vocation as pastors, which means that we must be always renewing in ourselves the disposition which was decisive in respect to our vocation.

If, therefore, the exercise of the ministry do not of itself suffice for this constant renovation, we must seek the means of it externally, apart from the ministry.

The first of these, which is rather the condition of all, is solitude.* Let us not exaggerate; let us not attempt to recommend solitude to the exclusion or detriment of social life. For the advantage of this, and as a means of better preparing himself to improve it, must the pastor sometimes withdraw himself from society. In a solitude too profound, too protracted, there are peculiar dangers, and greater ones, perhaps, than those of the world. When habitual, solitude is contrary to the will of the Creator, who said it was not good for man to be alone; and against the mind of Jesus Christ, who prayed to his Father not to take us out of the world, but to keep us from the evil. As an exception, then, and not as a rule, is solitude to be recommended. But so regarded-regarded as an exception or as a remedy (we do not nourish ourselves with remedies), it is of great value.

We do not mean to say that solitude is good in itself: It is not, except with certain qualifications. It has often been spoken of with the unqualified enthusiasm which we have for what has once charmed us. Poets,† moralists, philosophers, have vaunted it; and this concert of praise, surely, is not without some foundation. But we must not be indiscriminate. What we have intended to recommend is, internal solitude, or the spirit of solitude. We must discipline ourselves to being alone in the midst of the world, to tranquillity

* See, on this subject, a discourse of M. Vinet, entitled La Solitude recommandée au Pasteur.-Edit.

+ See, among others, LA FONTAINE, dans Le Songe d'un Habitant du Mogol, le Juge arbitre, l'Hospitalier et la Solitaire.

in the midst of tumult, to stillness in the midst of excitement. Having made ourselves capable of this kind of solitude, we may hold ourselves quit of the other. When external solitude is denied to us, we think that the other, carefully cultivated, may be relied upon as sufficient.

External solitude is evil if it be not good. If we have the world in the heart, we shall take it with us into the closet. To an unsocial, envious, irritable man, who feeds upon his resentments or his hatreds, solitude of this kind is very injurious. And to men agitated by passion, we can, in many cases, recommend nothing better than intercourse with others who are pursuing some useful occupation. Solitude is good or evil according to the use we make of it.

But solitude can not fail to be useful to him who seeks good from it, precisely because he seeks it; and even, previous to experience of it in ourselves, we can easily understand that what makes outward things vanish, and silences the noises of the world, favors the interviews which we wish to have with ourselves; that, except in these circumstances, we can but partially hold these interviews; and, in particular, that the truths which concern the conscience here detach themselves better from all those foreign accessories with which they are overloaded and darkened in the discussions which are carried on respecting them.*

Life, in our day, is made up of so many elements, is cut into so many surfaces, that it produces a kind of bewilder

* Saint Gregory calls the occupations of the ministry a tempest of the spirit. Saint Bernard wrote to Pope Eugene thus: "Since all possess you, be one of those by whom you are possessed. Why should you alone be deprived of the gift which you make of yourself? How long will you not receive yourself, in your turn, among others? You know that you are debtor to the wise and the unwise, and do you refuse yourself only to yourself? All partake of you, all quench their thirst at your breast as at a public fountain, and do you hold yourself at a distance athirst!"-SAINT BERNARD, Traité de la Considération, liv. i., ch. v.

ment, and the eye needs to repose itself in the quiet and sweet light of solitude.*

We must not, then, despise external means: Jesus Christ did not despise them. How often is he represented in the Gospel as withdrawing himself, and passing long hours away from men and noise! Would a means which was necessary

to Jesus Christ be useless to us? "I learn from Saint Augustine," says Bossuet, "that the attentive soul makes a solitude for itself: Gignit enim sibi ipsa mentis intentio solitudinem. But let us not flatter ourselves; if we would keep ourselves vigorous in the inward man, we must know how to avail ourselves of seasons of an effective solitude.†

Moreover, it is only as giving opportunity for action that solitude is desirable. The peace, the repose which it offers, are but a frame-work which we have to fill up. Vagrancy of thought is always hurtful. Christianity makes us think, not dream.

