+ nity life, governed, as far as circumstances would then permit, by the Dominican rule of the Third Order. The usual trials of poverty and humiliations were not wanting to them, but the number of aspirants to the religious life steadily increased, and their work was so encouraging that in after-life Mother Hallahan was accustomed to say of any very successful foundation that it was "a second Coventry." 8. Nevertheless, circumstances connected with Dr. Ullathorne's elevation to the episcopacy rendered it advisable that the community should leave their first quarters, and in 1845 they removed to Clifton, where their first convent was built. From this point began the filiations which, before Mother Hallahan's death, had resulted in five conventual establishments, in which all the works of charity undertaken by the active orders were blended with the peculiarities which mark the contemplative ones. The Divine Office was regularly chanted, and the fasts and abstinences commanded by Holy Church supplemented by the austerities which, in many modern orders, have been wholly or in part abandoned. 9. No brief sketch could give an adequate idea of the peculiar qualities of this soul, at once so great and so simple as to baffle any attempt at portraiture which should be less than full length. In his preface to her life, to which we have referred, Bishop Ullathorne, her spiritual guide for six-andtwenty years, describes her thus: 10. "Mother Margaret had the gift of infusing her spirit into her disciples; she could impart to them not merely of her light, but of her life and character. The amount and force of spiritual vitality in a soul is tested by this power of communicability to other souls. To any great degree this communicability is a rare gift. Minds illuminate one another far more easily than souls enkindle one another, and it is easier to transmit light than life. 11. 66 Rare as suns are those souls which seem to act on other souls like a sacramental power, shedding the rays of their own inward sense of God and vital warmth of spirit into the souls that come within the sphere of their action. Here, then, we come to understand the greatness of this soul, that was so ardent, vigorous, expansive, and diffusive. Not that she diffused her self, but the enlightening, warming, and invigorating grace that was within her, whereby she opened souls to her influence as the sun opens the blossoms into flowers; and not only did other souls open themselves, but they bowed themselves to the force of her superior spirit. 66 12. Who can read the history of this orphan child, and not admire in it the way of God's goodness, who raises up the poor from the dust to sit with the princes of His people? Her Heavenly Father led her by the light of His presence through many tribulations, all of which contributed to the discipline of her heart. The sense of God's presence was her guiding-star from infancy. She is a lonely girl, not having the thoughts of other girls; and a lonely woman, not having the sentiments of other women. 13. "Writing a manifestation of her secular life, she says; I never bad any companions but books; + these were enough for me.' As she is entering into womanhood, the ways of the world and the thoughts embodied in its literature attract her attention and awaken her interest, but God preserves her from its corruption; and, making a sacrifice forever of her intellectual curiosity, she enters upon the path of the saints, studies their science, and puts it into practice. In a long course of domestic service, which subdues without extinguishing her spirit of fire, whilst it gains her much experience in many ways, notwithstanding the humbleness of her position, she never fails to become an influence. 'I never sought to govern any one,' she writes in that manifestation of her life, but all my life it has come to me, so that I have never known real subjection.' 14. "Yet, whilst looked up to by all around her, this poor girl is exercising a most severe control on her senses, and, through protracted exercises, is subjugating her spirit to God's direction. For God Himself trains her with His grace and light, and through the discipline of suffering; and He sends her a severe but wise director to teach her the use of His inspirations. She longs to do something for God, and for many years this longing tries her patience; for she knows not what that something is to be, nor can any one tell her. 15. "In that manifestation repeatedly quoted she says: "When I went to Belgium, God, in His mercy, sent me a guide for twenty years, to whom I feel indebted for my salvation. It was hard work with nature to keep with him, but I did; and I bless God a thousand times that I did. I had all this time a desire to be a religious, but he would never hear of my going into religion in Belgium. He used to say very often in confession he did not see his way with me. He thought God called me to do something for His glory, but he could not say what. This made me frequently laugh in my own mind; for I used to wonder what I could do, a poor, helpless, friendless girl, without health or means, but the wish to serve God with all my heart. He kept me eight years, trying me, before he let me enter the Third Order.’ 16. "And now behold this lonely and poor woman, made ripe in spiritual wisdom and in human experience, returning a stranger and unknown to the land of her birth. Yet God has already prepared a way for her, and she begins a spiritual work, which slowly rises under her hands from humble beginnings into the highest character, and surrounds itself with numerous institutions of mercy and charity. Foundress of a Congregation of the ancient Dominican Order, she trained a hundred religious women, founded five convents, built three churches, established a hospital for incurables, three orphanages, schools for all classes, including a number for the poor, and, what is more, left her own spirit in its full vigor to animate her children, whose work is only in its commencement." LESSON LV. THE BROOK. 1. I COME from haunts of coot and hern, I make a sudden sally, And sparkle out among the fern 2. By thirty hills I hurry down, 3. Till last by Philip's farm I flow. 4. I chatter over stony ways, 5. With many a curve my banks I fret 6. I chatter, chatter, as I flow To join the brimming river ; |