第45章

Let me refer you to the example of this, given at p.34; it is that of a female who, while she practised daily the devotion of saluting the images of the Virgin, spent all her days in mortal sin, and yet was saved after all, by the merit of that single devotion." "And how so?" cried I."Our Saviour," he replied, "raised her up again, for the very purpose of showing it.So certain it is that none can perish who practise any one of these devotions." "My dear sir," I observed, "I am fully aware that the devotions to the Virgin are a powerful means of salvation, and that the least of them, if flowing from the exercise of faith and charity, as in the case of the saints who have practised them, are of great merit; but to make persons believe that, by practising these without reforming their wicked lives, they will be converted by them at the hour of death, or that God will raise them up again, does appear calculated rather to keep sinners going on in their evil courses, by deluding them with false peace and foolhardy confidence, than to draw them off from sin by that genuine conversion which grace alone can effect." "What does it matter," replied the monk, "by what road we enter paradise, provided we do enter it? as our famous Father Binet, formerly our Provincial, remarks on a similar subject, in his excellent book, On the Mark of Predestination.'Be it by hook or by crook,' as he says, 'what need we care, if we reach at last the celestial city.'" "Granted,"said I; "but the great question is if we will get there at all." "The Virgin will be answerable for that," returned he; "so says Father Barry in the concluding lines of his book: 'If at the hour of death, the enemy should happen to put in some claim upon you, and occasion disturbance in the little commonwealth of your thoughts, you have only to say that Mary will answer for you, and that he must make his application to her.'" "But, father, it might be possible to puzzle you, were one disposed to push the question a little further.Who, for example, has assured us that the Virgin will be answerable in this case?" "Father Barry will be answerable for her,"he replied."'As for the profit and happiness to be derived from these devotions,' he says, 'I will be answerable for that; I will stand bail for the good Mother.'" "But, father, who is to be answerable for Father Barry?" "How!" cried the monk; "for Father Barry? is he not a member of our Society; and do you need to be told that our Society is answerable for all the books of its members? It is highly necessary and important for you to know about this.There is an order in our Society, by which all booksellers are prohibited from printing any work of our fathers without the approbation of our divines and the permission of our superiors.This regulation was passed by Henry III, 10th May 1583, and confirmed by Henry IV, 20th December 1603, and by Louis XIII, 14th February 1612; so that the whole of our body stands responsible for the publications of each of the brethren.This is a feature quite peculiar to our community.And, in consequence of this, not a single work emanates from us which does not breathe the spirit of the Society.That, sir, is a piece of information quite apropos." "My good father," said I, "you oblige me very much, and I only regret that I did not know this sooner, as it will induce me to pay considerably more attention to your authors." "I would have told you sooner," he replied, "had an opportunity offered; I hope, however, you will profit by the information in future, and, in the meantime, let us prosecute our subject.The methods of securing salvation which I have mentioned are, in my opinion, very easy, very sure, and sufficiently numerous; but it was the anxious wish of our doctors that people should not stop short at this first step, where they only do what is absolutely necessary for salvation and nothing more.Aspiring, as they do without ceasing, after the greater glory of God, they sought to elevate men to a higher pitch of piety; and, as men of the world are generally deterred from devotion by the strange ideas they have been led to form of it by some people, we have deemed it of the highest importance to remove this obstacle which meets us at the threshold.In this department Father Le Moine has acquired much fame, by his work entitled Devotion Made Easy, composed for this very purpose.The picture which he draws of devotion in this work is perfectly charming.None ever understood the subject before him.Only hear what he says in the beginning of his work: 'Virtue has never as yet been seen aright;no portrait of her hitherto produced, has borne the least verisimilitude.

It is by no means surprising that so few have attempted to scale her rocky eminence.She has been held up as a cross-tempered dame, whose only delight is in solitude; she has been associated with toil and sorrow; and, in short, represented as the foe of sports and diversions, which are, in fact, the flowers of joy and the seasoning of life.'" "But, father, I am sure, Ihave heard, at least, that there have been great saints who led extremely austere lives." "No doubt of that," he replied; "but still, to use the language of the doctor, 'there have always been a number of genteel saints, and well-bred devotees'; and this difference in their manners, mark you, arises entirely from a difference of humours.'I am far from denying,'