efficacy.
The consideration of the effects of the Blessed
Eucharist, as detailed in ordinary books of instruc-/
tion on the sacraments, supplies motives, at once
ample, powerful, and encouraging, for a frequent
approach to the source of all graces and blessings.
The first of these marvellous effects is, to give
life. But what kind of life?—The life of Jesus.
“He that eateth me, the same also shall live by
me” (St. John, vi. 58). And what is the life of
Jesus? The union of all virtues; the abstract
of all sanctity; the compendium of all holiness;
the sublimity of all perfection; the spotlessness
of all purity—and that life it is, which the holy
Eucharist communicates to us in exchange for
our own. We should scarcely dare believe it,
had not Jesus Himself declared the fact. “He
that eateth me, the same also shall live by me.”
The humility of Jesus will live, where human
pride held sway before; His sweet spirit of meek
ness will animate the heart hitherto the seat of a
thousand varieties of irritable feeling; His lowly
spirit of submissive obedience will claim the
throne, on which the spirit of independence and
the inordinate love of liberty had once reigned
dominant. Oh! what a blessed exchange | The
pure and holy spirit of Jesus substituted for the
sinful spirit of His miserable creature! Weak
 THE CATHOLIC OFFERING. 89

man transformed into God, and rendered in a

manner divine! “Thou shalt not change me
into thee; but I will change thee into me.”
In the holy communion, Jesus imparts to us
His life, and communicates to us of His over
flowing plenitude. He comes, not to receive,
but to give. Our want of Him, is our plea for
approaching; our miseries are our excuse; our
poverty is our claim. We desire to live by
Him, and for that reason we go to Him, expect
ing with humble hope the fulfilment in our own
wretched persons, of His most wondrous promise,
“he that eateth me, the same also shall live by
me.” Were this the only effect of the adorable
Eucharist, should it not suffice to produce an
ardent wish to participate in so abundant a trea
sure? Should it not inspire the timid soul with un
wavering confidence, and fill the shrinking heart
with holy courage, and excite in the cold, indiffer
ent spirit some little spark of loving desire?
But it is not the sole effect of worthy com
munion, which, secondly, beside giving life to
the soul, increases her purity, and enhances her
beauty. The holy sacrament strengthens her
against mortal sin, and remits venial, by increas
ing in her the ardour of divine love, whence
proceeds contrition for the least transgression.
As darkness cannot exist in presence of the sun,
neither can sin in the presence of Jesus. Lesser
I 2
90 THE CATHOLIC OFFERING.

shadows are absorbed in the beams of that eternal

Sun of justice; grosser vapours forbidden to
gather in its golden track—“At the brightness
that goes before him, the clouds pass” (Ps. xvii.
13). Therefore it was, that St. Ambrose spoke
the words so full of sweet encouragement to the
timorous: “Since I daily commit sin, I must
daily recur to the remedy for sin.” I must daily
come to the divine Physician, in the mere glance
of whose eye is health; to the wonder-worker,
in the hem of whose garment is salvation; to
the Lamb of God, who took away the sins of
the world, when, immolated for their expia
tion, He fastened them to the cross, as to the
altar of atonement;-and coming, I shall be con
soled by the welcome words which in the days
of old bore healing and joy to the outcast leper:
“I will, be thou cleansed” (St. Luke, v. 13).
The holy communion not only removes the
imperfections which slightly tarnish the soul at
the actual moment of union with the God of
holiness, but it creates an atmosphere of purity
around the heart which receives it frequently,
and by its abiding influence weakens more and
more the dominion of sin. It is certain that we
find the control of our evil inclinations easier,
and in a manner more natural with communion,
than without it, and that we almost instinctively
exercise a greater degree of self-restraint when
 THE CATHOLIC OFFERING. 91

preparing to approach the altar, than when the

day of communion is perhaps indefinitely remote.
Again, were this the only effect of union with
Jesus in the Sacrament of His love, should not
the desire of realizing it prove a sufficient stimu
lus to dispose ourselves to approach?
Thirdly, the holy communion lessens the
strength of passion; moderates the violence of
temptation; disengages the heart from creatures
and from self; and elevating the soul to the con
templation of those heavenly delights of which
she has had a foretaste, communicates at the
same time an absolute indifference for sublunary
enjoyments, which lose so considerably by the
contrast. It was when holy Simeon had clasped
in his trembling arms, and pressed to his throb
bing heart the long Desired of the eternal hills,
that he considered his mission here below accom
plished, and the object of his existence fulfilled;
and it is when the soul has received Jesus in the
holy communion—when her arms have held
Him, and her eyes have gazed on Him, and her
voice has whispered into His ear, that, feeling
herself endowed with riches beyond the power
of earthly treasures to increase, and favoured
with privileges beyond the reach of heaven
itself to enhance, she, too, says with the venera
ble patriarch of former days: “Now, O Lord,
take me to thyself in peace, for, possessing Thee,
92 THE CATHOLIC OFFERING.

I have nothing more to aspire to What have

I in heaven, and, beside Thee, what do I desire
on earth?" Not content with mere sentiment,
which so often costs but little, and ends in no
thing, she resolves that no created object shall
separate her from the charity of Christ, but that
the sole end and aim of life shall be to insure to
herself, by the practice of solid virtue, the hap
piness of eternal union with Him whom it must
be so blissful to possess everlastingly in heaven,
since it is so sweet to enjoy Him even inter
ruptedly on earth.
Many more, and equally wondrous, are the
effects which the most Blessed Eucharist pro
duces in the heart of the worthy receiver. Thrice
happy the soul which by the fervour of her pre
paration, the ardour of her love, and the earnest
ness of her desires, deserves to realize them all!
Endeavour by attentive meditation to compre
hend, as far as poor, weak human intellect can
comprehend it, the excellence, the value, the
dignity, the sanctity, the majesty of the august
sacrament which can produce such fruits, and
then you will require no stimulus to urge you to
partake of it; you will heed no obstacle which
may arise to impede your approach; you will
promptly repel, as a most alarming artifice of
your foe, the least temptation to abstain from
communion at the suggestion of your own judg
 THE CATHOLIC OFFERING. 93

ment. You will go right joyfully to the Master

whose wisdom is unerring; to the Friend whose
tenderness is unfailing; to the Physician whose
skill is infallible. You are weak, but He is
strong, and He will clothe you in His strength.
You are blind, but He is the light, and He will
be as a lamp to your steps. You are sinful by
nature, but He is essential holiness, and he will
communicate to you of His sanctity. You are
sorrowful, but He is the joy of angels, and He
will breathe soft words of comfort into your
heart. You are fearful and desponding, but He
is merciful and compassionate now as in the days
when He extended an almighty hand to support
the tottering steps of Peter on the waves, and to
you, as to him, He will say, “O you of little
faith, why did you doubt my love?”
Go to Him, then, in His holy sacrament, with
the same profound respect, the same strong hope,
the same warm affection, as you would have
approached Him, had you lived in the years of
His human life, and recognised, under the veil of
mortality, as you now recognize under the veil
of the sacramental species—Christ, the Son of
the living God. He is in every particular the
same, except that His divinity is if possible more
entirely hidden, that His love may be more per
fectly manifested, and your confidence more
thoroughly elicited. Value, as far as human
94 THE CATHOLIC OFFERING.

heart or mind can value it, a favour which no

cherub's exalted intelligence, no seraph's glow
ing heart, can fully grasp. Prove that you value
it, by doing all in your power not only to render
yourself worthy of it, but also to profit of it most
fully, according to the designs of Christ. This
is a point of too great importance to be lightly
passed over in our reflections on the gift of God
to man in the Holy Eucharist. That gift is com
municated to us in all its plenitude, yet it does
not follow that every communicant receives its
unimpaired fulness. Jesus gives us His divine
Spirit in the holy communion, as a substitute for
our own sinful spirit; but it depends entirely on
our fidelity, whether or not that first grace shall
fructify according to his intentions. That His
Spirit may become to us the animating principle
of a new existence, we must be at the pains to put
it on, after first laying aside our own. He gives
us his humility, but before we can clothe our
selves in the precious garb, we must sincerely
determine and resolutely labour, to disrobe the
heart of its pride and self-love. He gives us his
meekness, but we cannot appropriate the trea
sure until we have first trampled on our repug
nance to contradiction, our opposition to suffer
ing, our irritable humour and impatience of
control. When Jesus enters our souls in his
sacrament of love, He purifies them by His mere
 THE CATHOLIC OFFERING. 95

presence from the slightest stains of venial faults

and imperfections; but we must be very careful
to show our sense of the benefit by avoiding
every wilful sin, however trivial; we must try
always more and more to bring him no faults
but such as are inseparable from the frailty of
our fallen nature, and quite compatible with
a sincere and steady will to serve Him very per
fectly if we only could. We must truly renounce
all affection to venial sin, for on this condition
alone is it remitted when Jesus visits our hearts
in the Eucharist. The holy communion restrains
the impetuosity of passion, lessens the violence
of temptation, and disengages the soul from the
world and from self; but that these precious
graces may fructify, they must be corresponded
with by very generous and unceasing efforts to
subdue the passions, to resist the suggestions of
the wicked tempter, and to advance daily in the
love of God, which effectually excludes the sin
ful love of earthly things, and the inordinate love
of self. Our almighty and all-merciful Guest
is ever ready to co-operate with us, but our
own part must be done, and it is only by faith
fully accomplishing it that we can give solid
evidence of our appreciation of the gift of His
Spirit and His life in the holy communion.
This constant effort to realize the most mer
ciful views of Jesus Christ in giving Himself to
96 THE CATHOLIC OFFERING.

us, and to turn to practical profit the graces He

bestows in communion, will be the most accep
table thanksgiving we can offer Him for the gift
beyond all price, as well as the best preparation
we can make for again receiving it. Prayer
should of course precede and follow our com
munion, but the practical preparation and thanks
giving now recommended is in itself prayer of
a very exalted kind. It is the homage of the
creature to the Creator—the dependent creature,
who unable to pay the debt she owes her sove
reign Benefactor, gives what she thinks He will
like best, because it costs her most, her very self:
the evil propensities which have been her idols,
the imperfect feelings entertwined with her
nature, the affections too long lavished on the
world, His enemy. She gives them in the gene
rous spirit of entire self-sacrifice, that all obstacles
to His dominion being removed, He may reign
over her without impediment, and that her own
life being extinct, she may be entitled to say, “I
live no longer, but Christ liveth in me" (Gal. ii.
20), and thus are His merciful designs in coming
to me fully accomplished.
It is not advisable to prolong your habitual
devotions by many extra prayers on the days
preceding and following communion. Endea:
vour to spend those days in greater recollection
of mind and purity of soul; make a prayer of
 THE CATHOLIC OFFERING. 97

every thought, word, and action, by directing

each to the great act; redouble the fervour of
your ordinary exercises of piety, and raise your
heart very frequently to God, imploring Him to
prepare you Himself for your approaching com
munion, or to assist you to thank Him worthily
for your last. Devote some additional time on
the evening before communion, to mental or
vocal prayer, and continue, as you have been
accustomed, to give a half an hour, if possible,
before the Mass at which you are to communi
cate, to immediate preparation. Remember,
however, that were you to devote a whole year
to preparation, and during that period to think
of nothing else, still would you be infinitely un
deserving of an honour to which the purity of an
angel and the sanctity of a Baptist are dispro
portioned (Imitation of Christ); and that there
fore, while using your best endeavours to dispose
your heart for the worthy reception of its divine
guest, your whole reliance must be on God, who
alone can bless these poor efforts and perfect His
own work in you. Spend a quarter of an hour
after communion in thanksgiving, profiting of
the precious moments when God is all your own,
to obtain every grace you need for yourself and
others, and to secure that divine blessing which
should be the first and chief object of your am
bition. Do not be in haste to part from Him
K
98 THE CATHOLIC OFFERING.

who deigns to call you friend, and who delights

to dwell among the sons of men. During the
day, think often of Jesus in your heart. His
sacramental presence has departed from it, yet it
rested there but a short time before—so very
short a time, that you can fancy its shadow still
visible, its sweetness still perceptible. Speak
softly to Him, and very, very often, were it but
a word; thank Him, love Him, adore Him; be
happy in only knowing that He is with you, and
that wherever you go He will be your com
panion, and that whatever other misfortune befalls
you, no one can take Him from you, unless you
yourself deliberately choose to banish him from
your soul by sin.
By cultivating sentiments such as these, you
will insensibly acquire the spirit of prayer and
the habit of recollection. One communion will
dispose you for another; your preparation and
thanksgiving will never degenerate into mere
cold form; of whatever length may be the inter
vals between your communions, the fruits of
communion will be permanent, its influence all
pervading. Strengthened by this supernatural
food, you will be raised above your own weak
ness, fortified against the world's temptations,
and encouraged to advance steadily and bravely
along the royal way of the cross, which alone
leads to the portals of the kingdom of heaven.
 THE CATHOLIC OFFERING. 99

CHAPTER VI.
THIRD MEANS OF MAINTAINING THE SPIRIT OF FAITH.—

DEWOTION TO THE HOLY SACRIFICE OF THE MAss,

AND TO THE SACRED HEARTS OF JESUS AND MARY.

IT has been your blessed privilege during your

school days, to reside, like Mary and Joseph at
Nazareth, under the very same roof with the
Incarnate Word; to visit Him, corporally pre
sent in His temple, and to assist daily at the mys
terious Sacrifice, wherein the Victim of Calvary
is offered once more to His eternal Father, and
the oblation of the cross thus perpetuated. Hap
pily for you, the mercy of God is not limited to
one particular period, nor the oblation of the
all-redeeming sacrifice restricted to one particu
lar place. In every land and clime; at every
hour, from the rising of the sun to its going
down; on every Catholic altar within the globe's
circumference, the precious blood of Jesus mys
tically flows, the all-sufficient expiation is re
newed, the all pure holocaust consumed. You
will not then be necessarily debarred from daily
visiting your Redeemer, and hearing mass, be
cause you are about to leave the convent. Your
facilities for both may not be quite so great, as
100 THE CATHOLIC OFFERING.

when His own sanctuary was your home by day,

and your resting-place by night; yet if you
understand and value the gift of God to us in
the mass, you will not only think it well worth
some additional trouble in the purchase, but feel
that the sacrifices of a life would be too well
repaid by the high honour and surpassing happi
ness of assisting even once at the most adorable
sacrifice. Unless so circumstanced, that to hear
Mass daily is a moral impossibility, or a decided
infringement on the duties of your state in life,
maintain inviolably the good habit on this head
acquired at school, and let one of your first and
strongest resolutions on leaving be to do so.
It is not within the range of any mortal's
mind to comprehend the infinite excellence of
the Mass. A faint idea of its value may how
ever be formed by passing in review the won
drous benefits which accrued to the human race
from the sacrifice of Calvary, and then consider
ing that as the sacrifice of the altar is absolutely
identical with it, so must the one be the source
of blessings precious as those which flowed from
the other. The sacrifice is in truth the same;
the Victim the same; the Priest the same; the
omnipotent virtue, the supernatural fruits, the
divine efficacy, unchanged and undiminished.
Immortal and impassible, Jesus can suffer and die
no more; yet, as regards the effects to us, it is
 THE CATHOLIC OFFERING. 101

as if He really did bleed, and agonize, and expire

again each time He is immolated on the altar.
His sufferings are not renewed in themselves,
but in their fruits they are renewed for us, and
applied to each soul separately and individually.
What the sacrifice of Calvary did for the whole
human race, one Mass can do for you, if you
assist at it with the requisite dispositions. If
you approach the altar with humility, contrition,
and sincere renunciation of sin, the blood which
flowed on the cross to ransom the world will
flow on your soul to wash away its defilements,
to heal its wounds, to enhance its beauty and
strengthen its weakness.
Well then may you go gladly to the altar of
God, “the God who gives joy to your youth,”
thence to draw down the multiplied graces of
which it is the copious source; thence to ex
tract the spiritual treasures of which it is the
exhaustless mine; thence to procure a balm for
all your miseries and a remedy for all your
wants. Think seriously of all that you have in
the wonderful and adorable Sacrifice, thus to
enliven your faith, to re-animate your confidence,
to inflame your devotion, and powerfully con
firm your holy determination to be ever the
fervent, devoted, loving adorer of Jesus, the
divine Victim of the altar.
As the great debt due to God by men could
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102 The CATHOLIC OFFERING.

never have been discharged but for the all merci

ful intervention of our most gracious Redeemer,
neither can our personal obligations to Him be
fulfilled except through the aid of that same
kind and powerful intervention. To adore God
is the strictly binding duty of every Christian;
it is the end for which man was created—his
destiny here, and his everlasting lot hereafter.
But all the homage he can render to his Creator
being, like himself, finite, must necessarily be
inadequate to the infinite dignity of Him it is
intended to honour. How, then, shall he fulfil
his obligation? How offer to God worthy and
adequate homage? By uniting his adoration
to that of Jesus on the altar; by assisting at
Mass, and presenting before the eternal Throne
the worship of the infinite Victim. Thus will
he fully acknowledge God's high dominion
and his own absolute dependence; thus will he
worthily adore the sovereign majesty of the Deity,
and perfectly comply with his solemn obligations
to that effect.
Again, man owes to God not only a debt of
adoration, but a debt also of thanksgiving—
thanksgiving for favours, multiplied, countless,
immense, infinite as the Donor. How shall he
discharge that heavy debt? By hearing Mass,
by offering to God in return for His mercies,
His only Son, His beloved Son in whom He is
 THE CATHOLIC OFFERING. 103

well pleased, whose merits immeasurably surpass

all our obligations; one word from whose lips,
one sigh from whose heart is precious in His
sight beyond millions of worlds, which, with
their untold wealth, are but as dross before Him
in the comparison. “What shall I render to
the Lord for all the things that he hath rendered
to me? I will take the chalice of salvation, and
I will call upon the name of the Lord” (Ps. cxv.
12, 13); and could my debt of gratitude be even
greater than it is, my obligations heavier or more
numerous, still would the return be more than
sufficient, because infinite.
Thirdly. We are accountable to God's justice,
no less than to His mercy, and that also to a vast,
an incalculable amount. That this tremendous
debt must, like the rest, be liquidated, we know
full well, but how? All the atonement offered
for sin from its first commission to the coming
of the Redeemer, could not expiate the very
least transgression. Adam's protracted penance
of nine hundred years, embracing, as it did,
bodily labour and mental suffering, was insuffi
cient to blot out his sin. All the tears of the
human race, all the blood of the host of victims
immolated from the beginning of time, could
not efface the stain. Jesus Christ, the eternal
Son of God, came on earth to make the atone
ment which neither men nor angels could offer.
104 THE CATHOLIC OFFERING.

“He blotted out the handwriting of the decree

that was against us, . . . fastening it to the
cross;" (Col. ii. 14). He cancelled the debt;
He washed away the guilt; He reconciled earth
to heaven, “and broke down the wall of parti
tion” which had separated men from God (Eph.
ii. 14). Not content with that first marvellous
manifestation of God-like charity, he perpetually
renews on the altar the redeeming sacrifice; He
places at our disposal His all-sufficient atone
ment, permitting us to avail fully of His precious
merits, and to apply them in all their divine
efficacy to our souls. What a consolation to
know that I can offer for the expiation of my mani
fold sins that same adorable blood once spilled on
Calvary for my ransom, one single drop of which
would suffice to blot out the crimes of a thousand
worlds ! What a happiness to feel that the
innocent Lamb of God who once took away the
sins of men on the cross is still present on the
altar, ready to take away mine also, if I only
implore His pardon with humility, love, and real
sorrow. Oh! how eagerly should I avail myself
of the privilege How should I long for op
portunities of hearing mass 1 With what fervour,
contrition, and gratitude should I assist at it!
Lastly, notwithstanding the multiplicity of the
benefits for which we are already indebted to
our heavenly Father, our dependence on Him is
 THE CATHOLIC OFFERING. 105

so absolute, and our indigence so extreme, that

wé seldom can appear before Him in any other
character than that of petitioners to His bounty.
Holding from Him our very breath of life,
equally are we dependent on His goodness for
everything beside, everything of every kind,
spiritual and corporal, temporal and eternal. But
vile, abject, worthless, and undeserving as we are,
by what right shall we venture to implore the
numberless favours of which we stand in need, in
the order both ofnature and of grace? By no right
of our own, certainly, for in truth, we have not the
very least, but in right of the blood of Jesus, of
his tears, of his prayers, of his sufferings, of his
death on the cross. By hearing Mass fervently,
and thus appropriating to ourselves and our pur
poses the merits of the divine Victim on the altar,
we can assume the claim which in our own persons
has no existence. Considering our unworthiness
we might not presume to ask anything; consi
dering the purchase-money in our hands, we
never can ask too much—never ask enough.
We may implore all graces, all virtues, all mer
cies, without reserve or restriction; we may beg
of God to pour into us the abundance of his
spirit and make us saints, and still we shall not
exceed—still will the offering in exchange sur
pass in excellence and value all the benefits
petitioned for.
106 THE CATHOLIC OFFERING.

Surely these are very sweet and consoling re

flections, which cannot fail to warm our hearts
with the love of Jesus, and to inspire us with
profound veneration for the great sacrifice which
has so justly been styled the golden key of para
dise. Endeavour by meditation and prayer to
understand the value of the treasure you possess
in the holy Mass, and far from requiring a
recommendation to hear it daily, the impulse of
your own devotion will prompt you to do so;
you will feel that no privation could equal that
involved in the loss of a Mass, and you will
think little indeed of any sacrifice by which you
can purchase the happiness of assisting at one.
Prayer-books supply many varied forms of
hearing Mass, and among them you can of course
choose that best adapted to your own devotional
feelings. Do not, however, for a moment lose
sight of the identity of the sacrifice of the altar
with that of Mount Calvary. Do not for a mo
ment divert the eyes of your soul from Jesus
suffering, humbled, agonizing, dying, dead. Go
with him in spirit even to the mountain of igno
miny, kneel at the foot of the cross, receive into
your heart his precious blood as it trickles drop
by drop from his nearly exhausted veins, hide
yourself in his wounds, and pray for a refuge
there in time and eternity. Through each of
those adorable wounds ask every grace you stand
 THE CATHOLIC OFFERING. 107

in need of for yourself, and implore mercy for

all men. Remember too, that as you are asso
ciated with the minister of Christ, in offering the
adorable victim to God, so should you be associ
ated with the victim in the spirit of self-sacrifice.
Offer yourself with him. Lay on the altar the
oblation of your soul and body, your memory,
will, and understanding; your thoughts, words,
actions, and intentions of the day; your life,
death, and whole being, that all may be sancti
fied by union with Him who is immolated for
your love. Include especially in that oblation,
your faults, your evil habits, your imperfect, and
yet perhaps, cherished inclinations; offer all gene
rously to God, with entire self-renunciation, that
the mystic death of Jesus in his temple may
produce in your soul the same fruits of conver
sion which resulted to so many, from the spectacle
of his actual death on the cross.
Be careful, whenever you do not communicate
Sacramentally, to make a spiritual communion,
a pious practice very strongly and generally
recommended, and attended with most beneficial
results. After having invited Jesus Christ spiri
tually into your soul by acts of faith, hope, love,
and ardent desire, preceded by an act of very
sincere and heartfelt sorrow for the sins and im
perfections which render you unworthy to receive
Him, consider Him as really present in your
108 The CATHOLIC OF FERING.

heart; adore him, thank him, and offer him your

petitions; above all, beseech him that the im
pression of his sweet presence may not leave you
for the day, but that you may live, and act, and
think, and speak, only under its influence. Beg
his blessing, and pray that it may never depart
from you, but remain as a seal on your heart, to
mark that you are wholly, and for ever, His own
unreserved and undisputed possession.
If circumstances render it really impossible
for you to hear Mass daily, endeavour at least,
as far as in you lies, to indemnify yourself for
the very great privation. Desire with all the
ardour of your soul that you could enjoy so great
a happiness. Unite your sighs with those of the
patriarchs and prophets of old, who longed with
a holy eagerness for the dawning of the Orient
from on high. Transport yourself in heart to
some one among the many altars on which the
Victim of salvation is offered, and join spiritually
in the oblation, presenting to God your adora
tions and petitions as if you were really present,
and never omit the spiritual communion, which
may be made in any place, and at any hour of
the day or night.
The preparation for prayer, on which so essen
tially depends the due performance of that great
and solemn duty, you will not, of course fail in
before Mass. Imagine, on your way to the
 THE CATHOLIC OFFERING. 109

church, that you form one of the crowd who

accompanied our divine Saviour in his last sad
journey to death; think over some of the circum
stances of that sorrowful journey, or represent to
yourself the closing scene on Calvary. Before
Mass begins, acknowledge your unworthiness to
assist at the most holy and august Sacrifice, as
well as your incapability of doing so with suitable
dispositions, and beseech our Lord to inspire
you Himself with the thoughts and sentiments
which should occupy your mind and heart on so
great an occasion.
You need not surely be reminded of the exte
rior reverence and interior recollection which
should ever be your companions in the house of
God, where truly and really dwells the Lord of
all glory, surrounded by the princes of his court.
Could the veil that hides that scene bedrawn aside,
and your eyes permitted to behold it in all its efful
gent brightness, how would you prostrate to the
earth, dazzled, overwhelmed, crushed down by
the overpowering splendour of heaven's majestyl
But why not exercise your faith, and dissipate
by its clear light the obscurity of the senses?
“Faith is the evidence of things that appear
not,” (Heb. xi. 1) and if you appeal to its aid, it
will reveal to you the existence of the wonders
concealed from your corporal vision, only for
your greater merit. Believing on its unerring
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testimony that the God of the Altar is the

Monarch of Heaven, the Lord of angels, and the
Judge of men, how far will you be, while the
thought holds dominion, from forgetting for a
moment the respect due to his Almighty Majesty;
from permitting your mind to wander; from
whispering, or smiling, or looking about to re
cognize acquaintances, or assuming any but a
reverential attitude! In you, and all instructed
like you, such practices would be quite inexcus
able and extremely disedifying, therefore you
must never allow yourself to be drawn into them
by example. The temple of the Lord is holy;
it is “a terrible place; the house of God, and
the gate of heaven,” (Gen. xxviii. 17.) Take
the angels, its invisible guardians, for your
models, and contemplating them as they hide
their faces with their wings in presence of the
God of power and glory, bow down your soul
in adoration with them, and for the time at least,
forget all else, to think only of Him, whom, with
the eyes of faith, you behold present on the
altar.
In a little work by Blessed Leonard of Port
Maurice, entitled “The Hidden Treasure," you
will find some very beautiful and animating con
siderations on the dignity and excellence of the
Sacrifice of the altar, and are therefore recom
mended its careful perusal. Alas! that that
 THE CATHOLIC OFFERING. 111

adorable sacrifice should be to us a hidden

treasure | Alas! that we should have eyes, and
see not, although to us is granted to behold what
kings, and prophets, and patriarchs, and saints
sighed in vain to gaze on 1 At least, if the love
of Jesus on the altar has hitherto been to you
a veiled mystery, and the holy Mass “a hidden
treasure,” oh! let them be so no longer, lest
slighted tenderness turn to anger, and grace
abused call down retributive vengeance.
Love to visit our Lord Jesus Christ in his
temple. Think how very frequently, or rather
how habitually, he is left with no other adorers
than his angels, although it was not for them,
but for us, his cold, heartless creatures, that he
concealed his glory, first under the veil of
humanity, and next under the appearance of
bread. Delight in keeping him company in his
deserted sanctuary, and be assured he will repay
you for the love which prompts you to visit him,
by many sweet and precious favours for your
self and all dear to you. Think what a happi
ness it would have been to have lived in the
days of our Redeemer's mortal life; to have been
intimately associated with him; to have been
allowed to speak to him of your wants and wishes;
permitted to ask his advice in your difficulties,
his direction in your perplexities, and his for
giveness after your faults;–to have listened to
112 THE CATHOLIC OFFERING.

his heavenly instructions; to have received his

smile of approval as an encouragement to perse
verance in well-doing; to have felt his words of
comfort falling on your heart as dew from hea
ven in your trials | All this great happiness is
in your reach through faith, which assures you
that you possess Jesus as really in his sacrament
of love, as those possessed him, whom he chose
for his thrice privileged companions on earth.
Profit by your high prerogative; visit Jesus fre
quently; pour out your heart to him with faith,
with confidence, with love. Ask his light in
your doubts, and his strength in your weakness;
go to him for comfort in sorrow, and help in
temptation, and be assured you will never be
deceived nor disappointed.
Cultivate also a most tender devotion to the
Sacred Heart of Jesus; pray to it daily; try to
make reparation to it by your love for the sins,
ingratitude, forgetfulness, and coldness of the
world. Study its virtues, especially its meekness
and humility; endeavour to imbibe its sentiments,
to model your own accordingly, and, by making
it your asylum during life, aim at ensuring for
yourself a refuge in it also at the hour of death.
An asylum in the Sacred Heart of Jesus! Oh!
what a high and holy object of ambition | What
will you have left to desire, if once you secure
that! What happiness is there on earth except
 THE CATHOLIC OFFERING. 113

to love Jesus, and to be loved by Him, united to

Him, devoted to Him? He, alone, can fill our
hearts; can satiate their thirst, can satisfy their
cravings, can appease their yearnings, can give
them rest. Seek, then, a refuge in his all pure
and holy Heart, the true tower of David, stronger
than all your enemies; the ark of salvation, proof
against the raging waters of the world's tempta
tions; the seat of all mercy; the fountain of all
goodness; the essence of all sweetness. St. Ber
nard says it was pierced with a lance only to
give ours access to it. Enter it through that
wound, inflicted rather by its own love, than by
the soldier's spear; place in it all your thoughts,
words, and actions, that they may be purified
and sanctified; seek in it a supplement for your
deficiencies, and a substitute for your incapa
bilities. Offer to the eternal Father, to make up
for the coldness and distraction of your prayers,
the petitions it poured forth in the silence of night
on the lonely mountains of Judea; its supplications
in the garden of agony; its piteous appeals for
mercy for men on the cross. Offer the burning
love and zeal which made of it a glowing furnace,
to supply for your insensibility to the divine
attractions, your indifference to heavenly things,
your fatal self-love, which blinds your under
standing and enslaves your affections. Offer its
wonderful humility, its God-like patience, its
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absolute self-renunciation, its obedience unto

death, to make up for all your wants in these
particulars. Clothe yourself in its virtues, hide
your miseries under the mantle of its perfections.
“Draw near to it, and you will be enlightened,”
(Ps. xxxiii. 6.) Fly to it when your frame is
weary and your heart is troubled, and you “shall
be as when one is hid from the wind, and hideth
himself from a storm,” (Is. xxxii. 2.) Establish
your abode in it, and it will be to you as refreshing
“waters in time of drought, and as the shadow
of a rock that standeth out in a desert land,”
(Ibid.) Seek your happiness in union with it
here, and you will drink hereafter at the torrent
of delight, which, flowing from it as its source,
inundates, from end to end, the everlasting
kingdom of God's glory.
The Heart of Mary is the most perfect copy
of the ever adorable Heart of Jesus, as well as
the heart most intimately united to it by the
bonds of love. If, then, you desire admittance
to your Saviour's heart, seek it through devotion
to the immaculate heart of his most dear mother.
Beseech her to introduce you herself into that
holy sanctuary, and let your daily prayer be that
the love of Jesus and Mary may reign with un
divided sway in your soul, and your heart become
at last, even though at an immeasurable distance,
a faithful image of theirs; its affections all subject
 THE CATHOLIC OFFERING. 115

to God, its desires all centred in God, its hopes

and wishes all tending to God, all absorbed in
God, who alone is its happiness here, and will
be its inheritance for ever.
Never separate in your devotions the hearts of
Jesus and Mary, but present your petitions to
the Heart of Jesus through the Heart of Mary,
and be assured they will thus more readily find
access to the throne of God. Love to pray to
them, and select as one of your favourite aspira
tions: “Adorable Heart of Jesus, have mercy on
me! Immaculate Heart of Mary, pray for me!"
116 THE CATHOLIC OFFERING.

