ion of captives, the first to wear our national
colors of freedom, the red, white and blue, sold themselves into
slavery for the release of others. Scarcely a want or need of the
human race has not been provided for by some religious body.

But probably the most common pursuit of religious bodies in our day is
teaching. Hundreds of thousands of religious men and women, in all
lands whence they are not banished, spend their lives in the
class-room. And the reason for this preference is the extraordinary
demand for schools in every direction. The young must be taught, and
Holy Mother Church knows only too well that religious training must
be woven into the fibre of secular learning if we would not have a
conscienceless and irreligious generation. So she issues her stirring
appeal for volunteer teachers, and a vast multitude of religious have
responded in solid phalanx. Some one has said that if all the
sisterhoods were taken out of our schools in the United States, we
should soon have to close half our churches.

Religious, then, are carrying on vast and important works for the
benefit of the Church and society. Many other services which they
render might be mentioned, such as preaching and hearing confessions,
the publication of books and periodicals, the cultivation of the arts,
science, literature and theology. But enough has been said to show
that they are leading a strenuous life, and that boy or maid, who is
emulous of heart-stirring deeds, could scarcely find a more propitious
field of action than in the religious state.

CHAPTER IX

MUST I ACCEPT THE INVITATION?

It is not the purpose of the writer to exaggerate, to frighten or
coerce persons into religious life, by holding out threats of God's
displeasure to those who refuse, or by citing examples of those whose
careers were blighted through failure to heed the Divine call. It is
His desire rather to imitate Christ's manner of action, portraying the
beauty and excellence of virtue, and then leaving it to the promptings
of aspiring hearts to follow the leadings of grace.

Christ, all mildness and meekness as He was, uttered terrible
denunciations against sin and the false leaders of the people; but
nowhere do we read that He denounced or threatened those who failed to
accept His tender and loving call to the life of perfection. To draw
men's hearts He used not compulsion, but the lure of kindness and
affection.

Our Lord sometimes commanded and someti