The Sun.
London, England, 1866-02-14 00:00:00

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We read in the lives of the Servants of God of a
beautiful custom, that they daily set aside at table
a portion of everything, as if for the Invisible Pre-
sence of Him whose blessing multiplies our food, to
be
They who did these things
had the instincts which fasting keeps alive.
given to the poor.
Now, in such an age as this, when material com-
fort and material luxury have reached a height never
known, at least in the Christian world, and when
not the worldly only, but even those of a higher
and more Christian life, are drawn in by the stream
to live like the world, indulging themselves to the
full, in more than abundance, and more than deli-
cacy, it is wholesome and necessary that the
Church, year by year, should break in upon their
softness and indulgence by the words and the laws
of the Sermon on the Mount. When the members
of Christ all around us are in poverty, when the
poor are hungry, thirsty, and naked, and souls are
dying without Pastors, and children by thousands
are caught away and perish by evil and by igno-
rance of God, is it a time to squander the main-
tenance of whole families in one profuse repast, or
the nurture of many orphans in dress and baubles ?
Many never give in a whole year as much as they
epend on ostentatious clothes, or an armlet, or
a necklace, or some useless work of fancy.
The spirit of self-command, however, would make
these things impossible. A higher spiritual insight,
opened in the heart by the mortification of our-
selves, would restore among us the grand simplicity
which still survives in Catholic countries, the living
tradition of the dignity of self-denial of those to
whom the Apostle wrote, " Godliness with content-
ment is great gain : for we brought nothing into
this world, and certainly we can carry nothing out.
But having food and wherewith to be covered, with
these we are content." And, again, speaking of
Christian women :—" Whose adorning let it not be
the outward plaiting of the hair, or the wearing of
gold, or the putting on of apparel, but the hidden
man of the heart in the incorruptibility of a quiet
and meek spirit, which is rich in the sight of God."
And again, "In like manner women also in decent
apparel, adorning themselves with modesty and
sobriety, not with plaited hair, or gold, or pearls,
or costly attire, but as it becomes women professing
godliness with good works."
11. Next, as to the precept of Almsgiving. Our
purpose now is to ask, as the Apostle did of the
Corinthians, not for yours, but for yourselves : that
is, for your activity, co-operation in works of cha-
rity to the poor, and, above all, for souls.
If we have in us the Spirit of Christ, we shall
! have a desire to do some personal work for those
that are in need. We do not read that the rich
man refused his alms to Lazarus, or that be drove
him from his gate. He was simply unconscious of
the misery upon his threshold. Insensibility to the
sufferings of others is a sin against the grace of
charity. To go to our grave without giving alms
to the needy, all men see would endanger our sal-
vation. How is it, then, that men can go to their
graves without an act of personal charity or service
to their brethren ? It is a cheap thing to give
money. Often it is given to redeem ourselves from
the trouble or the disgust of serving our neighbour.
But we owe to our Lord not alms only, but every
form of service we can render to Him. Ile is wait-
ing to receive it at our hands. " The poor ye have
always with you. Me ye have not always." And
yet in them He accepts all we do.

The world is divided into those who work for
their bread and those who eat of the labour of
others. Upon those who work our Lord has be-
stowed a special honour. He worked Himself. He
ate the bread earned by S. Joseph, or given in alms
by others. This has consecrated the state of the
poor man and of the working man ; and the per-
petual round of daily work brings with it many
graces to preserve the soul from the danger of the
world. The work of a Christian is the salt of the
soul.

When our Lord said, " How hardly shall a rich
man enter into the kingdom of heaven," He did not
only mean how easily do the men corrupt them-
selves by excess and surfeiting, or how great is their
danger of loving the world and living for it. lie
implied also how surely and dangerously
the possession of riches breeds all kinds of
spiritual temptations. Every state has its
proper spirit which is produced by it. Poverty, if
rightly used, makes the poor in spirit; riches pro-
duce the unconsciousness of heart which our Lord
describes in the Apocalypse, " Because thou sayest,
I am rich and made wealthy, and have need of
nothing, and kno•Arest not that thou art wretched
and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked, I
counsel thee to buy of me gold fire-tried, and that
thou mayest be made rich, and mayest be clothed
in white garments, and that the shame of thy naked-
ness may not appear; and anoint thy eyes with eye
salve, that thou mayest see." Even in those who
are free from grosser sin, the possession of abun-
dance without earning it, the command of money
and time, the unlimited freedom of disposing of
themselves, produce a softness, refinement and deli-
cacy of mind which breed many faults : such as in-
dulgence of our own choices, fastidious and curious
indulgence of our own ease, comfort and taste, waste
of money and time, inconsiderateness of others, a
subtil selfishness, an insensibility to the needs and
sufferings of the poor, whom they never see, a heart-
less shrinking from their squalor and sufferings, and
a still more dangerous insensibility to the spiritual
diseases and the spiritual death of souls.
Now it is not only a luxurious but a well-pro-
vided, comfortable life which produces this insensi-
bility. And one effect of the Fast of Lent is to
break through it by awaking a due sense of the
value of our souls, and by the exercise of voluntary
self-denials. We would therefore pray you, dear
children in Jesus Christ, for the love of God, to
begin in this Lent some work for the good of souls.
As we have already specified, with as much exact-
ness as we can, some twenty kinds of work for the
benefit of the poor children in London, we will now
only specify two with somewhat more of usefulness.
The first is the teaching in Confraternities of Chris-
tian Doctrine, or in classes, gathered on Sundays,
or in the evenings. To give alms is good, but to
give the knowledge of Jesus Christ is far better.
To illuminate and transform the mind of one poor
child into the likeness of our Lord is to do a work
for eternity. It is strange that with the power and
opportunity of doing such works, and of laying up
souls and infinite joys in the kingdom of God
always within our reach, we should spend days,
months, years, a whole life, without making even
an attempt. If we had the same power of acquiring
lands, money, titles, pleasures, we should toil day
and night for them. There is a profound apathy
and a practical unbelief in our hearts, and our daily
ife bears witness to it.

