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our circumstances. No doubt such a position as yours has many worries and anxieties, but looking at it from the outside glimpse I got on Wednesday it seemed very delightful!..

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To the Same

February 11, 1901.

When I had charge of a parish I used often to feel that anyone in a position of authority, and especially a position in which one's work was largely to help others, could never be expected to be allowed by the devil to help people except on the condition of paying for it, and the price is one of two things-either suffering or sin. The same as with our Lord, bend the knee to the devil and he will withdraw opposition; fight him, and he will make us suffer for it.

And with your work it must be the same. There is no greater work of enmity against the devil than that of laying the foundation of strong religious principles in children. If your work is worth anything, look to yourself, for you will be the object of attack. If you bend the knee to him, take a worldly tone, seek success rather than what is best; you may have personally an easy time. If you strive after what is the best and highest you must expect troubletrouble in the house or in yourself. And if he fails in dragging you down by great temptation he will try to weary you out by the method of 'pinpricks.' It's easier to stand out against great things than small; these little constant worries appeal to nothing heroic or strong, and yet it is under them that real heroism and real strength is developed. Don't, therefore, be surprised at such things happening

to show the presence of a very subtle and persistent foe. If one is trying to work for our Lord, one must expect Satan to try one as he tried Him, and if you will not yield and sin, you must be prepared for such suffering as these worries. As He was so are we in this world,' and especially so if we are trying to carry out His work in others. And so your great protection and shelter is the Incarnation-uniting yourself with Him so you will see clearly, and gain strength and shelter.

The same thought of the testing of our work for God is found in this letter to a friend who had founded and was maintaining a home for destitute children.

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good friend to you and the Home, and what you will do without him I don't know; but I am sure you will be sent someone, perhaps not so sympathetic and nice, but someone who can look after the Home. I expect you are intended to stand more alone and to find your help and support in God alone. When the sapling begins to grow the outward prop is taken away that it may develop its own strength and learn to face the storms. You have had a pretty hard year, and this coming at the end of it makes it harder to bear, but according to thy day so shall thy strength be,' and only those whom God knows and trusts does he test severely. Perhaps if He had asked you, you would not have had the courage to say Yes, so He did it without asking you. But all you go through of suffering and loss will bring a richer blessing upon

the Home, I'm sure of that. Anyone who undertakes a work for God has the value of the work tested in herself, and must bear suffering and loss, or must endure temptation. Even our Lord, before He began His ministry, underwent the temptations. The devil tried Him, to see if His work was worth anything. The head of every work is its spiritual representative, and its weakness or strength is tested through its head; and, please God, all you have gone through this year will bring a great blessing upon the Home.

In this letter comes a favourite thought-that each person's circumstances are chosen by God as the best possible for the development of that character.

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May 27, 1893.

What a contrast your life where you are now must be to your life in London !-the country is very beautiful and most soothing to one's nerves and inspiring to one's thoughts. But I have a most degrading and earthly love for chimney-pots and crowded streets and noise! I think with all its beauty it has probably not a few trials for you. If only one can see God's will ordering all things for us-shown, not by any startling providences, but as in the Life of our Lord by the silent movement of events. It is the mind that sees through the eye that makes all the difference, the same scene looks very different to different people because of the mind with which they interpret. God shows us His will as much by what He gives us to do as by what He keeps us back from, and we have to take the limits of our life as

an indication of what we are not to do. His one desire is the perfecting of our character, that it may be what He designed it to be at our creation, and He will send us and withhold from us all that will tend to this—all else is secondary. If sickness be more for our good than health, or a quiet life than an active one, He will send us what is best for this end. He does care for our temporal joys and sorrows, every hair of our heads is numbered, but all is subservient to His one great purpose, and as our wills more and more come to agree with His our life is filled with peace. The things that we naturally might like most to do might carry us away and weaken our character, then He steps in and stops it; so the place which is the very best for us is possibly the worst; it is the place where everything around us is ordered for our perfection. If we rise up to it, it will sanctify us; if we don't, it will crush us.

Again, in the next letter, Father Maturin dwells on the power of the will and the need to develop by action our powers of faith and love.

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November 23, 1900.

Our Lord's words in regard to love are clear: 'This is the love of God that ye do whatsoever I command you.' Both the sign of love and the means of gaining it is by doing. Feeling and emotion is a help, but a most unsafe test. Many whose love is deep and true-true enough to die for our Lordhave little sensible love. It is with religion as with other things you may have a real talent for music, but if you never practise it it will die, and often you

may have to drive yourself to the piano, and find little but repugnance to the study, but if you go on the joy and the love will come. So you may have-nay, you have the power of loving God above all things and, if you are baptized, you have the gift of faith. But whether these powers will ever develop to the full, or develop at all, depends upon whether you force yourself to the practice of religion-prayer, holy reading, thinking of God and holy things. The greatest power of faith and love to God will duly develop by practice, by doing what they demand. You say your church-going is irregular, or there is no obligation-surely, whatever your religion, there is the obligation to go to your church. 'Neglect not the assembling of yourselves together' St. Paul says. What I should advise you to do is to make and keep a rule about prayer, church-going, and the duties of religion. Have your times of prayer whether you are in the humour for it or not. You are learning to speak with God. So with every religious duty. Have times, keep to them, persevere in them, and you will be astonished to find how much you learn, and how much more stable you grow. Such a rule will bridge you over times of laxity and coldness if you keep it, and the joy and love will come in good time.

Again, in estimating our contrition for past sin, it is at the will we have to look and not the feelings.

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January 4, 1895.

I do not believe that anyone has a right to say few will be saved; our Blessed Lord, when the question was

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