Page:The Eternal Priesthood (4th ed).djvu/200

This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
188
THE PRIEST AS PREACHER.

We do not know to whom the message is sent. It often happens now that many years pass, and we know for the first time that on such a day and in such a place some word of ours has stung a conscience, or stirred a heart, or moved a will, and brought a soul to God. But we shall never know in this world all that God may have done while we were unconscious. Therefore, "Cast thy bread upon the running waters, for after a long time thou shalt find it again."[1] When we have made all such preparation as I have said, the last preparation is to kneel before our Divine Lord in. the Blessed Sacrament, and to make the sign of the Cross upon our lips in honour of the Sacred Mouth, which spake as never any man spoke; offering to Him our confusion, if He be pleased to humble us by failure; and praying Him to work His own will by His own word, even though in our mouth. "He that heareth you heareth Me" gives us a share in the promise made in prophecy to Himself. "My Spirit that is in thee, and My words that I have put in thy mouth, shall not depart out of thy mouth, nor out of the mouth of thy seed, nor out of the mouth of thy seed's seed, from henceforth and for ever."[2] Therefore, "In the morning sow thy seed, and in the evening

  1. Eccles. xi. 1.
  2. Isaias lix. 21.