The first service we would ask of you, then, is to
place yourselves at the disposal of your Pastors to
teach with your own lips. An hour or two in the
Sunday afternoon spent among poor children will
bring unknown blessings to you. You that live the
busiest lives have most need of the graces which
such acts of charity bring down. For a busy life
draws the heart outward upon the things of this
world, and it is hard for such minds to enter into
themselves and to realise the objects of faith. The
depth and vividness of our own spiritual faculties is
sustained and enlarged by teaching others.

The other service we would ask of you is to em-
ploy your time in working such things as may be
sold for the poor. God has given to you various
gifts; and all the natural facilities, both of inven-
tion and of execution, come from Him. The keen-
ness of the eye, the fineness of the ear, the firmness
of the hand, the fertility of the mind, are all gifts
of God. He gave them neither to be squandered
nor abused,abused, but to be used wisely, for His sake, and
with a consciousness of the account we must give.
You, who are free from the necessity of earning
your bread, have titue up on your hands. Some of
h'
o
you have the entire control of
your days. Is, ow our
Lord wills that you shouldo s
euse u your oNuv
hr giftsat y you
uand a
ny
do
our;
time for His sake. Choose
and make a rule to spend a proportion, and no small
one, of your free time in working such' things as
may be sold for the service of the poor. The bless-
ings this will bring to you are many first, it will
preserve you from idleness. Empty hands make
vacant hearts ; and none are so full of temptation
as those who leave the doors and windows wide.
Unoccupied minds are open through all their

senses. The prophet says, " Mors intrat per
fenestras" " Death is come up through our
windows." Busy minds are preoccupied with
good. " The Prince of this world cometh and
hath nothing in them." If the hours which are
spent in personal talk, or poring over pernicious
books, or in mere emptiness of mind, or innocent
but useless society, were spent in working for charity,
you would be sevenfold happier, and nearer to the
presence of God.
Again, this would make your time fruitful. In-
stead of wasting away, and leaving behind nothing
but emptiness or bitterness, your hours would bear
a lasting fruit. A multitude of poor would bless
you ; numberless little ones, whom you may never
see, would be praying for you ; and there would be
written a record before the Angels of God in your
behalf. Your days would be the seedtime of a plen-
teous harvest, and not a seed would be lost by the
wayside—not a moment spent for the love of God
would be fruitless.

