Adour

“ When I look within myself, and see not a place worthy to cherish gratitude to God for his great mercy and grace, which he hath wrought for us, sinful and unworthy, I liken myself to the slothful servant, who did not the will of his Lord. Yet, O, my sisters, though I have not done the will of my Saviour, I have hope in him that I shall do it, and serve him henceforth so long as I am in this world—fleeting as a dream in the night. ”

“ Adore Him, creatures! Adore Him by Whom is all, in Whom is all. Whose ye are! Adore Him for His love! Soften and still the evil voice of passion in your souls, that all may be hushed before His presence! ”

“ O thou holy Virgin, through whom our race corrupted by the deceitfulness of sin was sanctified, pray with us to thy Sanctifier to sanctify us, and that through the shadow of thy prayers He may preserve our life, spread out the wings of His pity over our frailty, and deliver us from evil. O mother of Him Who causes us to live, thou handmaid of our Creator, be to us a wall of refuge at all times. ”

“ Scarcely paler than in life, and with the peace of death on the brow beneath which throbbed no longer that once busy brain—parted in death the lips whose words had been sin, and whose kiss had been shame—so lay Ernest Adair. ”

“ My sons, among whom I have so long been, and to whom I have so many years preached the true doctrine, which you ought to follow, and have taught you that which you ought to observe for the good of your souls, I am greatly grieved to see the mistaken path which you take, casting yourselves over precipices where destruction is certain, and from which your rescue is difficult. ”

“ I do not accuse Thee, O Lord, for having created me with this inclination; but I confess before Thee my frailty, and open unto Thee my passions. I confess, and say, and cry out, and declare, that the man of dust cannot be justified but by Thy mercy, and through Thy compassion. ”

“ You talk to him of the various occupations, in which the angels delight, and your words only convey to him sensual ideas. While you are seeking to arouse his attention to the importance of some spiritual truth, which is to you a source of the deepest delight, your ardor is suddenly dampened, by hearing him ask whether there are any such employments in heaven as the digging of graves or the making of coffins, or some other question equally silly and irrelevant. It is a useless effort to attempt to convey spiritual truths to minds in which there is no love for them. ”

“ How lively a portraiture is this of one “under the law;” one who feels the burden he cannot shake off; who pants after liberty, power, and love, but is in fear and bondage still! until the time that God answers the wretched man, crying out, “Who shall deliver me” from this bondage of sin, from this body of death? — “The grace of God, through Jesus Christ thy Lord.” ”

“ Yet thou—well I know thee most meet for a ruler—
—Thou lovest not mercy, yet shalt thou be merciful;
Thou joy'st not in justice, yet just shall thy dooms be;
No deep hell thou dreadest, nor dream'st of high heaven;
No gleam of love leads thee: no gift men may give thee;
For no kiss, for no comfort the lone way thou wearest,
A blind will without life, lest thou faint ere the end come. ”

“ Is it not to prove your sacred respect for our love, to wish to raise it above the shameful servitude that would degrade it? You see, Adrienne, I have often heard said by the priests of my country, that there were beings inferior to the gods, but superior to every other creature. ”

“ Quoth my father, “Who art thou, O man who rejectest the worship of idols, that thou sayst thus? Fearest thou not that the idols will be wroth with thee?” He replied, “The idols are stones; their anger cannot prejudice me nor their favour profit me. So do thou set in my presence thine idol which thou adorest and bid all thy folk bring each his image: and when they are all present, do ye pray them to be wroth with me and I will pray my Lord to be wroth with them, and ye shall descry the difference between the anger of the creature and that of the Creator. ”

“ It will come to you while you are with the poor child,—our Adèle. Greet her for me as warmly as you can. Tell her I shall hope, God willing, to bring her into the bosom of his Holy Church Catholic. I shall try and love her, though she remain a heretic; but this will not be.
"If I can enough curb myself, I shall wait for your answer, Monsieur; but it is necessary that I go yonder. Look for me; kiss our child for me. And if you ever prayed, Monsieur, I should say, pray for
"Votre amie,
"Julie." ”

