THE SILVER MADONNA.

New Zealand Tablet, 17 April 1919, Page 45

THE SILVER MADONNA.

Majestic yet serenely sweet in mien the Virgin held in her arms the Divine Child. It was a goldsmith's masterpiece. And this marvellous statue was the property of an atheist, an antiquarian, who valued it only for its artistic beauty. Little Lucille, the antiquarian's niece, discovered fc the silver statue, among the curios on her uncle's shelves. "Tell me, uncle," she said, "if you do not love our Blessed Mother, why do you have her statue? And, since you have it, why not put it in your room and say your prayers before it every night '?" "It is only children who say their prayers," said the uncle. "When you are "grown up you "will forget yours."

"Oh, no, 1 won't. Mamma says we must say our prayers every day as long as we live. Don't you ever say the Our Father and the Hail Mary ?" "Never!" "Then I know what awful thing will happen to you," said the child, with big tears in her eyes. "We must keep the promises we made at our First Communion if we wish to go to Heaven." The atheist was uncomfortable. "Be quiet, child. Only naughty boys in the street talk about hell." "But you don't want to go there, do you? That would-be awful, awful! Hadn't you a mamma who made you kneel down, and your hands together, and talk to God, when you were small?" The antiquarian was deeply touched. "Go to bed, little one, and remember that I told you that saying prayers was all nonsense." "Uncle, since you don't love our Blessed Mother, since you never talk to her, will you let me have her statue? May I have it now? You can't want it, since you don't love her, and I want it much for I love her dearly." The antiquarian opened the glass case and placed the statue in the child's arms.

Now go, he said, “and sleep soundly until morning.” An hour later the uncle was still pondering on his niece’s words. Her childish reasoning had quickened tender memories of the past. His heart grew tender. Suddenly he arose and went to the child’s room. He opened the door gently, then paused astonished. On the table spread with a clean cover stood the beautiful statue, and around it were vases of flowers and . lighted candles. - Before it in her dainty white nightgown knelt Lucille, her head bowed on her arms. She had fallen asleep in the midst of her prayer. The picture was a charming' one.

The old man gently lifted his niece and placed her in bed. The half awakened child murmured the prayer she had been repeating when sleep overtook her ' • - '. ...

“Dear Blessed Mother, obtain for Uncle Herman tiie grace of conversion. In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost—- “ Amen,” said the antiquarian, and then after tenderly covering his little niece, knelt himself-humbly before the silver statue. — The Catholic Sun.