Euphrasie

“ Duplan, the Lady Bountiful of the parish, had driven across from her plantation, Les Chêniers, to old Pierre's very door, and there had gathered up this precious little maid, and carried her away, to do with as she would.
And she did with the child much as she herself had been done by. Euphrasie went to the convent soon, and was taught all gentle things, the pretty arts of manner and speech that the ladies of the "Sacred Heart" can teach so well. When she quitted them, she left a trail of love behind her; she always did. ”

“ Euphrasie pretended that in her early youth she had passed entire days and nights trying to support a lover who had forsaken her for a heritage. With the brunette, Aquilina, Euphrasie took part in a famous orgy, at the home of Frederic Taillefer, on rue Joubert, where were also Emile Blondet, Rastignac, Bixiou and Raphael de Valentin. Later she is seen at the Theatre-Italien, in company with the aged antiquarian, who had sold Raphael the celebrated "magic skin"; she was running through with the old merchant's treasures. ”

“ Godfrey was dissatisfied with the result, and her motherly warmth of heart yearned to comfort the young orphan in her desolation. She let a few weeks pass away in hopes of witnessing a change, but when none came, or seemed likely to come, she thought it her duty to remonstrate with Euphrasie, the more so as the countess being now recovered sufficiently to join the family circle, Euphrasie had no plausible excuse for passing hours together in the solitude of her own chamber.
"It is not good for you, my dear, to be so much alone," said Mrs. ”

“ But you see," he added, smiling, "the management of a plantation does n't enter into the routine of a commission merchant's business. The place has already cost them more than they hope to get from it, and naturally they have n't the wish to sink further money in it." He did not know why he was saying these things to a mere girl, but he went on: "I'm authorized to sell the plantation if I can get anything like a reasonable price for it." Euphrasie laughed in a way that made him uncomfortable, and he thought he would say no more at present,—not till he knew her better, anyhow. ”

“ Truly, the holy woman Euphrosyne's prayer to God was, both day and night, that she might never during her life be discovered. So when no revelation came to the abbot or the brethren, then he consoled him and said: 'son, weary thou not of the Lord's discipline, because He correcteth every son whom He loveth; and know thou that, without God's will, not one sparrow falleth on the earth. How much more can anything happen to thy daughter without God's ordinance? ”

“ My Lord Jesus Christ, accept this child, since she desires only thee." Then turning to her child, she gave her much good advice and put her in the hands of the abbess. A few years later this generous mother died, after a holy life, in the same monastery, in the arms of her daughter. The young Euphrasia walked on with giant steps in the way of virtue and miracles that have given her great renown among the Greeks, and made the Church honor her as a saint. [11]
Perhaps some will fancy that such doctrine and such examples are out of harmony with the manners and ideas of our day. They are not. ”

“ He was married to Euphrasia, a ladv no less illustrious for her birth and virtue, by whom he had one only daughter and heiress, called also Euphrasia, the saint of whom we treat. After her birth, her pious parents, by mutual consent, engaged themselves by vow, to pass the remainder of their lives in perpetual continence, that they might more perfectly aspire to the invisible joys of the life to come; and from that time they lived together as brother and sister, in the exercises of devotion, alms-deeds, and penance. ”

“ Then Euphrosyne thought thus, saying; ' if I go now to a women's convent, then my father will seek me there, and will find me there; and then he will take me thence by force for my bridegroom's sake; but I will go to a man's minster where no man will suspect me.' Then she put off her womanly garb from her, and clothed herself with a man's; and in the eventide departed from her ha^ll, and took, with her fifty mancuses, and that night she hid herself in a secret place. ”

“ I will not return to destroy Ephraim: for I am God, and not man; the Holy One in the midst of you; and I will not come in wrath. 10 They will walk after Yahweh,
who will roar like a lion; for he will roar, and the children will come trembling from the west. 11 They will come trembling like a bird out of Egypt,
and like a dove out of the land of Assyria; and I will settle them in their houses,” says Yahweh. 12 Ephraim surrounds me with falsehood,
and the house of Israel with deceit. Judah still strays from God, and is unfaithful to the Holy One. ”

