about the priest day by day like the others—that is, the sick and the dying. The two chief works of a pastor are the preparing of children for their warfare in life, and the preparing of the sick for the last conflict in death. The school and the sick-room are the two chief fields of a priest's charity and fervour. Sickness weighs heavily upon heart and mind. The sick are often sad and oppressed by the consciousness of sins, both of evil done and good undone, and through weakness they are unable to throw the burden off. They often say that they cannot pray, and that they cannot think: they can only lie and suffer. It is at such a time that a priest can think for them, and call their thoughts into activity. If he be a "fountain of water whose waters shall not fail," then he will refresh the soul that is dry through suffering and parched by mental anxiety. What is true of the sick is still more true of the dying. In the last hours the voice of a good priest is as the voice of a messenger from God—that is, of God Himself. The whispered name of Jesus, and the acts of faith, hope, charity, and contrition breathed into the ear that will soon hear no more, are the end of his pastoral care. The sanctified sufferings of the sick and the saint-like transit of the dying; the thanks of the sick and passing soul even