CHAPTER VII.

FOURTH MEANS.—DEVOTION TO THE BLESSED

VIRGIN.

IN adopting precautionary measures against the

snares and dangers which await you in the world,
you will not readily overlook the powerful aid
derivable from the protection of the ever glorious
Virgin; nor will you be likely to fail in trying
to secure her patronage by the fervour of your
love, and the earnestness of your trust. The saints
have said that devotion to Mary is a mark of
predestination, and they have consoled us with
the assurance that none who cling to her can
perish. What an easy and happy road to heaven,
to love so amiable a Mother! Who can meditate
on all her claims to be loved, and refuse to
recognise them, or hesitate to yield to them?
It is probable that you already possess the high
and holy privilege of being associated to the
congregation of her “Children.” If so, with what
unbounded confidence should you look to her
now, when more than ever you need, and more
entirely than ever you depend on, her all but
omnipotent assistance. To whom does the child
naturally turn for sympathy in her troubles, and
 THE CATHOLIC OFFERING. 117

guidance in her doubts, if not to the mother

whose love is ever true, whose counsels are ever
prudent, and whose matured experience is sure,
she knows, to direct her safely through every
variety of temporal difficulty? And to whom
shall the daughter of Mary apply in the far more
serious perplexities of her spiritual life, if not to
the heavenly Mother whose goodness and power
so far surpass those of any mortal mother? To
whom shall she fly in her weakness, if not to the
health of the infirm and support of the frail? To
whom shall she speak of her alarms and appre
hensions, if not to the sweet comfortress of the
afflicted, and advocate of sinners? That the
Mother of God should be, in an especial manner
and by a particular privilege, your mother like
wise; that you should be allowed to call her by
that cherished name, and possess the blessed cer
tainty that she will fulfil in your regard, all that
it implies, is in itself a powerful defence against
coming danger, and therefore a lively encourage
ment to hope that, great as that danger may be,
it never will overcome your resolution to perse
vere to the end of life in the faithful service of
God. Put on then the strong armour of renewed
devotion to the Blessed Virgin, before your holy
purposes have been exposed to the world's as
saults, and determine that nothing shall ever
induce you to lay it aside. Remember that the
118 THE CATHOLIC OFFERING.

glorious title of a child of Mary is not an empty

sound, or the privilege of being enrolled in her
confraternity a merely nominal dignity. To be
the servant of Mary is an honour which even an
angel might covet; for she is elevated above all
the choirs of bright angels, and all the ranks of
glowing seraphim. To be her child is an exalta
tion which eminent saints have ambitioned with a
holy ardour, since the dying words of a God
made man permitted them to aspire to heights
which, but for those gracious words, they would
not have ventured even to contemplate. Oh,
value beyond gold and diamonds—beyond the
world's enjoyments and sin's delusive attractions,
—the happiness, the honour of the title of “Child
of Mary!" Endeavour to understand every day
more and more perfectly the extent of that hap
piness and honour, and, above all, to comprehend
and faithfully fulfil the obligations you contracted
on assuming so responsible a title. The first
obligation of the child of Mary is, ardent love for,
and unbounded confidence in her holy mother;
the next is, great fidelity in executing the wishes
of that holy mother, even in the least particular.
You need not be reminded of all the claims of
the Blessed Virgin to your love; your heart has
long ago made the record its own possession:
and one of your favourite devotions has been
frequently to retire with her into your own soul,
 THE CATHOLIC OFFERING. 119

and there read a page from the cherished volume.

You know, then, all those claims, less, perhaps,
from the teaching of books or living instructors,
than from your own experience. You need but
look back on any portion of your life, and in
stances of the Blessed Virgin's goodness to you
will come crowding and multiplying so fast,
that you can only exclaim, “O Mother most
amiable! pray that before I die, I may be able
to do something to prove my love for thee!”
If you love her as a child loves a dear parent,
equally unnecessary will it be to suggest grounds
of confidence in her; your own heart will again
be your prompter. You will recur to her fear
lessly in all your wants; you will speak to her
confidingly of your difficulties; you will lay
before her your anxieties; you will consult her
about your plans; you will ask yourself whether
she is likely to approve of some intended pleasure
or projected pursuit; you will not be deterred by
your faults from going to her, but run to her then
all the more, feeling that however serious they
may have been, you never can despair as long as
you are permitted access to her.
How consoling it is to know, that when we
approach the ever Blessed Virgin in humble
prayer, she does not consider our sinfulness and
unworthiness, but only our wants and miseries—
our very poverty being itself the surest passport
120 THE CATHOLIC OFFERING.

to her throne. How encouraging to feel that

none ever invoked her intercession without ob
taining relief, and that often under circumstances
little short of miraculous. It is not according to
the ordinary rule of God's providence that a life
of sin should terminate by a death of peace; yet,
as if to manifest the wondrous power of the
Mother of clemency, and the peculiar blessing
inseparable from devotion to her, the Almighty
has, in particular instances, granted the grace of
conversion at the last hour to some few individuals,
who, although they had discontinued every other
pious exercise, and cast off every other restraint,
had still persevered in the daily recital of a
petition to the Queen of heaven, taught them
by a pious mother's lips in the early days of
innocent childhood. Men wonder to hear these
things, but they need not; for the “faithful
Virgin” is never the first to desert her clients;
and while even one tie yet binds them to her,
be it ever so small and so frail — no more
than a “Hail, Mary,” or an ejaculation for pity—
hope may still breathe, for mercy is not yet ex
tinct. Go, then, to her under all circumstances,
and at all times, and be assured, that if she rejects
not the sinful soul which brings to her but a
spark of love and a germ of confidence, she will
refuse no favour to the pious heart whose devotion
is boundless and whose trust is entire.
 THE CATHOLIC OFFERING. 121

One of your first resolutions on leaving school

will, no doubt, be to adhere with inviolable
exactitude to the devotional practices by which
you have hitherto been in the daily habit of
honouring the Blessed Virgin, first and chief
among which is the fervent recital of the Rosary.
A sweet legend tells of a guileless boy, who
grieved much because he could not compete
with his fellow-students in the composition of
verses; not that he deemed the art of any in
trinsic value, but that, notwithstanding his profi
ciency in other studies, his deficiency in this
particular branch deprived him of the literary
honours which he ambitioned solely for the sake
of the dear mother whose hopes all centred in
him as her only child. Into the heart of that
gentle mother he poured the sorrowful tale of
his repeated trials and attendant failures; of his
master's displeasure and his companions' taunts;
of his humiliations and his disappointments; and
from her loving lips he learned where lay the
remedy. “Remember, my son,” she said, “that
no one ever applied in vain for the help of the
Blessed Virgin. I know you have a Rosary,
though I cannot say I have often seen you use
it. Take it henceforth every morning before
school-hour, to the altar of Mary, and there
recite it devoutly, and depend that, before long,
the source of your tears will be dried, and the
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cause of your dejection removed.” And the

prophecy was verified. In all simplicity and
loving trust, the boy knelt daily at the feet of
his blessed Patroness, and while his innocent
heart poured out its supplication in the Rosary,
her gracious eyes beamed on him in their love;
her maternal heart expanded as his prayer grew
warmer; a powerful mandate went forth from
the lips which never opened but in words of
sweetness or petition for mercy, and at once, as
if by a magic spell, a marvellous transformation
was wrought in his intellectual being. His
imagination glowed, his ideas dilated; his whole
nature seemed spiritualized. Images of super
human beauty filled his mind, and verses of
musical sweetness shaped them into words; and
he who had been remarkable only for the infe
riority of his position among his school-mates,
now took his position high above them all, and
gave promise of renown so great, that it seemed
as if he had but to select at pleasure one among
the many paths to literary fame so miraculously
opened before him. And when he was ques
tioned as to the manner in which the strange
alteration had been effected, he merely replied,
with quiet simplicity, that he had learned all
he knew in the Rosary, where others might, if
they pleased, learn the same; and so he came to
be called “the Scholar of the Rosary.” Full
 THE CATHOLIC OFFERING. 123

well did Mary reward his artless confidence; not

merely by granting him brilliant mental endow
ments, which in themselves are, in truth, of little
real value, but in this, that she took her pupil
to her arms before he had begun to learn the
lessons of an evil world, and bore away his
spirit to heaven while its young innocence was
yet fresh, and its baptismal purity unstained. All
through the tedious illness which preceded his
death, still was the beloved rosary ever twined
round his fingers; and still did his heart find
rest in the continued repetition of its well-loved
prayers. Intent on its sacred mysteries to the last,
he said, just before his eyes closed to the world
for ever: “The sorrow is all gone now; there
is nothing left but joy and glory.” These were
his last words on earth; his next were breathed
in heaven, into the ear of her who had loved him
so well, and proved her love so effectually.
If the scholar of the Rosary acquired human
learning at the feet of his heavenly Mistress,
why should we not likewise repair thither to
learn a still more precious science,—the science
of the saints? Why do we not also take our
rosaries to Mary's throne, and conjure her with
all earnestness to receive us as her pupils, teach
ing us how we may love and serve God; how
we may overcome our faults, and triumph over
temptation ; how we may become strong in
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virtue, and generous in self-sacrifice? We feel

that it would be a great happiness to be instructed
by the lips of the Queen of heaven, and led by
her blessed hand into the heart of Jesus; but
why do we forget that this happiness may be
attained through the fervent recital of the Rosary,
and why do we not avail of so easy a means of
procuring access to our heavenly Instructress,
and by her to her divine Son? With the vocal
prayers which compose the Rosary, are inter
spersed pious reflections, either on the principal
events in the history of Mary, or on those mys
teries of the life of Christ, with which she was
so intimately connected, either personally or by
sympathy. By placing before us, day after day,
until they have become absolutely familiar, the
virtues she exercised so perfectly, and the trials
she endured so heroically, the Queen of the
Rosary teaches us with the eloquent voice of ex
ample, how we too may learn perfection from
the consideration of her holiness, and acquire
resignation in suffering from the contemplation
of her fortitude. We have but to say the Rosary
in the right spirit, and it will be to us an effica
cious lesson of sublime virtue, and an unerring
guide to high sanctity.
In the first division of the Rosary, we contem
plate, first, the profound humility with which
the Blessed Virgin received the announcement
 THE CATHOLIC OFFERING. 125

of her selection from among the whole human

race to be the Mother of God. We admire the
beauty of that attractive virtue which Jesus and
Mary both loved so tenderly; we desire that it
may take deep root in our souls, and influence
the whole tenor of our lives; and in reciting the
appropriate decade, we conjure the most humble
Virgin to impress her example deeply on our
hearts; to inspire us with her lowly spirit, and
to obtain for us the great grace of self-knowledge,
with patient silence under humiliation and con
tradiction.
We next accompany our holy Model on her
visit to St. Elizabeth, and as we traverse the
hilly country of Judea by her side in the second
decade, we meditate on the charity which
prompted her journey; we grieve at our own
deficiency in the true spirit of fraternal love; we
ask her to teach us how to be kind in heart and
gentle in manner as she was, and we pray that
when she deigns to visit us by her inspirations,
or to bring us her holy Infant in the sacrament
of His love, our souls may be found glowing
with the fire of charity, caught from constant
association with her who is the Mother of holy
love.
Kneeling at her side in the stable of Bethle
hem, we participate in the third decade in the
mingled emotions of joy and sorrow with which
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she there gazed on her divine Babe; we discover

that poverty, humiliation, and suffering must be
something very precious, since the Incarnate
God chose them for His own portion and that of
His dear Mother. We pray that our hearts may
ever repose in that poor stable where our trea
sures dwell; that we may imitate the humility,
meekness, and obedience of the holy Infant in
the manger, and so perfectly imbibe His spirit,
as one day to merit admittance into the heavenly
kingdom reserved exclusively for those who
have made themselves as little children, like
Him, and for His sake. We also conjure the
Mother of Jesus to warm our tepid souls, and to
adorn them with her own virtues, that when she
brings Him to us in the holy communion, He
may not find His abode colder and more com
fortless than the miserable shed which first gave
Him shelter.
Still kneeling in the consecrated cave, we
rejoice with Mary; in the fourth decade, at the
honour paid her divine Son by the holy sages
from the East; we admire their prompt and
generous fidelity to grace, and deplore our own
sad abuse of heavenly inspiration—resolving to
obey its warning voice more carefully in future.
We unite our insufficient love to the burning
ardours of the Blessed Virgin, and offer our
humble adoration in union with the prostrate
 THE CATHOLIC OFFERING. 127

homage of the wise men. We pray that if we

cannot present costly treasures to our Incarnate
Redeemer, like the kings, we may at least give
Him generously, through the hands of His
Blessed Mother, the little we have to bestow—
our loving hearts and submissive wills; and know
ing how much Jesus will prize this poor obla
tion, we determine not to depart from the crib
until we have deposited it therein beyond recall.
Following the Blessed Virgin in her journey
to Jerusalem, on the day of her purification, we
enter the temple with her in the fifth decade,
and filled with admiration at her humble obe
dience to the law, as well as at the heroic gene
rosity with which she presents her Son and her
God to His Eternal Father for our redemption,
we beseech her to offer again and again to God,
on our behalf, the spotless Lamb who made
Himself a willing victim for the sins of the world;
to obtain for us grace to devote ourselves unre
servedly to the love of Him who sacrificed Him
self wholly for the love of us; and to pray, that
in proportion as our hearts warm with the love
of Jesus, they may also increase in love for her,
to whom, after God, we owe all our happiness
here, and hopes of bliss hereafter.
In the second division of the Rosary we accom
pany our suffering Redeemer in spirit through
the principal stages of His passion, from the
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garden of Olives to Mount Calvary, endeavour

ing to enter into His spirit; compassionating
His sorrows; lamenting our sins which caused
them; mingling our grief with the anguish of
the Queen of martyrs, and praying to her at each
decade to impress our hearts with the particular
virtue inculcated by the mystery under consider
ation. Through the agony of Jesus in the garden,
we implore the grace of profound respect, un
wearied fervour, and generous disengagement
from heavenly consolation in prayer. Through
the torment of His scourging, we ask for the
spirit of mortification and self-denial. Through
His crowning with thorns, we pray for sincere,
practical humility of heart and mind. Through
the carrying of the cross, we beg for patience
under every variety of pain and suffering.
Through all the combined agonies of the cruci
fixion, we implore the love of God and of our
neighbour, especially our enemies; we conjure
the divine Victim of the sins of men, to grant us
true contrition for our past iniquities, with an
hourly increasing horror of sinning in future;
and we pray the Mother of sorrows, who was
given to us as our Mother in the hour of the
dying agony of Jesus, to be to us, for His dear
sake, a true Mother in life and death.
In the first decade of the last division, we
consider Jesus rising gloriously from the dead;
 THE CATHOLIC OFFERING. 129

we rejoice with Mary at this happy termination

to the pangs and ignominies of her well beloved
Son; we send forward our thoughts to the time
when we too shall rise from the grave; and we
beseech her to obtain, that by now rising spiri
tually from the tomb of sin and tepidity, to a
life of holiness and undying fervour, we may one
day merit the happiness of a glorious resurrec
tion to never ending existence.
In the second decade, we assist in spirit at the
grand and solemn spectacle of our divine Re
deemer's ascension into heaven; we sympathise
in the grief of His holy Mother for the loss of
His visible presence; we ask her to obtain that
our hearts, like hers, may henceforth repose
where Jesus sits at the right hand of God; and
we pray that when the days of our pilgrimage
are ended, the gates of heaven, opened for the
sons of Adam through the merits of Christ on
the day of the Ascension, may be unclosed for
us through the same saving merits, and the inter
cession of her who is the gate of heaven.
In the third decade we contemplate the acces
sion of grace and sanctity which the Most Blessed
Virgin received at the descent of the Holy
Ghost, and we earnestly beseech her to obtain
that the same Holy Spirit may descend into our
hearts with the abundance of his precious gifts,
inflaming them with divine love, illumining them
130 THE CATHOLIC OFFERING.

with heavenly light, fortifying them with super

natural strength, and disposing them by docility
to his inspirations, for the bliss of everlasting
union with God in heaven.
We next turn our eyes to the powerful Queen
of heaven and glorious Lady of earth, who on
the day of her Assumption was translated body
and soul to the realms of light. We gaze with
love and joy on the dazzling crown which glitters
on her brow, and remembering that it is less the
crown of her privileges than of her virtues, we
ask her with all fervour, in the fourth and fifth
decades, to teach us to imitate those virtues, and
strengthen us to copy her blessed example, that
so we may be one day permitted to see her beauty
face to face, and mingle our own crowns with
the bright diadems which the saints cast at the
foot of her throne.
Thus is the Rosary not merely a beautiful
and efficacious form of prayer, but also a com.
pendious lesson of all virtues; a mirror which
reflects the very perfection of holiness, as illus
trated first by the example of Jesus Christ him
self, and next of his most faithful imitator, the
Blessed Virgin.
That example is kept so constantly before our
eyes in the Rosary, that we come at last to
impress it on our hearts. While we pray, we
steadily contemplate the great models of sanctity
 THE CATHolic of FERING, 131

proposed to our imitation, and in the act of

studying the varied features of those perfect
models, we pray again for grace to embody their
practical teaching in our lives; addressing the
petition with great confidence to her who, having
been full of grace, can, we know, spare us of her
abundance, and enrich us from her stores. Oh!
never omit this pious exercise, which a holy
writer has called a golden chain that unites the
soul to Mary. Never suffer that most precious
chain to be sundered; never allow even one link
of it to be loosened. How you will rejoice on
your death bed, if you are so happy as to find
yourself bound by it to the Mother of God!
How gladly you will look back, in that dread
hour, to the thousands of times when, in the
Rosary, you besought her to alleviate the pangs,
and dispel the terrors of approaching dissolution;
to pray for you and help you, when human aid
and comfort will avail so little !
Now that the bright years of life are before
you, death perhaps seems something so far away,
that you would deem many reflections on it at
the present moment altogether premature. But
even admitting that the prolonged existence you
so fondly anticipate actually awaits you, the end
must come at last; death must come, with its
final leave-taking of the world, and its last adieu
to friends and pleasures; the quailing spirit must
132 THE CATHOLIC OFFERING.

come, and the fainting heart; the pallid cheek,

and clammy brow, and livid lips; the convulsive
struggle for one breath more of mortal life—yes,
one, but only one; for the decree is pronounced,
and none other may follow. Listen, as the
ominous sound strikes tremulously on your ear;
listen closely, for in that little gasp is the last frail
tie to mortality; in that feeble sigh centres all
now left of human existence; and when its echo
has died away to the very last lingering trace,
then will the wondrous machine lie still, inex
haustible as its powers now appear; while the
mysterious principle which, under the name of
life, once set its springs in motion, still is, and
ever will be, a living principle, residing in the
immortal soul which death can never reach.
How wise to secure for that soul a happy transit
from this world ! How prudent to provide at
least one source of abundant comfort at the hour
of death, by the daily and fervent recital of the
Rosary
The second duty of the child of Mary is
fidelity in executing the wishes of her holy
Mother. The Blessed Virgin lived in her divine
Son, and for Him alone; she had no thought, no
affection, no project, no desire, of which His
glory and love were not the only object. And
she expects that her children should also live for
Jesus, and not for creatures or self; that they
 THE CATHOLIC OF FERING. 133

should seek their happiness in the service of God,

and fly with horror from the service of Satan;
that they should conform their conduct to the
lessons of the Gospel, and never to the maxims of
a corrupt world; that they should employ every
means of acquiring and preserving purity of heart,
and dread nothing so much as the very shadow
of wilful sin.
The Blessed Virgin was a perfect model of
humility and charity, and she wishes that her
children should be humble in spirit and retiring
in manner; that they should never desire human
applause, or by word or act put forward a claim
to it; that they should meekly endure contradic
tion and annoyance, and never occasion a breach
of charity by their want of forbearance and self.
control; that they should lead many to God by
the example of their amiable, unselfish virtues,
and never become a source of scandal or disedifi
cation, in consequence of the disparity observable
between their principles and their conduct.
A child of Mary should bear some degree of
resemblance to her holy Mother; it may be very
faint in the beginning; yet by cultivation, prayer,
and repeated efforts, it will strengthen; features
of similarity, at first all but indiscernible, will
gradually develope, and the likeness become, at
first visible, and afterwards striking. Much
exertion may be necessary for this, many severe
N
134 THE CATHOLIC OF FERING.

conflicts with nature, many difficult acts of self

denial,—but how great the reward | To attain
resemblance with her who was the most perfect
of mere creatures, and in whom the beauty of
virtue was displayed under so fascinating an
aspect; to become more and more dear to the
heart of her whose heart is so tender, so kind, so
loving, so worthy to be loved; to realize a closer
union, even on earth, with the pure and holy
being whom beatified saints deem themselves
honoured in being permitted to approach with
all reverence, and to secure a nearer view in
heaven of the august Queen whom angels never
weary of contemplating; continually to derive
new light from her instructions; new strength
from her example; new graces through her
prayers; new facilities for virtue through her
encouragement; new generosity for overcoming
nature through her gentle admonitions; new
peace through the influence of her unseen, yet in
a manner, sensible presence; to feel that the
duties of a child having been to the best of your
power discharged, you may look fearlessly on
your Mother's brow, and put your arms lovingly
around her, and say to her, confidingly: “Oh!
show thyselfmy Mother, for I have tried to prove
myself thy child !” These are some of the fruits,
some of the rewards of true devotion to the
Blessed Virgin, but who could enumerate all its
 THE CATHOLIC OFFERING. 135

blessed effects? who can understand the happi

ness of being truly devoted to her? Alas! few
of us do, or we should set more value on that
happiness; we should pray for it more earnestly,
and strive for it more generously.
Let us conclude these reflections by asking our
dear Mother to inspire us herself with ardent
love for her, to show us how great a treasure we
have in her, if we only knew how to avail
of it; and when temptation tries our weakness,
and sin's allurements beckon us on to ruin;
when the fierce struggles of human respect threa
ten to bear down the opposition of conscience,
and the voice of remorse begins to sound a little,
ever so little, fainter, oh! let us hasten to our
Mother and our refuge, and beseech her to take
us by the hand, and keep us at her side, and hide
us in the folds of her snow-white mantle, until
the peril has passed away; nay, until the hour
when all the perils incidental to our pilgrimage
have vanished, and our happy lot has been
secured for ever.
We fly to thy patronage, O holy Mother of
God! despise not our prayers in our necessities,
but deliver us from all dangers, O ever glorious
and blessed Virginſ
136 THE CATHOLIC OF FERING.

CHAPTER VIII.

FIFTH MEANS OF MAINTAINING THE SPIRIT OF

FAITH.—THE FLIGHT OF IDLENESS.