“ Euphrasia was to her pious sisters a perfect pattern of humility, meekness, and charity. If she found herself assaulted by any temptation, she immediately discovered it to the abbess, to drive away the devil by that humiliation, and to seek a remedy. The discreet superioress often enjoined her, on such occasions, some humbling and painful penitential labor; as sometimes to carry great stones from one place to another ”

“ For Lady Euphrasia they felt indeed a tenderness her heart for them was totally a stranger to. It seemed, indeed, as if, cold and indifferent to all mankind, their affections were stronger for being confined in one channel. In the step she had taken, Lady Euphrasia only considered the gratification of her revenge. Freelove, as the ward of Lord Cherbury, in honor to him, had been invited to the nuptials. He accepted the invitation, but, instead of accompanying, promised to follow the bridal party to the castle. ”

“ Fear not; give me only my Euphrasia!—my own Euphrasia! No disguise can hide thee, dressed as a Turkish bride crowned with flowers, thy lovely face, the seat of unutterable woe—still, my sweet sister, even in this smoke and tumult of this house, thou art the angel of my life! ”

“ They make the king glad with their wickedness, and the princes with their lies. They are all hot as an oven, and devour their judges; all their kings are fallen: there is none among them that calleth unto me. Ephraim, he mixeth himself among the peoples; Ephraim is a cake not turned. Strangers have devoured his strength, and he knoweth it not: yea, gray hairs are here and there upon him, and he knoweth it not. And the pride of Israel doth testify to his face: yet they have not returned unto the Lord their God, nor sought him for all this. ”

“ Enter Euphrata.
Euph. Welcome, sweet Constantine.
Con. My Euphrata.
Euph. Thy Euphrata, be thou my Constantine. But what is he? a stranger, or thy friend?
Con. My second selfe, my second Euphrata. If thou beest mine, salute her, gentle Otho.
Otho. An humble and a true devoted heart I tender to you in a mindes chast kisse.
Euph. Welcome to me, since welcome to my friend.
Otho.—A beautiful, an admirable Ladie!
I thinke 'tis fatall unto every friend
Never to love, untill his friend first love,
And then his choice ”

“ It was the children of Joseph who came across the waters to this continent, and this land was filled with people, and the Book of Mormon or the stick of Joseph contains their writings, and they are in the hands of Ephraim. Where are the Ephraimites? They are mixed through all the nations of the earth. God is calling upon them to gather out, and He is uniting them, and they are giving the Gospel to the whole world. Is there any harm or any false doctrine in that? A great many say there is. If there is, it is all in the Bible. ”

“ The four angels of the Euphrates, now ordered to be released, may be the same as those whom Christ for bade to injure the earth until the Church could be firmly established after the persecutions. [4]
15. Even the time for the manifestation of these evil spirits and their minions has been accurately fixed in the designs of Providence. The very day and hour has been determined.
Great numbers will be done to death in the religious wars and revolutions stirred up by these angels from the Euphrates. The prophecy may also mean that large numbers will be led into new errors and schisms. ”

“ A single god who could not be seen, and the universal worship of idols spoken so openly against as a vile and divinely forbidden practice? The very idea!
But Emperor Euphrates would not be placated. He was very much afraid of the words of this prophet and his one Invisible God, this Patriarch called Noah.
Finally, Emperor Euphrates signaled straw-thin Ampho, the Royal Crier, who stuck his beaked nose into the air and closed his eyes as he sounded out, considerably less loudly than in open court, "All keep silence before the great Emperor Euphrates!" ”

“ There is not one spirit only, but there are three acting together. We are taught, therefore, that at the time of the drying up of the Euphrates we must be prepared for subtle and seductive power of various forms and characters. ”

“ They would not cleave to God, but walked after other gods, to serve them, and to worship them; they doted upon the gods of the heathen nations that lay towards Euphrates, so that they were quite spoiled for the service of their own God, and were as this girdle, this rotten girdle, a disgrace to their profession and not an ornament. A thousand pities it was that such a girdle should be so spoiled, that such a people should so wretchedly degenerate. ”

