The Family Circle

New Zealand Tablet, Volume LII, Issue 22, 17 June 1925, Page 61

The Family Circle

POOR MAN'S DAILY BREAD. Not only there where jewelled vestments blaze, And princely prelates bow before Thy shrine, Where myriads line the swept and garnished ways, Through which is borne Thy Majesty Divine—• 0 Jesus of the ever-loving heart, Not only there Thou art. But where the lowliest church its cross uplifts Above the city's sordidness and sin; Where all unheeded human wreckage drifts, And drowns amid the foulness and the din There, too, enear the very gates of hell, 0 Saviour, dost Thou dwell. Oh meet it is that round Thy altar thrones, Thy highest priests should ministering throng With silken robe, with gold and precious stones, With solemn chant and loud triumphant song; What beauty that the world could give would bo Too beautiful to Thee. And yet to these that work, with grimy hands And sweaty brows in ditches and in drains, Thou comest with a love that understands Their labor ill requited, and their pains. Who knows so well as Thou what they endure, 0 Father of the Poor? And so, deep hid in many a city street, Or far where lonely workers break the soil, Are shrines where Thou the Merciful dost meet, In love's embrace, the weary ones that toil. For them Thy hospitable board is spread. With Thee, Thy very self, their Daily Bread. Denis McCarthy. YOUR FRIEND. A friend is a person who is "for you" always, under all circumstances. He never investigates you. He likes your success, and your failure endears him more. He wants nothing from you except that you be yourself. Anybody stands by you when you are right, a, friend stands by you even when you are wrong. It is he that keeps alive your faith in human nature; that makes you believe that it is a good universe. When you are vigorous and spirited, you like to take your pleasures with him; when you are sick; you want to see him; when you are dying you want him near.

THE GLEAN MOUTH. A distinguished author says: "I resolved when a child never to use a word which I. could not pronounce before my mother." He kept his resolution and became a pure-mind-ed, noble, honored gentleman. His rule and example are worthy of imitation by every boy. Boys readily learn a class of low, vulgar words and expressions which are never heard in respectable circles. Of course, we cannot imagine a decent girl using words she would not utter before her father or teacher or most esteemed friend. Such vulgarity is thought by some boys to be "smart," the next thing to "swearing," and yet "not so wicked." But it is a habit which leads to profanity, and fills t!" mind with evil thoughts. It vulgarises and degrades the soul, and prepares the way for many of the gross and fearful sins which now corrupt society. EDUCATION A PREPARATION FOR LIFE. What is education in the end but the preparation for life? And what is life?. Here (says Cardinal O'Connell, Archbishop of Boston, U.S.A.) begins the confusion which ends in the destruction of the very primary principles of education. If life is but the passing chance of material happiness and sensual enjoyment, a. materialistic philosophy will frame its base view of education upon that degraded foundation, and the schools will turn out monsters with neither mind nor soul. If the conception of life be utilitarian, the schools will turn out money machines. If the . scope of life be considered merely intellectual acumen, the schools will developo clever criminals. All these views of life are radically or essentially false, and therefore every system of education built upon them as a foundation is radically and essentially false. The truest philosophy the world has ever known, after its investigations, its experiments, its reasonings, and its deductions, has always knelt at the feet of religion for its final answer to the all-absorbing question, "What is life?" And religion the world over, under "whatever name, in whatever guise, has ever been the only exponent of a sufficient answer to this question. A TOUCHING STORY OF A DYING SOLDIER AND HIS LAST WORD. A noted speaker recently told, this touching story: —■ "I am told of a young man in a farmhouse „ at the base in France dying of his wounds. Beside him was a friend —wounded, too, but not mortally. The dying lad had lived a. reckless life, careless and extravagant. He went to the front to fling his. life away he ■ was tired of it. "Before passing away, he softened and, turning to his friend, who held his hand, he whispered:/ When I die will you shed a tear for me? If you don't no one will. Nobody cares for me.'