AMONG the useful habits contracted during your

recently expired school days, the profitable em
ployment of time occupies so very prominent a
place, that, had no other advantage resulted
from the discipline to which you have of late
years been subjected, this would be in itself a
most valuable and precious acquisition. You
must, however, remember that, like all the other
good habits of early years, that under immediate
consideration is intended to maintain its influence
through life, and not to be laid aside as soon as
the daily routine of your studies has ceased. At
school, the various occupations of the day are
distinctly mapped out, and a definite duty assigned
to each separate hour, leaving no time for idleness,
no opportunity for listlessness, no chance for
indolence. Now that you are about to become,
in some measure, the mistress of your time, you
must be very careful to carry out the principle
inculcated at school, and, although no longer
amenable to its regulations, or liable to its re
 THE CATHOLIC OFFERING. 137

straints, to persevere steadily in the habits of

industry there acquired. You must, in fact, look
on the flight of idleness as one of the most in
dispensable means for keeping alive the spirit of
faith and piety in your heart. That “for the
idle, the tempter is sure to find occupation,” is
an aphorism containing deep truth, as you will
be very likely to discover to your cost, if you
once suffer him to gain admittance into your
soul through the door of indolence.
You need not be told that idleness embraces,
in its varied ramifications, a wider range than
that which the merely literal signification of the
word implies; absolute idleness, or total inaction,
being but the root of a tree which produces many
branches, and bears very abundant, though very
noxious fruit. As it is quite possible to fall into
mistakes on this important point, and to identify
indolence only with entire cessation from occupa
tion, it may be useful to consider the fatal vice in
some of its modified forms, and under a few of its
varied disguises, that you may be enabled the more
readily to recognize it in all shapes, and, conse
quently the more cautiously to fly from its pesti
lential influence. With a very little reflection,
you will easily discern so many off-shoots of the
poisonous parent plant, in the habits of listless
lounging, long reveries, useless talking, unneces
sary visits, idle correspondence, and unrestrained
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138 THE CATHOLIC OFFERING.

novel reading, to each of which we shall now

direct a brief notice.
Listless lounging, although not exactly syno
nymous with a premeditated determination to
squander time, may nevertheless, in all truth,
be qualified as idleness, and that, too, of a very
decided character, though, unfortunately, it does
not always excite the internal reproach it so well
deserves. In its origin, it may perhaps be traced
in general to want of system in the distribution of
the day's duties and occupations. These being
left to chance, rather than arranged by fixed
method, the time which should be spent in action
is fittered away in considering, what that action
is to be; meanwhile, because the vague intention
of shortly seeking employment seems to refute
the charge of deliberate idleness, the conscience is
tranquillized—although nothing is actually done
—by the anticipation of all that soon will be ac
complished, and so, habits of lounging are allowed
to progress, until they settle at last into habits of
confirmed idleness.
Sometimes, again, it happens, that systemati
cally as the duties of each hour may have been
arranged in theory, that arrangement is departed
from in practice, either wholly or in part. The
occupation assigned to a specified hour is deferred
or neglected, and no other substituted, or per
haps it is performed in so apathetic a manner,
 THE CATHOLIC OFFERING. 139

that for any practical result, it might as well

have been left undone. Shorter or longer inter
vals are suffered to elapse between every change
of pursuit; a considerable time is wasted on what
might with diligence have been accomplished in
a short period—the hours of action are thus cur
tailed; the energy of the mind weakened; the
rule of life slighted; the tendency to listlessness
strengthened; precious time lost, and a rapid
impetus given to the growth of that most rank
weed, idleness.
Earnestness is the corrective of listlessness, and
the antidote to indolence in all its branches; and
as such, you cannot too highly estimate its utility,
or too diligently devote yourself to its culture.
Earnestness is not to be confounded with uncal
culating ardour, unreflecting precipitation, or
impulsive eagerness, to all of which it is as much
opposedasitistolanguid listlessness. Impetuosity,
or impulsiveness, is the result of natural temper
ament, and unless it be subjected to the control
of reason, it is but another name for caprice,
dependent on every variety of humour, and fre
quently leading, in its indulgence, to conse
quences which cool common sense condemns,
and good feeling deplores. It is so unwise and
unsafe a guide, that its promptings should not be
obeyed even when they seem to tend to good,
until they have first been tested by the clear
140 THE CATHOLIC OFFERING.

light of a calm, dispassionate judgment. Ear

nestness has nothing in common with impetuo
sity, which obscures the reason, or precipitation,
which impedes its free exercise. It is the quiet,
steady purpose of a will intent on accomplishing
at the right time, and in the most careful manner,
the duty assigned; it is the constant recognition
of, and practical adherence to the maxim, that
whatever is worth doing, is worth doing well;
and that as nothing can be done well, which is not
done according to order, a fixed rule of life, and
never whim or impulse, must be the guiding
principle of the day. To be in earnest, is to be
fervent in prayer; active in charity; self-sacri
ficing in social intercourse; diligent in study;
alive to, and ready to avail of every precious
opportunity of improvement; and ready, too, to
enter fully, in due season, into all permitted en
joyments. To be earnest, is to proceed promptly
from one pursuit to another, losing no time in
pondering on what is next to be done; leaving
no unoccupied intervals between; never deeming
fragments of time too small to be filled up; never
saying, “It is not worth while to take up an
occupation now, for I have but a few moments
to dispose of.” Any one who reflects that she
must one day render an account of every separate
moment of her life, will never feel that even one
is too insignificant to be worth profiting of.
 THE CATHOLIC OFFERING. 141

Moments have been called “the gold dust of

time.” If you can understand the force of the
expression you will not fail in making the right
application of it. To be earnest, in fine, is to
understand the value, not only of your own time,
but also of the time of others, and, therefore, to
be punctual, not alone to your personal duties,
but also to your appointments; never to keep
persons waiting, especially those whose time is
to them their livelihood, and who may be
materially the losers by want of punctuality in
their employers. There is much practical wis
dom in the recommendation to be always able to
say at the end of the day, not what you proposed
and planned to do, but what you actually have
done. If, at the day's close, you thus can lay
before your conscience the tangible fruits of its
exertions and occupations, you will prove that
you have been earnest, and will be very safe
against the inroads of apathy, indolence, and
listlessness.
The long, vague reveries in which it is the
delight of some minds to indulge, constitute
another and a very dangerous species of idleness.
The mind is, no doubt, very actively engaged
at such times, yet, its occupation being not only
essentially useless in itself, but absolutely per
nicious in its consequences, its state is, in truth,
one only of busy idleness. Day dreams usually
142 THE CATHOLIC OFFERING.

embrace some fanciful speculation, some chi

merical project, some ideal adventure connected
with the uncertain future, and, as they deal
wholly or chiefly with phantoms, they tend to
strengthen the power of the imagination, and to
weaken the influence of calm, cool reason, thus
involving other and serious evils, in addition to
loss of time. If you try always to remember
your obligation to love God with your whole
mind as well as with your whole heart and
strength, you will be equally impressed with
the necessity of regulating your thoughts accor
ding to reason and religion, and, consequently,
of excluding those useless retrospections of
the past, and vain anticipations of the future,
which, if indulged to excess, degenerate into a
very dangerous species of mental idleness, and,
moreover, preclude the possibility of attending
diligently even to purely mechanical occupations,
since nothing can be done well with an abstracted
mind.
Were it our present purpose to trace in all
their details the evils wrought by the unrestrained
exercise of the tongue, we could but have
recourse to the holy words of divine inspiration,
which alone do justice to the works of that
“world of iniquity.” Those awful evils do not,
however, enter, in their general bearings, into
the immediate view of the subject, which deals
 THE CATHOLIC OFFERING. 143

chiefly with the fearful loss of time entailed by

an immoderate love of talking—classed for that
reason among the branches of idleness. When,
at the close of the day, an account is taken of
the moments squandered in useless talking by a
person much addicted to it, how alarming is even
the imperfect sum total which her most accurate
calculations can enable her to lay before the
tribunal of conscience With every one she
encountered, she entered into conversation, on
every one who crossed her path she fastened, to
pour out the intelligence gathered on her way,
and to add still further to the information des
tined for yet wider circulation. A great part of
her day was spent in parading the streets, or
paying idle visits, with a view to glean the
particulars of her neighbours' private affairs, and
render herself conversant with the public rumours
of the hour, thus to minister to her insatiable
love of news, the offspring of that curiosity which
she shares in common with all great talkers, and
at the same time, to gratify her thirst for gossip,
and her desire to kill time. Oh, how has her
precious day been squandered And if such be
her habitual method of disposing of it, how will
she dare to meet her Judge when her last day
arrives at length ! Wonderful will it be if, at
the close of such a day, she has not other and
greater sins than loss of time to answer for "
144 THE CATHOLIC OFFERING.

Miraculous, indeed, if charity and truth have

escaped a serious wound ! And even supposing
this possible, what has become of prayer? What
of home duties? What of the obligation to lead
a useful life? Oh! terrible will be the discoveries
of the habitual talker when the illusions of life
are dispelled, and conscience raises its clear,
calm voice on the confines of eternity | Great
her alarm when the book of doom is opened,
and an account demanded of every useless word
her lips have spoken! (St. Matt. xii. 36.)
You are not now, of course, required or ex
pected to observe silence, as when it formed
one of the most essential of your school regulations,
yet it surely would be a mistake to imagine that,
because no longer subject to the discipline of
school, you are at liberty to converse at all
seasons, and on all topics, without restraint or
control. If you do not acquire the power of
governing your words in indifferent matters, be
assured you will not attain the mastery over them
in points involving sin. If you indulge the
habit of talking freely at all times, you will,
necessarily, very often talk at random. If you
allow yourself to give expression to every thought
that flits across your mind, to repeat every word
of news you have heard, to take part in every
argument, to give your opinion on every point,
to discuss personalities, to retail gossip, and busy
 THE CATHOLIC OF FERING. 145

yourself with the concerns of others, you will find

at the end of the day that you have approached
with very dangerous proximity to the verge of
detraction; that you have lost a considerable
portion of time; that you have wholly neglected
some duties, and performed the rest very ill;
that you have indisposed yourself for prayer,
opening the door to a variety of distractions;
and if you have wonderfully escaped sins of the
tongue, you will at least be compelled to own
yourself accountable for many indiscretions. If
such be the sad results of merely idle and use
less words, how should you dread a habit which
too surely leads in addition to the far more fatal
evil of positively sinful ones.
There are, of course, certain periods in the
day when silence, far from being advisable, could
merit only severe condemnation. For instance,
at the regular hours of social family meeting,
destined to be enlivened by cheerful conversation,
silence would be wholly misplaced, and highly
reprehensible, as the effect of singularity, or
perhaps ill-humour. Again, in visits of courtesy,
kindness, or ceremony, taciturnity would be
equally unseasonable, as well as ungracious and
ill-bred. On these and similar occasions, it be
comes a duty and an exercise of virtue to speak;
and if you are careful not to allow yourself the
habit of talking unrestrainedly at home and
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146 THE CATHOLIC OFFERING.

abroad, at all hours of the day and on all kinds

of subjects, you may be very sure that your
spiritual interests will suffer no detriment from
the conversations carried on at right times, on
allowable topics, and under suitable restraints.
It is not advisable to converse unnecessarily
before morning, or after night prayers. Your
morning devotions cannot be discharged with
due respect and recollection if you allow idle
words to introduce distractions beforehand; and
as we should look on sleep as an image of death,
and never resign ourselves into its arms without
remembering that our awakening may be in
eternity, we should endeavour that our last con
scious thoughts be of God, and our last words a
prayer. The habit of talking after withdrawing
to your room at night will necessarily induce the
temptation to retire late to rest; and in compen
sation, the morning hour will be encroached on,
and the religious exercises which should com
mence the day will be either omitted or abridged
and hurried over: so many good reasons for
observing silence after your night prayers.
To conclude, if you early require the blessed
habit of thinking always before you speak, and
suppressing every remark which reflection says
it would be best to refrain from, you can scarcely
estimate the number of faults you will avoid,
the varieties of imprudences and consequent em
 THE CATHOLIC OFFERING. 147

barrassments you will escape, the peace of heart

and tranquillity of conscience you will enjoy, and
the amount of precious time you will save for
high and holy ends.
A great deal of valuable time is lost by some
young persons in idle epistolary correspondence,
which being with them merely the medium of
silly gossip, and the circulator of a vast quantity
of-to say the best of it—unprofitable news, can
be only considered a modification of idle talking.
When politeness, kindness, necessity, or utility,
claims any portion of your time for letter-writing,
the time so spent is, of course, to be considered
as usefully employed. Your correspondence
then becomes a duty; and looking on it as such
you should attend to it carefully, answering
letters punctually and to the point, referring, as
you write, to the epistle to be answered, that you
may not overlook essential remarks or enquiries,
and so render your replies partially useless; and
avoiding both those long superfluous details, and
totally irrelevant, if not frivolous topics, which
consume the time both of the writer and reader,
and so often render letter-writing absoluteidleness.
You will not perhaps, at first sight, be disposed
to admit the claims of novel reading to a place
on the list of the branches of idleness. Idle
talking, you will say, is clearly loss of time, and
so is listlessness in all its forms; but reading—
148 THE CATHOLIC OFFERING.

surely reading must always be employment—food

for the mind, and occupation for time. Yes; but
sometimes poisonous food, dangerous employ
ment, worse than useless occupation.
It is argued, in favour of novel reading, that
works of fiction of the present day are, in their
general character, so correct in principle, so
unexceptionable in narrative, sometimes even so
high-toned in morality, and in the case of some
particular authors, so finished in style and rich
in the varied beauties of good composition, that
they may be perused not only without injury,
but actually under some aspects with positive
advantage. As clever delineations of character,
too, they are said to afford so deep an insight
into human nature, and so profitable a knowledge
of the world and its ways, as to be in those
respects a useful study for the inexperienced.
There can be no doubt of the vast improvement
of the present period in that description of
literary production, emphatically called light.
We know by hearsay, if not by personal inspec
tion, that the romances of former days were not
calculated to promote the health either of mind
or heart; and that they should have been super
seded by fictitious works of a more refining ten
dency and a more enlightened character, cannot
but be deemed an advantage. Yet, according to
modern novels all the merit they can possibly
 THE CATHOLIC OFFERING. 149

claim, and viewing them under their very best

and most favourable aspect, they are, in many
ways, to say the least, extremely dangerous.
Novels are, in general, pictures, and usually
very highly wrought pictures of human passions;
and it has been remarked, that although the con
clusion of the tale frequently awards signal
punishment and degradation to some very gross
offender, yet, that in a far greater number of
instances, passion is represented as working out
its ends successfully, and attaining its objects even
by the sacrifice of duty; an evil lesson for the
heart yet unacquainted with vice, and uncon
taminated by the world. It may, indeed, be
safely questioned whether the knowledge of
human nature thus acquired is of a profitable
kind, and whether experience of life might not,
for all practical purposes, be derived from other
and purer sources than the teaching of romances.
Again; novels as a class present false views of
life; and as it is the error of the young to mis
take these for realities, they become the dupes of
their own ardent and enthusiastic imaginations,
which, instead of trying to control and regulate,
they actually strengthen and nourish with the
poisonous food of phantoms and chimeras. When
the thirst for novel reading has become insatiable,
as with indulgence it is sure to do, they come at
last to live in an unreal fairy land amidst heroes
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150 THE CATHOLIC OFFERING.

and heroines of their own creation, thus unfitting

themselves for the discharge of the common
duties of this every-day world, and for associa
tion with every-day mortals. The more strongly
works of fiction appeal to the imagination, and
the wider the field they afford for its exercise,
the greater in general are their perilous attrac
tions; and it is but too true that they cast, at
last, a sort of spell over the mind, so completely
fascinating the attention, that duty is forgotten,
and positive obligation laid aside to gratify the
desire of unravelling to its last intricacy, the
finely-spun web of some airy creation of fancy.
Fictitious feelings are excited ; unreal sympa
thies aroused; unmeaning sensibilities evoked;
the mind is weakened; the taste for serious
reading and profitable occupation is destroyed;
all relish for prayer is lost; and, at last, con
science and common sense resign their dese
crated sceptre to the dominion of unchecked
imagination. In addition to their other disad
vantages, many of these books, unfortunately,
teem with maxims subversive of simple faith in,
and cordial reverence for, the truths of religion;
and so it but too frequently happens, as the
climax of evil, that faith suffers to a greater or
lesser extent from their habitual, indiscriminate
perusal.
As a mere recreation, light works may, of
 THE CATHOLIC OFFERING. 151

course, be occasionally resorted to; but so many

and so great are their attendant dangers, that
extreme care should be taken to neutralize their
poison by infallible antidotes. Novels being in
their general character calculated only to mis
lead and injure, they should never be read indis
criminately, but the selection left always to a
religious parent, or judicious, intelligent, and
pious friend. They should never be made an
occupation, but merely serve as a pastime, and
that occasionally. They should never be perused
in the early part of the day, but only in the
evening hour, specially laid aside for relaxation.
They should never be continued beyond the
moderate length of time to which, under pru
dent and pious direction, you have limited your
self; never resumed after night prayers, and
never read on Sundays. They should not be
allowed to engross the mind, to the exclusion of
all other thoughts, but most especially during
their perusal, should the sweet, refreshing, invi
gorating thought of God's presence be often re
called, and an aspiration ascend to His throne,
that He, who is the author of all the happiness
we enjoy, may bless and sanctify even our
amusements, and preserve us in His mercy from
ever seeking or finding gratification in any but
the innocent pleasures He Himself allows and
approves.
 152 THE CATHOLIC OFFERING.

The observance of the conditions now enume

rated, no doubt, requires some self-control, but
if you cannot exercise that self-control, neither
can you expect to peruse works of fiction with
out material, perhaps fatal, injury to your pre
cious soul. If you cannot exercise that control,
never either should you read novels. If there
be one more than another of these conditions to
which you are recommended inviolable fidelity,
it is the first. By referring for direction in your
reading to a pious, sensible, and experienced
guide, you will be secured against unwarily
making your selection among that class of ficti
tious works, which, impregnated with the venom
of anti-Catholic maxims and anti-Christian opi
nions, should be to you books for ever sealed—
objects of absolute and unmitigable horror. And
as the spirit of impiety and infidelity, so preva
lent in the literary world, seeks a medium for
the communication of its venom, no less in
works of science than in purely recreative
volumes, you will find the advantage of apply
ing the foregoing rule in the one case as in the
other, never reading a suspected author, without
having first ascertained how far your doubts are
well founded. The use of this wise precaution
will also be your security against those produc
tions of inferior taste and frivolous feeling, whose
very insipidity and silliness ought certainly to
 THE CATHOLIC OFFERING. 153

deprive them of all charm for a refined and

cultivated mind. And, again, as the danger of
novel-reading depends nearly as much on the
character of the reader as the nature of the
novel—if you possess one of those enthusiastic
temperaments and excitable fancies likely to be
injured by too strong an appeal to the imagi
nation, you will be prohibited the dangerous
indulgence, and, perhaps, secured from the pre
cipice to which novel-reading too often paves
the way.
The character of fictitious works is said to
have improved, but so, likewise, has that of all
other classes of literature in far more than equal
proportion. The literary resources of the rising
generation are so ample, and books at once im
proving and entertaining so abundant, that you
can be at no loss for safe, and, at the same time,
amusing reading; and have, therefore, the less
necessity or excuse for seeking recreation in
novels. It is a certainty, that the habit of use
ful reading gradually destroys all desire for the
perusal of fiction, and renders it absolutely in
sipid. If you can determine, in the beginning,
to exclude novels from your list of amusements,
you will very soon come to feel more than in
different about them; if you cannot, remember,
at least, the restrictions under which alone they
can be perused with comparative safety.
154 THE CATHOLIC OFFERING.

But in what consists the peculiar value of time

that you are thus strongly warned against the
danger of squandering it? In this—that on
time hangs eternity; on the use made of the
present life depends your fate for the everlasting
life to come. You were sent into this world for
the accomplishment of a certain definite work,
to be completed within a certain given time.
That work is the salvation of your soul; the
period assigned for its completion comprises the
years of your temporal existence, after which
the night cometh, in which you must necessarily
cease to labour, for then no man can work. If
you try to understand the momentous importance
of that great work, and the magnitude of the
consequences involved in its success or failure,
you will also readily comprehend the price of
every precious opportunity of ensuring it a happy
issue. The time of action is limited; every year
as it rolls over our heads, every day as it flows
on to mingle with the tide of eternity, nay,
every moment, as it glides away from us almost
imperceptibly—its life so brief as scarcely to
seem a reality—each is bringing us nearer and
nearer to the limit beyond which we cannot
journey. If time is composed not only of ages
and years, not only of months and weeks and
days, but even of short vanishing moments, flying
away on the air we breathe: and again, if time
 THE CATHOLIC OFFERING. 155

means for each of us our allotted number of those

fleeting moments, it follows, that each one of
them, as a constituent part of the great whole,
has its own individual character, bears its
individual value, stands invested with its indi
vidual responsibility, and atom though it be, is
destined to contribute its aid towards the per
fecting of the work given us by our heavenly
Father to do. From their dawn to their close,
our lives belong to God, absolutely and exclu
sively. He made us for His glory, and He is
too jealous of its interests to permit that we de
vote the existence he bestowed to any other end
than that he himself ordained. We are not then
to fancy that we may dispose of our time as best
suits our inclination or caprice, for God is its
master, and His will must regulate its employ
ment. That will we discover in the duties
attached to our condition in life, and in the law
ful requirements of our social position.
As yet, the designs of the Almighty regarding
your ultimate place in the great human family
are probably unknown to you; and as the know
ledge of those designs is a subject of too serious
importance not to demand prolonged prayer
and very mature reflection, as well as prudent
counsel, it is quite likely that a considerable
period will intervene before you become bound
by the positive duties of a definite state in life;
156 THE CATHOLIC OFFERING.

but that interval is not to be lost. It is a pecu

liarly precious, and at the same time, a peculiarly
critical one. On the use you make of it, possibly
depends much of your future, whether for perse
verance or decline in virtue. If you begin by
throwing off the yoke of self-restraint, by per
forming your spiritual exercises irregularly, by
consulting your ease of mind or body, by in
dulging indolence, by suffering any considerable
portion of your time to pass in idleness, by
slighting your rule of life, it needs no seer's
prophetic vision to discern, or warning voice to
predict, that your resolution to lead a Christian,
useful life has not long to survive. The transi
tion state between your departure from school
and your final exchange of the home of your
childhood, for the more permanent home here
after to be allotted to you in the decrees of Provi
dence, has duties and responsibilities of its own;
duties and responsibilities to God, to your neigh
bour, and to yourself. The neglect of those
duties would most surely entail on you the
fearful lot of the slothful servant who overlooked
his master's interests, and suffered the talent com
mitted to him to lie idle, while, on the other
hand, their diligent and conscientious discharge
will ensure you the benediction granted to the
good servant, who having employed his time
profitably, and been faithful over a few things,
 THE CATHOLIC of FERiNG. 157

was placed over many, and summoned to a share

in the joy of his Lord. As it is your holy
ambition to participate for all eternity in that
overflowing joy, so is it of course your pious
determination to render yourself deserving of it
by the perfect accomplishment of the duties
assigned you by your divine Master; duties to
which we shall direct our more particular atten
tion in the ensuing chapters.
158 THE CATHOLIC OFFERING.

CHAPTER IX.

FIFTH MEANS.—THE PROFITABLE EMPLOYMENT

OF TIME.

IN our reflections of the last chapter on the flight

of idleness, a cursory allusion was made to the
necessity of a systematic distribution of the day's
occupations, as a very useful, if not an indispen
sable preservative against the inroads of indo
lence. As this subject is one of greatimportance,
a few additional words on it may not be super
fluous here.
It is not, of course, possible, practically to
follow out a rule of life to the strict letter, as
many casual impediments to its observance must
necessarily arise, and even positive duties some
times interfere with adherence to it. Yet it is
essential to draw up such a rule, and very impor
tant to attend to it as far as attainable. The
very attempt to observe it will maintain some
degree of system in your day's pursuits; the
desire, when the attempt fails, will keep up a
remnant of self-restraint; the mere recognition of
so powerful a check on idleness and caprice, will
strengthen that vivid sense of accountability for
 THE CATHOLIC OFFERING. 159

every moment of your time, which it should be

your aim never to lose; and when no other
actual good results, you will be so far a gainer,
that knowing exactly what particular occupa
tion demands your attention at each hour, you
can turn to it promptly, when disengaged from
more pressing claims, without losing time in con
sidering about the selection. One point at least
is clear—that if with a rule of life you find it
difficult to manage your time profitably, and ap
portion it systematically, you assuredly will find
both incomparably more difficult without one;
consequently, if you are in serious earnest in
your determination to lead a useful life, you will
not omit this salutary precaution.
Your time, as you have already seen, belongs
to God, not to yourself; therefore, in drawing up
your rule of life, and assigning to each hour its
definite occupation, you are constantly to bear
in mind the great principle, that conscience, not
whim, is to be your guide; and that your day is
to be devoted, not to the gratification of natural
inclination, but to the discharge of your duty to
God, your neighbour, and yourself—that thus it
may be truly a well spent day; a day entitled to
be inscribed in the Book of Life.
In regulating your hour of rising—the first
duty of the day—remember, that as the manna
of old was gathered only by those who sought
160 THE CATHOLIC OFFERING.

it before the sun's rays had attained sufficient

power to dissolve the mysterious substance ;
so the precious manna of prayer—its sweetness,
its recollection, its abundant consolations, its full,
rich harvest—will be yours only on condition
that you begin the day by a victory over sloth,
and sacrifice to God, instead of to His enemy,
the morning's first, prized fruits. Fix your hour
of rising very steadily, and observe it punctually,
unless sickness, or some other good reason, sanc
tion an occasional deviation from it.
Your spiritual exercises, as the tribute directly
due to God, clearly claim your primary attention
in the distribution of your time; be careful, then,
to assign them the prominent place they merit,
and to ensure for each a fixed hour, under the
circumstances most likely to facilitate its careful
and fervent discharge.
But although the most important of all your
duties, prayer is not your only duty. God re
quires that we consecrate to Him all our days
and all our lives; but He does not require that
we spend them in actual prayer; He only de
mands that prayer of the heart should accom
pany our other pursuits; that purity of intention
should consecrate, and the frequent remembrance
of His presence, with an ejaculatory prayer for
His help, sanctify them. You must carefully
avoid the error of those who imagine their piety
 THE CATHOLIC OFFERING. 161

solid and their state secure, provided they daily

accomplish a certain habitual routine of devo
tions, read a pious book, and go frequently to
confession, without meantime correcting a fault,
acquiring a virtue, or performing one act of
charity towards their fellow-creatures. You
must ever remember that God not only permits,
but actually imposes certain active duties, which
will always tend to our advancement in virtue,
if we perform them in obedience to His holy
will. First in importance among these, are
your home duties, and next, those included under
the head of charity to the poor. The details
of both shall engage our attention in future
chapters; as regards their connexion with the
subject of this, it suffices to observe that the
time spent in their fulfilment is time most pro
fitably and meritoriously employed. That which
remains being at your own command, you must
be cautious to dispose of it to equal advantage;
and here especially it is that your rule of life is
needed, and if faithfully followed up, likely to
be most useful.
You do not, of course, fancy that, because
your school days are over, all self-improvement
has ceased to be necessary, and may be quietly
laid aside. Our whole life is a species of school
training—training of our immortal faculties for
their grand ultimate destiny—union with God,
P 2
162 THE CATHOLIC OF FERING.

first on earth, and then in heaven. It is not

only by meditation on heavenly things that this
process is carried on; prayer is, no doubt, the
first, yet only one of the means appointed for
that great work of spiritual training. The mind
is always susceptible of enlargement; its culti
vation, of which school is but the beginning,
should be carried on continuously. The more
widely it roams in the illimitable fields of useful
knowledge, the more capable will it become of
rising to God on wings of love, and gratitude,
and admiration. And, again, the more highly
its powers are cultivated, the greater and more
varied will be its internal resources; the more
ample its facilities for communion with itself;
and, consequently, the less its need to seek
amusement in frivolity, in silly gossip, in idle
talking, or idler reading—all which tend, more
or less, if not to separate it from God, at least, con
siderably, to weaken the impression of His divine
presence, and diminish its capability of convers
ing with Him. Thus, directly and indirectly,
the cultivation of the mind, rightly understood,
and rightly pursued, tends to dispose it more
and more for union with its great Creator.
And, oh! how marvellously do the wonders
of science proclaim the glory of God, and mani
fest his greatness, not as it is, for in its own
nature our poor minds could not grasp it, nor
 THE CATHOLIC OFFERING. 163

our feeble vision look steadily on its splendour,

but in part—in faintest image—perhaps, in sha
dow only; yet, faint as is the image, it is full of
loveliness, and dense as may be the shadow, the
sunlight of God's presence gilds it, as the light
of the material sun pierces the vapour, and turns
it to gold.
Take, for instance, the noble science of astro
nomy, and, under its guidance, plunge into the
world of space which encompasses you, and,
lost in the contemplation of its varied wonders
—awe-stricken at its bewildering magnitude—
you will realize, perhaps, more vividly than you
ever did before, the grandeur of the Omnipotent
Creator, and the boundlessness of His attributes.
Ascending, on the wings of thought, into the
vault of heaven, your attention is first arrested
by the monarch of our system, there enthroned
in his aérial palace. To form a notion of his
dimensions, you have to imagine a globe so
enormous as to fill, not only space equal to that
enclosed within the orbit of the moon, but in
addition an interval beyond the orbit nearly as
great as that within—to acquire an idea of the
extent of surface covered by that gigantic solar
disc, you have again to set imagination on the
stretch, and endeavour, by its magic aid, to pic
ture to yourself an area comprising two billions
and a-half of square miles! But scarcely can
164 THE CATHOLIC OFFERING.

even over-taxed imagination embrace a field so

mighty 1 Wainly do your dazzled eyes attempt
to rest on that world of glory—its bulk exceed
ing that of the earth by more than a million
of times; its circumference so great that, to
travel round it, would require eighty of our
years, at the rate of ninety miles a day; one
mere spot on its surface measuring fifty thousand
miles in diameter, another twenty-three thou
sand 1 The soul dilates at the thought of space
so vast, yet this is but the beginning of the jour
ney into the limitless regions above. From the
sun, cross one after the other to the planetary
tracks, separated, as they are, by millions of
miles; contemplate, as you proceed, the worlds
of space lying within the orbit of each sun-lit
wanderer through the heavens, as well as the
mighty chasms dividing each particular pathway
from the next in succession. When you reach
Uranus, eighteen hundred millions of miles will
separate you from the sun. To enable you to
estimate the size of the orbit described at that
inconceivable distance from the central lumi
nary, you are told, that had a body been set in
motion at one of its extremities at the time of
man's creation, it would yet be far from the oppo
site point, though urged on since incessantly, at
the speed of fifty miles an hour. Press onwards
still, until the remotest of the planets arises
 THE CATHOLIC OFFERING. 165

before you, thousands of millions of miles away

from sun and earth; beyond that extreme orbit
lies a gulf that numbers cannot measure, and
thought can scarcely span ; and on the confines
of the abyss, far above the revolutions of planets
and comets—far away, incomprehensibly far—
you will meet a new system—another portion of
God's great universe—the world of stars, glorious
suns, all but infinite in number, immense in
magnitude, refulgent beyond the power of fancy
to imagine, one of them equal in intrinsic
brightness to two—another to fourteen or more
—of the suns of our firmament; and yet so dis
tant, so inconceivably distant, that they seem to
earth but as little shining atoms, caught from
some wandering sunbeam, and launched, tremu
lous and bright, to twinkle and glitter in the
azure dome above. Still pressing onward,
higher and higher ever, you will meet, at last,
another system, the remote star system, emphati
cally styled “star dust,” because of the impossi
bility of resolving it by any yet discovered
power of artificial vision into a shape more
definite. You will find that the golden globes
of the far-off skies are not only divided from
the planetary orbs by immeasurable space, but
separated, in like manner, from one another;
that stars which, to the unassisted eye, appear
single, are discovered on inspection, by the tele
166 THE CATHOLIC OFFERING.

