rest on; too changeful to be trusted; too full of self to give room for us. The priest who leans upon any human friendships, how holy soever they be, will soon find that instead of rest he has disquiet, instead of consolation a wearing and multiplying anxiety. Quid enim mihi est in cœlo, et a te quid volui super terram? Defecit caro mea, et cor meum; Deus cordis mei, et pars mea Deus in æternum.[1]
Do not let any one think that a priest who has one Divine Friend will be cold or heartless, or careless of flock and friends, of the lonely and the forsaken. The more united to his Master the more like Him he becomes. None are so warm of heart, so tender, so pitiful, so unselfish, so compassionate, as the priest whose heart is sustained in its poise and balance of supreme friendship with Jesus and in absolute independence of all human attachments. His soul is more open and more enlarged for the influx of the charity of God. We are straitened not in Him, but in ourselves. As our hearts are so shall be the descent of the love of God. We shall be replenished as we can receive it. What S. Paul asked for all Christians at Ephesus is above all true of priests and pastors, "That you may be able to comprehend with all the Saints what is the breadth, and length,
- ↑ Ps. lxxii. 25, 26.
