GRAINS OF GOLD

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXXVI, Issue 24, 18 June 1908, Page 3

GRAINS OF GOLD

- A PRAYER. Have mercy on them ! Sweet and holy thought ; O ! may it reach above To that Eternal Love, Who by His precious blood redemption bought. And when, perhaps, thy day of life shall cease, May others breathe thy name In tender prayer the same — Have mercy on him ; may he rest in peace.

The longest life is one of which the most is made. The supreme excellence is simplicity*. — Longfellow. He that has no silver in his purse should have silver on his tongue. Truth does not do as much good in the world as its counterfeits do harm. _ "If a man is not making constant sacrifices he is deceiving himself and is not advancing spiritually. If a man is not denying himself daily, he is not carrying his cross. — Father Faber. It is a fundamental maxim of Christian perfection that all interior trials, whatever they may he— the most humiliating temptations, repugnance in the exercise of piety, distaste for prayer, perplexities of conscience,, darkness of - mind, domiWb of salvation— in -a word, all the spiritual trials which afflict and crucify the soul— are crosses infinitely precious. ' Be assured,' says St. Augustine, ' nothing happens that is not first either commended or permitted in the visible court of the Supreme Monarch. <* God is the only Father of this great household, Who, arranges moves, and regulates all that happens in the whole world at all times. And He takes as great care with the. smallest creature as with the greatest. 1 Life is not so very different, as one might think, east or west, in , country or in city. Anywhere a man may be a gentleman if he will. Anywhere one may do honest, faithful work if he will. Anywhere one may make great intellectual advancement if he will. Anywhere one may live*" a pure and noble life, doing good, if he will. And these are the marks of a man.