Page:TheYoungMansGuide.djvu/132

 homesickness is,  but  their  longing  was  not for creatures,  for  earthly  goods  and  possessions. They longed  for  the  heavenly  country, the  land  of  everlasting  joy,  of  peace  and blessedness, the  home  of  the  saints;  they longed for  that  heavenly  fatherland,  concerning which  the  Apostle  writes :  "  Eye  hath not  seen  nor  ear  heard,  neither  hath  it  entered into  the  heart  of  man,  what  things  God hath  prepared  for  them  that  love  Him!" Their longing  for  heaven  was  so  ardent,  that they awaited  with  holy  impatience  the  hour of their  death.

God does  not  require  of  us  that  we  should feel homesickness  of  such  a  kind  as  this,  but what He  does  require  of  all  men,  and  especially cf  the  young,  therefore  of  you,  my  youthful reader,  is  that  we  should  love  Him  and serve Him  faithfully. I say  that  God  expects this  from  young  people  more  especially, since Holy  Scripture  thus  exhorts  them, "Remember thy  Creator  in  the  days  of  thy youth." Wherefore love  God  and  serve  Him faithfully in  the  bright  days  of  youth.

2. It  was  a  blessed,  a  golden  day  when your pious  sponsors,  full  of  joyous  hopes, brought you  back  from  the  baptismal  font to your  parents'  house. From that  hour, warmed by  the  sun  of  divine  grace,  you  grew like a  lily  among  thorns;  indeed  you  knew nothing of  the  thorns  of  evil,  in  the  blissful ignorance of  your  childish  innocence. Your soul was  like  an  untarnished  mirror;  your