Page:Anecdotescatechi00spiruoft.djvu/53

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fellow-servant answered: “ My Master is not gone away; He looks down on me from heaven." While the unbeliever idled away his time, the Christian went on with his work industriously. Hence we see that religion makes a man conscientious. The following remark of a modern author is very true: ‘‘The most elaborate system of police is no substitute for the simple catechism taught in our schools.”

Q. Does God see us?

A. God sees us and watches over us.

The Rescue of Two Fugitives

Many singular occurrences in the life of devout persons afford indisputable proof of the operation of Divine Providence. St. Jerome relates the following remarkable incident in the life of a hermit, which he heard from the lips of the hermit in question, whose name was Malchus. This man asked and obtained permission from his superior to visit his aged mother, who lay at the point of death. On the way to the place where she lived, he was attacked by robbers (Saracens), taken prisoner, and sold to an Arab as a slave. Luckily for him he had a fellow-slave who was also a Christian and a good, pious man. The two slaves were cruelly treated and had hard, toilsome work laid upon them. They therefore were desirous of regaining their liberty by flight. One day, a favorable opportunity having presented itself, they took advantage of it to make their escape, and actually succeeded in reaching the desert without their absence being perceived. They had already gone a con-