orn before our eyes.

"And now, my child, you might say, 'What is the use of sending me to
China if he knows I cannot bring these millions into the fold? My dear
son, there is the wisdom surpassing wisdom. A great and noble thought
must not die. Things of the spirit we cannot reckon as a husband-man
reckons his crops. There is a folk on the marches of Europe, and they
are ever going into battle, and they always fall. Their results are
nothing. But their name and their glory will endure forever...

"My dear son, God has put wisdom in my head and beauty into yours.
Wisdom is needed for the governance of this world, but beauty is needed
for its existence. In arid deserts there is no life. Birds do not
sing in the dark of night. Show me a waste country, and I'll show you
a brutal people. No faith can live that is not beautiful...

"The beauty God has put in your heart, child, you must always keep...
How much I think of it I'll tell you. I'm an old man now, an old and
broken man, and in a few years I'll stand before my Master.

"'What have you seen on my earth,' He'll ask me, 'you who followed St.
Peter!'

"'Lord! Lord!' I'll tell Him, 'I've seen mighty things. I've seen the
bridegroom leave his bride and the king his kingdom, the huckster leave
his booth, and the reaper drop his hook, that they might rescue Your
Holy Sepulchre from pagan hands.'

"'And anything else?' He'll ask.

"'And I've seen a young man go out into the desert and over his head
was a star...'

"You may think you have failed, child, but remember that in the coming
times your name and fame will awaken beauty, and many's the traveler on
the hard road will find his courage again, and he thinking of Marco
Polo. And many's the young man will dream dreams, and many's the old
man will see visions, and they reading the book by the golden
candle-light; and many's the young girl will give you love, and you
dead for centuries. But for this you must keep your dream.

"Now you'll think it's the queer pope I am to be telling you things
like this instead of demanding converts. But the wisdom that surpasses
wisdom comes to you with the Annointing of the Oil. 'I knew a man in
Christ above fourteen years ago,' writes Saint Paul, '(whether in the
body I cannot tell, or whether out of the body I cannot tell. God
knoweth.)

"'How that he was caught up into paradise, and heard unspeakable words,
which is not lawful for a man to utter.'

"Now you