II. Consider the sufferings of the Holy Family on the. road. Remark their religious demeanor, their pious discourses, and their interior recollection with God, and with what holy resignation they surmount the difficulties of a long and tedious journey, of about two hundred and seventy miles. These sufferings were increased by their poverty and forlorn situation. Compassionate them, and be ashamed of your own delicacy and unwillingness to suffer the least inconvenience for the sake of Christ.
III. They resided, unknown, in Egypt for seven or eight years. Reflect on the life which they led during that time. They performed all their religious duties toward God as far as their banishment in a heathenish country would permit them. They observed perfect charity and union among themselves. During the whole time they were extremely poor, and maintained themselves and the divine Infant by the labor of their hands. They bore in silent patience the evils of banishment and the ill-usage of the Egyptians. Compare your conduct in adversity with theirs; blush at your weakness, and fortify your mind by their example against the entailed and unavoidable miseries of life!
THURSDAY.
Murder of the Holy Innocents.
I. " Then Herod, perceiving that he was deluded by the Wise Men, was exceedingly angry, and sending, killed all the male children that were in Bethlehem." (Matt, ii. 16.) Reflect on the barbarous cruelty of this wicked prince, and mark into what enormities ambition plunges the man who blindly pursues it. Form a steady detestation of this vice. But let the wicked rage and devise
