THE APOSTLE OF YOUTH
They were taught to repress nature, to overcome their passions and bad inclinations, to be mutually considerate and helpful toward the neighbor, as well as to unite in prayer, to hear holy Mass, and approach the Sacraments. Day by day the character was formed and strengthened by such loving guidance, perfect prudence and divinely inspired watchfulness, that good Christian citizens were being trained for society, and pure-hearted Levites for God's Church. A majority of the boys were engaged in employments of various kinds during the day, and alas! too often under wicked masters or among vicious companions, so that to the keen, far-seeing eyes of Don Bosco, their future was full of peril; for the good wrought in their hearts by the restraining influences and pious practices of the Oratory might even be neutralized by the evil atmosphere which surrounded them.
Don Bosco considered deeply all phases of the psychical problem, so momentous for time and eternity, and prayed fervently for light. He visited and made gentle but forceful remonstrances to the masters, which were met only with hatred and threats of violence. Their enmity became so bitter, indeed, that his life was often in danger; he was shot at several times, twice while vesting for Mass, but the bullet turned aside and left him unharmed. More than once he was brutally insulted, knocked down and roughly treated. Once he was attacked with a butcher's
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