“ Through him the Lord healed not a few sick. A letter of his is reported at length, in which he incites a sinner to give up his evil way of life, and shows a knowledge of the man’s heart which could only have been given him by God. ”

“ Then my father arose and prostrating himself to his own idol, said to it, ‘O my god, thou art the Bountiful Lord, nor is there among the idols a greater than thou. Thou knowest that this man cometh to me, attacking thy divinity and making mock of thee; yea, he avoucheth that he hath a god stronger than thou and biddeth us leave worshipping thee and worship his god. ”

“ Thus assured, and cheered on, under the inspiration of hope, I worked and prayed with a light heart, believing that my life was under the guidance of a wisdom higher than my own. With all other blessings sought at the mercy seat, I always prayed that God would, of His great mercy, and in His own good time, deliver me from my bondage. ”

“ I have a right to expect your love! [Adrienne retreats a step, her hand pressed to her heart.] Yes, Adrienne! Marriage is a holy act which ought to be based on the rock of love; else it becomes a sordid and disgraceful bargain, devoid of sacredness and heavenly sanction. [She recoils.] When I led you to the altar it was with the firm belief that our marriage would be a holy and sacred bond, founded upon the eternal principle of love. ”

“ A thousand whispering voices seemed to waken all about, as if the spirits of the woods talked of these two standing there in close embrace. Love, without which no human soul desires to live, which raises men to God, which makes of earth a heaven, which in its all-abounding strength makes men and women strong, the chief attribute of God and the chief element in His children, which links congenial spirits together for eternity and drives out evil, here sat enthroned. ”

“ Adorine—women live through this week by the grace of God, or perhaps they would be as unreasonable as the men—Adorine could look across the prairie to the little red roof during the day, and could think across it during the night, and get up before day to look across again—longing, longing all the time. ”

“ As ransomed souls—as justified and perfected spirits in Heaven—would they not be bright stars in our crown of rejoicing, and also in our blessed Saviour's diadem of glory—stars all the brighter for the thick gloom of that night in which they were wandering before? ”

“ So wide and deep is our Father's love, so firm is the adamantine strength of His eternal fidelity, we may be absolutely confident that, though the mountains be removed and cast into the sea, and though the solid earth melt away beneath our feet, He will still abide as the internal Refuge of His children, and therefore that He will never fail to welcome all who seek His grace to help them return to Him in true penitence and filial trust. ”

“ The multitude of my sins had driven me to the brink of despair, and I was bereft of all consolation; but I called to mind and remembered Him who promised when He said, 'Ask and pray of Him who giveth freely, for He can heal every secret disease.' Therefore, with a broken spirit I beseech Thee, who only art the lover of mankind, to have mercy upon me. ”

“ The Lord invites the servants whom he loves to the contemplation of his glory, at one time by sending misfortune and affliction, and at another by melancholy and sickness: and he says to them, "my servants, what you regard as misfortune and affliction, is but the bridle of my love, by which I draw those whom I love to a spirit of holy submission, and to my Paradise." ”

“ YOUNG ARDEN.
⁠I know thou hast loved me well—better than I deserved. If I had lived to be a man, we should never have parted.—Wilt thou live with my father and mother when I am gone?—No, no! this is not right; I do not ask it. Thou wilt find some master who is able to reward thee as thou deservest. ”

“ Such idols were to their worshippers, and such a change did those experience who turned from God to them. If we make an idol of any creature-wealth, or pleasure, or honour,—if we place our happiness in it, and promise ourselves the comfort and satisfaction in it which are to be had in God only,—if we make it our joy and love, our hope and confidence, we shall find it a cistern, which we take a great deal of pains to hew out and fill, and at the best it will hold but a little water, and that dead and flat, and soon corrupting and becoming nauseous. ”

“ They have not received again the spirit of bondage, but the Spirit of adoption, whereby they cry, Abba, Father: the Spirit itself also bearing witness with their spirits, that they are the children of God. ”