"The young officer—a Catholic— drew from his pocket a little crucifix and, holding it; before the eyes of his dying friend,- he an-; swered: ' Do not say that. See, here is One, Who not only dropped one : tear but shed all His blood for you.' '- \ "He looked up—that dying manhis eyes glazed in death, and he struggled to say, 1 Let me kiss it.' He rose up and kissed it.' After doing so he gave a last look at his friend, and as he.fell back on his pallet he gasped out the word ' Sweet!' and fell back dead. "Call it prayer in tabloid form, or what: you like —be sure before God it was his salvation. .. -'• . / r .- , .-. __. . .:.. _ . ; ; : "The'last word of the poor soldier before he closed his eyes in death was ,SSweet!.'. He meant ' Sweet Jesus, have. pity on me.' See how the Lord is sweet —sweet as .lioney fresh from the honeycomb. His mercy,-too, is sweet, and may it be your joy and your comfort both in life and death. When you gaze at any time, in any place on the figure of the Crucified, ejaculate with the dying man; ' Sweet, Sweet Jesus, pity me.' " THE SPIRIT OF. CHRIST. Life is a mission. Its end is not the search after happiness, but the knowledge and fulfilment of duty. Duty is not enjoyment; it is . devotcdness, and devotedness is that gift of God to him who -in the spirit of Christ toils for-the good of others. -v There are saint-like lives and martyr deaths which are not recorded, and are worth all the more in God's sight because unsustained by human admiration. 7; There are men who have given up ambitious hopes because the paths to . success were crooked and evil, who, out of their necessities, have still found something with which in Christ's name to help those still poorer. There are gentle and believing hearts that bear v for others what they would not for themselves) and multitudes of energetic and heroic souls scattered among a myriad homes whose lives are governed by God's holy law of service to their neighbor. . | How like the one described by the Prophet Isaias are these: "He took our infirmities and bore our diseases." ' ■•^ TO MY PATRON SAINT. 'Twas on your feast some years.ago (bid gave me life and loved me so, '{: He placed an angel by my side • To watch and guide His new-born child. My mother gave me to your care That you might with my angel share The love and constant guardianship , i I Of her wee babe, God's latest gift. " *t| So, blessed patron saint of mine, ' 1 I know that you will not decline : V To teach me greater love and trust • : > \ In God, most loving and most just, . I That I may count each sacrifice ' : : ; i ! A warrant of my love for Christ ■ -' -yi And -welcome suffering and death ------ As hast'ning union with our Friend. ' j ■"■ '■■■-. >-'\- ''• .! y.-S ', —CECILIA Devinb.

j; THE REASON WHY. "Is this the field on which the great battle was fought?" asked the tourist. > "No, sir; that must be at the top of the hill," replied the oldest inhabitant. "Dear, dear!" exclaimed the tourist jokingly, '-that must be a mile away. Why didn't thy fight it in this held:-'" "I suppose because this 'ere field belongs to Farmer Jackson. You'd never catch him lending his field for anything, not even for a village football match." AS BOBBIE TO BLAME? Grandma had just arrived on a visit and to take part in celebrating young Bobbie's birthday on the morrow. After tea, Bobbie started to fidget round grandma's chair. To the surprise of everyone present, he said: "Grandma, which is the right side of you? Mother said if I'm a good boy and keep on the right side of you, you might buy me a. bicycle." Til LESSER EVIL. "I want my daughter to enjoy some kind of artistic education," said the father who had recently made his fortune. "I think I'll let her study singing." "Why not art or lierature?" suggested a friend. "No. Art spoils canvas and literature wastes reams of paper. Singing merely produces a, temporary disturbance of the atmosphere." SMILE RAISERS. "I. think the picture lacks said the kindly critic. "Fact is," said the artist, "I had a hard time raising the wind while I was painting." He: "It's a most remarkable fact that the first and last carriages in a train are nearly always the ones that come to grief." She: "Why not leave them off the train?" A parson wrote to his bishop asking him to come and hold a "quiet day." The bishop declined, saying, "Your parish does not need a quiet day; it needs an earthquake." «? . Passing a swimming school in a small city one day, two country women read this sign at the entrance: . "25,000 Gals. In and Out Every Minute." ~ "That's all nonsense," said one of the Vwomen; "there ain't that many women in this whole town." "How did you get this speech of Bruinp■'ton's?" asked the editor. "Took some of it down while he was speaking and some I copied from his manuscript," replied the reporter. "But -this reference to loud applause, how did you get that Was there any applause "No, sir; I took-it from the manuscript."