scope, to form systems of two, three, four, or

more suns, linked together by some mysterious
bond; that, in addition to their other glories,
the multiple stars present the beautiful pheno
menon of variety of tints in the light emitted;
that, in obedience to the laws imposed by their
great Creator, they perform certain revolutions
in certain periods, ranging, in the case of those
binary stars which have as yet been accurately
observed, from forty to twelve hundred years.
As periodic time necessarily keepspace with size
of orbit, well may you start at sight of the
mighty path which centuries are needed to tra
vel over. Well may you bow down, and adore,
as you find the mind's vision bounded, where
ever it attempts to rest, by interminable space;
fields of space stretching around; chasms of space
yawning beneath; unfathomed gulfs of space
seeming to swallow up the very soul; so that,
overwhelmed, prostrate, in the presence of infi
nity, one distinct thought alone is left to it, one
ejaculation into which to resolve that thought—
“O Lord! how great are thy works " (Ps.
xci. 6.) “And how vast is the place of thy pos
session" (Baruch, iii. 24.)
Who can study the wonderful lessons of the
science of astronomy, even in its simple elements,
and not feel that God is mighty and glorious !
Great, we know, must be the Creator who drew
 THE CATHOLIC OFFERING. 167

from nothing this beauteous world of ours; but

ohl how our notions of his grandeur expand;
how our ideas of his majesty rise and enlarge,
as if our limited minds could not contain them,
when we discover that this world is but one of
countless myriads of worlds; that the system to
which it belongs is but one of unnumbered sys
tems; that the stars which look at us with their
bright eyes, as if to remind us that immortal
souls destined to outlive even their glories, should
ever tend upwards, and never grovel on earth—
are but scattered samples of multitudes of similar
suns beyond, unseen as yet, and perhaps destined
to remain for ever unseen by mortal eye; that
the many-shaped nebulae, which appear no more
than patches of luminous matter, form, in truth,
clusters of stars, many of them counting ten or
twenty thousand bright suns within their com
paratively confined limits; that the mysterious
comets, which now and then come into view, as
if merely to add a new feature to the magnifi
cent variety of the heavens, are, like the other
tenants of space, innumerable ! Our poor,
finite minds swell, as one grandeur after another
is developed. God's greatness arises visibly
before us, as the wonderful works of His hands
strike on our vision. The shadow of His im
mensity envelopes our souls, as we send a timid
glance into the deep world which has no boun
168 THE CATHOLIC OFFERING.

dary but infinity, and yet is filled to its remotest

extremity by His presence. A glimmering of
His loveliness dawns on our spirits, when we
recollect that all the splendour of the suns of the
universe, and all the beauty of the skies, bathed
in the liquid light of early morning, or clad in
the cloudless azure of summer mid-day, or
painted in the glowing hues of evening, or
studded with the sparkling gems of night, are,
in their united light and beauty, but an image—
a faded image—of the glory which was bright
before created light was known, and the beauty
that was fair, ere yet it had impressed its out
lines on material things.
The study of the wonders of the skies tends to
inspire knowledge of self, as well as knowledge
of God. In view of our Maker's majesty how
small we feell—so very small, that did not Faith
assert the contrary, we might very naturally
deem ourselves too insignificant for His notice.
Self-esteem cannot find room in a soul which
has deeply studied the lessons of God's greatness;
and thus it happens, that human science, so
pride-inspiring when pursued in the spirit of
blind self-conceit—so perilous when followed up
as an end, and not as a means, becomes to the
heart that loves God, and seeks in study only
how it may know Him better, a source of in
creased humility. The farther it extends its
 Tii E CATHOLIC OFFERING. 169

researches, the more profoundly does it humble

itself in view of that abyss of eternal wisdom in
whose depths its own atom of information is
absorbed as a drop of water in the ocean; the
more deeply does it adore the everlasting Source
of all knowledge; the more cordially does it
confess its own ignorance and blindness, dark
ness and incapacity.
Yet, while that heart feels itself but a mere
speck, a very atom in the midst of God's vast
universe, it knows, that atom as it is, it has a
place to fill in that great system—a part to ac
complish. It knows that He who marked for
each twinkling star its peculiar dwelling place
in the sky, and traced for each wandering planet
its individual pathway on which none other
must encroach, has destined it to subserve cer
tain ends, and in its own small way to contribute
to the order of the great whole. From this con
viction arises a new impression—love for Him,
who though so good, disdains not to occupy His
eternal mind with its concerns, and prodigally
to provide for its wants; and in proportion as its
love grows warm, so does its disengagement
from created things increase, and its desire of
union with the everlasting Fountain of all being
gain strength. And when the petty vexations,
or perhaps the real cares of life press heavily on
it, how calming to its irritation, how soothing to
Q
170 THE CATHOLIC OFFERING.

its sorrow, to ascend in spirit among the shining

orbs above, and leaving earth's turmoil far be
hind, realize in that silent solitude how small are
in truth the pains to which a nearer view lends
imaginary magnitude. “How insignificant this
world appears,” it exclaims with St. Ignatius,
“when I look at the heavens !" How great,
how glorious, how good is God, and how little
and worthless is all beside Him I
The inferences to be deduced from the other
sciences are precisely similar. Take, for instance,
the interesting subject of light and its properties,
and with the lamp of religion for your guide,
you will see how closely interwoven with every
line of its teaching, is the greatness of God, and
His goodness to His creatures. You will be told
at the onset of the study, that the precise nature
of light cannot be satisfactorily defined, although
learned and ingenious theories have been formed
to account for its origin. But while interested
by those theories, and perhaps astonished at the
amount of investigation they display, you will
be satisfied to learn from the holy words of divine
inspiration, that it was the power of God which
drew forth the light from some deep fountain of
splendour called into being by His word, and
His paternal hand which sent it forth on its
mission of mercy to man—not only a harbinger
of gladness, but a rich dispenser of substantial
 THE CATHOLIC OFFERING. 171

blessings; and happy in feeling that it was no

other hand than His that bestowed a gift so pre
cious, you will proceed with redoubled interest
to inquire how far it has added to your happi
ness, or contributed to your welfare. What does
science tell you on the subject? That without
light, and an atmosphere adapted like our own
to reflect and refract its rays, we should have no
soft twilight to herald the coming, and retard
the departure of the closing day; no cheerful
awakening of glad nature to dewy morning's
smiles; no deep blue sky to envelope earth in
the radiance of heaven; no verdure in the mea
dows to refresh the sight; no green drapery on
the trees to brighten the face of creation; no
colouring in the flower to fill the mind with
wonder at its variety, and the heart with rapture
at its beauty. These, and similar sources of
enjoyment, are not, it is true, essentially neces
sary to man's positive well-being, yet how much
of the intellectual pleasure of life depends on
their existence Without them, of how many
exquisite, refining, spiritualizing emotions should
we be bereft, and how sweetly do they therefore
manifest the love of Him, who, in creating the
world, provided not only for our absolute wants,
but even for our rational joys! Considerably,
however, as on investigation, we find the exis
tence of light to contribute to our comforts,
172 THE CATHOLIC OF FERING.

science teaches that this end is but secondary,

compared with the far more important functions
it discharges for the well-being of creation.
Each ray of light that flies from the sun, can not
only be decomposed into seven colours, to paint
the sky and flower, and clothe the rainbow in
its glory; but is still farther separable into three
different forces, each invisibly exercising a dis
tinct and most powerful influence on the vegeta
ble world; each charged with its own peculiar
office, and responsible for its own peculiar oper
ations; each found alternately to preponderate,
not only at different seasons of the year, but even
at different hours of the day, as if gifted with
instinct to comprehend the varying exigencies
of the vegetable tribes; each performing its own
individual task, yet always so as to combine
with the others; thus by the joint agency of all,
to perfect the work dependent on their co-oper
ation. To one of these wonderful forces it is
assigned, for instance, to penetrate the soil, and,
in unison with other influences, develope life in
the little seed buried beneath its surface, while to
the other two it is given to impart to the young
plant at a later period, its full perfection of form
and brilliancy of hue. The solidity of the trunk
of the tree and stem of the shrub; the bright and
varied green of the plant; the decomposition of
carbonic acid gas, and consequent exhalation of
 THE CATHOLIC OFFERING. 173

oxygen by the vegetable world—all are due to

the separate presence of one of the three, while
to the no less marvellous agency of another we
are indebted for the golden maturity of the
waving harvest, the genial warmth of earth and
air, and the phenomenon of the wind in all its
phases, from the refreshing breeze to the raging
Storm.

In considering the effects of the sun's rays

on the earth, we cannot but admire and wonder
at the precision with which the distance of that
luminary has been calculated, so as to insure to
each portion of our planet exactly that degree of
his influence which its welfare needs, and no
more. Nearer, his fierce rays would bring
destruction; further off, their power would be
insufficient. The frail beauties of our gardens
would perish if exposed to a higher temperature,
while the glories of the tropics would fade, and
their luxuriance give place to the sterility of
northern regions, were solar influence diminished
by increased distance. The hand that held the
balance was the loving hand of a merciful Father;
the eye that scanned the distance was the eye of
Omniscience; therefore it is that the balance has
been so nicely poised, the distance so accurately
measured, the wants of the lowly floweret of the
wilderness provided for as wisely, as effectually,
Q2
174 THE CATHOLIC OFFERING.

and as tenderly as those of the gorgeous produc

tions of tropical lands.
With these facts before our eyes, how thrilling
the interest with which each passing beam of
light becomes invested 1 That trembling ray
which flits across your vision, is the same magic,
mysteriously gifted, almost living ray which
weaves for the firmament its robe of azure, and
tints the fairy garments of the many coloured
flowers with hues brilliant as its native skies;
which gives to the trunk of the majestic lord of
the forest, solidity and durability; which first
beautifies our earthly dwelling place, and then,
with a two-fold power of conferring enjoyment,
reveals the beauty it has created; which, by its
varied influences on vegetation, provides for man
his sustenance; which draws from every leaf, and
plant, and blade of grass, that full supply of pure
air, essential no less to animal than vegetable
life; which sends the majestic vessel bounding
onwards through the waters, to open communica
tion between lands severed by thousands of miles
of ocean, to facilitate the operations of commerce,
to bear to far off lands the comforts of civiliza
tion, and carry to benighted tribes the blessings
of religion. These are truths not to be learned
without deep interest, but we must not content
ourselves with simple enjoyment of the mental
 THE CATHOLIC OFFERING. 175

banquet, nor ever again hail the dawning of the

holy light, without sending a thought of love and
an aspiration of gratitude to Him who endowed
it with powers so vast, and influences so benefi
cent. Nature is a wonderful volume, whence they
who read may learn much of the greatness and
goodness of the Creator. Let this ever be your
first, chief aim in the perusal of its records; and
when your eyes have opened to the marvels
amidst which you have, perhaps, hitherto lived
unconscious and unheeding, your heart will turn
with fresh love to their omnipotent Author. You
will be startled at each new glimpse of the varied
influences ever in energetic operation around you,
but with the new light will come new reverence
for the great prime mover of the vast machine.
Let no one, then, say that science is useless. It
has taught you that mysteries, deep and nume
rous, surround the little field flower, with its tiny
leaves, and modest tints, and brief existence; and
a solemn feeling, akin to holy veneration for
sacred things, steals over you, as, with eyes of
faith, you contemplate the many unseen agencies
necessary to make that small work perfect; while
glowing love warms your heart, and adoring
homage bows your soul, as, guided by the same
faith, you carry your gaze upwards from the
instruments to the all-potent hand which directs
them so unerringly. No; human science is not
176 THE CATHOLIC OFFERING.

useless, but if pursued in the right spirit, may, it

is quite clear, be rendered available to the soul's
improvement in a far more important science—
that of the saints.
If we turn from the study of science to the
perusal of the world's political history, still may
we see God revealed at every step; still may we
find our minds rising to a better knowledge of
His attributes, and our hearts kindling with an
increasing love of them. While His glory is
inscribed, in gigantic letters of gold, on every sun
that glitters in the sky, and equally manifested
in each of the other wonders which science offers
to our contemplation, no less can the hand of His
providence be traced in the mighty changes
which the records of history show us to have
swept over the face of society: since its first
organization. The revolutions of nations; the
successions.of dynasties; the fall of long established
sovereignties; therise of new empires on the ruins
of the old; the ceaseless vicissitudes which form
the most prominent characteristics of the world's
history, how prolific are all in instruction l how
rich in food for useful reflection |
To read of the days that are gone, and of the
restless thoughts and busy projects which then
stirred the minds and agitated the hearts of those
who have long since passed away; to follow the
historian as he narrates the wondrous achieve
 THE CATHOLIC OFFERING. 177

ments of some renowned hero of old, alternately

depicting his courage as a warrior, his skill as a
tactician, his wisdom as a commander; dwelling
now on his insatiable thirst for dominion, and
filling up the picture at last with his mighty
conquests and almost world-extended fame;—
this surely is to learn a profitable lesson on the
nothingness of sublunary things, and the futility
of all speculations limited to the present time.
Where is now the conqueror whose very name
struck terror into the hearts of nations? Long
since mingled with the dust! Where is the eye
that flashed fury on the foe, and burned with
the unholy fire of passion in the hour of mortal
conflict? Dim, extinct, closed for ever! Where
is the voice that rose clear and high above the
sound of trumpet and the clash of arms, and all
the din of battle, to cheer a host on its way to
victory? Silent—hushed—to be heard on earth
no more | What now remains to the hero of his
triumphs? A grave! There is the term of his
ambitious aspirings; there the boundary of his
dominions; there a resting-place at last for his
restless heart. And if the glory of nations has
passed away like that of individuals; if empires
themselves have crumbled to dust like the hands
which swayed their destinies; if not only a
throne has been overturned, but a great people
borne away in its ruins; if ancient history
178 THE CATHOLIC OFFERING.

presents a succession of vast monarchies only to

exhibit in the same view the cradle of one
resting on the tomb of the other; if modern
history unfolds a new page only to develop new
vicissitudes in the political condition of society;
if we find that the records of former days are
now only among the things that were, while
those of the present have usurped their impor
tance, to be themselves supplanted by the
interests of the future, do we not learn from all
that the glory of the world is too evanescent to
possess intrinsic value?—Again; does not the
narration of the horrors perpetrated for the
gratification of personal ambition or the attain
ment of personal aggrandisement, teach us to
shudder at the fearful consequences of unre
strained passion; and should not the tale of all
the privations cheerfully endured, all the positive
hardships voluntarily embraced, all the self-denial
freely encountered only for the realization of an
earthly object, raise a blush at our pusillanimity
in the prosecution of our great and only real
affair—the salvation and sanctification of our
souls?
The perusal of history teaches us also the in
sufficiency of human things to satisfy the heart.
Sesostris extended his empire from the Danube
to the Ganges; inscriptions on pillars of stone
proclaimed him “king of kings, and lord of
 THE CATHOLIC OFFERING. 179

lords;" conquered sovereigns supplied in his

regard the place of beasts of burden, and drew
his triumphal chariot through the most public
streets of his capital, and yet, in the end, he put
a term to his own existence, which the loss of
sight had rendered insupportable. Alexander
wept because having pushed his conquests to the
farthest attainable limits, the possibility of gaining
new victories and acquiring additional fame
seemed hopelessly cut off. “And Solomon, who
exceeded all the kings of the earth in riches and
wisdom, whose face all the earth desired to see,
whose wisdom all desired to hear, who made
silver to be as plentiful in Jerusalem as stones,
and cedars to be as common as sycamores which
grow in the plains” (3 Kings, x.); “who heaped
together for himself the wealth of kings and
provinces, and surpassed in magnificence all that
were before him,” (Ecc. ii. 8, 9): he whose will
was law, and whose desires must have been satis
fied almost before they could be formed; even he
exclaimed in bitterness and emptiness of heart,
“I was weary of my life when I saw that all
things under the sun are evil, and all vanity and
vexation of spirit,” (Ibid. 17). “Vanity of
vanities, and all things are vanity " (Ibid. xii. 8)
So true is it, that the whole universe, with its
countless worlds, could not replenish one small
heart!
180 THE CATHOLIC OFFERING.

Again, in studying the varied history of the

human race, we are struck, and that most for
cibly, by the almost visible manifestation of
the hand of Providence, in its phases and
fluctuations. Revolutions of empires are ren
dered subservient to God's high designs, either
for the diffusion of religion and morality or the
punishment of crime. Sometimes the destruction
of a nation is the means employed to check the
progress of idolatry; sometimes, again, the deso
lation of a whole land is made to involve the
chastisement of pride and impiety. Human
agents unconsciously accomplish the high will of
heaven, and scourge the sinner, all ignorant of
the destiny they are fulfilling. This truth, so
clearly and constantly exemplified in the history
of the people of God, is also frequently and
strikingly illustrated in profane history. For
instance, we read that Nebuchodonosor profited
of the internal troubles which distracted Egypt,
to invade that country, and carry his victorious
arms from one extremity of it to the other. To
human view, which sees no farther than the
surface, the connecting link between cause and
event seems quite apparent, and the combina
tion of circumstances perfectly natural. Yet we
shall find on enquiry that the cause lay deeper
than mortal eye could discern, and that the event
which seemed merely its natural result, had been,
 The CATHolic offering. 181

in truth, pre-ordained by high heaven for a speci

fic end. God had denounced heavy judgments
against the pride of the Egyptian monarch, and
partly with a view to carry out the sentence,
partly to indemnify the Assyrian king for his
hitherto unrequited toils in the taking of Tyre,
he abandoned Egypt to the latter. “It is won
derful,” says the historian Rollin, “to hear the
Creator himself unveiling his designs on the sub
ject, and few passages in Scripture give a clearer
idea of the supreme dominion which God exercises
over the kings and princes of the earth. “Son of
man,’ said the Almighty to the prophet, ‘Nabu
chodonosor, king of Babylon, hath made his army
to undergo hard service against Tyre, ... and there
hath no reward been given him, nor his army,
for the service that he rendered me against it.'
“Therefore,' thus saith the Lord God, ‘behold I
will set Nabuchodonosor in the land of Egypt,
and he shall take her multitude, and rifle the
spoils thereof, and it shall be wages for his army:
and for the service that he hath done me against
it, I have given him the land of Egypt, because
he hath laboured for me, saith the Lord God,'
(Ezek. xxix. 18, 19, 20.) “And he shall
kindle a fire in the temple of the gods of Egypt,
and he shall burn them, and he shall carry them
away captives: and he shall array himself with
the land of Egypt as a shepherd putteth on his
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182 THE CATHOLIC OFFERING.. "

garment, and he shall go forth from thence in

peace,’ (Jer. xliii. 12.)”
“Thus it is that all who govern find themselves
subject to a greater power. They do more or
less than they intend, and their exploits never
fail to lead to unforeseen results. They cannot
anticipate the course of events, still less can they
regulate or control it. He alone holds all in his
hand, to whom the future is as the present; who
overrules all decisions, and possesses dominion
over all time. Thereby is verified the saying of
the apostle, that God is ‘the blessed and only
mighty, the King of kings and Lord of lords,”
(1 Tim. vi. 15); whose peace is unalterable;
who sees everything change without changing
himself; whose immutable will causes all human
revolutions; who gives and takes away power;
who transfers authority from one individual, one
dynasty, and one nation, to another, to show
that they hold it but as a temporary loan, while
in Him alone it resides by absolute right of
possession.”—(Bossuet's Discourse on Universal
History.)
To pursue the subject farther would be both
tedious and unnecessary. Enough has been said
to show, that to the eye intent on tracing it out,
the connection between the sacred and profane
in study is clearly discernible; and that with
attention to keep it always steadily in view,
 THE CATHOLIC OF FERING. 183

the acquisition of human learning may, as

more than once observed, become subservient
to the soul's advancement in piety, and the heart
lay up new and ever increasing stores of virtue,
while the mind enlarges its sphere of information.
“The earth is the Lord's, and the fulness
thereof.” (Ps. xxiii. 1); the world, material and
moral, is full of his majesty. “The heavens
show forth his glory, and the firmament decla
reth the work of his hands,” (Ibid. xviii. 1);
“His voice is on the waters,” (Ibid. xxviii. 3)
and on the earth, and in the air. It comes to us
in the soft murmur of the silver brook, and
the loud roar of ocean's billows; it speaks from
the flitting cloud on high, and the sea's deep
caves beneath; it whispers in the fragrance of
the scented flower, and the sighing of the breeze
through the forest leaves; in the warble of the
bird and the hum of the insect; in the flash of
the lightning and the crash of the thunder; in
the revolutions of nations and the overthrow of
empires; from all sides it comes; from all places,
from all things. The multiplied voices of crea
tion are but the echo of the mighty voice of
God. Let us then never hear the one without
listening with the ear of the heart for the other,
and assuredly we shall not be disappointed;
assuredly our studies will but unite us more
closely to the source of all knowledge, and
184 THE CATHOLIC OFFERING.

plunge us more deeply into the fountain of all

light.
While you are taught that you cannot devote
your leisure hours to a more profitable end than
the continuance of the studies only begun at
school, you must, however, carefully remember
that even profitable study may be attended with
very serious evils; and you must, therefore, be
most cautious to avoid all errors in applying to
yours. You will err in your motive if you
study from a love of display; and you will err
by excess if you follow your scientific pursuits
with extreme ardour, or to the neglect of any
domestic duty.
There is something so elevating in knowledge,
something so soul-expanding in the dawning of
a new thought, something so calculated to raise
the mind to the Almighty Creator in the dis
covery of a new marvel in his works, that it seems
strange how any one who really loves know
ledge, can care to pursue it merely as a means of
pedantic display. That it is thus used we know,
but we have only to grieve over this sad per
version of its high and holy destiny, and to
ensure that the mistakes of others do not become
our own by imitation. Never make an exhibition
of your learning such as it may be. Love study,
as the dear companion of your solitary hours,
and the useful ally which has saved you many a
 THE CATHOLIC OFFERING. 185

time from yielding to indolence, or seeking a

pastime in puerilities; enjoy it as enabling you
to understand, and, therefore, take an interest
in other subjects of conversation besides the on
dits, or, perhaps, the detraction of the day; but
keep your enjoyment and your stores to yourself,
when you are not required by circumstances to
communicate either. Conceited display, besides
that it is always repulsive, never fails to defeat
its end, for it is a well established maxim that
the most prone to exhibit are, in general, those
who have least to show, the really well informed
being invariably the most humble, diffident, and
retiring.
You will be secure against pursuing study to
the detriment of duty, if you look on it merely
as a profitable means of filling up those spare
hours which no definite obligation claims from
you, and never extend it beyond them. Thus
limited, it will prove a very innocent enjoyment
and a very effectual preservative against idleness.
That you may read and study profitably, you
must not do so hastily and superficially, but
always tranquilly, deliberately, and methodically.
Before you conclude, cast a rapid mental glance
over the leading points of your subject, making
sure that you have not only seized your author's
meaning, but transferred to memory the facts
you have been perusing, with their connecting
R 2
186 THE CATHOLIC OFFERING.

links. In reading, observe both the beauties of

good, and the defects of imperfect, composition,
and thus you will acquire a useful lesson for the
improvement of your style both of writing and
conversing.
Never allow yourself to have many books or
many studies in hand together; finish one book
thoroughly, and be able to render yourself a
tolerable account of its contents before you begin
another. Beside that the contrary practice fosters
a dangerous frivolity of mind and inconstancy
of purpose, it defeats the object of your reading;
for surely you cannot be expected to retain a
quantity of information, not only superficially
gleaned, but absolutely dissimilar in character.
Each new subject, among a great variety, will
naturally erase the impression produced by the
preceding, or, if any traces of such desultory
studies remain, they will probably combine into
a heterogeneous mass, from which you will find
it impossible to separate precise information for
practical use. “Read a great deal, but only a
few books,” was the maxim of the philosophers of
old, and, if you adopt it for yours, experience
will prove that it has lost nothing of its wisdom
in the lapse of time.
“Happy is the man who pursues knowledge
with a pure heart and simple intention, dis
covering at every step, new causes for divine
 THE CATHOLIC OFFERING. 187

love and for increased humility; applying all

the information he acquires to the good of his
fellow creatures, and to the perfection of his own
virtues | O Science 1 how frivolous are the
efforts of thy votaries when they mistake thy
uses, and miscalculate thy power! O Virtue !
how ignorant is science when compared to thee!”
(Gerald Griffin.)
188 THE CATHOLIC OFFERING.

CHAPTER X.

FIRST FRUIT OF THE SPIRIT OF FAITH.—THE

PERFECT DISCHARGE OF HOME DUTY.

