Page:HalfHoursWithTheSaints.djvu/35

 half the  battle. In order  that  we  may  be  all  for  God,  we must  combine  love  with  fear.

Is not  the  love  of  God  sufficient,  says  the  great  St. Augustine,  to  make  us  avoid  sin? Was it  needful  to employ  fear  and  terrible  threats? Timor in  adjutorium amoris  excitandus  fuit

At least — if  fear  did  what  love  should  do,  we  should have less  to  complain  of — what  is  so  shocking  is,  that  nowadays we  have  reached  that  pitch  of  indifference  which  is neither  moved  by  fear  nor  by  love,  and  that  the  most  frightful things  do  not  make  any  impression  on  our  hearts.

Bretteville.

Essays

[Father Faber. — This celebrated  and  justly  appreciated  Oratorian  Father  died  on  September  26,  1863. The reader  is  referred  to Father  John  Bowden's  interesting  Life  of  this  zealous  servant  of  God.

Suffice it  to  say,  that  his  hymns  are  sung  throughout  the  length  and breadth  of  the  land,  that  his  works  have  been  translated  in  many  an European  language,  and  that  his  preaching  entitled  him  to  the  name of the  modern  Chrysostom;  for  truly,  like  to  that  great  saint  and doctor, he  was  "  honey-mouthed."]

The loss  of  holy  fear  is  the  mischief  of  all  mischiefs. For this  fear  is  a  special  gift  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  to  be sought  for  by  prayer  and  penance,  by  tears  and  cries,  by patience  and  impatience,  and  by  the  very  yearnings  of  an earnest  and  familiar  love. It has  always  seemed  to  me very  and  unexpectedly  beautiful  when  in  the  special  office of St.  Philip  Neri,  knowing  what  manner  of  man  he  was, and what  peculiar  spirit  he  was  of,  it  says  in  the  antiphon of the  Magnificat,  "  Come,  my  children,  and  I  will  teach you  the  fear  of  the  Lord;"  for  how  else  shall  the  saint teach us  divinest  love?