Page:Sermons by John-Baptist Massillon.djvu/21

 that in which he entered the French Academy. The date of his admission was February 23d, 17 19. The Abbe Fleury, who received him in his capacity of director, among other praises, gave him that of having accommodated his instruction to the tender age of the king. " You seem," said he, " to have imitated the prophet, who, in order to resuscitate the son of the Shunamite, contracted as it were his dimensions, by placing his mouth upon the mouth, his eyes upon the eyes, his hands upon the hands of the child; and, having thus recalled the vital heat, restored him alive and vigorous to his mother."

The director's discourse contains another passage equally edifying and remarkable. Massillon had just been consecrated a bishop; and no place at court, no business, no pretext could be urged to keep him from his diocess. The Abbe Fleury, an inflexible observer of the canons, while he admitted the new member, had his eyes fixed upon the rigorous duties which the episcopacy imposed upon him, in comparison with which those of academician entirely disappeared. Far, then, from inviting him to frequent attendance on the academy, he exhorted him to a perpetual absence; and he rendered his counsel more cogent by the obliging manner in which he expressed his regret for its necessity. ie We foresee with grief," said he, " that we are about to lose you for ever, and that the Indispensable law of residence will sequester you without return from our assemblies : we cannot hope to see you again, but when some vexatious business shall, in spite of yourself, tear you from your church."

This counsel had the more weight, as he to whom it was addressed had already given it himself. He departed for Clermont, and only returned on indispensable, consequently rare, occasions. He gave all his cares to the happy flock intrusted to him by Providence. He did not conceive that his episcopal function, which he had acquired in consequence of his success in the pulpit, gave him a dispensation from again ascending it, and that he ought to cease being useful because he had been rewarded. He consecrated to the instruction of the poor, those talents which had so often been applauded by the great; and preferred, to the noisy praises of courtiers, the simple and serious attention of a less brilliant but more docile audience. Perhaps the most eloquent of his discourses are his conferences with his clergy. He preaches to them the virtues of which he gave the example; disinterestedness, simplicity, forgetfulness of self, the active and prudent ardour of enlightened zeal, widely different from that fanaticism which is only a blind, and often a very suspicious zeal: moderation was, indeed, his ruling character. He loved to assemble at his country seat, Oratorians and Jesuits, whom he accustomed to endure, and almost to love each other. He set them to play together at chess, and exhorted them never to engage in more serious warfare. Th, conciliatory spirit which shone in his conduct, and his well-known sentiments on the scandal of theological quarrel, caused the government to wish that he should try to bring to an agreement the Cardinal de Noailles,