ligious creed and
my political creed." If I see a crucifix in a man's room I am convinced at
once that he is not an infidel.

Fourth--By the aid of sacred pictures _our devotion and love for the
original are intensified, because we can concentrate our thoughts more
intently on the object of our affections_. Mark how the eye of a tender
child glistens on confronting the painting of an affectionate mother. What
Christian can stand unmoved when contemplating a picture of the Mother of
Sorrows? How much devotion has been fostered by the Stations of the Cross?
Observe the intense sympathy depicted on the face of the humble Christian
woman as she silently passes from one station to another. She follows her
Savior step by step from the Garden to Mount Calvary. The whole scene,
like a panoramic view, is imprinted on her mind, her memory and her
affections. Never did the most pathetic sermon on the Passion enkindle
such heartfelt love, or evoke such salutary resolutions, as have been
produced by the silent spectacle of our Savior hanging on the cross.

Fifth--The portraits of the Saints stimulate us to the _imitation of their
virtues_; and this is the principal aim which the Church has in view in
encouraging the use of pious representations. One object, it is true, is
to honor the Saints; another is to invoke them; but the principal end is
to incite us to an imitation of their holy lives. We are exhorted to "look
and do according to the pattern shown us on the mount."(280) Nor do I know
a better means for promoting piety than by example.

If you keep at home the likenesses of George Washington, of Patrick Henry,
of Chief Justice Taney, or of other distinguished men, the copies of such
eminent originals cannot fail to exercise a salutary though silent
influence on the mind and heart of your child. Your son will ask you: "Who
are those men?" And when you tell him: "This is Washington, the Father of
his Country; this is Patrick Henry, the ardent lover of civil liberty; and
this is Taney, the incorruptible Judge," your boy will imperceptibly
imbibe not only a veneration for those men, but a relish for the civic
virtues for which they were conspicuous. And in like manner, when our
children have constantly before their eyes the purest and most exalted
models of sanctity, they cannot fail to draw from such contemplation a
taste for the virtues that marked the lives of the originals.

Is not our country flooded with obscene pictures a