HoME is to you as it should be to every woman—

your world, your empire, your sun, your centre
of attraction; a worthy sphere for your energies;
a legitimate field for the exercise of your accom
plishments, acquirements, and varied mental
resources. It seems but a little while to look
back to the day when you left that home, a
happy, thoughtless, petted child; how different
are your feelings on your return to it, supposing
you to have made a good use of the years which
have elapsed since then, and learned to know
the nature and responsibility of your home
duties! All the sweet recollections of your
childhood are grouped around it; its image casts
no cloud on your memory, no shadow on your
heart; it is all bathed in sunlight and steeped in
brightness; it is what it ever was to you—home.
But happy as you have always known it, you
feel that your high mission now is to render it
happier still. Good and virtuous as you re
member it to have ever been, you know that
after receiving the blessing of a religious edu
cation, your peculiar obligation and high prero
 THE CATHOLIC OFFERING. 189

gative will be still farther to extend the dominion

of piety; still more firmly to consolidate the
reign of virtue, not by avowedly and perhaps
arrogantly assuming the office of teacher, but
by silently displaying in your own conduct the
beauty and the attractions of true practical reli
gion. This is your high mission; this your
first duty; this your responsible position. In
pursuance of so great an end, your maxim and
your practice must be to become all to all, and
for the realisation of this noble object to forget
yourself.
The first claimants on your heart-service are,
of course, your parents, if you are so happy as
still to possess them. To enumerate all the
motives which religion supplies for the faithful
discharge of your duty in their regard, would
indeed be but wearisome repetition to you who
have been so fully instructed on the point. If
you should ever be inclined to forget those
motives, appeal to your own heart, and unless it
be a very hardened and a very perverted one, it
will at once admit their existence and yield to
their force. But surely there can be no appre
hension of this. You never can forget your
parents' love for you, though it is perfectly true
that you never can know its extent, never fathom
its depth, never measure its height, never see its
termination, never comprehend all the self-sacri
190 The CATHOLIC OFFERING.

fice, all the solicitude, all the devotion, all the

benefits by which its solidity has been proved,
dating from the hour when it first gathered bright
and warm as summer sunshine around your
cradle, to screen you from all peril, and if its
mighty power could achieve it, even from all
pain. How many days of anxiety and nights
of watchfulness did you not cost them, while, in
the helpless dependence of infancy, your little
feeble frame lay restless and fever-tossed on the
bed of sickness, each moan of suffering a dagger
to their tender hearts, each tear a sorrow more
intense than if it were personall Oh! what a
weight of parental love had accumulated on
your baby head before you were even conscious
of its existence | Many years have perhaps
passed away since those early manifestations of
its depth and earnestness, yet has that first love
ever cooled? that first vigilance relaxed? that
first solicitude diminished? Has not your
amount of obligation, on the contrary, increased
and multiplied as time flowed on ? Sum up, if
you can, all the forbearance of those patient,
loving parents; their readiness to excuse your
faults and follies—their promptitude to forgive.
Pass in review all their earnest desires for your
happiness, their constant efforts to procure you
the innocent enjoyments suited to your age, their
solicitude for your early initiation in principles
 THE CATHOLIC OFFERING. 191

of true piety, their anxiety for your welfare in

after life, their zealous efforts to ensure you a
liberal and enlightened education. Surely, next
to God, you owe them everything; from the
first lesson of virtue instilled by their own lips
into your infant mind, to the last advice breathed
into your ear by those to whom they transferred
the important task of your later training. Yes;
under God, you owe them all; food and raiment,
education and accomplishments; happiness, nay,
in one sense, religion itself—your first best
treasure. And now your most eager desire is,
doubtless, to indemnify them as far as your
poor means allow, for all they have done and
endured for you; and to shed around their de
clining years that same holy sunlight of love
which, but for them, had not perhaps rested in
brightness on your cradle, and danced in glad
ness along your childhood's path. Love, although
a tribute of the heart, will not, if genuine, con
fine itself to the heart, but will prove its strength
and solidity by exterior manifestations. The
truth of yours for your parents will be evinced
by respect, docility, confidence, and affectionate,
active services.
As you know, perfection is not to be found
among mortals; to expect it would be vain.
Your parents, dear and good as they are to you,
and estimable for their own worth, are still, like
192 THE CATHOLIC OF FERING.

all the rest of the children of Adam, liable to

human frailties, from which may sometimes
spring trials of your feelings, and contradictions
of your inclinations. Should this be the case,
should it happen that you have anything to bear
from them, will you permit yourself to forget all
they have borne from you:-the irritability of
sickness, the pettishness of infancy, the wayward
ness of childhood, perhaps the insubordination of
girlhood? Those arms clasped you in love, oh!
how many times' that bosom pillowed your
head, while you slept your tranquil infant slum
ber, and dreamt your happy childish dream.
Those lips were ever invoking blessings on your
path, and uttering words of endearment which
never can be forgotten all through life, but come
again and again on the heart's listening ear, like
the distant echo of some sweet, low song, heard
long ago as you stood at your mother's knee,
mute and still from very excess of enjoyment.
Will you forget all this, and suffer resentment
against the authors of your being to live one
moment in your heart, whatever be the provo
cation, real or imaginary? If they seem exact
ing, think how much more so you have yourself
been in their regard. If they now and again
betray an infirmity of temper, think how often
they have patiently borne with, and made allow
ances for the less excusable ebullitions of yours.
 THE CATHOLIC OFFERING. 193

If they appear hard to please, remember all

their tender anxiety to procure pleasure for you.
Endure lovingly any trial to which they may
subject you, and never suffer a hasty word to
them, or a disrespectful comment of them, to
escape your lips. Defer to their opinions, ac
commodate yourself even to their peculiarities,
and however apparent to others these may be,
let them be to you as things unseen. Address
them always in the tone and language of pro
found respect, and never with that pert flippancy
so inconsistent under all circumstances with the
prescriptions of ordinary civility, but so abso
lutely intolerable towards parents. Read to
them in the evenings, if they like it, or converse,
or call on your musical acquirements, as they
may prefer; but whatever be the mode of show
ing it, let respect for their presence, and defer
ence to their wishes, be at all times and under
all circumstances your ruling principle.
2. Confide in them fully and frankly; consult
them on all matters, little and great; conceal
nothing from them, not even your imprudences
and follies, should you have been betrayed into
either; form no friendships, make no acquaint
ances, embark in no epistolary correspondences,
read no books, without their distinct knowledge
and unreserved approval, and you will thus be
secured against very many dangers of which you
S
 194 THE CATHOLIC OFFERING.

now little dream. It is the error, and often the

misfortune of the young to be caught by first
appearances. Deceived by empty professions,
which in the yet unimpaired freshness of their
own guileless hearts, they believe sincere;
dazzled by the showy external which hides a
depth of frivolity and heartlessness; fascinated
by the elegance of deportment, which is but the
mantle of an evil temper and a selfish spirit; fan
cying that under this combination of exterior
graces and attractions they have found the friend
whom their imaginations represented as neces
sary to their happiness, they rush into the snare,
and too often discover their mistake at a sad
cost. The truth which your dazzled eyes cannot
discern will be easily perceptible to the calm
observation of your parents. If, looking on
them as your first and best friends, you refer
your doubts to the decision of their wise tribu
nal, their superior wisdom and experience will
very surely supply for your want of both. With
safer guides to direct them than an enthusiastic
imagination and impulsive feelings, they will
enquire, not whether the object of your admira
tion is externally prepossessing — finished in
manner, and perfect in address—not whether her
lips seem formed only for honied words and com
plimentary phrases; but whether she is a Chris
tian, in the true sense of the appellation; whether
 THE CATHOLIC OFFERING. 195

she lives for God or for the world; whether her

fascinations are reserved for company, or called
into habitual requisition at home; whether she
is sensible or silly; reserved and retiring, or fri
volous and fond of display. They will do what
you cannot: separate the gold from the dross, the
wheat from the chaff, and perhaps, in conclu
sion, remove a veil from your eyes, and show
you the precipice, from which only your confi
dence in their prudence and their love has
saved you. So of books, so of correspondence,
so of pastimes: the rule applies to all.
3. Obey their least directions most punctually,
even though you may not be able to discern
the necessity or utility of doing so. We are
bad judges in our own cause; self-love is a
powerful advocate, which sometimes speaks so
loudly as quite to drown the voice of reason. It is
fortunate for us that we are not left at the mercy
of its false eloquence, but obliged by God's ordi
nance to yield to judges more dispassionate, and
guides more steady and secure. Your parents
will be to you those safe guides, provided you
implicitly submit to all their arrangements,
cheerfully sacrificing the pleasures, and avoid
ing the associations they condemn, and with
equal readiness substituting those they recom
mend; not reserving your obedience for those
more important occasions, which are of rare
196 THE CATHOLIC OFFERING.

occurrence, but making it the practice of every

day, and every hour of every day;-obeying,
not with murmurs on your lips, and sullen
ness on your brow, but with that sweetness of
manner which adds so greatly to the charm
of your compliance in the eyes of your parents,
and so immeasurably to its merit in the sight
of God—the great ultimate object of all the
obedience, which for His love you render to
his earthly representatives. -

4. The amount of active service to be rendered

at home will, of course, depend entirely on your
parents' wishes. Your mother may not please
to transfer to you more than a partial super
intendence of household matters, or it may be
that she will feel relieved by resigning the
burden altogether. In either case undertake
lovingly the duties assigned; look on them as
inferior in importance only to your immediate
duties to God; devote to them your best ener
gies; never regret it, if they encroach on the
time you had set aside for your studies or other
personal pursuits, but renounce unhesitatingly
all other pursuits for these. If you are syste
matic and orderly in the discharge of domestic
duties, you will soon be able to secure ample
time also for the cultivation of your mind.—
Whether or not you are permitted to take a
part in household concerns, you will find, if you
 THE CATHOLIC OFFERING. 197

seek them, innumerable opportunities of render

ing service to your parents, not very important
ones, it is true, yet such as will equally manifest
your affection, and gratify its objects. There
are a thousand little nameless attentions which
love suggests, and the loving child delights to
pay, were it only for the sake of the approving
smile which is certain to reward them. Surely,
a parent's approving smile is to the true-hearted
child a rich recompense for every service, even
if it could be a troublesome or a fatiguing one.
In sickness, especially, you need not be told
that your place is by your parents' pillow; you
may be sure that no hand can smoothen it for
them as yours; that no music ever sounded to
them so sweet as the soft tones of your gentle
voice, and the all but noiseless tread of your
subdued footsteps; that no rich exotic ever
breathed such fragrance, or displayed such beauty
to their thinking, as does the simple garden
flower, destined by your thoughtful affection to
diffuse a ray of nature's brightness over that
solemn chamber; that no cordial could be so
reviving, no luxury so acceptable, as the refresh
ing draught prepared and administered by your
hand. And if it should be your destiny to
survive these precious parents—if that bed of
sickness should become the bed of death, then,
ohl then, in that momentous crisis, show that
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198 THE CATHOLIC OFFERING.

your love for them is stronger than even death.

Surmount the agonies, and still the wailings of
nature, that you may be enabled to discharge,
as a Christian should, the last all-important
duties of your high trust. See that spiritual aid
be provided in abundance, and the last con
soling, strengthening rites of religion adminis
tered in good time. Encourage them to holy
resignation and saintly disengagement; animate
their hope by the consideration of the infinite
merits of Jesus; support their confidence by the
view of the crucifix, or if your fortitude is not
equal to the task, commit it to safe hands, and
ensure for yourself this one consolation at least,
that after having been their comfort through
life, you were to them as their visible guardian
spirit in death, meriting that their expiring
blessing should fall rich and warm on your head,
there to rest until the day when the everlasting
crown of the dutiful child shall be added to it in
heaven.
Next on the list of your home duties, are
those you owe your brothers and sisters: com
prising forbearance, gentleness, and affectionate
services—all essential to the fulfilment of your
high mission as an angel of peace at home, and
each presupposing in its exercise fixed habits of
unselfishness. Forbearance requires, that in dif.
ferences of opinion on immaterial matters, you
 THE CATHOLIC OFFERING. 199

give up your own without contending; that you

endure little personal slights without manifesting
resentment; that you bear a rude, or sharp, or
sarcastic remark without seeming to hear it; in
other words, that you renounce your sensibilities
and forget yourself. Gentleness demands that
you add to the beauty of forbearance the still
farther charm of amiability of manner; and as
this can be accomplished only through control
over feeling, the necessity of self denial becomes
again apparent. The habit of forgetting self, or
remembering its claims only to sacrifice them,
will gradually lead to that control, and you will
come at last, through God's grace, not merely to
repress the rising word and check the half-impul
sive movement of irritation and anger, but so
perfectly to possess you soul in patience, that the
gentle smile on your lips may be but a reflection
of the calm of the unruffled spirit within. Fi
nally, to render your brothers and sisters the affec
tionate services they may require, you will again
have great need to be unselfish. Your own con
venience must be overlooked to consult theirs;
your own projects renounced, to co-operate in
carrying out their opposing plans; your own
pursuits given up, that their wishes may be ful
filled; and that, not once nor twice, but habitu
ally. What self-renunciation is demanded here !
If your brothers and sisters are grown, it will
200 THE CATHOLIC OFFERING.

be your duty to contribute to the enjoyment and

sociability of their home evenings, and for this
end to place at their disposal the accomplish
ments which you have acquired to little purpose,
if you imagine you can devote them to a better
end than the innocent gratification of those
around you. Elder brothers would be often
induced to spend their evenings blamelessly at
home, if that home were rendered attractive, and
those evenings cheerful and agreeable; and oh!
to what higher or holier object can the varied
resources of a well educated and highly accom
plished woman be directed, than that of shielding
from evil those she is bound to love! Wain and
useless, indeed, will all your accomplishments
prove, if you forget that home is the legitimate
theatre for their display.—It will also be turning
your literary acquirements and your accomplish
ments to a very profitable end, to assist your
younger brothers and sisters in their studies; to
explain or teach them their lessons, divesting
them of the technicalities in which lie so much
of children's difficulties; and to create an interest
in what they are learning, not only by bringing
it within the scope of their comprehension, but
by doing so, as far as possible, in an agreeable
and entertaining manner. You may not feel
inclined for the trouble of this. Teaching is
often very laborious, and very trying; but when
 THE CATHOLIC OFFERING. 201

you are tempted to feel it so, recal your maxim,

and proceed on your self-denying road. Be
patient and even-tempered, or you will not readily
acquire control over your little pupils; make
them love their teacher, and they will soon come
to take pleasure in their studies.
Again, your skill as a needle-woman should be
quite at the service of your brothers and younger
sisters; and, if your family be large, may be found
no inconsiderable acquisition. Of what use is
that dexterity on which you, perhaps, piqued
yourself at school, if it is to be displayed only in
the production of a few showy pieces of ornamen
tal work, and not placed at the service of all at
home, for more ordinary, and more practically
useful purposes? When no weightier duty claims
your time, you are no doubt fully justified in
gratifying your taste for fancy work; but in order
to be unselfish in your tastes as well as in your
feelings, you must first see that the wardrobes of
your brothers and younger sisters are in order,
and that no articles of theirs require repair. Order
is a household virtue of the highest rank, and
there is none you should more earnestly cultivate.
Accustom yourself to put everything into its own
place at once, and you will not only have an
orderly house, but will be spared the continually
recurring fatigue, with its attendant loss of time,
of having constantly, either to put matters to
202 THE CATHOLIC OFFERING.

rights, or to seek articles mislaid or lost, merely

from the neglect of this simple and easy practice.
See that your own room is always neat, and your
wardrobe in order, and then extend your watch
ful eye equally to those of the rest of the family.
This will be rendering them active and very
useful service, and that in a more important man
ner than is, at first sight, apparent. Your little
thoughtful attentions will assuredly win the love
which is the special reward of the amiable and
unselfish. That love will gradually widen the
sphere and strengthen the foundation of your
influence, and if you know how to use that
influence worthily, what an immense amount of
good it may produce! what an incalculable
amount of evil it may avert! You owe your
brothers and sisters, whether elder or younger,
the great duty of good example. How perfectly
will that duty be fulfilled in all its parts, if your
life is a perpetual exhibition of the self-sacrificing
spirit which cannot animate your conduct, unless
solid, practical piety has firmly established its
throne in your heart!
Besides your obligations to your parents, and
brothers, and sisters, the wide circle of your home
duties likewise embraces those to the servants
attached to your establishment. These are also
threefold:—consideration, mildness, and instruc
tlOn.
 THE CATHOLIC OFFERING. 203

Although the Almighty, in appointing the

varied conditions of his great family, was pleased
to permit gradations of rank and position, we
should not forget that we nevertheless do all
belong to the same great family; that those who
serve us are of the same nature as ourselves,
equally precious in the sight of the Creator of
all, and perhaps far more so, because of superior
moral worth and virtue. Although he permits
us to avail of their services, it was never His
intention that we should use them harshly,
address them imperiously, or overtax their
strength. Remembering that they have feelings
just like your own, treat them considerately;
ask them civilly for what you require; show
yourself obliged for their attention; do not over
burden them with work, but always calculate
carefully whether your orders and their capa
bilities as to time and strength correspond. Do
not call on them unnecessarily to render you
trifling assistance in matters you are very well
able to manage for yourself, but always try
rather to save, than to give them trouble. If
you have occasion to reprove them, do so with
moderation; speak mildly, and never disedify
them by loss of temper. If you irritate them
by severe reproaches, or a haughty tone and
manner, you expose them to overstep the bar
riers of the respect they owe to you; and their
 -

204 THE CATHOLIC OFFERING.

respect once lost, you will find it hard to regain

it, or to resume the control so necessary in your
relative positions. If you allow yourself to be
over-exacting with the servants in your parent's
house, are you not likely to prove a petty tyrant
over those destined for your immediate service
in the home you will hereafter call your own?
Attach your servants to you by consideration in
health, and kindness in sickness, and you will
find, when occasion offers, that they have hearts,
and kind and grateful ones too. Ensure their
respect by invariably showing that you respect
yourself, and you will find your directions obeyed
with punctuality and fidelity at least, if not with
alacrity and cheerfulness. Over-familiarity tends,
no less than over-harshness, to destroy the respect
of servants. They will reverence you while you
keep your own place—no longer. Avoid, then,
all familiar intercourse with them, not from
pride in your own station or contempt for theirs,
but simply because in addition to the reasons
already assigned, their companionship is not
calculated to improve you, owing to the nature
of their habitual associations, as well as to their
want of education. Kindness and gentleness
need never degenerate into familiarity; the two
are perfectly distinct, and the one quite as much
to be disapproved as the other is to be recom
mended.
 THE CATHOLIC OFFERING. 205

One of the most stringent duties of the heads

of families is, as you know, either personally to
impart, or at least to procure, religious instruction
for their servants. What more important, solid,
useful service can you render your parents, than
to relieve their consciences of this weighty
burden, by undertaking, with their permission,
the task of instructing their domestics in the
Christian doctrine, and seeing that ample time
and opportunity are afforded them for the dis
charge of their duty to God? This will, indeed,
be a meritorious service in the sight of the Most
High, and, if your parents comprehend their
own solemn responsibilities, a most acceptable
one in theirs. Do not refuse it to them, even
though it must, perhaps, entail trouble and self
sacrifice, remembering the maxim on which we
started:—that unselfishness must lie at the basis
of the perfect fulfilment of home duties.
Oh! how much of home's happiness and
harmony must depend on you! How much of its
brightness must emanate from you! How widely
must your influence extend, winding silently
through all its parts, descending invisibly through
all its gradations, encircling it round, without
seeming to do so; your even temper its undimmed
sunbeam; your cheerful voice its ever-flowing
song; your gentle sympathy in weal and woe
its common refuge; your very presence its bond
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206 THE CATHOLIC OFFERING.

of union. Love your home; be ever true to the

sacred instinct which draws you to it as to your
centre of attraction, and prefer its quiet, innocent,
holy, hiddenjoys, to the noisy, dissipating, empty,
unsatisfying amusements of the showy, heartless
world. You are not destined to spend your
whole existence in that home; the day must come
when you will quit it for another, but, wherever
that other is to be, whether in the cloister or in
the world, you will not fail to acquit yourself
worthily of your new obligations, and ensure the
happiness of those with whom you are destined
to pass the remainder of life, if you have faith
fully cultivated the self-immolating spirit which
must be the foundation of “home virtues.”
 THE CATHOLIC OFFERING. 207

CHAPTER XI.

SECOND FRUIT OF THE SPIRIT OF FAITH.—THE

REGULATION OF TEMPER.

WHY is not every home a happy home? Why

do we hear so often of unhappy homes, unhappy
wives, unhappy husbands, unhappy children,
unhappy servants? Why are we told that if a
city's multitudinous roofs could be raised in a
moment by the touch of some magician's wand,
and a bird's-eye view given of the interior, we
should be shocked and surprised at the strange
disproportion between the happy and the un
happy? The preponderance of evil temper over
good, supplies the ready answer to the query.
Evil temper is the firebrand which lights up the
flame of domestic discord; evil temper the engine
which enkindles the fury of passion; evil tem
per the power which sets in motion “that world
of iniquity,” the tongue; evil temper the cloud
which overcasts the soul's peace; evil temper the
tempest that scatters far and wide, and sweeps
away at last the elements of union and concord;
evil temper the canker-worm which eats away,
even to the very heart, the fair fruit of harmony
and contentment; evil temper the easy solution
208 THE CATHOLIC OFFERING.

of many an otherwise inexplicable enigma in the

moral world.
Men's tempers are said to be as varied as their
expression of features, and to the rule which
broadly states that none among them are exempt
from some original infirmity, the exceptions
are so few, if any, that it may fairly take its
place among admitted principles and unques
tioned axioms. But although, in punishment of
our first parents' sin, we brought with us into
the world many perverted inclinations and de
praved dispositions, it was not intended by our
Maker that our moralinfirmities shouldstrengthen
and grow with our physical development; he
destines them, on the contrary, to become an
occasion of merit, through our patient, persever
ing, never-ceasing efforts to apply to them the
necessary remedies, and gradually work out
their cure. It is no excuse, if our tempers are
bad, that they are so as a birthright; for we have
all been taught, until the lesson is as familiar as
our breathing, that piety, to be genuine, must be
practical, and that to be practical, its influence
must tell upon our conduct; not alone our ex
ternal conduct, but more still upon our deep
seated feelings—our humours, our tempers in all
their ramifications. If you have not yet practi
cally learned that piety to be true, must be
amiable, and that to be amiable it must be self
 THE CATHOLIC OFFERING. 209

denying, you have only to grieve over the per

version of its lessons, and to fear that unless you
turn them to better account, you are little likely
to contribute to the happiness of the home to
which you are returning. What is it that will
place that home—either the one which is now to
receive you, or that for which, according to the
designs of Providence, you will one day perma
nently exchange it—on the ranks not of the
happy, but the unhappy homes we have been
considering? Temper, evil temper. If you bring
this with you, wherever you go, there will be,
there must be, unhappiness, misery. How do
matters stand with you on this all-important
point? Have you seriously considered the ne
cessity of subduing your temper? Have you
undertaken the task? Have you succeeded, fully
or even in part? What is your peculiar defect
of temper? Have you studied it? Have you
made close acquaintance with it? Is the enemy
so well known to you, that he cannot hope to es
cape detection under any disguise? So thoroughly
in your power, that he dare not engage in conflict
with any chance of success? It is indeed most
earnestly to be hoped that such is the case; yet, as
without vigilance and frequent self-examination,
we are apt to lose sight of the insidious encroach
ments of passion, and in our self-love gradually
to blind ourselves to our defects, it may be use
T 2
210 THE CATHOLIC OF FERING.

ful to place before you some of the deepest shades

and most marked lineaments of evil temper, that
as a faithful mirror, the picture may reflect to
your soul's eyes the first faint appearance of a
gathering cloud on your own humour, and that
so forewarned, you may take measures to disperse
it, before it has time to break into a storm.
Who will say what defect of temper is the
worst, which works the widest ruin, which
causes the most unhappiness? It is hard to say
which is worst where all are evil; yet, perhaps,
the sullen, brooding, stubborn temper may merit
the first place on the list. Is this yours? If it
be, you will awake some morning in your usual
health and spirits; you will rise bright as a
summer day, and light hearted as a merry bird,
and so you will meet your family. But lo!
something is said or done that mortifies you,
perhaps some little fault is imputed to you, justly
or unjustly as the case may be, or a favourite pro
ject overturned, or a strongly expressed opinion
contradicted, or a seemingly reasonable request
refused; it is only a trifle at any rate, but, like
the black vapour creeping over the calm moon's
brow, the cloud of resentment gathers over yours,
and, in a moment, hides from sight, or turns to
gloom, what was but now so fair a sight to look
on, the heart's smile reflected on the heart's
index. But the smile is gone, and it has carried
 THE CATHOLIC OFFERING. 211

in its train the companion smiles which hung on

it. Your parents are grieved, disappointed,
perhaps displeased; your brothers and sisters half
sorry, half vexed, half wondering; yourself
humbled and ashamed, but more angry still;-and
now what is to be the result? Conscience says
you are wrong, but you will not admit this yet;
there is more to be done first. Temper must
be gratified, ere repentance comes. Instead of
proceeding cheerfully and brightly to the day's
occupations, you go about them with a heavy
step and sullen air, which augurs but indifferently
for the manner in which they will be performed.
The sense of your fancied, or, let us suppose,
your real wrongs, presses heavily and more
heavily on your spirit; constant brooding over
the provocation, lends to your imagination a
marvellously magnifying power, and what was,
in truth, but as a grain of sand, assumes the
magnitude of a mountain. The hour of prayer
comes round, but how can you pray, with your
mind in an absolute ferment? The hour of family
meeting arrives again, but this time it is a cheer
less, nay a sad meeting. Your temper—say it
to yourself, for it is true—your temper has
brought a wrinkle to your father's brow, and
drawn a sigh from your mother's heart; your
temper has silenced the heart's music, of which
the merry laughter of your little brothers and
212 THE CATHOLIC OFFERING.

sisters was but the echo, so lately as this morning;

and, shall it be said—your temper has raised the
question in the mind of more than one in that
home circle, “is this the fruit of a religious edu
cation? this the result of pious training?” Will
you not throw yourself at that father's knees?
will you not sob on that mother's bosom? will
you not try to blot from out of your existence, by
your tears, the hours which through your fault
have been to them hours, not only of privation
of pleasure, but of positive endurance of pain?
Not yet—not yet. The cloud will dissolve into
penitential tears in time, but not until more
misery has been endured—more displeasure ex
cited; more disedification given. When you have
brooded enough, resented enough, viewed your
grievances under every aspect, and extracted
from them all the bitterness which withingenuity
they can be made to yield, then at last you will
suffer conscience to speak, or rather to be heard;
for it has not ceased to speak, though you would
not listen. You will acknowledge your fault,
implore pardon of God and your parents, and
promise amendment; yet cheerfully as the kiss
of peace is accorded, you cannot conceal from
yourself that the spell is broken; that you have
for the present at least lost your position; that
you have forfeited a portion of your claim to the
respect of your younger brothers and sisters, and
 THE CATHOLIC OFFERING. 213

with it a portion of your influence over them

for good. In addition to sorrow for having
offended God, you have to endure misery, humi
liation, and remorse for having pained your
parents, and indulged your selfish feelings at the
expense of every duty; and as the final aggra
vation to your self-reproach, you are compelled
to admit, that all this multiplied suffering would
have been averted by a single effort of the self
control you have unfortunately neglected to
acquire. Never hesitate to acknowledge your
faults, or delay to make the only reparation in
your power, by asking forgiveness for them.
Never allow a vindictive or resentful feeling to
gain entrance into your soul—for if once ad
mitted, it will not be banished without extreme
difficulty. It is easier far to deny it entrance at
first, than to dislodge it afterwards. Never per
mit “the sun to go down on your wrath” (Eph.
iv. 26), or retire to repose with an emotion of
anger rankling in your heart; and be assured
you will sleep more tranquilly after having made
your peace with God, your neighbour, and your
self, than if you allowed resentment and wounded
pride to overshadow your slumbers. Always
remember, that by deferring to own yourself
wrong, you but add to the pain and humiliation
of doing so at last, and adopt it as your practice,
ever to disarm displeasure by the sincerity of
214 THE CATHOLIC OF FERING.

your humility, and the promptitude of your re

pentance.
Young persons are apt to attach the idea of
something poetic to the word sensitiveness, which
seems to them to imply simply a very high refine
ment of delicate feeling, but this is quite a mistake.
Sensibility to the woes of others; true, genuine
feeling for the distressed; cordial sympathy with
the suffering; these are the offspring of natural
amiability and kindliness of heart, refined and
perfected by divine charity; but sensitiveness is
something absolutely different, because quite
personal, quite selfish, its exciting cause some
self-created trouble, some imaginary wrong; some
exaggerated view of the minor, inevitable trials
of life. The sensitive look for attention and
consideration, and are hurt if these be ever so
unintentionally withheld. They are ever ready
to take offence—touchy as it is called—and, not
satisfied to wait until a real, deliberate insult has
been offered, they are ever fancying that insults
were meant; ever ready to impute to a formal
intention of wounding their feelings, every little
accidental, and wholly unintended slight. In
dealing with them the manner must be carefully
adjusted; words must be weighed and looks
measured; for, if a shadow of coolness or indif
ference or harshness be found discernible by the
aid of imagination's magnifying glass, deep will
 THE CATHOLIC of FERING. 215

be the wound inflicted, mortal the pain, and

long-lived the resentment. In reproving them
especially, the greatest caution must be used, the
most delicate management employed; certain
chords only must be struck, and the others care
fully avoided, or the consequences will be quite
alarming.
May not all this be fairly termed unsubdued
temper and exceeding selfishness, rather than
exquisite delicacy of feeling? Is it not some
thing rather to be ashamed of as betraying
weakness of mind, than to glory in as an evi
dence of ultra refinement? Must not the wound
of self-love be indeed profound and tender, when
it shrinks not only from a touch but even from
a look, a word, a peculiar intonation of voice?
If you discern traces of this infirmity in your
character it behoves you to be on your guard
against it, else it will prove a sad obstacle to the
happiness it is your aim to diffuse around you at
home, and moreover, neutralize the efforts of
your parents to guard you against the dangers
arising both from your own inexperience, and
from the evil external influences to which you
may be exposed. If your mother points out a
fault to be corrected, or recommends a course to
be pursued, or expresses disapproval of an ac
quaintance or a correspondence, or a style of
dress, or in any other way thwarts your in
 216 THE CATHOLIC OFFERING.

clinations, and that you thereupon show you

consider yourself unkindly treated, talk of
wounded feelings and end by a burst of tears,
she will, probably, after one or two trials,
discontinue the troublesome task of advising
you, and leave you to your own guidance,
which can but lead you astray. The strongest
proof of friendship that can be given us, is to
point out our defects. Those truly interested in
our welfare will tell us our faults; those utterly
indifferent about it, will reserve their censorious
comments for our absence, after, perhaps, compli
menting usin our presence. Never oblige your
parents to have recourse to silence; always take in
good part their advice, their exhortations, their
admonitions, even their reproofs. Knowing how
much they love you,you cannot doubt thesincerity
of their motive in showing you your faults, and
have, therefore, the less reason to concern your
selfabout their manner of doing so. Even if their
admonitions are clothed in terms more severe
than the occasion seems to require, still does the
motive remain unchanged, and still should your
gratitude and submission be unvarying. Create
no fictitious troubles—the world has enough of
real ones in store, against which it should be
your aim to inure yourself, by making of your
present lesser trials a sort of probationary intro
duction to the heavier ones to come. Take
 THE CATHOLIC OFFERING. 217

common sense views of life, and be satisfied to

be dealt with in the ordinary prosaic way.
Make war against the sensitiveness of your na
ture; view it in its correct light, and substitute
for your aptitude to take offence, that cheerfulgood
humour, which, founded on charity and humility,
takes everything in good part; puts an amiable
construction on an unamiable act; has no eyes to
see, and no ears to hear insults, and instead of
being mortified at reproof, is itself the first to
plead guilty to its necessity.
While the peculiar bias of some self-tormenting
spirits leads them to fancy the existence of ima
ginary troubles, it is but too true that many
create for themselves miseries most positive and
real. They are unmistakeably unhappy, but
unfortunately refuse to trace to its right source
the origin of the evil, and thus render it incur
able. Exacting, unreasonable, suspicious, cap
tious, jealous, variable—they alienate the love of
hearts once fondly devoted to them; and having
wearied out patience, exhausted forbearance, and
cast at last a hopeless gloom over the domestic
hearth, they are unjust enough to impute to in
constancy in others, the unhappiness of which
they are themselves the sole fabricators. Their
trials are certainly not imaginary, yet, like those
of the over-sensitive, they are self-created, and
in both instances, evil temper is the artificer.
U
 218 THE CATHOLIC OFFERING.

