cement, in providing for yourself and those dependent on
you, that scarce a thought remains for the interests of your neighbor.
And thus your initial high resolve may soon sink to the low level of
beneficent effort you see in others. Selfishness, to a large extent,
rules in the world, and how can you promise yourself that you will
escape its grasp? He certainly is rash who thinks he can,
single-handed, contend against the world and its spirit.

No doubt many men and women of the world are devout Christians, and in
a thousand ways spread about them the good odor of Christ. Countless
brave Christian soldiers, upright statesmen, kings and peasants,
matrons and maids, are the pride of Christianity for what they have
done and dared in behalf of their neighbor. All honor to the virtuous
laity throughout the world to-day, who by their edifying lives, their
sacrifices for the faith, their unwearying industry, and fidelity to
Mother Church, are sanctifying their own souls, and assisting others
by example, counsel and charitable deed.

But for every layman that has distinguished himself by heroic devotion
to the welfare of his neighbor, many religious could be mentioned who
have done the same. We have all heard of Father Damien, who banished
himself to the isle of Molokai, where the outcast lepers of the
Sandwich Islands had been herded to rot and die; and there taking up
his abode, soon changed the lepers, who were living like wild beasts,
without law or morality, into gentle and fervent Christians. Having no
priest as a companion, he on one occasion rowed out to a passing
steamer, which was not allowed to land, to make his confession to a
bishop aboard. And while he sat in his row boat, because forbidden to
climb into the vessel, and shouted his sins to the bishop on the deck
above, the passengers looking curiously on, he certainly must have
been a spectacle to men and angels. And his sacrifice became complete
when he contracted the leprosy from his people, and thus gave up his
life for his flock.

Nor is this a solitary instance of such magnanimity. A short time ago,
when a Canadian bishop entered a convent and called for volunteers to
start a leper hospital, every nun stood up to offer her services. You
have heard of the great Apostle of the Indies, St. Francis Xavier, who
is said to have baptized more than a million pagans. St. Teresa, the
mystic, was not prevented by her cloister and her ecstacies from
helping her neighb