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"This only  take  care  of  with  all  diligence,  that  you  love  the  Lord  your  God."

- Josue xxiii. i.

[St. Francis de  Sales  was  born  at  the  Castle  of  Sales,  in  the  diocese of  Geneva,  August  21,  1567.

Leigh Hunt,  the  most  charming  of  our  modern  essayists,  has  left  us an  interesting  article  in  his  "London  Journal "  (February  4,  1835)  on this  grand  saint  and  doctor. He says  that,  "  like  Fenelon,  he  was  a sort  of  angel  of  a  gentleman;  a  species  of  phoenix  which,  we  really must  say,  the  French  Church  seems  to  have  produced  beyond  any other."

After the  death  of  Bishop  Granier,  Francis  was  appointed  Bishop  of Geneva. This was  on  the  8th  of  December  1602.

He continued  to  discharge  all  the  duties  of  a  saintly  prelate  till  the year 1622,  when  he  died  of  an  apoplexy,  at  Lyons,  December  28,  aged fifty-six, leaving  several  religious  works,  collected  in  two  volumes folio. He was  canonised  in  1665.

For his  Life,  &amp;c,  see  Marsollier,  Moreri,  Disct. Hist., Butler, &amp;c. &amp;c]

Love is  strong  as  death  (Cant  viii.  6):  since  both  equally separate the  soul  from  the  body  and  all  terrestrial  things, the only  difference  is,  that  the  separation  is  real  and  effectual when  caused  by  death,  whereas  that  occasioned  by love  is  usually  confined  to  the  heart.