Once more, it would sanctify your time. To
work for our Divine Lord is to do Him a personal
service. Martha ministered to Him. The apostle
says, " Whether you eat or drink, or whatsoever
else ye do, do all to the glory of God." The con-
sciousness of this personal relation elevates our com-
mon life. The least act done for this great motive
is in His sight of great price. In this way all our
every-day life may be changed into acts of faith
and love to Him. If we renew the intention every
morning it will virtually pervade the whole day.
And, from time to time, one inward act or inspira-
tion, or glance upward to the Heavenly Court, will
renew its purity and sweetness.
Moreover, to give your time for these works of
charity would be a reparation for the time that is
past. There is no one, it is to be feared, who has
not squandered hours, which would make up years,
sometimes in idleness, sometimes in less innocent
waste of God's good gifts. Begin then now to re-
deem what remains. Let your life from henceforth
—your last years it may be—bear a better fruit to
God. Happy they who begin at the third hour ;
happy they who begin even at the eleventh ; for the
evening is coming on, and the reward is sure. Hope-
less only those who stand all the day idle, " till the
night cometh in which no work can be done."
We therefore call on you to give your names to
your Pastors, who will make them known to us ;
and we trust hereafter to form them into a general
and permanent organisation for promoting both
work for charity and the sale of the work which has
been made : of which full details shall be given to
you in due time.
111. Lastly, the precept of Prayer is one of the
tokens of the love of God. He has no need of our
prayers, nor that we should tell Him what we need ;
but He has bestowed upon us the unspeakable gift
of access to His presence, and of permitting us to
speak with Him face- to face. We may converse
with Him as He permitted Abraham, with whom
God " spoke as a man to his friend." To speak
with God elevates, sanctifies, and ennobles the soul.
A life of prayer assimilates the soul to God ; and
they who live in prayer are perceptibly different
from others. In this is the unspeakable gift of the
Incarnation, whereby God has entered within the
sphere of our intelligence and affections, and has
willed that His Incarnate presence should be al-
ways with us in the Blessed Sacrament of the
Altar. If the season of Lent brings us the auste-
rity of fasting, it brings also the inexhaustible con-
solation of the perpetual exposition and adoration
of the Blessed Sacrament, kept up in succession,
day and night, throughout the Churches of the
Diocese. We need not exhort you to make full use
of this great gift. Your own faith and love make
words from us unnecessary. But there are great
causes why in this Lent we should be more instant
and earnest in prayer. Signs of evil are everywhere.
The words spoken on the first day of this year by
the Sovereign Pontiff warn us of the perils which
hover about his sacred presence. No two nations
in the world are in amity. Between almost all a
secret and intense animosity exists. Mutual resent-
ments and defiance keeps old wounds open. Sedi-
tion is undermining every people. The modern
spirit of Nationality is bearing its own fruit. It
has been used as a lever to wrench fragments from
the unity of the Church, and to overthrow the Go-
vernment of the Vicar of Christ : it must now be
extinguished within our own borders. All the States
of the old world and the new seem to be sick at
heart, and there is little wisdom in Rulers and little
confidence in the power and stability of Govern-
ments. Besides all this the hand of God
is visible in shadow. A murrain wastes our herds,
destroying and tainting the food of man, and
a pestilence which walketh in darkness, for
no man can discern or control it, hangs over
us, suspended for a moment, to descend
upon us, unless God avert, when winter is gone.
Add to all this the sins of this land, past and pre-
sent, against the Faith and the Church of Jesits
Christ, against His precepts and the honour of His
blessed Mother ; the multitudes who are dying
every day out of the Fold of salvation, without
Sacrament or Pastor ; the millions who lie in the
unconsciousness of spiritual death, corrupt and cor-
rupting one another ; the monsters and portents of
crime committed day by day among us ; and, lastly,
our own unworthiness of all great graces, " For it
is time that judgment should begin at the house of
God." The sins of Catholics are darker than the
sins of other men, for their light is greater, and the
grace they have received is enough to make them
Saints : Here, then, are motives enough for prayer,
contrite, fervent, and persevering.
To the utmost of your po fiver, then, in this season
of Lent, be on your knees before our Divine Re-
deemer. Where He is day by day be you also.
In every Church through the Diocese He will await
you, as He visits them one by one. Pray for your
own needs ; pray for those who never pray for
themselves. Make reparation to the Sacred Heart
of our dear Lord for the sins, wrongs, and slights
that He endures in this land, and especially for
the wounds He receives in the house of them that
love Him, from us who ought to glorify Him
by every power and affection of the soul.
Pray, too, that He will send labourers into His
harvest, for the fields are white for the reaping, but
the hands are few ; pray that the whole Flock in
the Diocese may be Christian and Catholic in all
the sense of these great names, anointed by the
Holy Ghost, and full of the love of God and of all
mankind.

Finally, dear Brethren and Children in Jesus
Christ, the offerings of to-day will be, as you already
know, for the Orphanages of North Hyde and Nor-
wood. No more vital or blessed work is to be found
than the nurture of Children in the love of God and
His blessed Mother ; and of all children none have
greater claim upon us than Orphans. Giv,e, there-
fore,
for the love of God, and He will
bruen,reward your generosity. He will not
abundantly
dantlgenerously r
ew
be outdone by you. The more you offer to Him
the more He will pour out upon you of the riches
of His grace in this life, and in the world to come
He will give you life eternal.
That this Holy Season may shed abroad upon all
the Flock, Pastors and People committed to our
charge, the riches of His benediction, is our daily
prayer. The Grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and
the Charity of God, and the communication of the
Holy Ghost be with you all. Amen.
HENRY EDWARD,
Archbishop of Westminster.

A LIVING INSECT IN THE HUMAN EYE.—A living
hyatid, of the species Cysticercus cellalosa, belonging to the
entozoa, a series of insects inhabiting the internal parts of
animals, WAS last week extracted from the eye of a female
by Mr. Woolcott, the oculist, and late surgeon of the Kent
County Ophthalmic Hospital, Maidstone. The animal had
been perceived for some time floating unattached in the
anterior chamber of the eye, and sight was almost entirely
lost by frequent attacks of inflammation. The occurrence
of the entozoon in the human eye is very rare.—Maidstone
Journal.

[ADVERTISEMENT. j—llolloway's Pills.—Winterly Draw-
backs.—Whence fogs spring or whither they retire it is not
our present purpose to explain; wo desire to point out how
their ill effects on the human frame can be neutralised.
The blood must be freed from superfluous carbon and
mephitic taints by some purifying medicine like Holloway's
pills, which not only thoroughly cleanse the circulation,
but adjust in every organ the defects imposed upon it by
that fluid when it has become foul or sluggish. These
pills prevent stagnation, congestion, and are the best re-
gulators and preservatives against internal inflammations,
irritations, and ulcerations; while expelling morbid matters
from the system they cool it by their gently aperient ac-
tion and strengthen it by their tonic virtues.