“ There are drunkards of Jerusalem, as well as drunkards of Ephraim; and therefore the mercy of God is to be so much the more admired that he has not blasted the glory of Judah as he has done that of Ephraim. Sparing mercy lays us under peculiar obligations when it is thus distinguishing. Ephraim's sins are found in Judah, and yet not Ephraim's ruins. They have erred through wine. Their drinking to excess is itself a practical error; they think to raise their fancy by it, but they ruin their judgment, and so put a cheat upon themselves ”

“ Thou, whom they call Jehovah, mighty God of my fathers, hear me, Ephraim, a young inexperienced lad, of whom, in his insignificance, Thou hast probably never thought. I ask nothing for myself. But the people, whom Thou dost call Thine, are in sore peril. They have left durable houses and good pastures because Thou didst promise them a better and more beautiful land, and they trusted in Thee and Thy promises. But now the army of Pharaoh is approaching, so great a host that our people will never be able to resist it. ”

“ Your sin is the sin of Ephraim, whom the prophet reproved. You make to yourself an idol of gain. "And Ephraim said, But yet I am become rich. I have found me an idol: all my labors shall not find me the iniquity that I have committed." [Footnote 16] To that idol you have sacrificed men, women, and children, and brought upon many a wretched soul temporal and eternal ruin—robbing heaven of saints, and filling up the caverns of hell. ”

“ His father-in-law, Pompeius Julianus, as he greatly distinguished himself in every other part of his life, so particularly in this, that though he was himself of the highest rank in his province, yet, among many considerable matches, he preferred Euphrates for his son-in-law, as first in merit, though not in dignity. But why do I dwell any longer upon the virtues of a man whose conversation I am so unfortunate as not to have time sufficiently to enjoy? ”

“ This hymn brought comfort with it, and as she gazed on the young light, the rays of which were not yet strong enough to dazzle her, she thought of her childhood, and the tears gathered in her eyes. Then she looked down over the broad plain. There was the Euphrates with his yellow waves looking so like the Nile; the many villages, just as in her own home, peeping out from among luxuriant cornfields and plantations of fig-trees. To the west lay the royal hunting-park; she could see its tall cypresses and nut-trees miles away in the distance. ”

“ Ephraim hath hired lovers.
10 Yea, though they have hired among the nations, now will I gather them, and they shall sorrow a little for the burden of the king of princes.
11 Because Ephraim hath made many altars to sin, altars shall be unto him to sin.
12 I have written to him the great things of my law, but they were counted as a strange thing.
13 They sacrifice flesh for the sacrifices of mine offerings, and eat it; but the LORD accepteth them not; now will he remember their iniquity, and visit their sins: they shall return to Egypt. ”

“ If one with sufficient effrontery should presume to enter into this holy house, my arm would suddenly recover its strength to hale her hence with heavy blows from this pastoral cross. It is our duty, my son, to worship God in all His works; but it is a profound mystery of His providence that He should have created woman. Stay with us, Smaragdus, my child; for it is certainly God who has led you hither.”
After having been received in this fashion into the family of the holy man Onophrius, Euphrosine donned the monastic habit. ”

“ I am confounded and ashamed, because I have borne the reproach of my youth.
20 Surely Ephraim is an honourable son to me, surely he is a tender child: for since I spoke of him, I will still remember him. Therefore are my bowels troubled for him: pitying I will pity him, saith the Lord.
21 Set thee up a watchtower, make to thee bitterness: direct thy heart into the right way, wherein thou hast walked: return, O virgin of Israel, return to these thy cities. ”

“ I will make Ephraim to ride, that is, I will tame them, or cause them to be ridden by the Assyrians and other conquerors that shall rule them with rigour, as men do the beasts they ride upon (Ps. lxvi. 12) ; and Judah too shall be made to plough, and Jacob to break the clods," that is, they shall be used hardly, but not so hardly as Ephraim. Note, It is just with God to make those know what hardships mean that indulge themselves too much in their own ease and pleasure. ”