Page:The Eternal Priesthood (4th ed).djvu/244

232 the Man of Sorrows, and the fountain of all consolation.

And after the mourners come a multitude of little children.

Among the many rewards of a faithful priest come the love and the joy of children. By the faith infused in Baptism, they recognise in the priest a spiritual fatherhood. Children come round a priest not only by a natural instinct, drawn by kindness, but by a supernatural instinct as to one who belongs to them by right. The love of children for a priest is the most unselfish love on earth, and so long as they are innocent it binds them to him by a confidence which casts out fear. The most timid and shrinking come to him as a relief and protection. They tell him everything—their hopes and fears, their troubles and their faults—with an undoubting confidence in his love and care. No priest has greater joy than the priest who loves his schools, and trains with his own eye and care the boys who surround his altar. It is one of the signs of his conformity to his Divine Master.

Next after them come the poor. A priest is God's almoner. If he has nothing of his own, he receives in alms from the hand of His Master, and he distributes it again to the poor. The old, the