Page:MyPrayerBookHappinessInGoodness.djvu/71

 in heaven.'  All  Christians  do  so;  and  a  preacher,  in his  opening  instructions,  would  teach  and  exhort  the  untutored savage  to  believe  in  and  speak  to  Him  as  such.

" God  is  the  Father  of  all  men  and  eminently a  perfect Father.  We  could  not  imagine  such  a  father  casting out,  expelling  from  his  home  forever  a  child,  until he  had  tried  the  proper  means  to  keep  him  with  himself — until  the  child  deserts  him,  or,  by  wilful,  obstinate, persistent  disobedience  to  his  father's  will,  necessitates his  own  expulsion.  Such  a  father  will  do  all  he  well can  for  the  welfare  of  his  children  —  do  everything short  of  violence  to  enable  his  children  to  succeed  in all  that  is  for  his  own  and  their  good.  The  dominant desire  —  wish  —  will  —  of  such  a  father  must  be  to make  his  children  happy;  his  dominant  dread  and horror,  that  one  of  them  should  be  unhappy.

" Our  Lord  tells  us  how  easy  and  swift  true  repentance can  be  in  the  case  of  the  publican  —  the  notorious  and typical  sinner  —  who  by  making  an  act  of  sorrow  for his  sins,  in  seven  words,  went  home  to  his  house  justified. God  is  far  more  ready  and  generous  in  forgiving the  worst  than  men  —  even  good  men  —  are  in  forgiving each  other,  and  bad  would  it  be  for  the  best  of us  if  He  were  not.

" By  way  of  showing  the  effect  which  can  be  produced by  the  very  thought  of  God  Our  Father,  and  belief  in Him  as  such,  I  may  give  a  fact  told  to  me  by  the  person concerned  —  now  dead  for  some  years.  He  fell  into a  state  akin  to  despair  about  his  salvation.  A  confessor, to  whom  he  opened  his  mind,  told  him  to  go,  take  his Bible,  and  write  out  all  the  texts  in  which  God  calls Himself  his  Father.  He  did  so,  and  was  blessed  with calm  and  peace  before  he  had  written  twenty." — Fr. Nicholas  Walsh,  S.J.