an hour what a priest who prays less will hardly do in many days. The words of a priest always united with God have a life, a warmth, an energy, and a persuasion which no natural gifts can give. We do little because we pray little; and because we pray little we are what we are. If the time we lose, if the hours that are stolen from us, were spent in speaking with God instead of with the world, all we do would be higher in spirit, deeper in results, and more lasting in its effect.
5. A last measure of the value of a priest's time is in the end for which he exists.
He is to be a witness for his Divine Master in teaching and testifying to the truth; but chiefly by the visible example of his life, and by the conscious and unconscious influence of his mind. Woe to him if he be found a false witness in the least of the commandments of God, or in the influence of his mind and life. And great is the peril and unfaithfulness if he be an ambiguous, or equivocal, or obscure witness. He would be like a warning by the wayside which no man can read. And for those who perish by his fault he will be held to answer.
He is also to be a light in the world. But if his mind and life show only a dim or unsteady light, who will trust his guidance?
