such a sorrow is a sign of likeness to the Good Shepherd. As S. Paul said to the Corinthians who turned against him, "I most gladly will spend, and be spent myself, for your souls, although loving you more, I be loved less."[1] Our Lord also had said before: "If the world hate you, you know that it hated Me before it hated you."[2] To be hated, therefore, is a countersign of our fidelity.
We live with the vision of souls that are dead continually before our eyes. The plain of the dry bones was spectral, but the revelry and surfeiting of souls that are spiritually dead is far more ghastly. But it needs a spiritual intuition to discern it: therefore some men can live in the midst of it without perceiving it; and even we, who ought to have the first-fruits of the Spirit, perceive it only in the measure of our discernment.
Men of evil life are murderers of souls. By direct intention, or by the infection of example, they destroy the innocent and turn back the penitent. We can see the plague spreading from home to home, from soul to soul. The reign of sin and the shadow of death settle upon souls and homes over which we have long been watching, but in vain. Sometimes Satan seems all but visible: his presence
