if we

their vitality. Philanthropy would imitate them; but its establishments of to-day are destroyed tomorrow, like castles built by children in the sand, while the institution it would fain supersede remains strong and unchanged, the only one capable of meeting the necessities of suffering humanity. The reason of this is not far to seek: faith alone can understand the mystery of suffering, having penetrated its secret in the Passion of our Lord; and charity that would be stable must be founded on faith. Vincent loved the poor because he loved the God whom his faith beheld in them. "O God!" he used to say, "it does us good to see the poor, "look at them in the light of God, and think of the "high esteem in which Jesus Christ holds them. "Often enough they have scarcely the appearance or "the intelligence of reasonable beings, so rude and "so earthly are they. But look at them by the "light of faith, and you will see that they represent "the Son of God, who chose to be poor; he in his "Passion had scarcely the appearance of a man; he "seemed to the Gentiles to be a fool, and to the 'Jews a stumbling-block, moreover he calls himself "the evangelist of the poor: evangelizare pauperibus "misit me." This title of evangelist of the poor, is the one that Vincent ambitioned for himself; the starting point and the explanation of all that he did in the Church. His one aim was to labour for the poor and the outcast; all the rest, he said, was but secondary. And he added, speaking to his sons of St. Lazare: "We should never have laboured for the "candidates for priesthood, nor in the ecclesiastical "seminaries, had we not deemed it necessary in "order to keep the people in good condition, to "preserve in them the fruits of the missions, and to

66

1

1 St. Luke iv. 18.

66

procure them good priests." That he might be able to consolidate his work in all its aspects, our Lord inspired Ann of Austria to make him a member of the Council of Conscience, and to place in his hands the office of extirpating the abuses among the higher clergy and of appointing pastors to the churches of France. We cannot here relate the history of a man in whom universal charity was, as it were, personified. But from the bagnio of Tunis where he was a slave, to the ruined provinces for which he found millions of money, all the labours he underwent for the relief of every physical suffering, were inspired by his zeal for the apostolate: by caring for the body, he strove to reach and succour the soul. At a time when men rejected the Gospel while striving to retain its benefits, certain wise men attributed Vincent's charity to philosophy. Now-a-days they go further still, and in order logically to deny the author of the works, they deny the works themselves. But if any there be who still hold the former opinion, let them listen to his own words, and then judge of his principles: "What is done for charity's sake, is done for God. "It is not enough for us that we love God ourselves; "our neighbour also must love him; neither can we "love our neighbour as ourselves unless we procure "for him the good we are bound to desire for our"selves, viz.: divine love, which unites us to our "Sovereign Good. We must love our neighbour as "the image of God and the object of his love, and "must try to make men love their Creator in return, "and love one another also with mutual charity for "the love of God, who so loved them as to deliver "his own Son to death for them. But let us, I beg "of this Divine Saviour as a per"fect pattern of the charity we must bear to our

look you,

66

neighbour."

upon

The theophilanthropy of a century ago had no more

right than had an atheist or a deist philosophy to rank Vincent, as it did, among the great men of its Calendar. Not nature, nor the pretended divinities of false science, but the God of Christians, the God who became Man to save us by taking our miseries upon himself, was the sole inspirer of the greatest modern benefactor of the human race, whose favourite saying was: "Nothing pleases me except in Jesus "Christ. He observed the right order of charity, striving for the reign of his Divine Master, first in his own soul, then in others; and, far from acting of his own accord by the dictates of reason alone, he would rather have remained hidden for ever in the face of the Lord, and have left but an unknown name behind him.

"Let us honour," he wrote, "the hidden state of "the Son of God. There is our centre: there is "what he requires of us for the present, for the "future, for ever; unless his Divine Majesty makes "known in his own unmistakable way that he de"mands something else of us. Let us especially

"honour this Divine Master's moderation in action. "He would not always do all that he could do, in "order to teach us to be satisfied when it is not expedient to do all that we are able, but only as much as "is seasonable to charity and conformable to the Will "of God. How royally do those honour our Lord "who follow his holy Providence and do not try to "be beforehand with it! Do you not, and rightly, "wish your servant to do nothing without your "orders? and if this is reasonable between man and 'man, how much more so between the Creator and 'the creature!" Vincent then was anxious, according to his own expression, to "keep alongside of Providence," and not to outstep it. Thus he waited seven years before accepting the offers of the General de Gondi's wife, and founding his establishment of

46

66

the Missions. Thus, too, when his faithful coadjutrix, Mademoiselle Le Gras, felt called to devote herself to the spiritual service of the Daughters of Charity, then living without any bond or common life, as simple assistants to the ladies of quality whom the man of God assembled in his Confraternities, he first tried her for a very long time. "As to "this occupation," he wrote, in answer to her repeated petitions, "I beg of you, once for all, not to "think of it until our Lord makes known his Will. "You wish to become the servant of these poor girls, "and God wants you to be his servant." For God's "sake, Mademoiselle, let your heart imitate the tran"quillity of our Lord's heart, and then it will be fit "to serve him. The Kingdom of God is peace in the Holy Ghost; he will reign in you if you are in "peace. Be so then, if you please, and do honour to "the God of peace and love."

66

What a lesson given to the feverish zeal of an age like ours, by a man whose life was so full! How often, in what we can call good works, do human pretensions sterilize grace by contradicting the Holy Ghost! Whereas, Vincent de Paul, who considered himself "a poor worm creeping on the earth, not "knowing where he goes, but only seeking to be "hidden in thee, my God, who art all his desire,"

the humble Vincent saw his work prosper far more than a thousand others, and almost without his being aware of it. Towards the end of his long life, he said to his daughters: "It is Divine Providence that set "your Congregation on its present footing. Who else was it, I ask you? I can find no other. We never "had such an intention. I was thinking of it only "yesterday, and I said to myself: Is it you who "had the thought of founding a Congregation of

66

Daughters of Charity? Oh! certainly not. It is "Mademoiselle De Gras? Not at all. O my daugh

"ters, I never thought of it, your 'sœur servante' "never thought of it, neither did M. Portail (Vincent's "first and most faithful companion in the Mission). "Then it is God who thought of it for you; Him "therefore we must call the Founder of your Con"gregation, for truly we cannot recognise any other." Although with delicate docility, Vincent could no more forestall the action of God than an instrument the hand that uses it, nevertheless, once the Divine impulse was given, he could not endure the least delay in following it, nor suffer any other sentiment in his soul but the most absolute confidence. He wrote again, with his charming simplicity, to the helpmate given him by God "You are always giving way a little to human feel"ings, thinking that everything is going to ruin as soon as you see me ill. O woman of little faith, why have you not more confidence, and more sub"mission to the guidance and example of Jesus "Christ? This Saviour of the world entrusted the well-being of the whole Church to God his Father; "and you, for a handful of young women, evidently "raised up and gathered together by his Providence, "you fear that he will fail you! Come, come, Mademoiselle, you must humble yourself before "God."

66

66

66

:

No wonder that faith, the only possible guide of such a life, the imperishable foundation of all that he was for his neighbour and in himself, was, in the eyes of Vincent de Paul, the greatest of treasures. He who compassionated every suffering, even though well deserved; who, by an heroic fraud, took the place of a galley-slave in chains, was a pitiless foe to heresy, and could not rest till he had obtained either the banishment or the chastisement of its votaries. Clement XII. in the Bull of canonization bears witness to this, in speaking of the pernicious error of

PENT. IV.

L