8.— On the Service of God.
"My yoke is sweet, and my burden light."
[Henri Marie Boudon, Archdeacon of Evreux, was born in 1624, and died in the year 1702. This holy servant of God was the author of many pious works. The seventh volume of the Library of Religious Biography, edited by Edward Healy Thompson, contains an excellent biography of this distinguished ecclesiastic]
WHAT an honour, and how glorious it is to be in the service of so great, so good a Master!
The condition of the least of His servants is incomparably greater than that of the kings of the earth; for their greatness and prosperity finish with their lives, but the servants of God finish with their lives the pains and trials they have had to suffer in His service, and after that they find an eternal happiness and immortal crowns awaiting them.
It is then reasonable what the royal prophet assures us, that one day spent in His house and in His service, is better than a thousand days spent elsewhere.
It is true that all men esteem and love to be great, but they do not think wherein true greatness is. They deem it to be a great honour to be in the service of royalty; they pay heavy sums to be deemed the head of a firm; but they take but little pains to be a servant of God, and, what is more grievous, they often blush at the idea of fulfilling the duties of His service.
The great Apostle was elated at a time when the Chris-
