CHAPTER VIII.
THE PRIEST'S HELPS.
Sometimes we say, or at least we feel, "If I had known what it is to be a priest I should never have ventured. I have all the dangers of other men, and many that are the perils only of a priest. They are set up on high, and they are set over souls to give account. The world and Satan have special enmity and malice against a priest. What good does my life do me? I am not better than my fathers; and if I fall, my fall will be great, and perhaps irremediable. Grandis sacerdotis dignitas sed grandis ruina." Such thoughts often come by the suggestion of the tempter and the fault of our own hearts. But, unless we play false to ourselves, a truer mind soon asserts itself; and we say, "I have the dangers of other men, but I have graces beyond them all. They have the sacramental grace of sons and of soldiers, but I have also the sacramental grace of a priest." If the dangers of a priest are great, his sacramental grace is greater than his dangers. He
