'STAND FAST IN THE FAITH'

New Zealand Tablet, 16 September 1915, Page 13

'STAND FAST IN THE FAITH'

(A Weekly Instruction: specially written for the" V^r Weekly:. Instruction specially written for theN.Z. Tablet by Ghimel.) PEARLS OF THOUGHT FROM MONSIGNOR .-# BENSON. ~ . God only asks yon to do your best. ; r All-things work together for good, if one will but . trust God. - ~ ■'.,-> your soul' begins to be disturbed andanxious, put yourself in His hands, and-refuse to decide for yourself. It is so easy. , A 'We have no right to call things 'failures.' The' only failure possible is to - fail to meet circumstances with acquiescence. We are all failures, and the best - of us are those that know it. ■'"":> Don't bother about the past. We all make mistakes. ■■ ■■■ Thank God that you have learnt (a real lesson) instead of lamenting over the fact that you had riot learnt it : previously. ;, ~~>. To sum up, then •!; Don't bother «yourself. ; ; You have the whole of eternity, after all. This is . only a rehearsal, with i the : Prompter - saying 1 continually, 'You didn't do that right! l Do { -it "again, .1 ; please.' ■■■']: Look forward f: rather to the night-when no --V man can work; but when he can enjoy what he has J learnt during the day.' : ; : In everything, then, live by the will, not by the emotions. Remember that your will is sovereign, that the emotions are only extremely untrustworthy counsellors: you must teach them their place. Snub them 5 ■if they fret; don't let " them interfere in what is not their business. , Just live • like an autocrat, remembering that you are a vassal of God: -,"» ;v As for melancholia r.. . that, too, depends* On the will. Doctors tell us that now—and that thou-' sands of the mentally-afflicted only become so through consent of .their will: so just do nothing, and do > not ' fret or be anxious. ' Hold on, arid say your prayers as 'deadly' as you please, and sleep and eat and bear noise as well as you can and remember that God is good. ; If faith did not exist apart from intellect, clever people would have a. better hope of salvation than stupid people; and that is absurd; as absurd as-if rich people should "be nearer God than poor people. It was the man in : the street who understood our Lord, and the Doctor of the Law who was perplexed and offended. " ' " ; i Our Lord shows His favorites not His Sacred Heart only, but the Crown of Thorns surrounding it. */ '• God sometimes does give us things we demand, and we are sorry all the rest of our lives. '-..'■'£ Do not be in the least cast down. What can we 'do but repeat over and over again the alphabet of f faithwhich is that God is Good and Almighty. That Holds all possible consolation in a trouble of this kind. *■ 'S The intensest pain and the intensest joy lie close together. ,«, i , --.v;r s . .:->,.- ; .,,..:;.., [■. , i; Those who have the faith of children have also the troubles of children. - : > v„ ; ; . '.',■■' -' - : ; .-v <:.v ?. mt»x m^ r Leave all things like Death to God. Nothing Eternal : can possibly depend on an accident; and noth- • ing except the Eternal matters. .7. It does seem more and morel was going to say almost more every —that death is after all the supreme blessing of life—-at> least, such a death as that. It is the turning over of the seamy side, arid showing the true; silk and embroidery in place of the ragged ■ends. May God grant her happiness as she looks upon that, and above all when she * sees how: every effort she; made has been wrought up into the robe of Jesus Christ. y '; ?'j-.-., : -- . I, -- ',.. , ' ~• - ;| I waited for the Lord a little space, ; - ; So little! in whose sight as yesterday _ -._ . - \l Passes a thousand years:l cried for grace , .-'ft: " , Impatient of delay. ,;.'-* 11. '" He waited 'I for me—ah so long! For He " Sees >in one single day a loss or gain .: That, bears a fruit through all eternity: —■■'_< My soul, did He .complain ?_ .._ _ _____ _-