“ But vainly thus, in hymns of praise,
⁠We bear a joyful part,
If, while our voice aloud we raise,
⁠We lift not up the heart.
We by a holy life alone,
⁠Our Saviour's laws fulfil;
By those his glory best is shewn,
⁠Who best performs his will. ”

“ My son! Adario! My dear Adario! But extasy at length giving way to reflection: Where have you been? she cried, and why, by your absence and your silence, have you involved me in griefs which have been very near fatal to me ?—Oh pardon the transgression of my seeming neglect, best of parents, and of women, answered he; but as it is to this gentleman you are indebted for my life, be pleased to hear from his mouth my vindication. ”

“ Unto Thee lift I up mine eyes, Thou that dwellest in the heavens, even as the eyes of a servant do look unto his master, that Thou mayest have mercy upon me in that great day when Thou shalt appear in Thy glory. ”

“ Their children are, to some extent, unavoidably, the playmates of our childhood—grow up with us, under the same, roof—sometimes pass through all the changes of lite with us, and, then, cither they stand weeping by our bed-side, or else we drop a tributary tear by theirs, when death comes to close the long connection and to separate the good muster and his good servant. ”

“ I am not worthy, Master and Lord, that Thou shouldst enter under the roof of my soul; yet inasmuch as Thou desirest to live in me as the Lover of mankind, I approach with boldness. Thou hast commanded: Let the doors be opened which Thou alone hast made and Thou shalt enter with Thy love for mankind just as Thou art. ”

“ CONCLUSION.—Let us then, dear brethren, in dealing with the souls of others, approach them, not with the rod, or we shall fail to awake them to a new and better life, but in love, and in the spirit of gentleness, and then we shall meet, I doubt not, with good success. ”

“ Through long years to come, wherever your soul may wander, the evil you have done will be with you and bitterness will be your portion. But God, the great and only God, is a loving Father; and, perhaps, if you humble yourself and repent, you may at length win His forgiveness and favor. ”

“ When, however, God was pleased to be manifested in human flesh, for human redemption, no other form did he choose for Himself to wear but the form of a servant. The incarnate Word is emphatically a friend and associate of the poor—nay, of publicans and sinners. ”

“ They preached to them with the ardor that came from their hearts of the Triune and One Lord, who governs the universe, and told them their obligation to love Him and to bow to the mild yoke of His law; but those people preferred to condemn themselves forever to the pains of hell. ”

“ How often in each day do you deliberately revert to an attitude of disinterested adoration? Yet this is the only attitude in which true communion with the universe is possible. The very mainspring of your activity is a demand, either for a continued possession of that which you have, or for something which as yet you have not: wealth, honour, success, social position, love, friendship, comfort, amusement. ”

“ If ye thoroughly amend your ways and your doings; if ye thoroughly execute judgment between a man and his neighbor;
If ye oppress not the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow, and shed not innocent blood in this place, neither walk after other gods to your hurt;
Then will I cause you to dwell in this place, in the land I gave to your fathers, for ever and ever. Obey my voice and I will be your God, and ye shall be my people. Jeremiah vii, 5, 6, 7, 23.
Therefore, turn thou to thy God; keep mercy and judgment, and wait on thy God continually. ”

“ Here was a little knot of champions of the poor threatened wives, defenders of the peaceful homes so soon to be smitten by the ruthless axe of the reformer, men who believed in the sanctity of domestic life as not less real than the sanctity of ecclesiastical arrangements, men perhaps to whom love was as Divine as law, nay, was law, wherever it was pure and true. ”

“ Whether we find him in the intimate circle of his disciples, whether he is instructing the multitude along the sunny shores of Lake Gennesareth, whether he stands before the tribunal of his judges, or in the last dire agonies of death—he is ever the patient man, the loving teacher, the man of sorrows, who looks beyond men and their crimes to an ideal humanity, and confides in that; who gives largely, and forgives even because he gives so much. ”