The morning star and Catholic messenger. [volume] (New Orleans [La.]) 1868-1881, 1868-07-05

knee-carry the most consolation and strength
when the dews and shadows of death are gath
ering around us. This, / should think, would
be Of more force to the Catholic than all others ;
for there is so much of sentiment and poetry
assilnllated with that faith that conceive its
hold upon the imagination and heart of child
must be very strong. And as we are told that
those things which are most priced in childhood
back to us in our decline, it strikes me
that those early impressions might be of great
consolation to You now"
Meeting with no response to these sugges-
lions, the doctor continued:
"Still, Mrs. Stewart, if yOur predictions are
in favor of change OF faith, will be very
happy to introduce our minister, the Rev. Mr..
German, to you, and he may aid i'll settling your
mind"
Mrs. Stewart had been greatly agitatetl during
the doctors honily; but she told him in con-
cluslOn that her physical sutferings and her
love of life had thus far been too absorbing to
admit, ut once, of any other considerations.
And, after all !" said Mrs. Stewart, i" you may
be mistaken, doctor. am young yet, have had
Il good constitution and cannot why /
should not recover as many worse cases than
mine have done, with care and time"
Dr. Roberts, perceiving that further dis
few kind words and directions for taking the
new remedies prescribed.
We all know the fallacous hopes, the wild
chateau en- Espagne, that haunt the brain OF our
foredoomed to that fatal disease-consumption
and when to this is added an almost insane love
OF life and dread of even a thought of future
accountability, one can readily imagine how
terrible must have been the state of her who
had known no other law save her own pleas
mres; no other God save the life which
tirmed the truth of the doctors diagnosis of her
case; every symptom of her disease eliminated
even more rapidly than he predicted.
The gentleman who occupied the Unitarian
pulpit, MIR. Palmer, was not an ordained minis
ter, but merely filled the post at the request of
the congregation until proper incumbent could
! questioned by many of his hearers, and he made
no hesitation in declaring decided admiration
for the Catholic Church, frequently choosing
tinguished saints His intercourse with his
hearers was social and friendly, and he was the
chosen friend and confident of many who felt
the need of advice and support in either their
domestic or conscientious troubles.
Beating about like shipwrecked mariner,
catching at every straw in her path, Mrs. Stew
art ut length concluded, one day, to try what
his counsel could do toward guieting her dis
tracted mind. Mr.. Palmer called at once when
| summoned; and, after exchanging the usual
object she had in sending for him was the hope
that he might be able to allay the wretched,
remorseful state of her soul. She had sought
consolation and oblivion in vain,o she said, as
| she had failed to find either. Death was ter
Tor too fearful to contemplate; and yet the
CHASTITY phantom pursued her day and night
save her from the torturing thoughts that
haunted her brain. Never had she so fully barred
her soul before; never had he, az he afterward
said, seen case so clearly abandoned of God
| He strove to give her ali the consolation that
| lay within the limited scope of q faith which
lacked the first essence of Christians hope;
a faith which could only see in our Saviours life
and death the virtue and heroism of good and
perfect man. Finding these considerations OF
no avail, he next suggested the possibility OF a
calmer state by a return to her early belief.
| tween her tears {" have thought of i'll have
striven to accomplish it; but there is some in
superable power holding me back feel that
mine is that sin, never to be forgiven in this
world the next of which st. John and St.
Matthew speak in such fearful words. The
waste of my life, the opportunities for good that
| I have bartered for the vanities of the world,
ait rise up and cry, lost, lost to my soul. !
have striven to pray-to utter snatches of
prayer that l learned in the happy innocence
of childhood; but the words die in my throat,
and wild tumult seems to environ me, like the
voices of devils rejoicing over their prey. Even
those articles of faith, which might have proved
my salvation and support, now only come back
to torture me- to make me tremble, and to show
me the pricelessness of that jewel which
threw away in a moment of frenzy for worth
less baublc, the very touch of which was death.
Oh! Mr.. Palmer" she continued, after pause,
| 81 have such horrible dreams while sleeping,
such terrible thoughts while waking, that even
those phantoms of terror. feel, know, that
tho arm of God is uplifted against me, and there
is no ono that can deliver me out of that chas-
tening hand"
She could say no more, but fell back upon her
/ pillow in a violent fit Of c0nghing Mr.. Palmer
!, was greatly moved, but he had no sweet OBJ
livious antdotc" for such disease as this. Still
he tried to console and quiet her viii, words OF
| kindness and sympathy but finding her toe
f much cxhaustedt to heed their import, he shortly
I after took his leave deeply impressed with the
scene, and more and more convinced of the nc
, ccssty of an all-saving faith when tho terror
of death are comprising an immortal soul.
, Her Episcopalian friends, seeing with grea
distress this unhappy state, finally prevailed
c upon her to consent to sec the Reverend MT
$ German. After few interviews with him, h
r induced her to prepare her mind to receive tn
III communion of that Church, which she consented
: to, but solely, she said, as an experiment. 70
T. acquiring the peace she had sought in vai
c elsewhere. But day after day was appointed
It ponement; until at length, both the reveren
Q gentleman and her friends were convinced tina
/ some insurmountable feeling. was withholdin