Page:MyPrayerBookHappinessInGoodness.djvu/67

 does not  feel,  but  the  supreme  effort  of  a  supremely loving heart,  the  term  of  self-immolation,  —  the  immolation of  self-will  and  the  heart  of  flesh,  to  replace  them by the  will,  the  heart,  the  mind  of  God  Himself."

"The sovereign  love  of  God  teaches  the  soul  to  have the  same  utter  confidence  in  God's  holy  will  that  a  little child  has  in  its  father;  —  here  we  have  harmony, detachment,  trust;  in  a  word,  the  natural  atmosphere of  holy  peace."

"Some," says  the  Imitation,  "are  at  peace  with themselves  and  others;  some  are  at  peace  neither  with themselves  nor  others;  some,  being  themselves  established in  peace,  strive  to  establish  it  among  their  brethren."

"Him, who  belongs  to  this  last  category,  the  'Imitation '  calls  the  Bonus  Homo  Pacificus,  the  good  pacific man.  This  exactly  describes  what  St.  Francis  of  Sales was.  He  recommended  peace  to  all  the  souls  he  governed and  he  worked  zealously  to  impart  it  to  every  one he  could.  The  number  of  lawsuits  he  prevented  and the  disputes  he  calmed  were  almost  infinite.  This contagious  peace  sprang  from  the  same  fixed  principle that  has  given  all  his  writings,  and  every  recorded  act of  his  life,  a  grace  of  ineffable  serenity;  a  frank  gentle gaiety  that  is  grave  as  well  as  gay,  a  depth  of  calm  joy which  neither  tribulation  nor  press  of  toil  ever  troubled, and  which,  to  use  one  of  his  own  symbols,  is  like  the "nightingale  pouring  out  her  song  from  the  middle  of a  thorn -bush."

"When we  are  truly  abandoned  to  God's  will,"  says Bossuet, "we  are  ready  for  all  that  may  come  to  us; we  suppose  the  worst  that  can  be  supposed,  and  we  cast ourselves  blindly  on  the  bosom  of  God.  We  forget ourselves,  we  lose  ourselves;  and  this  entire  forgetful-