Solitude, on account of its general influence as now set forth, is most valuable to a minister who can employ it in these three ways.

1. It enables him to take an estimate of his modes of life, external and internal. This self-examination should be often made, for the progress of evil is no less rapid than insensible. We are worse to-day than we were yesterday, if we are not better. As diligent stewards, let us settle our account every evening, for the thief may come during the night. A too minute manner of examining ourselves may, however, open a door to selfishness: Let us then, even here, be on our guard,

* See, on the Catholic Institution of Retreats, MASSILLON, third Synodal discourse, De la Nécessité des Retraites pour se renouveller dans le Gráce du Sacerdoce; and BOURDALOUE, l'Avertissement de la Retraite Spirituelle.

† BOSSUET: Oraison Funèbre de Marie Thérèse d'Autriche. For the quotation from St. Augustine, see De divers. Quaest. ad Simplic., lib. ii., Quaest. iv., t. vi., col. 118.

for the enemy glides in through every inlet. Some, with too little caution, have advised us to keep a minute and daily journal; we must not record too much about ourselves, even though we record evil. We shall find it useful, however, to take note of the most important occurrences of our life.

2. It assists him in gathering up the results of his experience. Experience is properly a reaction upon things which have been done; it does not suffice to have seen them, to have assisted in them; we must reflect upon them, detach them, separate them, classify them. "One might pass," says Argenson, "the whole of a long life in working without principles, and thereby learn nothing. Experience is rather the fruit of reflection on what we have seen than the result of a multitude of transactions to which we have not given the attention they deserve."

3. It aids him in consulting God. The holiest occupations can not prosper without this; how necessary, then, to the minister! Let him regulate his remoter conduct, form resolutions, deliberate with himself; he will make many false steps, especially at the outset, if he does not settle his plans of procedure But let God be called to the consultation, and never let Him be away when the deliberations are going on.

In solitude PRAYER finds its natural place, but we shall consider it apart as the second means of renewing vocation. It is not only a duty and a privilege; it is not only a preparation for the ministry, it is one of its labors for the accomplishment of which the first ministers of Jesus Christ demanded a discharge from certain secondary functions: We must, said they, give ourselves to this.-Acts, vi., 4.

Prayer is necessary to keep us at the proper point of vision, which is always escaping from us; to heal the wounds of selflove and of feeling; to renew our courage; to anticipate the always threatened invasion of indolence, of levity, of dilatoriness, of spiritual or ecclesiastical pride, of pulpit vanity, of

professional jealousy. Prayer resembles the air of certain isles of the ocean, the purity of which will allow no life to vermin. With this atmosphere we should compass ourselves about, as the diver surrounds himself with the bell before he descends into the sea.*

But the prayer of a pastor is sacerdotal prayer, and as such it is a function. It has been said that he who works prays; how much more true is it that he who prays works! Prayer is a work like that of Moses in the mount. Intercession is what remains to the ministry of the priesthood.† It was practiced immediately by the Great Pastor and by his apostles, who, without ceasing, made mention of their flocks in their prayers, at the same time that they claimed intercession from their flocks.‡

Another mode of employing the hours of a pastor's retreat, and a third means of renewing his vocation, is STUDY.

First, the study of the Bible. This, even when divested of every thing scientific, is inexhaustible, and leads to new. discoveries, even to the end of life. For the pastor it is both obligatory and necessary; obligatory, since his business is nothing other than preaching the word of God, or according to this word; and thus his ministry will be interesting and fruitful in proportion as his word is penetrated with the substance, and even with the letter,§ of the Divine word.

* Frequent prayer is recommended to the pastor by HARMS, Pastoraltheologie, tome i., p. 25.

Not intercession only, but prayer for the coming of God's kingdom. See Isaiah, lxii., 6, 7. "Ye that make mention of the Lord, give yourselves no rest, and give Him no rest till he establish, and till he make Jerusalem a praise in the earth."

The prayer of Bacon before his study, reported by M. DE VauZELLES, Histoire de Bacon, tome i., p. 107. That of Kepler (Semeur de 1838, p. 245). See these prayers, and two passages from Massillon, in the Appendix, note G.

See 1 Tim., iv., 13, "Give attendance to reading," etc.; and 2