Page:SermonsFromTheLatins.djvu/192

 fruit but  sin! How many  had  been  long  since damned had  not  their  angels  begged  for  one  more chance until,  watered  with  affliction  and  pruned  with poverty and  sickness,  they  turned  to  God  and brought forth  fruit  worthy  of  penance!

Brethren, in  all  religion  there  is  no  doctrine  more poetical, more  beautiful,  more  touching,  and  consoling than  the  doctrine  of  the  angel  guardians. It brings home  to  us  our  dignity  as  God's  own  children, His tender,  fatherly  love,  the  existence  of  innumerable foes  to  our  salvation,  our  duty  to  cooperate with grace,  and  the  purity  and  sanctity  that  should mark our  lives,  living,  acting,  speaking,  thinking  as we  ever  do  in  the  presence  of  our  angels. The effect of such  a  doctrine  should  certainly  be  to  make  salvation easier,  and  God  forgive  the  sacrilegious  hand that fain  would  rob  us  of  it. Let us  learn  and  frequently repeat  that  prayer :

" Angel  of  God,  my  guardian  dear, To  whom  His  love  commits  me  here; Ever  this  day  be  at  my  side To  light  and  guard,  to  rule  and  guide."

So will  our  angels  shield  us  from  harm  here  and when our  hour  of  dissolution  comes,  their  hands  will bear us  as  they  bore  the  soul  of  Lazarus  onward, upward, heavenward,  into  Abraham's  bosom.