Once more, life has many real and bitter sorrows

garnered up in its store-house, and in the day
assigned by Providence, some of them may be
dispensed to you for your greater good; but wait
for God's time, and do not anticipate it; enjoy
existence, while, through His kind permission,
its sun shines brightly, and cast no cloud over it
through your own perversity.
A discontented temper is perhaps one of the
most difficult to manage, and the most trying to
endure in domestic intercourse. To the discon
tented, nothing ever seems right; the services
rendered them, are, by their own account, never
rendered at the right time, or in the right way.
If they are to be believed, the world at large
and even the elements themselves, are in a con
spiracy against them. Ever restless, and yet
dissatisfied with every change; always finding
fault, and yet never appeased by the removal of
the evil complained of; always expecting atten
tion, but not the better pleased for receiving it;
peevish, fretful, whimsical, capricious, true to
nothing while the fit of discontent holds sway,
except the perpetual murmur, which from its
constant repetition would really seem to contain
some hidden balm, or possess some magic power—
who can tell what a trial it must be to pass life
in their society? who can estimate the merit of
those who live under the influence of that moral
 THE CATHOLIC OFFERING. 219

eclipse of good feeling and right reason, and

patiently bear the martyrdom? This, you will
say, is an exaggerated picture, but some more
largely experienced in sorrow, will tell you the
contrary.
Extremes of evil are not attained at once;
every thing has a beginning, and against that
beginning you must guard. Never allow your
self the habit of impatient complaining; it will
not lessen the heat or the cold, or decrease the
labour of your duties, or the difficulty of your
studies, or refresh your weary mind or body, or
drive away one pain from either; therefore, it is
useless. But it is more than useless, for it de
prives you of the merit you would derive from
bearing those crosses silently for God's love;
and worse than all, it too often degenerates into
absolute impatience, thus involving the guilt and
misery of sin. View the bright side of every
event; always seek the silver lining of the cloud.
Bear cheerfully the disappointments, and submit
silently to the annoyances which must in any
case be endured. Look forward to the indemni
fication which is perhaps to follow in the train
of privation; and in case all other comforts fail,
send your vision upwards to the everlasting
crown which very surely awaits all who have
suffered patiently and submissively here. Abhor
the spirit of murmuring; discourage it in those
220 THE CATHOLIC OFFERING.

around you both by word and example, and be,

by the invariable cheerfulness of your temper,
the sunbeam of your home.
Moodiness, or humour, may, perhaps, be fairly
said to entail more suffering on its victims them
selves, than on those who have to endure its
effects by reaction. It is the more painful to
bear, and the more difficult to correct, as it arises
suddenly, without notice, without apparent cause,
and is more frequently the result of physical de
rangement, than of any real perversity of will.
It fills the mind with gloomy images, and the
heart with dismal, desponding feelings, of which
the countenance and manner are but too fre
quently the reflection. It is often but another
name for the unaccountable depression, or low
spirits—as the disease is styled—which renders
the lives of some persons a periodical torture to
themselves and others. To wrestle violently with
the enemy, is more likely to encourage and
strengthen than weaken its attacks. Quiet pa
tience with, and resignation to the affliction, will
be found more effectual than vehementopposition,
and a calm, repeated recourse to God, by the
remembrance of His presence, with a fervent
aspiration for His almighty aid, more useful than
open resistance, which tends but further to agitate
the already excited mind and irritated feelings.
To bear this most painful condition tranquilly,
 THE CATHOLIC OFFERING. 221

and give no evidence of its existence in counte

nance, word, or manner, is, indeed, a highly
meritorious and exalted practice of true virtue.
If you are liable to this very trying mental
malady, take refuge in prayer as soon as you feel
its approach. Fly to Jesus, and Mary, and your
blessed angel, and having implored their assist
ance, use gentle efforts to turn your attention from
yourself; occupy your mind quietly in some
pursuit, which will rather unbend and recreate it,
than severely tax its powers; try to lose sight of
your tormentor, and gradually its influence over
you will weaken, and, perhaps, finally die away.
You need not be told how unamiable moody
people are; how much real pain they often give
during the continuance of the ill-humoured fit,
or how extremely unpleasant and distressing their
variability renders even necessary intercourse
with them. Before they can be accosted, their
looks must be watched, to ascertain the state of
the moral thermometer, and their manner studied
to discover whether this is one of their bright,
or one of their cloudy days, for on this fact
depends the result of the application. Surely it
is degrading to a rational creature to have it said,
that before she can be spoken to, measures must
be taken to know whether she is in a good or a
bad humour, and even respect for yourself must
prevent you ever permitting this to be truly
U2
222 THE CATHOLIC OFFERING.

observed of you; but so, also, must a far higher

motive—the desire, first, to sanctify your soul by
the practice of interior self-denial; and, secondly,
to contribute, by the amiability of your piety, to
the happiness of your home, which happiness a
moody temper will effectually overcast, if not
utterly destroy.
While the sullen temper silently bears away
its resentment, to brood over it in secret, and
the sensitive temper shrinks from every shadow,
and starts at every look, and the discontented
temper frets its life away over evils apparent to
none but its own diseased vision, the passionate
temper explodes suddenly when least expected;
and though like the lightning, its emblem, it
flashes but to vanish, like the lightning too, it
leaves traces, and often ineffaceable ones, of its
devastating passage. Passion, as a temporary men
tal alienation, cannot, it is evident, fail to involve
the most fearful consequences;—reason incapable
of discerning right from wrong; the will acknow
ledging no guidance but the blind impulse of
frenzy; anger let loose in all its violence and
impetuosity;—surely the rushing avalanche, as it
dashes madly over the mountain, sweeping away
to destruction every object it encounters, is not
an exaggerated type of the ruin wrought by
passion in the soul, over which the torrent has
poured in unresisted fury. In the excitement
 TIME CATHOLIC OFFERING. 223

of ungoverned passion, the voice of duty is

drowned; the upbraidings of conscience are un
heeded or unheard; the most sacred relations are
forgotten; words are spoken, and deeds are done,
which no after tears of sorrow can wash away;
and insults are offered to feeling, which no sub
sequent evidence of affection can fully atone for,
or repair. It is a great, though common mistake
in the passionate, toimagine that all their outrages
are at once blotted out by the simple admission
that because they spoke or acted under the in
fluence of anger, they really were not conscious
of wounding. They were responsible agents
none the less, although through their own fault
they became temporary maniacs, and in the sight
of God they are accountable for the consequences
of passion, because the surrender of reason to its
dominion was their voluntary act. -

If your temper is hasty, pray daily, hourly, to

Him who is meek and humble of heart, to in
spire you with a share in his own gentle spirit.
Remember that he told you to learn of Himself
the divine lesson of meekness, and present your
self accordingly for admission among his favoured
disciples, beseeching Him to be himself your
Master; to breathe his instructions into your
heart with his own irresistible accents of love
and mildness; to model your heart on the pattern
of his own, and to give you grace in the hour of
224 THE CATHOLIC OFFERING.

trial, to substitute for the angry word just hover

ing on your lips, an aspiration for his aid, and a
prayer for those who try you. And as passion
takes you unawares, endeavour to counteract the
danger of its sudden surprises by constant vigi
lance. Always try to feel that the foe may be
near, although you do not see him; and then
when he does show his head, you will be ready
to meet him bravely. Never speak when you
feel angry, or you will be sure to say more than
you ought, and more than you intended, and
how sorry you will be on cool reflection to find
that you have spoken disrespectfully to an elder,
or unkindly to an equal, or rudely to an inferior;
forgotten yourself, as a lady, no less than as a
Christian l When all irritable emotion has sub
sided with time, you will generally find that the
observation, which in the moment of anger you
deemed quite allowable or even necessary, not
only might, but ought to have been suppressed,
and you will rejoice that you suffered reason to
retain the empire, of which passion would fain
have deprived it to your cost.
The foregoing are some few among the various
shades which go to make up the many coloured
picture of evil temper. You can scarcely view
that repulsive picture without horror, yet it is,
notwithstanding, salutary to look at it occa
sionally; so that if from want of watchfulness,
 THE CATHOLIC OFFERING. 225

selfish indulgence should creep into your prac

tice, and threaten almost unconsciously to your
self to become a habit, you may be roused in
time from your slumber, and startled into a
recognition of the necessity of perseverance in
your warfare against self. That unsubdued
temper is the rock of domestic felicity there can
be no doubt; that youth is the time for over
coming all that is evil in the temper needs as
little argument to prove; admitting these two
principles, do not conclude this chapter without
having seriously and firmly resolved to take
your measures accordingly.
In order to render your piety amiable, and
your home happy through its influence, not only
must you correct all that is defective in your own
temper, but you must, moreover, bear patiently
all that is trying in the tempers of others. In
fact, this second branch of the subject may be
considered as identified with the first, so close is
the connection. It will be an exercise of good
temper on your part to bear with the disagree
able humours of those around you; and should
you fail in such forbearance, you cease to merit
your claim to be called good tempered. Always
remember, that the heart enslaved to passion is,
and must be, miserable; and look rather in pity
than in anger on its victims. Think how frail
you are yourself, and considering how consoling
 226 THE CATHOLIC OFFERING.

compassion and consideration would be to you

in the hour of your weakness, extend to others
the mercy you personally need. Never provoke
an already irritated mind by recrimination or
rejoinder, or mortifying ridicule, or teazing con
tradiction; never contend for an opinion; never
evince resentment at an annoyance, nor maintain
coolness in consequence. Disputes must be sus
tained by two parties; if you refuse to assume
the character of one, the contention must neces
sarily cease. If silence be the readiest means of
restoring ruffled peace, observe it jealously; if
a word seem more likely to be effectual, then
speak that “mild word which turns away wrath.”
Let the calmness of your bearing be as oil on
the troubled waters; the kindness of your smile
as the rainbow after a storm; and the gentleness
of your voice as the olive branch of the dove—
a harbinger of renewed harmony and union.
But that you may thus command the angry
feelings of others, you must first learn to com
mand your own; and that you may exercise so
great and happy an influence in your home, you
must previously have established the conviction
there, that because your piety is true it is
amiable and practical; and that it is because
your piety is amiable and practical, that your
temper is ever under due subjection.
You cannot have perused the preceding re
 THE CATHOLIC OFFERING. 227

marks without observing that control over the

temper and discipline of the feelings, tends no less
to form the lady, than the Christian, lying as they
do at the very foundation of that true, genuine,
cordial politeness, which is but the external garb
of self-denial, humility, and charity. Very many
persons wholly deficient in the spirit of self.
denial, and total strangers to the virtues of
charity and humility, are, it is true, polite,
according to the worldly acceptation of the term,
yet their politeness is but superficial; it is a
garment assumed for company, only to be too
often laid aside at home, where, as a compensation
for the temporary restraint, selfishness indulges
its caprices to the full. While the worldling
reserves her politeness for out-door display, home
is the especial theatre of that of the Christian.
Always calm and self-possessed, and therefore
on her guard; always attentive to the feelings of
those around her, and therefore never surprised
into a hasty word or rude remark; always for
getful of self, and therefore never opposing her
own inclinations to the wishes of others; always
deferential to her superiors in age and position,
and therefore alive to her parents' slightest
wishes—attentive to their least remarks; always
humble, and therefore desirous rather to listen
than to speak; always kind, and therefore
anxious to transfer to others the opportunity of
228 THE CATHOLIC OFFERING.

displaying conversational abilities; always re

served, and therefore never betrayed into bois
terous laughter, unfeminine tones, or a dictatorial
style of address; always dignified, and therefore
never awkward, embarrassed, or affected; always
simple and true, and therefore assuming no un
founded pretensions to wit or brilliancy; always
amiable and good natured, and therefore quite
ready to contribute her share to cheerful conver
sation, without desiring to engross it: she, the
true Christian, the self-denying disciple of the
Saviour, the dutiful daughter, the affectionate
sister, the devoted friend, is also the model of
true politeness, that of the heart. An acquaint
ance with the external forms of society may be
easily acquired, and is quite necessary; but true
politeness is exclusively the growth of practical
piety, and will never be learned in its perfection
except in that Divine school where the renuncia
tion of the will is the fundamental maxim, and
death to selfish inclination the elementary lesson.
 THE CATHOLIC OFFERING. 229

CHAPTER XII.

THIRD FRUIT OF THE SPIRIT OF FAITH.— PRAC

TICAL CHARITY.

To say that the self-sacrificing spirit necessary to

the realization of your earnest desire to render
your home happy can be acquired without diffi
culty, or that the forbearance requisite in your
intercourse even with the most affectionate and
amiable of relatives, can be practised without an
effort, would be to assert what everybody's per
sonal experience contradicts. No doubt you will
have many a conflict with poor, weak nature,
before you can so far command excited feeling,
as to give no external evidence of its existence;
and many a struggle with self-love's promptings,
before you have so far mastered them, as to suc
ceedin silencing their firstwhisperings. The work
before you is unquestionably arduous, yet less so
on a near approach than it, perhaps, at first sight
appears. The original impression of its diffi
culty weakens or vanishes when you come to
remember, that it is to be the work not of nature,
but of grace, and that it is not you alone who
are to accomplish it, but the power of God in
you. And then, in the mere motive which urges
X
230 THE CATHOLIC OFFERING.

you to undertake iſ, lies a principle of strength,

which will fortify you against many obstacles,
and bear you through many trials. Your hope
of perseverance in the career of self-immolating
virtue, depends to so great an extent on the
power of the motive you propose to yourself in
entering on it, that you will do well early to
give this very important point the attention it
deserves; and from the onset, firmly and solidly
to establish in your heart that great, high, enno
bling, spiritualizing motive of divine charity,
which, while imparting supernatural merit, and
attaching a supernatural recompense to all you
do for your neighbour, will at the same time
facilitate and even sweeten those sacrifices to
fraternal duty, which but for its heavenly influ
ence might sometimes seem too painful to our
selfish natures.
Charity to your neighbour, for the sake of
God! The very thought sweeps away many
difficulties, and gives courage to confront those
that remain. Think for a moment of the debt
of love you owe to God, and you will feel it a
happiness that he provides you an opportunity of
discharging a part of your obligations to Him in
the person of your neighbour, with whom it has
pleased him in a manner to identify his rights.
How many motives you have to love God!
All the reasons which urge you to love your
 THE CATHOLIC OFFERING. 231

parents and friends and benefactors on earth,

disappear in presence of those you have for lov
ing God, or rather, merge in, and are absorbed by
them, since creatures are in truth but the medium
of those blessings of which God is the direct and
immediate source. It was God who gave you
your own particular parents; those parents you
love so well and so deservedly. Among the
great mass of human parents, might not others
have fallen to your lot, less tender, less devoted,
than the dear authors of your being? There are
such things in creation as unnatural parents; why
did not the title apply to yours? Because even
your very cradle was overshadowed by God's
mercies, and because “from your mother's womb
the Lord was your protector,” (Psalm xxi. 11).
Then your parents were Catholics; why this
again? They were practically religious, too,
and trained you early to honour religion. They
moreover understood the advantages of a liberal
education, and took care to provide such for you.
Why, why all this, except because God loved
you, and therefore rendered the solicitude of
your parents an instrument in his own divine
hands for the promotion of your welfare. Why,
but because from your mother's womb, from
your birth and long before, the Lord was your
God and your protector? Then again, the edu
cation accorded you by the united love of your
232 THE CATHOLIC OFFERING.

Father in heaven and your parents on earth;

how many countless blessings has it not included?
Led by God's love, like the little Samuel, into
his own sanctuary, not only have you received
the advantages of a good education, in the
worldly acceptation of the term, but been made
a rich participator in the far more precious bless
ings of careful spiritual training for eternity.
Placed by a sweet and loving Providence in the
quiet retirement of a religious establishment, you
were early taught the value of virtue, and the
means of acquiring it; enlightened on the defects
of your character, and the means of correcting
them; made familiar with your everlasting des
tiny, and the conditions necessary for its realiz
ation; shown at a safe distance, both the attrac
tions and the dangers of the world, that you
might learn in time to form a correct estimate of
the one, and arm yourself against the other.
The helps of religion were showered on you in
profusion; the holy Sacrifice your daily oblation;
the bread of angels your constant food; good
advice your perpetual encouragement; good ex
ample your hourly support. “What could the
Lord do for his vineyard that he hath not done?”
(Is. v. 4.) “Surely he hath not done as much
for every nation, nor made his judgments thus
manifest to them,” (Ps. cxlvii. 20.)
Invaluable as are the favours already con
 THE CATHOLIC OFFERING. 233

sidered, they do not exhaust the list. It is hard

to say whether the generosity of love is displayed
most magnificently in lavishing benefits, or in
bearing patiently with ingratitude. At any rate,
whatever be the relative magnitude of these two
different practical proofs of charity, there can be
no doubt that you are indebted to God equally
for both. Can you not remember a time, perhaps
many a time, when instead of corresponding
with God's mercies in your regard, you made
use of them only to offend Him? when instead
of meeting his loving advances, you fled fast and
far away from them? when instead of following
in the sweet odour of his heavenly perfumes, you
took the opposite path of passion and self-indul
gence? And meantime, He, the Good Shepherd,
kept his vigilant eye on the wandering sheep;
He pursued it by his sweet solicitations, his gentle
entreaties, his tender, unreproaching warnings.
With his own hand he disengaged it from the
thorns and brambles of sin amidst which it had be
come entangled; with his own voice he welcomed
itback tohis bosom; with his own blood he washed
away its stains in the tribunal of penance; with
his own arms he clasped it, when scarcely daring
to look on its outraged Benefactor, it tremblingly
approached among worthier guests to the banquet
table spread by the hands of angels. All this
you know to have been realized again and again
x 2
234 THE CATHOLIC OF FERING.

in your regard. You surely have not forgot

ten that patient love. You have not forgotten,
you cannot forget, how often, how fully, how
freely your all-merciful Redeemer forgave your
ingratitude; how generously he accepted the first
sigh of sorrow that burst from your heart; how
nobly he pardoned, each time you came before
Him a suppliant for mercy, although alas! fore
seeing that the transgression would be repeated,
and the petition for mercy become needful again,
“He remembered that you are dust, and because
he is a merciful and compassionate Lord, he did
not deal with you according to your sins; but as
far as the east is from the west, so far did he
remove your iniquities from you,” (Ps. cii.)
Oh! for how many blessings, spiritual and tem
poral, are you not indebted to your eternal Bene
factor How many purely personal blessings, to
say nothing of those you share in common with
the rest of men! It were vain indeed to under
take the catalogue; only an angel's mind could
contain, and an angel's lips enumerate them.
Would that we had an angel's heart to love the
Giver!
It is not only the remembrance of His bene
fits which should stimulate us to love God; in
the consideration of His own divine perfections
we find other perhaps still stronger motives for
that love. He is worthy to be loved, not alone
 THE CATHOLIC OFFERING, 235

because he is infinitely good to us, but also be

cause he is infinitely good and perfect in Him
self. He alone is holy; He alone the Lord;
He alone Most High. Because of their infinity,
His divine attributes must ever be incomprehen
sible to our finite minds; we should nevertheless
make them the object of our constant study, in
so far as he deigns to permit us a glimpse of
them; and the more we do so, the more pro
foundly shall we admire, the more reverentially
adore them. The more we accustom ourselves
to behold the revelation of God's perfections in
the external world, the more deeply shall we be
impressed with their beauty and attractions.
The more we learn to hear their accents in the
thousand voices of nature, the more will our
advancing love keep pace with our increasing
knowledge of them. As we listen to these
voices, we shall find that while one chaunts the
praises of his glory, and another tone takes up
the strain in homage to his power, and a third
hymns benedictions to his providence, all unani
mously proclaim the presence of his ever-living,
ever-acting love, and after listening long and
intently to the canticle, we shall conclude with
joyous gratitude, that it is into our own hearts
we must turn if we would hear the responsive
echo; into our own hearts we must look when
we want thoroughly to understand the character
236 THE CATHOLIC OFFERING.

of God's love for his creatures;–for those hearts

whisper, that for our happiness God made this
glorious world; and it seems to us, that in
making beings so unworthy the objects of his
love, He has added a new feature to its gene
rosity — a new ray to its magnificence. Pon
dering on all He has done for us, we come
to understand better and better how amiable He
is, and to love him less with reference to our
selves, than because of His own essential perfec
tions; and with renewed faith and hope we
exclaim, “Who is like to thee, O Lord?” (Ps.
xxxiv. 10.) “The God of my heart, and my
portion for ever !” (Ibid. lxxii. 26.)
Although it is quite certain that we never can
adequately appreciate God's mercies, or make
Him a suitable return, it is not the less incum
bent on us to do the little we can towards liqui
dating the vast, the incalculable debt. Yet,
when we come to consider the matter closely,
what is there we can give to Him who “is our
God, and therefore has no need of our goods?”
Oh! much that He condescends to value; our
hearts, our love, our lives, our faculties, our
energies, the unreserved devotion of all our
being; and in addition, those services, which,
though he does not need them in his own
person, he deigns to ask for in that of our
neighbour, declaring, that if rendered to our
 THE CATHOLIC OF FERING, 237

fellow-beings, he will consider them rendered

to himself. Here then is to be the exalted
principle of your self-denying practice; here the
sanctifying motive of your fidelity to home
duties; here the mainspring of your unvarying
gentleness, your unalterable forbearance, your
amiability of spirit, your kindness of demeanour.
You might grow weary of continually yielding
to the exactions of creatures; you might tire of
perpetually trying to accommodate yourself to
their disagreeable humours; you might find con
stant renunciation of self for the sake of others,
too severe a tax on your magnanimity, and
unceasing efforts to promote their happiness too
strong a test of your benevolence; but when
you come to overlook them altogether, to forget
the creature, or rather to see him identified with
the Creator, the aspect of things alters totally.
You feel that the concessions which a capricious,
exacting fellow-being has, perhaps, no right
to demand, God, your Benefactor, your Father,
your Redeemer, can claim on thousands of titles;
and bowing beneath the power, the mighty
power of love, you proceed promptly, cheer
fully, joyfully to render your neighbour those
services which become a sweet yoke and a light
burden from the moment the hand of God is
recognized to be the instrument which imposes
them. If you learn to look on fraternal charity
238 THE CATHOLIC OFFERING.

as the rich fund whence you are to draw super

natural treasures for the payment of the debt of
love you owe to God, you will be only anxious
to draw incessantly on the exhaustless store, and
avaricious in your eagerness to grasp those
heavenly treasures. Charity is an active, not a
passive feeling, and if its spirit once acquire
dominion over your heart, it will quickly mani
fest itself in your actions, and extend its in
fluence to all within reach. The first claimants
on your charity are, as you have seen, the in
mates of your home, in whose regard its duties
will be fully exercised, if you enter perfectly
and practically into the spirit of the last two
chapters. Those duties you will render super
naturally meritorious for yourself if you farther
enter into the spirit of this. It will perhaps
be more correct to say that without the spirit of
this for a foundation, you cannot comply with
the requirements of the preceding. If you do
not cordially compassionate the frailties of others,
you will not bear with them meekly; and if you
do not imbue your heart with the maxim of
ever doing to others, as you would that others
did to you, you will not be considerate in your
feelings, moderate in your judgments, or patient,
forgiving, and unselfish, in your practice. But
with charity for your guiding principle, the love
of God for your animating motive, you will be
 THE CATHOLIC OFFERING. 239

all this and more; for true, genuine, Christian

“charity is patient, is kind; envieth not, dealeth
not perversely; is not puffed up, is not ambi
tious, seeketh not her own, is not provoked to
anger, thinketh no evil, believeth all things,
hopeth all things, endureth all things,” (1 Cor.
xiii.) Surely it is true to say, that having
charity, “all good things come together with
her.” (Wisd. vii. 11.)
Home, though the primary claimant on your
charity, is not the only one. If you really love
your neighbour as yourself, for the love of God,
you will be glad to extend the sphere of your
active fraternal love, as far as may be, desiring
that, if possible, it might embrace all creatures.
Among the poor of Jesus Christ, you will find
vast opportunities for its exercise. The declara
tion of your Sovereign Lord, and all merciful
Redeemer, that, “whatever you do for the least
of his brethren, he considers as done for him
self,” ought surely to be a powerful stimulus to
your efforts for the relief of the indigent. If
this Gospel truth were more attentively consi
dered, would not insensibility to the wants of the
poor be less general among the rich? Would
not many hard hearts grow soft, and many cal
lous spirits compassionate and tender? Make
of these sacred words your own particular study,
that, learning to identify the interests of the
240 THE CATHOLIC OFFERING.

poor with those of your Redeemer, His pure

love alone may be the motive of your efforts to
comfort and assist His suffering members. Never
forget that natural goodness and kindness of
heart, though a most amiable and praiseworthy
disposition, is not a virtue, and be careful, there
fore, to elevate all your acts of charity to super
natural dignity, by purity of intention, that so
they may be glorifying to God, and meritorious
for yourself. Share with Jesus Christ, in the
person of the poor, all you have; give alms
according to the extent of your ability; “if you
have much, give abundantly; if you have little,
take care to bestow willingly a little,” (Tob. iv.
9.) Give unostentatiously; give with the sweet
ness of manner which adds so much to the value
of the donation. Remember that the poor have
feelings as well as yourself, and do not wound
those feelings by accompanying your offering
with harsh, reproachful words. If you have
nothing else to bestow, you can, at least, give
sympathy; that costs nothing, yet it is as heal
ing balm to the wounded spirit. The poverty
which, having known better days, seeks to hide
its fallen fortunes from the world, and pines and
wastes away in secret misery, trying, to the
last, to avert by its small industrial resources
the hourly approaching moment of absolute
want—this, as the worthiest, should also be the
 THE CATHOLIC OFFERING. 241

first object of your charity. If you consult

your parents, they will assist or direct you in
seeking out such objects; they will aid you by
their advice in the judicious disposal of your
alms, and, perhaps, make you also the happy
dispenser of their own. Never forget, in deal
ing with the poor, that the immortal soul of the
wretched mendicant in his tattered garments, is
as precious in the sight of God as that of the
monarch, clad in regal robes; that both were
made according to the same pattern, redeemed
at the same price, and created for the same
eternal happiness. Do not, then, relieve the
body, without trying also to provide for the
wants of that undying, and, perhaps, more
needy soul. Tell the afflicted and starving chil
dren of poverty, of God, and God's love for all
the creatures of His hands—a love, of which
the trials he sends are often the best proof.
Tell them of Him whose predilection was for
the poor, who spent his life of privation among
the poor, and died, at last, in the very arms of
extreme and abject poverty. Tell them to look
from the cold, cheerless hovel they call their
home, to his first equally chill and comfortless
dwelling-place in the stable, and to raise their
eyes from the miserable bed on which their
aching limbs recline, to the hard cross which
formed the last pillow for his thorn-crowned
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242 THE CATHOLIC OFFERING.

head—the last couch for his tortured, exhausted,

dying frame. Tell them that as Jesus, who
died in anguish, rose again in glory, so will
they, too, awake to a new state of existence, if
they suffer resignedly with Him here—a new
state in which the very remembrance of their
former miseriesshall have passed away—absorbed
in the bliss purchased by patient endurance of
time's transient tribulations. “Give alms out
of thy substance, and turn not away thy face
from any poor person: for so it shall come to
pass, that the face of the Lord shall not be
turned from thee. . . Alms deliver from all sin,
and from death, and will not suffer the soul to
go into darkness. Alms shall be a great confi
dence before the most high God, to all them
that give it,” (Tobias, iv. 7, 11, 12.) “Make
unto you a friend of the mammon of iniquity,
that when you shall fail they may receive you
into everlasting dwellings,” (St. Luke, xvi. 9).
To contribute to the funds of the Association
for the Propagation of the Faith, is another
most meritorious exercise of charity. That you
could make no better use of a small portion of
your superfluity you will easily recognize, if you
but think of the many nations which lie buried
in the darkness of infidelity, because the holy
missionary, whose pecuniary resources are small,
just in proportion as his zeal is great, cannot
 . THE CATHOLIC OFFERING. 243

procure the means of reaching those distant

shores, or of maintaining life there, when he has
overcome; the difficulties of the way. What a .
happiness to facilitate his noble project, and
thus indirectly become a medium of communica
ting the blessings of faith and civilization to
beings sharing your own nature; souls redeemed
as yours, by the sufferings and death of a God!
What a consolation it will be on your dying bed to
know that millions of voices are raised to plead for
you, and that when the hand of God lies heavy
on you in the chastening fires to be passed through
before you can enter the undefiled courtsofhis eter
nal temple, the continued supplications of those
same voices will ascend to His throne to appease
His justice and accelerate the hour of your ever
lasting union with Him! Think of these things
seriously and lovingly, and you will be only too
happy to lend your mite for the maintenance of
the glorious Association for the Propagation of
the Faith. You are aware, that beside the small
pecuniary contribution, you are required, in
order to gain the Indulgence, to say daily, “Our
Father, Hail Mary, and Glory be to the Father,”
&c., adding the words, “St. Francis Xavier
pray for us, that we may be made worthy of the
promises of Christ.” The “Our Father, and
Hail Mary,” of your morning or night prayers,
may be offered for this intention if you please.
244 THE CATHOLIC OFFERING.

