or sin or worldliness remain, and follow Christ as faithfully, as unquestioningly, as perseveringly as did the Magi. They had for guidance, besides the star, only Balaam's prophecy and dim traditions dating from Israel's captivity. But we, led by Christ Himself, walk in the noonday light of Gospel truth. Amid trials of faith we must not be discouraged, as neither were the Magi when the star disappeared. They were not scandalized at Christ's helplessness and poverty; nor should we be ashamed of our faith, though it be that of the lowly and the poor. Above all, if we have had the misery to temporarily leave our home in Christ by sin we must return another way, namely, by penance, and be assured that turning from Herod with all his works and pomps to join the kneelers round the crib, you will find there spiritual refreshment and heavenly peace of soul.
Brethren, there is a picture, familiar to many of you, called the Rock of Ages, which aptly sums up all I have said. In the midst of a troubled sea rises a cross of stone, with a white-robed figure clinging to it. The cross is the hand of the true Jesus, bidding time stand still. The sea is typical of time and the world, and the cross — the one thing rising superior to both, the one solid support to which humanity may cling — the cross proclaims that " this is the victory which overcometh the world — our faith,"
