Page:The Eternal Priesthood (4th ed).djvu/142

130 He is also to be the salt that purifies the mind, and the life and the society of other men. But if he be not pure in deed, word, or thought, contact with him will rather harm than help those that are about him. His influence is never negative. He is always giving or taking away, gaining or losing for himself and for others.

How great is the danger of a priest living and labouring in the world all men can see. His field of work is the world, in the midst of the wheat and the tares. The evil-minded are often less dangerous, for they are open enemies: but the good, who are often unwise, or light, or lukewarm, throw him off his guard by their goodness, and lower him before he is aware. They waste his time by their visits: they devour it by their invitations: they entangle him by their talk: they encompass him by what is called society—that is, by people of all kinds, and by recreations which, though without sin, are out of all proportion and out of all harmony with the gravity of the priesthood. Intimacies easily and unconsciously at first spring up; fascinations and personal attractions disturb the calm of his mind: and the equilibrium of his spiritual life is lost. The conversation and the presence of some one becomes so alluring as to be a part of his thoughts, and a daily need. A false relation is