You will also exercise your charity in a

manner most acceptable to God, by instructing
the ignorant in the Christian doctrine; teaching
the catechism in your parish chapel on Sundays,
and making sure that all who come within your
reach know, at least, the principal mysteries of
religion, and the other points essential for salva
tion. This will be as clear and strong an evi
dence as you can give to God of your gratitude
for the blessing of religious instruction so prodi
gally bestowed on yourself. -

The great obstacle to all the sweet, consoling

works of charity is again selfishness. There are
persons who never have anything to give the
poor except harsh, haughty refusals; human
beings with hearts so obdurate, that they deem
it quite a hardship that poverty should cross
their path at all, even though only to find its
appeals rejected, and its hopes mocked; Chris
tians so dead to their responsibilities, that they
would shrink from the mere mention of the
familiar association with the poor, implied by
visiting them in their sickness, counselling them
in their difficulties, consoling them in their afflic
tions, and instructing them in their ignorance.
Forgetting that all men are equal in the eyes
of the great Father of all, they deem it a degra
dation to mix among the poor, a species of con
tamination to stoop to intercourse with a class
 THE CATHOLIC OFFERING. 245

beneath them in social position. Losing sight

of their imperative obligation to “do good, as
well as to avoid evil,” they cast no thought on
the multitudes whom their superfluities might
relieve, their instructions enlighten, their vigi
lance preserve from evil, or their zeal and charity
reclaim. They will not interest themselves in
the concerns of the poor, because pride forbids
the imaginary condescension implied by the fact.
They never have anything to bestow on the
friendless, starving, desolate victim of multiplied
wants, because they are too much enslaved to
selfishness, to understand even in theory, the
meaning of sacrificing the least personal gratifi
cation for the sake of any body, least of all the
poor. They cannot give bread to a famishing
suppliant, because they will not deny themselves
any single costly article of dress their vanity
pants for; they cannot afford to meet the just
pecuniary demands of persons in their employ
ment, those for instance, of the poor needle
woman, whose livelihood partially depends on
the miserable pittance earned in their service, at
the cost of sight, and strength, and health, and
life at last, because they will not debar them
selves of a luxury their morbid selfishness craves.
That scanty pittance cannot be doled out until
it has first been cut down a little lower, nor
given at all just at present, for extravagance
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and selfishness would rather appropriate it to

their own ends for some time longer. Oh! to
what a variety of meannesses selfishness will
stoop ! What a multiplicity of resources it can
create for the attainment of its objects In what
countless ways it shows its hateful form, and at
the end of all how entirely it deceives and de
feats itself! Selfishness is the desire of happi
ness through personal gratification; but what a
mistake to imagine that a life spent in selfish
gratification can be a happy lifel Self-love is a
despot so cruel and insatiable, that true peace
and liberty are assuredly only for those who’
have broken its chains, and trampled them
bravely under foot. If the heart, dead to all
emotions but those connected with self, could
know how much pure happiness it loses by its
incapacity to sympathise with others, it would
soon grieve over, and for ever renounce, its fatal
error. There is happiness in rendering even an
animal happy ; what then in consoling an
afflicted fellow creature? in giving food to the
hungry, and raiment to the chill? What in
instilling heavenly lessons of patience into the
rebellious spirit, and bringing glad tidings of the
great joy to come, to hearts sunk in the deep
gloom of despair? What in drying the tear of
the desolate, brightening even for a moment the
features wrinkled rather by sorrow than by time,
 THE CATHOLIC OFFERING. 247

recalling to the life of hope the breaking heart,

that but for you had ere now broken; and guid
ing into the “pleasant ways” of virtue, the young,
inexperienced, and unprotected, who without
your aid had perhaps strayed into the devious
paths of evil? All this is real happiness, but
happiness unknown to the selfish, through their
own grievous fault.
Do not debar yourself of the exquisite enjoy
ment of doing good to others. Open wide your
heart to the influence of divine charity, and in
proportion as its empire gains strength, so will
that of selfishness be weakened, until at last it
retires altogether from the contest, humbled and
crest-fallen, leaving to the love of God supreme
dominion over the happy soul, which possesses
with it the anticipated joys of paradise.
It is thus, as you see, by the practice of home
virtues, vivified and sanctified by charity, that
you will accomplish your holy design of leading
a useful, no less than a Christian life. A useful
life! How much it embraces ! Household con
cerns to be attended to, and household wants
foreseen; the younger members of the family to
receive their first, strong, durable impressions of
piety, as well as their first initiation in human
knowledge; the elder ones to be considered for,
amused, aided in their little casual wants; par
ents to be relieved of their fatiguing duties; ser
248 THE CATHOLIC OF FERING.

vants to be directed, superintended, instructed;

all to be made happy; the poor to be attended
to, and taught; accounts to be kept; and mean
time, mental cultivation not to be neglected;
above all, prayer not to be omitted. Truly a
useful life is an active, if not a laborious one;
but then, in compensation, it is the only life that
can impart that true happiness known to those
alone who purchase it, by sacrificing self on the
altar of divine charity. How sad a reflection,
that to the majority this useful life is a thing
unknown l How deplorable a fact, that so many
young persons can give no account of their day,
further than that it was spent, perhaps in loung
ing over a silly novel, or perhaps “out,” that is,
in frivolity and idle talking ! Verily they have
their reward here, in the emptiness of heart and
weariness of mind inseparable from such a life.
And how will it be with them when life's night
sets in, and the time for working has passed for
ever!
 THE CATHOLIC OFFERING. 249

CHAPTER XIII.

FOURTH FRUIT OF THE SPIRIT OF FAITH.—THE

REGULATION OF CONVERSATION.

As there are certain circumstances in which

conversation is inevitable, and that without due
restraint, the chances are considerably in favour
of its being perverted into an occasion of sin,
one of your resolutions at your entrance into
society—that peculiarly critical period in your
spiritual career—must be to adopt all necessary
precautions against its being so to you.
Uncharitable conversation is unfortunately
most prevalent in the world; personalities form,
with very many, a favourite topic, and through
some strange perversion in our nature, it hap
pens that personal frailties and eccentricities are,
in general, a much more attractive subject of
discussion, than the good and amiable qualities
which, if the trouble were taken to seek for
them, would surely be found intermingled with,
or underlying those weaknesses. Branching
out from foibles and peculiarities, the spirit of
uncharitable criticism extends its range into
250 THE CATHOLIC OFFERING.

the regions of more marked and positive evil,

unveiling defects, which, but for its agency, had
been for ever hidden from the listener; lessen
ing, if it does not wholly destroy, the reputation
of the absent, and leaving an impression to the
disadvantage of a fellow-creature, which perhaps
no length of time will fully remove.
To comprehend the hatefulness of detraction,
and imbibe all the horror of it which it deserves,
you need but contemplate its portrait as drawn
by the eloquent pen of the great Massillon. He
calls it “a scorching fire which blights all it
touches; which in a moment reduces to dust
and ashes, what seemed but just before so fair,
and bright, and durable; which blackens what it
cannot consume, and never emits so clear or
vivid a light, as when proceeding on the work
of devastation.” He terms it “secret pride,
which discovers the mote in our brother's eye,
while it conceals the beam in our own; base
envy, which, unable to endure superiority, does
its best to derogate from it; mean duplicity,
which flatters in public, to lacerate in private;
a fertile source of dissension and confusion; an
enemy of charity and peace; a fountain of deadly
poison which communicates its venom to every
thing within reach. Its very aspect,” he says,
“hides a depth of disguised malice; its silence
is but a weapon of a new form; its gestures, its
 THE CATHOLIC OFFERING. 251

movements, its looks, all are infected with its

own corruption.” Could higher colouring be
added to the revolting picture of detractionſ
Many pretexts are urged in extenuation of the
vice by those addicted to it; for instance, they
will undertake to justify a malicious remark by
the plea that really no harm was meant, and no
object aimed at but amusement. “Amusement
at your neighbour's frailties 1" exclaims the last
quoted illustrious Christian orator. “Oh what
cruel amusement is that founded on a fellow
creature's pain and humiliation | And how can
those remarks be qualified as innocent, which
sport with defects more justly calculated to
inspire sympathy and compassion than to pro
mote diversion?”
“Thoughtlessness,” he continues, “is another
ordinary excuse for detraction, but is not the
imaginary extenuation a real aggravation of
guilt? Can thoughtlessness in matters of duty
be pardonable in a Christian, whose principles
should be steadily fixed, and whose practice
should coincide with those principles? Besides,
as the wound of a random arrow is just as severe
as that of one deliberately aimed, so is your
bitter observation just as galling and injurious,
as if it had been fully premeditated. The whole
code of Christianity being included in the law.
of charity, may you not very fairly be said to
252 THE CATHOLIC OFFERING.

set its remaining ordinances at nought when

you can plead thoughtlessness and forgetfulness
in extenuation of the violation of this?"
The insignificance of the matter is, again,
commonly urged in justification of detraction.
You will often hear it said, that it really is diffi
cult to understand how the trivial observation
in question can possibly give pain, and that such
pain, being quite disproportioned to its exciting
cause, it can be rationally traced only to the
unmeaning sensitiveness of the person aggrieved.
But if the remark be so trifling, what need for
making it at all? Is it not discreditable that
your power of self-command is inadequate to
the suppression of a word? A word—one single
word—may sometimes involve a profound mean
ing, and even a silent gesture may deeply wound
charity. The habit of such remarks is most
dangerous. “The habit of repeating trifles, to
the disadvantage of others, and freely discussing
even their publicly recognized failings, will,
most assuredly,” says le Père de la Colombière,
“plane the way for the vice of detraction.”
Persons who allow themselves these practices,
are quite resolved, they say, never to outstep a
certain barrier, but they know not, it is clear,
either the extent or the power of the heart's
corruption. They sport with a lion which will
eventually prove too strong; a lion which will
 THE CATHOLIC OFFERING. 253

now and then give terrific evidences of its fury,

and at last, breaking its chains, rush forth wildly
to devastate and destroy. If, then, you desire
peace of mind, and purity of conscience, refrain
from speaking ill of any body, and that without
weighing whether the matter in question be tri
vial or serious, mortally or venially criminal, or
sinful at all.” Those who maintain that an un
kind remark should give no annoyance, because
of the insignificance of its subject, would do
well to apply here the golden rule, and see
whether a similar comment repeated to them, as
made of themselves, would be agreeable; whe
ther it would excite no momentary resentment
or mortification; whether it would raise no
blush, and start no tear. This personal test
will, perhaps, convince them that it is easier to
inflict pain than they chose to fancy, as long as
some other than themselves was the object of
the experiment.
Detraction is not only extremely sinful, but,
moreover, as you will find on close examination,
quite inconsistent with true generosity of heart
and refinement of mind. If to attack the de
fenceless is universally recognized as mean and
cowardly, surely it is not less base and despica
ble to assault the reputation of the absent, who
can neither explain away, nor otherwise refute
the charges against them. And is it not truly
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254 THE CATHOLIC OFFERING.

ungenerous to single out all the defects and

blemishes of a character for invidious comment,
passing over, at the same time, unnoticed, as if
they did not exist, its perhaps more than coun
terbalancing good and estimable qualities?
For these reasons, but far more because you
cannot violate the law of charity without offend
ing God, refrain most cautiously from unchari
table conversation. Never allow yourself an
unkind remark of any one; never say of the
absent what you would not say in their presence,
or be willing to have repeated to them. Make
no comment of another, which you would not
like to have made of yourself; and then, indeed,
you will be shielded from breaches of charity in
words. To obtain this grace, say frequently
the following prayer, from the pen of the saintly
Père de la Colombière—“Place, O Lord! before
my mouth a door of prudence and a gate of
circumspection, which may effectually close it
against detraction, and all words displeasing to
thee. Thou hast bestowed on me the faculty of
speech, only that I may praise thee, and invite
others to join in rendering thee homage. Oh!
grant that its exercise may be as far as possible
reserved for this end alone. Permit not, I be
seech thee, that the lips so frequently and so
mysteriously honoured by the sacred contact of
thy precious body and blood in the sacrament of
 THE CATHOLIC OFFERING. 255

thy love, should ever be profaned by words

opposed to charity; and mercifully assist me in
adopting every precaution to avert so great a
misfortune.”
Although it is comparatively easy, with cau
tion and vigilance, guided and sustained by
God's grace, to refrain from originating uncha
ritable conversation, it is less so to avoid an at
least apparent participation in it, when started
by others, for this requires a degree of moral
courage, not always natural in the young.
And again, detraction is so common in the
world, that there is danger of your becoming
familiarized with, and thus so far thrown off
your guard as to be almost insensibly led into it.
On the prevalence of the vice, Bossuet writes:
“Detraction may still be considered, as it ever
was, the seasoning of conversation, which with
out it is deemed deficient in point and spirit.
To banish the weariness which a rational topic is
sure to produce, and restore the suspended ani
mation of conversation, detraction must call on
its resources; some individual must be held up to
ridicule or censure; the private concerns of fami
lies, with their hitherto hidden defects and blem
ishes, must be brought to light; the uncharitable
reports and gossip of the day must be detailed
circumstantially and wittily; and the audience
but a moment before so dull, will shake off its
256 ThE CATH() LIC OFFERING.

apathy, arouse all its listening faculties, and lose

not a word of the detestable chronicle. Although
thanks may not be openly voted to the detractor
for his services, the satisfaction they have given
is quite apparent to him in the bursts of laughter
which greet his sallies, and the significant ges
tures whose mute eloquence he knows well how
to interpret.
You see what need you have to arm yourself
with caution and courage, if you are really
determined to fulfil your solemn obligation of
observing charity yourself, and never encou
raging the breach of it by others. That obliga
tion is strictly binding at all times, and under
all circumstances, and never can any possible
contingency sanction your either openly joining
in or indirectly countenancing detraction. How
ever, while fully and practically recognizing the
force of the maxim which establishes that “if
there were no listeners there would be no
detractors,” you must be careful that in your
anxiety to avoid a sinful violation of charity in
one way, you do not forget the claims of that
sweet virtue in another. You would not join in
detraction for the world, and you are perfectly
right, but at the same time you will remember
that those who are guilty of it, are perhaps more
excusable in the eyes of God than they seem to
you; that they, perhaps, have not been well
 THE CATHOLIC OFFERING. 257

instructed in, or strongly impressed with their

duty in this particular; that there may be ex
tenuations in their case, which would not be
admissible in your own, and so, pitying rather
than condemning, you will call prudence to your
aid, and make no unnecessary demonstration of
your sentiments. If you can do so with the
requisite tact, change the topic; if not, be quite
silent, and never be ashamed if your silence
draws on you the imputation of singularity. It
is very right to be singular when there is question
of a compromise between the law of God and
COnSC1011Ce.

The foregoing rule, of course, applies to the

society of your elders only, for among compa
nions of your own age and standing you should
not tolerate the very semblance of detraction,
but maintain the rights of charity bravely, leav
ing no doubt on the minds of your associates
that your neighbour's reputation is with you safe
and sacred.
While detraction is unhappily so prevalent in
the world, and therefore one of the great dan
gers you have to apprehend in Society, it is also
true that you will have opportunities of hearing
much agreeable and useful conversation, of
which, if you please, you can make your profit.
Good conversation is often even more improving
than books, for it gives you, with the substance
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258 THE CAT HOLIC OF FERING.

of books, the judicious comments of mature re

flection, and the wise views gleaned from expe
rimental knowledge of life. In order to benefit
by useful conversation, you must know how to
listen to it, which, if you understand its advan
tages, you will not find it either difficult or
tiresome to do. Rational conversation is distaste
ful to the frivolous and over talkative, but you
must take care never to deserve a rank in either
class, and then its flow will meet no obstacle
from your preference for puerilities, or your desire
of subjects, in which you can yourself take a
prominent part. Listen with interest, and let
this interest be apparent in your countenance
and manner. Be always disposed rather to at
tend to others, than to speak yourself; yet, when
an observation is called for, make it intelligently,
and show that you are alive to the topic. Never
interrupt the remarks of others, intrude your
opinion unasked, or manifest a wish to engross
conversation. Beside betraying a want of that
diffidence, so attractive in the young, these are
inexcusable deficiencies in good breeding.
In the ordinary intercourse of general society,
while it would be reprehensible to speak too
much, so would it be ill advised to speak too
little. Reserve of manner should never be laid
aside in that intercourse; but neither should it be
carried to such extremes as to impress the world
 THE CATHOLIC OFFERING. 259

with the idea that piety is something very

morose, and a practically religious life, a life of
gloom and misery.
At home, cheerfulness should be the presiding
genius of conversation; yet even here, be careful
never entirely to throw off restraint in speech.
As soon as you do, you will find yourself led
into a variety of faults, each small in itself,
perhaps, yet tending in the aggregate to disturb
your peace of conscience, lessen your facility
for living in the divine presence, and diminish
your recollection at prayer. There is always
danger in allowing free license to the tongue.
To do so, is to lose command of that mysterious
“bridle,” as St. James terms it, with which “the
whole body can be led about,” (iii. 2). We
have already remarked on the evils of useless
talking, in the chapter on the “Flight of idle
ness.” Those evils, we may add here, are in
curred, not only by talking idly at all times, but
also by talking at random and to excess, even
at the right. Endeavour betimes to acquire
control over your words, and never forget the
remark of Fenelon, that “nothing very admi
rable can be expected from a woman who has
not learned to examine her thoughts before she
gives them utterance; to express herself in few
words when she has occasion to speak, and that
260 THE CATHOLIC OFFERING.

necessity having ceased, to return, from choice,

to her temporarily interrupted silence.”
“He that keepeth his mouth, keepeth his soul:
but he that hath no guard on his speech, shall
meet with evils,” (Prov. xiii. 3). “Make doors
and bars to thy mouth. Melt down thy gold
and silver, and make a balance for thy words,
and a just bridle for thy mouth: and take heed
lest thou slip with thy tongue, and fall in sight of
thy enemies who lie in wait for thee, and thy
fall be incurable unto death,” (Ecc. xxviii.
28, 30).
 Tii F. CATHOLIC OFFERING. 261

CHAPTER XIV.

THE SPIRIT OF THE WORLD INIMICAL TO THE

SPIRIT OF FAITH.

WHEN God created the material world in which

we live, he made it very beautiful; so beautiful,
that his own eyes saw it to be fair, and his own
lips pronounced it to be good; and like it, too,
in loveliness and all perfection was the moral
world as it came forth in the morning of time
from the almighty hands which fashioned it;
but it was not long before another and a totally
dissimilar world sprang up from the very bosom
of God's own pure, bright creation;–a new
world, the offspring not of heaven, but of hell;
the world of sin, which, founded on man's pride,
cemented by his ambition, growing with his
love of self, and extending with his multiplying
vices, overspread at last from end to end the
wondrous work of Omnipotence, not only sweep
ing away in its pestilential progress that glorious
primaeval innocence which was the richest gem
of the dawning world of grace, but impairing
the beauty even of the physical creation, which
but for sin's shadow had never worn a wrinkle
on its brow, or sent forth a noxious weed or
262 THE CATHOLIC OFFERING.

sterile bramble from its bosom. Wherever

human passions have built themselves an empire,
there exists that new world, that world of evil
which you are taught to dread and exhorted to
shun—first, as the daring enemy of God himself;
and next, as your own uncompromising and
deadly foe.
That the world is the enemy of God, you
will at once perceive, if you examine a little
closely into the grounds of the assertion. First,
the maxims of the world are subversive of the
maxims of the Gospel. Jesus Christ, our divine
Master, taught humility, poverty, mortification,
self-denial, love of obscurity, love of suffering.
He taught that we must become as little chil
ren to enter the kingdom of heaven; that what
is great before men is an abomination before
God; that we shall be blessed when we weep,
and happy when we are persecuted and reviled;
that our only concern is to save our souls, and
that these being lost, it will avail us nothing to
have gained the universe. The world teaches,
on the contrary, that wealth is the supreme good,
because it excludes privation with its attendant
sufferings, and obscurity with its accompanying
humiliations. It teaches that poverty is despic
able, and mortification irrational; that self-denial
is impracticable, and self-indulgence the end of
existence; that the present life is a legitimate
 THE CATHOLIC OFFERING. 263

object of exclusive solicitude, and the future too

shadowy, or at least too remote, to merit much
consideration. Shaped into plain, unvarnished
words, these maxims sound appallingly impious;
yet they are the maxims on which the world
acts; the maxims which serve it as practical
rules of conduct, whether they be expressed in
words or not. Can you hesitate to pronounce
them subversive of the lessons of the Gospel?
Clearly to understand how pernicious and
reprehensible they are, we have only to remem
ber that Jesus Christ, the Eternal Wisdom of the
Father, came from heaven to condemn them, and
“selected,” says Bossuet, “for the accomplish
ment of this design, a means as efficacious as it
was unexampled, allowing himself to be judged
by the world, that the manifest injustice of the
iniquitous sentence might of itself invalidate the
world's future judgments.” To imitate the world,
and adopt the practical guidance it acknow
ledges, is effectually to follow its maxims, even
though a momentary start of real or feigned
horror may now and then be produced by a for
mal exposition of the anti-christian code.
The world will not openly avow to you its
maxims, nor convey its lessonsin the bold, fearless
tone of conscious rectitude. It will insinuate rather
than speak them, lest if you heard too plainly,
you should be startled and fly. It will just lightly
264 THE CATHOLIC OFFERING.

breathe that the pious impressions of school days

were but the workings of an ardent mind, which
must now learn to lay aside its enthusiasm, and
adopt less fanciful views. It will stealthily
whisper that the religious exercises to which you
attach so much importance, although well suited
to the cloister, would be wholly misplaced in the
world, and should be got rid of as quickly and as
quietly as possible. It will paint virtue in false
colours, making it appear ridiculous or morose.
It will try to persuade you that you really were
a bad judge of your own affairs, when you ima
gined yourself happy in retirement, contented
without excitement, and absolutely joyful amidst
the tame and insipid amusements of school; and,
in conclusion, it will place before you a vivid
picture of the far more attractive pleasures to
which you are yet a stranger, but may soon be
introduced to, if you will.
When the voice of the charmer first sounds in
your ear, then will be the time practically to
profess your faith; then the hour to manifest
your belief in those everlasting maxims which
never can pass away, even though the heavens
and the earth themselves should vanish; then
the glorious opportunity of renewing and con
firming those sacred baptismal engagements by
which you solemnly promised for ever to re
nounce the maxims, with the works of Satan.
 THE CATHOLIC OFFERING. 265

Resist bravely that first treacherous whisper;

turn from it with the same horror as if you
beheld the tempter in visible form, and remem
ber that your chances of keeping yourself “un
spotted from the world,” as you pass through its
temptations, depend to a great extent on the
resolution you display in your first encounter
with your insidious foe. “Resist the devil and
he will fly from you,” (St. James, iv. 7); but
then resist him promptly, for if his pernicious
maxims once gain even partial influence over
you, you will find it difficult indeed to arrest the
progress, or calculate the consequences of that
fatal influence.
That the spirit of the world is contradictory
of the spirit of Christ, and that the world is con
sequently in this respect again the enemy of
God, is a truth as self-evident as the preceding.
The spirit of Christ is a spirit of humility, meek
ness, patience, self-sacrifice, forgiveness of in
juries, and contempt of earthly things. The
spirit of the world is a spirit of pride, arrogance,
anger, hatred, avarice, and selfishness. The two
are diametrically opposed; and one can as little
unite with the other, as light can blend with
darkness, or truth combine with falsehood. One
of the two must henceforth actuate you; which
shall it be? Your resolution on this head has
no doubt been already taken in all sincerity, and
2 A
266 THE CATHOLIC OFFERING.

you have besought God with great earnestness

to strengthen you in its observance, and to pre
serve you from ever admitting into your heart
the spirit of the world—the spirit of Satan.
But all is not yet done; nothing is in truth begun.
The world lies before you, armed with a weapon
of gigantic power in its all but omnipotent ex
ample; and against the influence of that example
it is that you have now to struggle. It is a wild
torrent that bears ruin on its raging waters; yet
may you hope, through God's mercy, to pass un
harmed through the billows, if in proportion
to your distrust of self, is your confidence in the
guidance of your heavenly Pilot. Cling fast to
the helm of Faith, and with your eyes fixed on
the distant shores of the everlasting home to
come, you will steadily persist in your first strong
and holy determination, that the example of the
world shall never entice you from the narrow
road that leads to God. You will keep in view
the far different example of martyrs, and con
fessors, and saints of every grade, and with them
“esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches
than the treasure of the world, and looking unto
the reward, you will rather choose to be afflicted
with the people of God, than to have the plea
sure of sin for a time,” (Heb. xi. 26, 25). Far
from permitting yourself to be carried away by
the torrent of the world's example, your aim
 THE CATHOLIC OFFERING. 267

will be, on the contrary, to counteract its evil

influence as far as your limited sphere of action
admits, by practically proving that another and
a higher model is yours. Do not say that the
example of one insignificant individual like
yourself can produce too little impression on the
general state of things, to repay you for the vigi
lance and self-restraint which must enter so
largely into your habitual practice, before you
can hope to become a shining light of good ex
ample. Example possesses a power quite mira
culous; it is more eloquent than words; more
persuasive than exhortation; more winning than
entreaty. It is woman's peculiar mission to
preach silently by example, and in this way,
first of all, it is, that she is to exercise both at
home and abroad, that influence so universally
acknowledged as her peculiar attribute. “On
woman,” says Bourdaloue, “depend the refor
mation and sanctification of society. If she were
truly a Christian, in the genuine, practical mean
ing of the term, then would the world be con
strained by a happy necessity to become Chris
tian too." You are but one, yet if your example
be good, there will be in the world one bad ex
ample the less, and this is at least a negative gain.
You are but one, yet your example may be the
means of recalling some one wanderer into the
path of salvation; and even though the conquest
268 THE CATHOLIC OFFERING.

