their lives to the propogation of the gospel, and to the amelioration of human ills, that their memories be kept ever fresh and green, if for no other reason than that the examples furnished by their unselfish, brave and holy lives, may ever; shine, brightly as beacon lights, to inspire the nobly ambitious and give cheer and courage to drooping hearts. All over the globe, beneath the burning sun of the tropics, and under the freezing skies of the polar regions devoted sons and daughters of the Church are to be found ministering to the spiritual and material needs of weak and suffering humanity, now smoothing the penitent death-bed, consecrating graves, feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, incarnating the Christian precepts, and doing a thousand deeds of love and charity among the obscure and forsaken—deeds of which there shall never be human chronicle. There are no duties so arduous, no tasks so fraught with danger, as to deter these saintly men and women from exercising their special talents for the greater glory of God; for there are saints on earth to-day as there were when St. Anthony of Padua, St. Ignatius, and St. Vincent de Paul, of blessed memory, fought the good fight, and made the world better and brighter by their presence. The magnificent support given by the Church in the upbuilding of Queensland is but faintly understood, and therefore not appreciated by the people as, a whole, and it is a realisation of this anomalous condition that in a large measure prompts the preparation of this work. The author too keenly feels that he is incompetent to vividly present to the reader's mental vision all that the Church has accomplished in this connection, but he ventures to hope that his efforts will not have been entirely in vain, and that lovers of human progress and admirers of disinterested human virtue will find encouragement for their views in the perusal of this modest volume. He therefore asks for his work the indulgence of his readers.
The Church has abundant reason for pride when contemplating the manifold achievements of her sons in the temporal sphere of Queensland's life. In every avenue of professional endeavour and commercial effort they bulk large, personifying her august influence and ennobling precepts. The list of these distinguished persons is so extended as to preclude the possibility of including even a summary of same in
