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most hidden guilt, was that of celestial goodness. Hence, though the severest of censors, he is the most pitying. Not a tone of asperity escapes him." - Dr. WILLIAM E. CHANNING, "Remarks on the Character and Writings of Fénelon " ("Works," v. i.).

FENELON'S "RULES FOR A CHRISTIAN LIFE.”

(From "Letters to Men," No. xviii.)

I. Be stedfast in your religious exercises; that is, in reading, daily meditation, regular confession, and communion.

II. Let your meditation always be systematic, and suited to your needs, with a view to mental humility and the repression of bodily sensuality.

III. Let your reading have a practical bearing, and tend to the correction of your faults. Apply all you read to yourself.

IV. Be careful as to the society you frequent habitually, and be specially on your guard as to the women with whom you are intimate.

V. Avoid harsh judgments of others, and let the recollection of your own faults hinder you from fastidiousness and censoriousness.

VI. Accustom yourself to withhold judgment in all things on which you are not obliged to pronounce. The habit of judging hastily, especially in an adverse sense, fosters rash judgments, presumption, a harsh, malicious criticism, reliance on self, and contempt for the opinions of others, all of which are out of keeping with the interior life, in which gentleness and humility are needful.

VII. Shun the dissipation which sudden fancies always involve. Such an engouement, to begin with, is too engrossing it absorbs and chokes the inner life; then

something else takes its place, and life is spent in a succession of such fancies. When an engouement is in its first stage, let it cool down, and pray over it; then when somewhat abated, use it moderately, and so far as will not harm you.

VIII. Never seek to change your position out of anxiety, depression, a false shame, or the itching desire to be somebody (de faire un personnage). All the states of life which you have not tried have their thorns and snares and weariness, only you do not see them from without. "Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof. Tomorrow will take care for the things of itself." For to-day think only of to-day.

MASSILLON

(A. D. 1663–1742.)

JEAN BAPTISTE MASSILLON, one of the most eminent pulpit orators of France, was a native of Provence, born at Hyères, in 1663. Educated by the fathers of the Congregation of the Oratory, he entered that order in 1681, and was engaged for some years in teaching. His success as a lecturer drew him to the pulpit, where he acquired great fame. In 1717 he was made bishop of Clermont, and in 1719 he was elected a member of the Academy. He died at Clermont in 1742. The works left by him are mostly sermons, which are among the classics of French religious literature. The passages subjoined are from a volume of translated selections from Massillon's writings.

THE USE OF TIME.

(From Selections from the Works of Jean Baptiste Massillon.)

The cause of all the evils, which reign amongst men, is the improper use they make of time. Some pass their lives in supine indolence, useless to their country, their fellow citizens, and themselves; others, in a tumult of human affairs and occupations: the former seem to exist but for the enjoyment of an unworthy repose, and to divest themselves of that listlessness by their diversions, which accompanies them everywhere; the latter, as if here only to agitate themselves incessantly with cares, which will disengage them from themselves. It appears, that time is a common enemy, against which all men conspire; all their lives are but a deplorable attention to

make away with it, and the happiest appear to be those who succeed the best, in whatever way they find the pleasantest, either in frivolous pleasures, or in serious occupations, that can beguile them, of their days and moments. Time, that precious deposit, which the Lord has confided to us, thus becomes a wearisome burden; yet we fear being deprived of it, as the last evil that can happen It is a treasure that we would retain eternally, and yet can hardly endure it on our hands.

to us.

We should look upon a man as deranged, who in succeeding to an immense inheritance, dissipated it carelessly, making no other use of it, either to raise himself from obscurity to places and dignities, or to secure himself against the reverses of fortune. Time is this precious treasure we have inherited from our births, which the Lord, in his gracious mercy, has left in our hands, to make the best use of. It is not to raise us to frivolous honours and human greatness, alas! all this passes, and is too vile to be the price of time, which is itself the price of eternity! It is to place us by Jesus Christ, in the highest heavens. . . .

There is not a day, an hour, a moment, which, put to profitable use, might not gain us heaven! We ought, therefore, to regret the loss of one day, a thousand times more acutely, than the loss of a great fortune; nevertheless, time, that ought to be so precious, encumbers us; our life is but a continual contrivance to lose it, and in spite of all our attempts to get rid of it, there is always some left we know not what to do with; we consider our time as of the least consequence upon earth. Our offices we reserve for our friends, our benefits, for our inferiors; our property, for our relations and children; our credit and favour, for ourselves; our praises, for those who appear worthy of them; but our time we give to all the

world! we expose it, I may say, a prey to every man! they even gratify in relieving us from an incumbrance, we are seeking incessantly to get rid of. Thus, the gift of God, the most valuable blessing of his clemency, and the price of eternity, becomes the embarrassment and heaviest oppression of our lives.

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