should be solitary, the gain for God's glory and

your own soul will be positive. That one may
attract another, and so the circle may widen;
great will be your consolation in the day of
reckoning, to discover that your example was its
centre; great your glory in heaven, in recom
pense of having not only denied the spirit of the
world entrance into your heart, but moreover
diffused around you, for the edification of others,
the brilliant light of a life subject to the practi.
cal influence of the spirit of faith.
The world is God's foe, thirdly, because its
interests are all at variance with the interests of
His glory. The accidental glory which creatures
can render to God, results from their submission
to His will, and their fidelity in accomplishing
His designs. His great and only design in cre
ating us, was, that we might devote our being to
his service here, and then, as the reward of our
obedience, merit to enjoy Him eternally here
after. But the world's aims all tend to impede
this great and beneficent object. Man, created
for a destiny but little inferior to that of the
angels, is taught by the world's lessons and ex
ample to forget that exalted destiny, and to sub
stitute another quite contrary. Instead of God,
he learns to make self his end. Coveting per
manent possession of the treasures only lent for
his temporary use, he sets all his energies to
 THE CATHOLIC OFFERING. 269

work to realize them. Losing sight of his high

origin and eternal hopes, he tries to make for
himself here a lasting city, and binds his soul to
it with the silken cords of avarice and self-indul
gence. He flings aside the prospect of future
bliss, to revel in the enjoyment of present de
lights. He sacrifices the interests of God's
honour to worldly interests; he frustrates the
end of his creation, and thus robs the Almighty
of the glory which His Sovereign Majesty can
derive only from the accomplishment of His own
all holy will.
While the world is thus manifestly the enemy
of God, it is with equal certainty the friend
of Satan—the great battle-plain whereon he con
tends for the conquests of Jesus, unhappily with
very considerable success; the vast harvest field
which supplies his riches; the empire which
acknowledges his sceptre; the zealous co-ope
rator in his designs; his most faithful ally; his
most potent auxiliary. To love the world is
then to substitute for God's friendship that of
Satan, emphatically styled the world’s “prince,”
(St. John, xiv. 30). Oh, what a sad exchange |
To imbibe the spirit of the world, is to contract
an unholy alliance with the most Evil One! Oh,
what a degradation to the soul destined for
union with God and his bright angels! To live
according to the maxims of the world, is to
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prefer the servitude of the Demon, to the sweet.

yoke and light burden of the law of God! Oh,
what a strange—what a deplorable perversion of
heart and reason | “Love not then the world,
nor the things which are in the world,” (1 St.John,
ii. 15); for, “whosoever will be a friend of this
world, becometh an enemy of God,” (St. James,
iv. 4).
And what compensation does the world bestow
on those who have preferred its friendship to
the friendship of God, and for its sake sub
stituted the interests of Satan for the interests of
God's glory? Ah! none, in truth, for its pro
mises are like itself deceitful, and its enjoyments
delusive.
“All these,” said the Evil Spirit to our divine
Lord, in allusion to the kingdoms and empires
of the earth which he displayed before his view;
“all these will I give thee, if, falling down,
thou wilt adore me,” (St. Matt. iv. 9). And so
he still daily says to his unhappy dupes, through
the voice of the world's temptations: “All
these will I give thee;” multiplied delights, un
restrained liberty, unceasing enjoyment, perfect
happiness, if thou wilt adore me; if thou wilt
but wear my golden chains, and abandoning the
service of God, take service among my votaries.”
But the world is the kingdom of the “Father
of lies;" and like its lord and master, it is a
 THE CATHOLIC OFFERING. 271

deceiver, as none of its adherents, not even the

most constant and faithful, have ever thought of
controverting. From how many of its devoted
servants, has the anguish of a despairing heart
wrung an ejaculation similar to that of the once
favoured, but finally rejected son of fickle for
tune, “Alas! had I but served my God as
faithfully as I have served my king, He would
not thus abandon me in my grey hairs!” And
how strange that with multiplied testimonies
to its treachery, even from those who know it
best, the world should still retain power to
entangle dupes within its toils |
The pleasures which the world holds out are
in their own nature as delusive, as the promise
to confer them is insincere. They are not real
—not true—not substantial—not soul-refreshing
—not heart-filling. They are like the bubble
which gladdened our childish eyes, as we sent
it floating on the air to catch its glorious colour
ing from the sunbeam; and, lo! just as we looked
in wonder at the fairy work of our own little
hands, and shouted for joy to see it sail majes
tically upwards, clad in its rainbow beauty, it
burst at our feet, and but for the few drops of
moisture which fell as it dissolved, to prove
that once it was a reality, we should have been
tempted altogether to deny its brief bright
being. They are like the mocking mirage of
272 THE CATHOLIC OFFERING.

the desert, which invites the exhausted traveller

to lave his burning brow in the cool waters of a
placid lake, and rest his aching limbs in the deli
cious shade of the luxuriant trees that wave their
light drapery in the sweet breeze, then fades
away as he approaches, to leave him once more
a hopeless wanderer through the arid waste,
seeking in vain for the fairy vision, and doubt
ing whether the scorching sands have engulfed,
or the glowing skies absorbed it.
The world's joys being unreal, must necessarily
be evanescent. As it is the very nature of
external influences to vary, pleasures dependent
on them can never be permanent. The pleasures
of the world are essentially dependent on extrin
sic causes, their very existence pre-supposing the
combination of certain favourable contingencies,
and the absence of certain untoward circum
stances; and the least failure in either condition
sufficing, not alone to destroy, but even to convert
them into positive mortifications. How hollow a
foundation for enjoyment, then, is that mutable
world, where it is so utterly vain to calculate on
stability or consistency, and how little worth are
pleasures which may be overcast by every flitting
cloud; pleasures dependent on the thousand
whims of poor, variable beings; pleasures which
live in the smiles, and wither in the frowns of
capricious mortals; pleasures which flourish in
 THE CATHOLIC OFFERING. 273

sunshine alone, and die if exposed to any of the

countless casualties of life; pleasures which, had
they never known a moment's pause or diminu
tion before, must at least come to a final close at
the rapidly approaching hour of death !
Among their many other attendant evils,
the pleasures of the world produce a bewildering
excitement of imagination, with its consequent
ever-increasing thirst for the intoxicating draught
by which alone that fictitious excitement is to be
maintained. Lassitude and depression, the na
tural results of excitement, follow by reaction,
gradually creating disrelish for the monotonous
round of domestic duty—unhealthy yearning
for new pastime—feverish desires of more com
pany, and perhaps, in the end, dislike to, and
anxiety to escape from a home, which, as it
offers no variety, can impart no content. For
these great and serious evils, there seems, unhap
pily, but little hope of cure, inasmuch as the
remedy most likely to be resorted to, is precisely
that calculated to aggravate the disease.
Be on your guard against that most dan
gerous faculty, the imagination. Oppose to
its attractive, but delusive images, the sober
realities of life; the realities of faith; the re
alities of eternity. Never allow the excite
ment of first impressions to carry you away,
but suspend your judgment until excitement has
274 THE CATHOLIC OF FERING.

yielded to the calm suggestions of reason, still

more of religion. Try always to possess yourself,
that so you may be enabled to take accurate views,
and form correct estimates of life. Under excite
ment you cannot do this; therefore, you should
make it your aim to check its first rising impulses,
avoiding also, most cautiously, extreme opinions,
fictitious sensibilities, and the exaggeration of
feeling manifested in violent attachments or
aversions.
Among its other dangers, association with the
world powerfully elicits that love of admiration
so natural to woman, that it has been called “the
second original sin.” Hence it comes, that pro
priety, principle, justice, health, religion—all are
sacrificed at the shrine of fashion. Hence springs
the love of dress. Hence proceed miserable
rivalry, petty vanity, despicable envy. Hence
extravagance, debt, and at last ruin. Hence that
perversion of taste and judgment which invests
flattery with its false fascinations. Never suffer
the love of admiration to hold dominion in your
heart, for it will surely lead you into many
frivolities, and perhaps even into serious derelic
tions from duty, which you will find ample cause
to deplore and blush for. It has been tritely re
marked that a woman's head will be always more
valued for what is in it, than for what is on it.
Let good sense reign in yours, and it will teach
 THE CATHOLIC OFFERING. 275

you to adapt your toilet to your circumstances

and position. It will not suffer you to trangress
the rules of strict feminine delicacy; to sacrifice
good taste to fashion; or to forget that in the
young, simplicity is the most pleasing of all
adornments. It will show you very clearly, what
the blindness of self-love too often conceals, that
flatterers have no other aim than to create per
sonal amusement at the expense of their silly
dupes; and observing that their inordinate praises
are invariably directed, not to piety, good sense,
or domestic virtues, but to perishable external
attractions, or the showy accomplishments which,
brilliant as they seem, may hide a very uncul
tivated mind, you will own that, far from giving
pleasure, they should rather produce disgust; far
from raising a smile of satisfaction, they should
rather excite a feeling of humiliation.
Oh! how fatal, how deplorable are the results
of an inordinate love of the world, with its follies
and false joys! The mind continually bent on
frivolity, acquires in time a frivolous tone. That
great, noble, exalted mind, created to mount on
the wings of prayer and meditation, even to
heaven; destined to know God, to think of God,
to converse with God; to improve, and strengthen,
and spiritualize its faculties by union with God;
that favoured mind stoops at last so low, as to
waste its glorious energies in devising expedients
276 THE CATHOLIC OFFERING.

for the perpetual renewal of exciting pleasure;

and, in its degradation, it condescends to employ
the petty resources of paltry vanity to secure a
primary share in the hollow admiration and in
sipid flattery for which it pants, even while
acknowledging their worthlessness, and despising
their insincerity. The Christian who thus de
votes to the world the heart made for God alone,
must necessarily be indisposed for the discharge
of her obligations to her Maker, as well as
unfitted for the performance of her duties at
home. She whose life is one perpetual round of
dissipating amusements, and whose thoughts and
conversation are engrossed by dress, fashion, and
similar subjects, can have little relish for prayer;
little facility for meditation; little capacity or
inclination for entering into the recesses of her
soul by a careful examination of conscience;
little desire to undertake the preparation requisite
for the sacraments. Neither can she feel any
thing but distaste for serious occupation, and
weary disinclination for the quiet duties which
demand her attention in the domestic circle.
Intent solely on seeking adulation abroad, she
will take no pains to make herself amiable and
useful and loved at home. Solicitous only for
the approval of the world, she will care little to
merit the approval of God. Anxious but for
temporal advantages, she will forget the concerns
 THE CATHOLIC OFFERING. 277

of eternity and the interests of her soul; but

because, deluded by Satan's specious promises,
she has preferred the service of the world to the
service of God, prolonged as are excitements,
multiplied as are pastimes, and varied as are
amusements, her heart is empty, her mind list
less, her life objectless, and even pleasure itself
—the very pleasure so eagerly sought, so dearly
loved—becomes at last a weary burden. Oh!
how deplorable a conclusion to her early train
ing in piety How sad a termination to the
holy projects of virtue, and strong resolutions of
fidelity to God, which hallowed the days of her
residence in the sanctuary, and accompanied her
at her departure from it, as a beacon's light to
warn her, and an angel's wing to shield her l
“How is the gold become dim, and how is the
finest colour changed 1" (Lam. iv. 1.) Alas!
the love of the world has imperceptibly been
suffered to supplant the love of God; the love of
pleasure has gradually been substituted for the
love of duty; the spirit of the world has banished
the spirit of Christ; the maxims of the world
have obliterated the lessons of the Gospel; the
example of the world has outweighed the pious
counselsof the monitors of earlier days, and thus
it is that the gold has lost its lustre, and the
colour its brilliancy, and that the heart formed
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278 THE CATHOLIC OFFERING.

for heaven has become the miserable, degraded

slave of earth.
It may be that so serious a view of the sub
ject has not occurred to you before, and it may
be, too, that the world looks to you just now
too smiling and attractive, to admit of your
realizing the possibility of danger in anything so
bright, or connecting the idea of evil with any
thing so inviting. You simply take on trust the
promises, which, never having tested, you have
not yet learned to doubt, and believe, in your
inexperience, that all is in reality what it seems,
losing sight of the great fact, that that smiling
countenance is but a painted mask, and that
fascinating appearance a hollow show. But look
ing on the world in its true aspect, as the enemy
of God—an enemy so odious, that Jesus, the
very source and fountain of mercy, excluded it
from his dying prayers—how will your ideas
concerning it alter How will you hate and
dread it, and pray to be 'shielded from its many
perils, and preserved from its many temptations !
Seeing in it the disguise beneath which Satan
lurks to spread his snares and carry on his
machinations, hiding himself the while, lest his
hideous presence should, if revealed, strike
terror into his victims, how cautiously will you
approach it, and how vigilantly will you watch
for its hidden dangers! Considering it as the
 THE CATHOLIC OFFERING. 279

great arena on which the infernal spirit wages

his impious strife against heaven, how will you
shudder at the thought of taking part in a com
bat, on the issue of which hangs your fate for
eternity | Viewing it as intimately identified
with the nearest and dearest interests of your
inveterate foe, and therefore as your personal
enemy, no less than the enemy of God, how will
you tremble at the mere apprehension of falling
into the hands of so powerful and so malignant
an adversary, and how earnestly will you pray
at your entrance into the world to be kept
unspotted by its defilements, and unentangled
by its snares |
The ocean on which you are going to embark
is a very treacherous one—in its hours of calm,
it sleeps so tranquilly beneath the breathless sky,
its rest undisturbed even by a passing ripple,
that to the uninitiated eye, it seems the very
emblem of peace. But do not limit your obser
vations to the glassy surface which looks so
serenely beautiful in the reflected tints of the
ethereal vault above; plunge into the deep;
examine the frowning rocks; count, if you can,
the hidden shoals that lie in stealthy wait for the
ruin of the unwary; listen to the low moaning
of the waves, the prelude of the coming storm,
and filled with salutary alarm at the awful reali
ties thus unexpectedly revealed, learn to form
280 THE CATHOLIC OFFERING.

an accurate estimate of the perils which await

you, and henceforth to view the world, not in
the false light of the imagination, but through the
unerring medium of Faith, which, rectifying the
erroneous impressions of sense, will elevate your
hopes and views far beyond transient objects that
fascinate only to betray.
In order to avoid the risks we have been con
sidering, it is not necessary, as you are quite
aware, to seclude yourself from society; this
would, on the contrary, be reprehensible as a
singularity; neither is it requisite to fly altoge
ther from the world, which would be mere rash
ness, unless God pleased Himself to call you
into the cloister. But you certainly are required
by Him, who has given you His law as your
guide, and will one day judge you on its obser
vance, to seclude your heart from the world:
“to use the world, as though you used it not;”
to pass through it as a traveller who has not here
a lasting city; to keep your affections disengaged
from it; to beware of allowing its example to
influence you, its spirit to guide you, or the
poison of its maxims to glide into your soul.
You are allowed to participate in its amusements,
provided they are innocent in themselves, and
consistent with the obligation of the condition in
life assigned you by the Almighty, but only with
moderation and in God's holy presence. You
 THE CATHOLIC OFFERING. 281

are permitted to enjoy them, but never to let

yourself be carried away by them; never to
make them the end of existence; never to thirst
for them with restless eagerness; never to let
them interfere between you and your duty to
God; never to suffer them to become an occasion
of sin. You are allowed to dress in accordance
with your position in life; but never with ex
travagance. You are allowed to conform to the
usages of fashion; but never to encroach in the
slightest degree on feminine modesty. You are
allowed to relish cultivated society and agree
able conversation; but never to lend a willing
ear to the syren voice of flattery; never to join
in, or countenance detraction; never to lay aside
that reserve of manner which should be the
characteristic, as it is the safeguard, of the woman;
never to let yourself be so far dazzled by bril
liant exterior qualities, as to lose the capability
of discriminating between appearance and reality;
never to make acquaintances or form friendships
without your parents' sanction; never to lose
sight of the important fact, that an intimate asso
ciate, imbued either with a worldly spirit, or
anti-Catholic principles, would be to you the
most dangerous, the most fatal of tempters.
That salvation, and even exalted sanctity, are
attainable in the world, none can for a moment
doubt, knowing, as we do, that the life of the
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282 THE CATHOLIC OFFERING.

world is, by God's own appointment, the ordi

nary destiny of His creatures. It is through
intercourse with the world that men in general
are to be saved; through the faithful discharge
of duty in their various relations to it, that they
are to be sanctified. The world does not, then,
mean any particular place, for all parts of God's
beautiful creation are good; it only means cer
tain maxims at variance with the lessons of the
Gospel; a certain spirit, opposed to the spirit of
Christ; certain practices inconsistent with the
baptismal engagements of a Christian. It is
quite possible to live in the world without acting
on its maxims, or imbibing its spirit, or pursuing
its practices, as the example of the saints will
show you, if you but study their lives. Live,
then, in the world, if such be the will of the
Almighty in your regard; for in the accomplish
ment of His holy will alone, is our sanctification;
be happy to think that you can serve Him there
very perfectly, and promote His glory very ex
tensively. Live in the world, if God calls you
to it; but never cease to hate, to dread, to shun
its spirit. So long as you resist the influence of
that spirit, so long are you safe, even though
your destiny may summon you to the midst of
the world, as heaven's ordinance summoned saints
to wear coronets and fill thrones. If you are invio
lably faithful to your fundamental resolution of
 THE CATHOLIC OFFERING. 283

exactitude to the great duty of prayer, you will

be comparatively safe amidst its dangers.
While at the call of duty, you occasionally
mingle in its gay scenes, the virtue of the holy
Sacrifice of the Mass, at which you assisted in
the morning, will still shed its lingering influence
over you, to strengthen. The good thoughts
suggested by your early meditation, will recur
from time to time, to restrain. The pious emo
tions excited by the Rosary will arise again and
again, to draw your mind and heart to heaven;
and when you are in danger of being carried
away by the pageants of earth, and forgetting
the brighter land to which you tend, the remem
brance of God's presence will be your defence;
the arms of Mary, your fortress; the shadow of
your angel's wings, your citadel; and thus se
cured, even the world itself cannot harm you;
the contagion of vice cannot reach you; the
wild waves of dissipation cannot engulf you;
the vanities of earth cannot separate you from
God; cannot sever your affections from the
blessed home to come, where your heart reposes,
because there rests your treasure.
284 THE CATHOLIC OFFERING.

CONCLUSION.

As a practical conclusion to this little work,

nothing can perhaps be more useful than to
refer you to the first fundamental principle of
the spiritual life—the end of man's creation;
for if thoroughly impressed with the importance
of that vital principle, there will be little danger
of your ever renouncing your allegiance to your
Maker, to adopt the world's maxims as your
code, or its example as your guide.
You were made by God, and therefore you
belong to him absolutely, entirely, and in the
minutest particular. The existence which he
bestowed, he has preserved for many years, and
continues still to preserve unceasingly from one
moment to another; therefore you belong to Him
always—in youth and in age, in every period of
life, in every single separate instant that com
poses your existence. You are at all times sub
ject to the high dominion of God, therefore
amenable to his laws, dependent on his will,
strictly bound to observe his precepts. At no
moment, under no circumstance, can you cease
to be the possession of God, or transfer to your
 THE CATHOLIC OFFERING. 285

self, or any other creature, his inalienable right

over you. To do so, would be to abuse that
noble gift of free will, which is well employed
only as long as it tends with all its strength to
the Creator.
To use your liberty in accordance with the
designs of God, or pervert it to other ends, is
perfectly at your option. Life and death are
before you; a happy or a miserable eternity is
offered you, and you are freely permitted to
choose; but before you do so, pause to consider
the consequences of the selection.
On one side are offered to you present grati
fications; dissipating pleasures; the full, free
indulgence of self-love with all its vicious pro
pensities and morbid cravings;–a life of ease
and indolence, and therefore a selfish, useless
life; useless for God's glory, useless to your
fellow creatures, most thoroughly useless to your
self—consequently a direct and complete devia
tion from the end for which life was bestowed.
On the other side are the restraints which the
practice of virtue necessarily entails; the war
fare against nature which must be bravely sus
tained through life; the self-denial indispensable
to the observance of God's commands; the sacri
fices to duty inseparable from its exact fulfil
ment; the renunciation of all but innocent
amusements; the invariable preference of God's
286 THE CATHOLIC OF FERING.

sovereign pleasure to the desires and demands of

self-will; constant watchfulness over the mind;
a constant guard over the heart; a life of active
good works animated by charity, and regulated
by the exigences of the particular condition
allotted by Providence—a useful life—useful
for God's glory, useful to your neighbour, most
useful to yourself; a treasury of merits for eter
nity, and therefore a perfect fulfilment of the
end of your creation.
Before you make your selection, you have still
to consider that on the manner in which you
fulfil your temporal destiny depend eternal re
sults, for your end is two-fold—first, to serve
God in this world; and, secondly, to possess him
in the next. Your soul is immortal; it can never
die; never. Through all the ages of eternity it
will live. And what is eternity? Something that
it utterly bewilders us to think of; something that
perplexes, and entangles, and confuses our minds
when we try to send them wandering far away,
and farther through the interminable years.
Can you fancy an ocean without a shore? or a
sky without a horizon? No. Or a day without
a night, or a night without a day dawn? No,
again. We cannot picture to our imagination
any space without a term; any extent without a
boundary; any period without a limit. Still,
let us endeavour to do so, and make use, for
 THE CATHOLIC OFFERING. 287

this purpose, of one or two of the comparisons

employed in meditations on eternity—that, for
instance, of the arithmetical figures. Two such
figures denote the period of the ordinary lives of
men;–very few, indeed, exceed the age of 99;
very few even reach it; those who do, are justly
-esteemed to have had an unusually longliſe. Now,
look back to the beginning of time; cast a rapid
glance over the memorable events which have
marked the different epochs since; note the
various empires which have risen and fallen;
the innumerable revolutions which have changed
the face of society; the moral regeneration of
the world through the coming of Christ, and
establishment of His church; the gradual disco
very of new regions; the progress of civilization;
the improvements in arts and learning. Pass in
review the multitudes who have lived their little
span of life, and then been swept away to make
room for new generations, also destined soon to
disappear and mingle their dust with that of
their predecessors to the tomb. You easily con
clude that a chain of history, reaching from the
creation down to yourself, must be very length
ened indeed, and the origin of events so in
calculably numerous, very remote. Yet four
figures mark the duration of the world, with
all its physical and moral revolutions; for,
far back as seems the dawn of time, its date is
288 T iſ E CATHOLIC OFFERING.

not yet of six thousand years past. Now, apply

this reflection to the subject of our considera
tion. Fancy, not four figures, nor ten times the
number, but a line extending all round the cir
cumference of the globe. Let each figure in
that line stand, not for a hundred years, or a
thousand, but for millions and millions of ages,
and even at that rate eternity will outmeasure
them—outweigh them—exhaust them; and hav
ing exhausted them, even to the very last unit,
will be as far from ending as it is to-day !
Picture to yourself, again, an ocean so vast as
to enclose within its limits all the waters that
now cover the surface of the earth, and imagine
that, at the end of every million of years, one
drop is withdrawn from the mighty deep;-even
at that rate eternity will see the ocean drained,
and be as far from ending then as it is to-day !
Think very seriously, very earnestly of this;
plunge deeply into that shoreless ocean, and then
say to yourself, “I am destined to live through
those endless ages. My soul never can die; never
can be annihilated. I know that interminable
joys and agonies are equally the appendages of
that mysterious eternity whose depths I have just
tried to fathom. Shall I forfeit the bliss, and
secure myself the woes, for the sake of the short
lived, perishable, insufficient enjoyments of time?
Oh, no! surely no ‘What doth it profit a man,
 THE CATHOLIC OFFERING. 289

iſ he gain the whole world, and suffer the loss of

his own soul? (St. Matt. xvi. 26).” What does
it avail the reprobate to have possessed all that
men esteem and covet? All is gone now; the
shadow has vanished; the phantom has glided
away; time is over; eternity encompasses them;
flames are their food and their drink; hideous
demons their associates; the lacerating worm of
conscience their ever-new tormentor. Oh how
small, how insignificant, how worthless seem
to them the temporal interests for which they
sacrificed the interests of eternity | If bitter,
burning, scalding tears of agony and despair
could atone for the fatal error, fully indeed would
it be expiated. If wild, everlasting cries of
anguish could recal the lost opportunity of mak
ing a holier and a wiser choice, that opportunity
would not be lost irrecoverably, as it too surely
is. But tears, and prayers, and groans are useless
now. When the choice was given them, as at
this moment it is given to you, they preferred the
sinful pleasures of time to the joys of eternity;
they loved darkness more than light, and are
indebted only to their voluntary abuse of liberty
for their present irremediably miserable lot.
These are the momentous truths which should
guide you in your own selection between life and
death; these the solid principles which should
influence your judgments and regulate your
2 C
290 THE CATHOLIC OF FERING.

decisions. Form correct opinions on the relative

importance of time and eternity, and for this end
view all earthly things in that “wonderful light
from the everlasting hills,” (Ps. lxxv. 5), which
alone can exhibit this transient scene in its true
colours. Seen too near, it dazzles; seen through
a false medium, it assumes a deceptive hue; but
viewed from the far off summits of the eternal
mountains, it wears its true aspect; its false glare
dimmed by the distance; its gaudy gilding tar
nished; its dimensions reduced to an all but
invisible point. Accustom yourself to see it now,
as you most assuredly will see it then, and there
will be no danger of its engaging your thoughts
and affections to the exclusion of other more
important concerns.
As an encouragement to perseverance in the
narrow, rugged way that leads to heaven, habi
tuate yourself equally to view in the same clear
light of eternity, the passing pains and privations
attendant on the practice of virtue and the dis
charge of duty. Viewed likewise from “the
everlasting hills,” of how little moment will seem
the self-renunciation, now perhaps so trying; the
humiliations so galling; the contradictions so
hard to bear; the sacrifices so difficult to make I
When we have reached “the home of our eter
nity," will not our only regret be that we did not
suffer more for God, while the time for suffering
 THE CATHOLIC OFFERING. 291

meritoriously lasted? What a happiness then to

have despised the pleasures of sin, and secured
the immortal rewards of virtue! “Eye hath not
seen, nor ear heard, neither hath it entered into
the mind of man, what things God hath prepared
for them that love him,” (1 Cor. ii. 9); and when
it is in your own power, through God's great
mercy, to participate in the fulness of that incom
prehensible and everlasting joy, would it not be
worse than madness to cast it deliberately from
you, and choose in exchange the multiplied
agonies of hell! With what terrible force will
your death bed bring this reflection before you,
if you wait until then, to make it profitably
But do not wait; do not hesitate a moment;
make a wise selection while you have the oppor
tunity, and do it promptly, for delays are danger
ous in the work of grace. The salvation of your
immortal soul is the great question at issue. Can
you do too much to place that beyond a doubt?
Was any one ever known to regret in death
the hours devoted to the service of God, or
to wish that more time and energy had been
lavished on the service of the world? Death
will not be arrested by forgetfulness of it. It is
a stern reality, not a theoretical speculation.
Young as you are, it will come at last, and come
perhaps, too, before your youthful days have
departed from you. “You have not here a last
292 THE CATHOLIC OFFERING.

ing city;” but are destined to inhabit one to

come. Go up frequently, “in spirit, into the
great and high mountain,” whence you can see
that “holy city, Jerusalem, coming down out of
heaven from God,” (Apoc. xxi. 10). It will
never pass away, for its foundation is immove
able; its brightness will never fade, for “the
glory of God hath enlightened it,” (Ibid. 23);
its happiness will never fail, for it flows from the
exhaustless stream “which maketh glad the city
of the Lord,” (Ps. xlv. 5); its joys will never
weary, for they are ever fresh as the flowers that
bloom along the banks of “the river of the water
of life, clear as crystal, proceeding from the throne
of God and of the Lamb,” (Apoc. xxii. 1).
“God is in the midst thereof.” (Ps. xlv. 6), in
all his beauty and glory; and in his presence
millions of ages pass away like one short, sweet
moment of unutterable bliss. That bliss must
be purchased no doubt; but is it not worth pur
chasing, and shall the recompense be put in
competition with the price? “And one of the
ancients answered and said to me : These that
are clothed in white robes, who are they? and
whence came they? And I said to him: My
lord, thou knowest. And he said to me: These
are they who are come out of great tribulation,
and have washed their robes, and have made
them white in the blood of the Lamb. There
 THE CATHOLIC OFFERING. 293

fore they are before the throne of God, and

they serve him day and night in his temple; and
he that sitteth on the throne shall dwell over
them. They shall no more hunger nor thirst,
neither shall the sun fall on them, nor any heat.
For the Lamb, which is in the midst of the
throne, shall rule them, and shall lead them to
the fountains of living waters, and God shall wipe
away all tears from their eyes,” (Apoc. vii. 13
17). Oh how truly may that “tribulation” be
called “light and momentary,” which “worketh
for us exceedingly above measure, an eternal
weight of glory !” (2 Cor. iv. 17.) “Behold, I
come quickly, and my reward is with me, to
render to every man according to his works,”
(Apoc. xxii. 12). Soon will “the day” of eter.
nity “break, and the shadows" of time “flee
away” (Cant. ii. 17). “Grow not then weary
of well doing,” (2 Thes, iii. 13); “be but faith
ful unto death,” (Apoc. ii. 10), and I will give
thee the immortal “crown of justice, laid up for
all who have loved,” and prepared for “my
coming,” (2 Tim. iv. 8).

3. §. J. 6.

Printed by J. M. O’Toole, 13, Hawkins'-street, Dublin.

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