shows that the Duke of Savoy banished a large number of his subjects who refused to embrace Romanism, but he does not seem to us to connect Francis de Sales directly with this unjust exhibition of arbitrary power. At the summons of the Duke of Savoy he undoubtedly visited him in Turin, and consulted with him on the measures necessary for the extirpation of Protestantism; the measures he recommended would now-a-days shock our idea of religious tolerance; but they were scarcely severer than those which obtained in Ireland down to the epoch of Catholic Emancipation; and they were really of a moderate and even gentle character for that age of religious bigotry. And it is only fair to remember that S. Francis, when he undertook his evangelistic labours in the Chablais, was a young man of twenty-eight. In his later life he steadfastly denounced the employment of force in "spiritual warfare."

It has also been objected to him that he practised some deception upon his father in adopting the sacerdotal profession when he was intended for a secular career. We do not see that S. Francis can rightly be censured for shrinking from a life for which he did not feel himself fitted; but as a matter of fact he was guilty of neither deceit nor fraud. He pursued the studies that M. de Boisy had marked out, and actually took his degree in civil and canonical law; and when at length he felt compelled to realize his earliest hope and ambition, he spoke frankly and earnestly to his father. The Provostship of Geneva was not obtained through his own solicitation, but, unknown to him, through the intervention of friends, who thought it would reconcile the father to his son's ordination. The Rev. L. W. Bacon, another assailant of the Bishop of Geneva, charges him with duplicity towards the young lady, Mademoiselle de Vigy, whom his father wished him to marry. He says that though he had taken a vow of celibacy, Francis visited her as a suitor and a lover. It is difficult to see how such a charge can be maintained, when we know that his father chided him for his coldness and reserve with the young lady! On the whole, we see no reason to modify the estimate we have ventured to form of the sweetness and purity of S. Francis's character. We will not pretend that he was perfect, or that in his earlier years he never committed a mistake; but he seems to us to have realized, as nearly as mortal man may do, that ideal of a Devout Life which he has set forth in his own inimitable pages.

S. VINCENT DE PAUL:

THE RELIGIOUS PHILANTHROPIST.

"It is true that S. Vincent de Paul rose to great distinction, and played a very prominent part in his generation, and has left an honoured name behind. Nevertheless, they were not what are accounted extraordinary or brilliant gifts which brought him to such honour. His life is the triumph of unworldliness, humility, a constant recollection of the presence of GOD, and a single eye to His glory."-R. F. WILSON.

сс

[Authorities:-The materials for the following sketch will be found in the Abbé Maynard's "S. Vincent de Paul, sa Vie, son Temps, ses Œuvres, et son Influence," which has been agreeably summarised by the author of "The Life of S. Vincent de Paul," edited by the Rev. Prebendary Wilson. See also Jervis's "History of the Gallican Church," Sismondi's "Histoire des Français," and Miss Kavanagh's "Women of Christianity."]

S. VINCENT DE PAUL.

THE

CHAPTER I.

HE preceding chapters have been records of the work done by men and women who have largely influenced the history of their time, and even of the world; Heroes of the Cross, whose lives have had in them a remarkable, almost a miraculous element, and whose genius or force of character compels the admiration or wonder of posterity. We have now to deal with a man who, though he rose to high distinction and effected some notable achievements, stood out less conspicuously from his fellows, making no pretension to any rare intellectual gifts; a man who invites our notice by those virtues of humility, single-heartedness, abundant charity, and unpretending piety which are or should be the ordinary virtues of the Christian. S. Vincent de Paul did not belong to that high order of great men which claims a Columba, a Bernard, and a Francis. He could not excite the enthusiasm of multitudes or control the destinies of nations. He did what he had to do simply, quietly, diligently. His life was not illustrated by any startling events, any dramatic scenes. But for this very reason it is the better adapted for our imitation. The monk of Clairvaux, the founder of the Franciscan brotherhood, the great Florentine reformer-these men stand on a height to which most of us cannot attain. Like the peaks of lofty mountains they soar into an atmosphere in which we could not breathe.

Their gifts and graces are alike beyond our grasp. But in S. Vincent de Paul we have a pattern that we may hope to copy. Not that, like him, we can originate great institutions; but that in our various avocations, and as Churchmen generally, we may practise the same sanctity of life, the same honest Christian industry, the same modest self-denial and unaffected devotion to duty. Like him, into all that we do we may put our best. It has been well said that from the beginning to the end his life was made up of "ordinary actions done extraordinarily well-of ordinary opportunities never impetuously grasped at, never hastily seized, but never let pass, and, when once laid hold of, followed out carefully and perseveringly with eminent common sense, and what may be called worldly wisdom." This is the life that English Churchmen may study with advantage. The opportunities of doing something for CHRIST and His Church come to all of us; but do we make use of them?

"Doing the Church's work in the Church's way" is a phrase of frequent occurrence on the lips of Churchmen; but, unfortunately, it too often remains a phrase and nothing more; the principle which it embodies, admirable as it is, not being very readily transmuted into action. It is true, indeed, that people sometimes profess to be working in the Church's way, when, on examination, it is found that they are deceiving themselves, and that the "way" in question is simply their own self-willed and presumptuous way. For, in truth, if we all of us steadily pursued the lines laid down for us by the Church; if, like Vincent de Paul, we loyally followed her counsels with zeal and yet discretion, energy and yet moderation; we should cease to give the world occasion for ridicule by our variances, and to rend "the body of CHRIST" by our unhappy divisions. The Church demands of us oneness of spirit as her way; we reply by separating further apart from one another. The Church demands of us a constant fidelity to her cause; we reply by a sham liberality which ignores the radical difference of creeds and forms of government. The Church demands of us a reasonable service; we reply by plunging up to the neck in worldly business or social pleasures. And all the while we profess to be working in the Church's way. Rightly exercised, the influence of the Church, acting through her