The Irish standard., 1904-12-24

the Philippines. Mgr, Agius told a oil
verting story which set his audience
in roar.
"Before l came away from England
/ had a complimentary dinner given
TO me, and several Bencdictines came
TO give me a warm send-otf: bishop
Hedley, the Archbishop of Westmm-
ster. and several other bishops, ana
the Abbot of Downside--where the
Abbot Gasquet halls from. And III
his speech Abbot Ford was giving me
some words of encouragement. lie
knows me pretty we'll, and he knows
likewise that look at the bright SHE
of things In the course of his speech
he brought out sinilitude: he lolo
lis little story. which I shall repeat.
He talked about the history OF two
frogs. .he called them clerical frogs
He said those two frogs saw pau OF
milk, and they at once proceeded 10
have a drink out of this pail Inc!
both tumbled in. One of them Was an
optimistic frog: the other was pessl-
mist The pcssimist said: Well It's
no good, I'm in for it, and he just let
himself drop and went to the bottom.
The optimist said: There is sun IL
chonce:' and he began to strike out.
and he went round and round, and the
faster he went round the moro cour-
age he got until finally striking out
even a little more vigorously he hit
upon something hard, and to his sur
prise he found he was sitting OH a
pat of butter!
81 hope l shall have the fortune OF
Sitting-well. not on Il pat OF butter,
but on something more solid by the
time l shall leave the Philippines. And
what helps me most is the encourage
ment which | received from the Holy
Father-thc warm way i'll Which he
received me. And now when l men
ton his name | do so with feelings or
the greatest love and the greatest re-
spect for that holy man. whom the
HOLY Ghost has given us for our
Father and our Universal Pastor. My
friends, the Holy Father has sue
ceedcd in having the whole Catholic
world in the palm of his hand. Nay
more. he has the whole Catholic world
in his heart: it is large enough for the
world. and many worlds: lie is the hui
man Pope who comes to us with his
love"
From this the Delegate passed nat
urally to "reminiscences of Pope Leo
MIL. and the present Holy Father.
at is wonderful how the Holy Spirit
directs his church.. With the death of
Pope pils-those times of turbulence
we needed Pope to come before us.
to raise and to establish in the intellect
of men the supremacy Of the Pontiti-
cate: and no one better than Pope Leo
has succeeded in doing this. His mar
Vicious cncyclicals, which will be
standard works to the end of all time
they are beautiful to read--and the
effect to those encyclicals was that
when he died there was not a single
paper in any corner of the world that
had not words of praise and admlrn-
ton for so great and glorious n Pontilf
This was Pope Leo: he had done his
work nobly. gloriously and forever.
"Then the Holy Ghost in Il most
marvellous way gave us another Father
another Father to take up the
threads left by Plus IN.,-the threads
we have all that in our present Pope.
People have tried to explain the mean
ing of the ignis ardens in the so-callcd
prophcsics of Malachi: and the only
way of explaining it is the burning
flame of his heart-nIwHys full of love
for his people.
"You would like to know something
about the ultimate life of Pope Plus
X You know he WAS a poor boy, and
had to walk many miles to go to school
in his own vilngr He took Il piece
of bread with him for his frugal meal
. and this was his daily fare. And then
when he had gone through his studies
there. he entered tho seminary. Who
could have told then that some day he
would he Pope? There was the little
ScnlinariSt going about his lessons
blotting his book ana making mis-
takes; and If anyone had tapped hin
on the shoulder, and said: Take care
Joseph, one day YOU will be Pope,
how vain it would have seemed. ThcI
he was assistant to Il parish priest
and in the evening he would sit dow
and have Just Il little innocent gam,
of cards. If anyone had tapped hin
OH the shoulder, and said: Giuseppe
some day you will he Pope it would
have seemed nonsense. Then agail
when he was parish priest, thi
thought WAS far from his mind. Bu
he was Il good and worthy parisl
priest Later he WAS consecrate,
Bishop of Mantl1a Then he went l.
Venice as Patriarch: and before h
left Venice, his beloved Venice, he wa
asked by his people to come back t
them. oh, yes he said, I will com
back-dead or alive NO. they sal,
alive Very WE'LL he said, alive
little knowing what was awaiting