ns of some man who rose to the occasion. Andrew
and John were sent to Our Lord by St. John the Baptist, and they
became apostles; and if Andrew had not "found his brother Simon and
brought him to Jesus," who knows whether Christ would not have found
it necessary to appoint another head of the Church in place of Simon
Peter?

To parents, then, belongs the singular privilege of training their
children to tender piety, of directing their thoughts to spiritual
things; and fidelity to this trust will give us a glorious generation
of men and women ready to risk all, to sacrifice all in the service of
their Creator.

CHAPTER XV

A PARTING WORD

Now, dear reader, that you and the writer have kept company thus far,
he is reluctant to part from you. But if you perceive within you the
germ of a vocation, he begs you not to crush it. If in your heart
there is a spark of that celestial fire, which may be fanned to a
consuming flame of divine love, keep it burning.

Preserve your soul, oh! so perfectly from the slightest touch of evil,
remembering that the least deliberate venial sin stains it more than
we can comprehend. Above all, cherish holy purity, that exquisite
ornament of youth, which, like a polished gem, may so easily lose its
lustre. Guard the avenues of your soul, your sight and hearing and the
other senses, through which contamination from without is always
seeking to enter and defile the beauty of God's handiwork. About us is
an atmosphere of worldliness, which we imperceptibly breathe in from
the words of companions, from the printed page, and the example of the
careless. Shun companionship with the frivolous, vanity of dress, and
that indiscriminate reading which only feeds an idle curiosity. The
theatres of our day are especially dangerous to virtue, and he who
stays away from them entirely, will consult his own advantage, as well
as please God.

In this soft and luxurious age the popular trend is to
self-gratification in all its forms. But the true Christian must ever
strive against corrupt nature, if he would not be carried away by the
stream of voluptuousness. Self-denial is the watchword of
Christianity. All are called to the practice of penance in some shape
or form, the best usually being the exact performance of duty. The
young of school age will find a strong shelter from temptation in the
scrupulous and enthusiastic performance of their daily tasks and
lessons. That small boy had caught the true