Our sacred orators for the most part confine themselves to preaching on such subjects as fidelity, to wives; probity, to men; obedience, to children.  They descend to a level with a lay congregation, and endeavour to sow, each according to his powers, a little virtue on earth.  Verily, Roman eloquence cares very much for virtue!  It is greatly troubled about the things of earth!  It takes the people by the shoulders and forces them into the paths of devotion, which lead straight to Heaven.  And it does its duty, according to the teachings of the Church.

Open one of the devotional books which are printed in the country.  Here is one selected at random, ‘The Life of St. Jacintha.’  It lies on a young girl’s work-table.  A knitting-needle marks the place at which the gentle reader left off this morning.  Let us turn to the passage.  It is sure to be highly edifying.

     “Chapter V.—­She casts from her heart all natural affection
     for her relations.

“Knowing from the Redeemer himself that we ought not to love our relations more than God, and feeling herself naturally drawn towards hers, she feared lest such a love, although natural, if it should take root and grow in her heart, might in the course of time surpass or impede the love she owed to God, and render her unworthy of him.  So she formed the very generous determination of casting from herself all affection for the persons of her blood.

“Resolved on conquering herself by this courageous determination, and on triumphing over opposing nature itself,—­powerfully urged thereto by another word of Christ, who said that in order to go to him we must hate our relations, when the love we bear them stands in the way,—­she went and solemnly performed a great act of renunciation before the altar of the most holy Sacrament.  There, flinging herself on her knees, her heart kindling with an ardent flame of charity towards God, she offered up to Him all the natural affections of her heart, more especially those which she felt were the strongest within her for the nearest and dearest of her relations.  In this heroic action she obtained the intervention of the most holy Virgin, as may be seen by a letter in her handwriting addressed to a regular priest, wherein she promises, by the aid of the holy Virgin, to attach herself no more either to her relations, or to any other earthly object.  This renunciation was so resolutely courageous and so sincere that from that hour her brothers, sisters, nephews, and all her kindred became to her objects of total indifference; and she deemed herself thenceforth so much an orphan and alone in the world, that she was enabled to see and converse with her aforesaid relations when they came to see her at the convent, as if they were persons utterly unknown to her.

“She had made herself in Paradise an entirely spiritual family, selected from among the saints who had been the greatest sinners.