account of his early years to reach us, than that he was subject to his blessed mother and his reputed father. He obeyed them in all things, at all times, with cheerfulness and exactness: consequently, to imitate your adorable model in this important point, you must resolve to respect and love your parents, or those who hold their place: to submit to their authority with docility, because they are deputed by God to command you; and with confidence, because they have also received light to direct your inexperience. Remember that Jesus Christ was not less submissive to the orders of Herod, one of the most wicked of men, than he was to those of his blessed mother, the most perfect of creatures: because it was God alone whom he obeyed in all superiors. Impress this lesson on your mind, and guard against a fault so common to youth, viz., that of obeying only those who may please you, and totally forgetting that duty with regard to others. If you do not respect the authority of God in all your superiors; if you do not love God in them all, and remember that it is he who inspires your parents themselves with their tenderness towards you, and their solicitude in providing for your welfare, you can never acquire that amiable docility, which is a virtue so necessary to youth, that without it you cannot become virtuous, learned, or happy. O Jesus! my God, impress on my heart the image of thy divine childhood; thy purity, simplicity, obedience, and docility; infuse into my soul the horror thou hadst of sin, that I may dread it as the only real evil, the only obstacle to my resembling thee.
Third Point. — Consider, that the hidden life of Jesus Christ is a model which you should continually study, because it was during those years that Jesus has given
