CHAPTER XXIII. Ours is the sweet repose of hearts repenting, Is ready for the suppliant's, brow; By the Almighty Three forever plann'd, And from behind the cloud held out by Jesus' hand. KEBLE. GERALDINE Continued to dwell with interest of thoughts connected with the two departed sisters, and in one of her conversations with the mother-superior, having expressed a wish to learn the hidden life of sister Ignatia, the latter assured her, that the hidden life does not require those fences from the external world, which were necessary to the character of sister Ignatia. "She had," continued the mother-superior, "a disposition peculiarly prone to live out of herself, and to depend on others for her happiness. You, sister Mary Paula, who are so much interested in watching the variety of means by which Almighty God effects the sanctification of his creatures, especially as evidenced in the spiritual lives of our two departed sisters, may now receive edification from one of whom I am constantly taking a silent lesson, and who leads a life more completely hidden than even sister Ignatia; or to speak more correctly, she leads a more supernatural life; for, in the midst of exterior occupations, her soul is in peace: nothing ever troubles her, because nothing unduly interests her; and whether an arrangement succeed or not, as she knows that in the end God must be equally glorified, so is she equally and calmly pleased; for she dwells on earth but through necessity, her heart is in heaven. This holy indifference to everything that is not God, produces an evenness of demeanour and of temper towards all. Many of the sisters have advanced far in this blessed science of the interior life, but none so perfectly as our mother-assistant. "The mother-assistant!" echoed Geraldine, a little disappointed; "to own the truth, dearest reverend mother, she has not interested me at all." "She does not wish to interest you or any one," replied the mother-superior, smiling, "she wishes to be hidden with God; and you see how well she has succeeded." "I shall with great satisfaction hear more," said our heroine, "for, beyond the general edification she gives in common with the rest of the sisterhood, I cannot recall a single word or deed of the motherassistant, by which I should derive profit." "She has not been called upon to give you edification beyond what you mention," said the mothersuperior, still smiling. "Have you not heard the saying, that if each one attended solely to her own business, the convent would be a heaven on earth?' No one enforced this more, when mother-superior, and no one follows it more truly now she is under obedience, than our mother-assistant." "I was not aware that she had ever been superior," said our heroine. "She was not only superior, but at the end of the three years, was re-elected. After which, by the constitutions of our order, another must succeed to the office. Previously to being superior, she had been mistress of novices." "Then," said Geraldine, "I understand and greatly VOL. III.-26 admire the silence, the humility, the obscurity of her life, as it now appears to me. How great the constraint might be over the cheerful harmony of the community, if she were obviously remembering how things were,' during her office of superior or mistress of novices." “The hidden life, to be truly such, must not betray itself," said the mother-superior; "a sister who desires to be truly hidden with Christ in God, should present nothing that could distinguish her from the rest of the sisterhood. Her manner, her movements, should be so unobtrusive, as to excite no attention ; and at recreation, she should endeavour to promote the general cheerfulness rather by engaging others to talk, than by speaking much herself: and this little stratagem of the humble, our mother-assistant has perfectly attained. You will do well to observe, at the next opportunity, the easy unaffected manner in which she will throw out some little topic for others to enlarge upon, and then retire into a silence that appears not to be such, from the smiling attention she gives each speaker. To farther appreciate mother-assistant's spirit of recollection," continued the superior," you should know more of her office, which is not only, as the name implies, to give aid to the mother-superior, and supply for her occasional absence from choir and other public offices, but it is also her duty to inquire into and provide for all the wants of the sisters, which, with some dispositions, might lead to incessant talking and bustle. She also superintends sister Josephine's charge of the clothing for the poor, and the lay-sisters in the soup and other food distributed to them. She makes out the lists of places to be visited, and for the distribution of the charity, after it has been submitted to me for approval: and, although the bursar has the immediate charge of all the house-keeping and accounts, she consults with mother-assistant in every difficulty: so that there cannot be well imagined a situation in which the soul is more tempted to distraction and trouble about many things, than in the office held by her, whose tranquillity of soul I propose as a model for all the sis ters." "Mother-assistant is not the only one who avoids speaking of herself," thought Geraldine, as she listened to these well-merited encomiums from one to whom she had given and continued to give her highest meed of praise. "When mother-assistant was superior," continued her successor, "her exhortations, whether in public or private, invariably ended in recommending peace to the soul; and her previous reasoning had been so effective, that it was rarely that turbulent or vexing thoughts continued to harass those who had been to her for counsel and comfort. I have mentioned to you the exterior duties of mother-assistant, that you may perceive, not only that they disturb not a soul that is once settled in holy peace, but also, that you may fully appreciate the humility which prevents her from ever mentioning at recreation or other times, any circumstances relating to her own department. No one would be aware from anything that falls from her lips, that she held any office whatever in the convent. And she might almost be said, neither to be seen nor heard in the midst of questions and directions of all kinds, so great is the calm reserve of her whole demeanour; and obscured and tarnished as a human copy must ever be of any perfection of the Deity, to her, if to any mortal, might be applied the saying of St. Augustine, always in action, and always in repose." " "This feeling or principle," said Geraldine, "which prevents mother-assistant from ever alluding even distantly to her many occupations, might arise merely from that instinctive good taste and refinement which would prevent a lady in the world from introducing her household concerns, but it is from a purer motive, that of humility: and this necessity of a pure intention must hold good in every demonstration of virtue. Otherwise, a sister may flatter herself she is a lover of silence, when she is only sullen, very disengaged when she is only very selfish, and very interior when she is only very indolent." "Self-knowledge," said the mother-superior, "which is the preparation for the spiritual life, and receives the foundation-stone of humility, is the only security against our building mere castles in the air.'" 6 6 "There is nothing I admire more profoundly," said Geraldine, "than a calm state of mind; the extreme and abuse of which, however, would be indolence, and at length stagnation; and I love the epithet holy,' which is a guarantee that the virtue to which it is prefixed, is protected by divine grace. 'Holy' silence, the offspring of humility, and of the loving sense of the presence of God, must be twinborn with peace." "For the obtaining this blessed calm of the soul, great and painful sacrifices may be required," said the mother-superior, "but when once established, prayer and watchfulness are alone requisite to preserve it, and this very watchfulness must be calm.” "Exterior occupations and contradictions can no more disturb this blessed peace," said Geraldine, "than do the innumerable boats and vessels which glide on the surface of a calm lake; but let interior conflicts arise,-spiritual combats,-and where then is the peace, the calm of the soul? Must it not resemble that same lake, whose once smooth and lucid waters are now tossed and hidden tempest nursed within? surely be a supernatural gift, to foaming, from the This calm must be totally imper |