before thee." Ah, many a penitent prodigal in the carrying out of his resolve to arise and go to his Father soon finds the way too long and arduous, and were not his angel guardian there to nourish and encourage him, he would never persevere to see God face to face on the blessed mount of paradise. Again the angel teaches his protege how best to put to flight the robber devils that beset his path, viz.; by prayer and holy meditations. The young Tobias, at the angel Raphael's bidding, placed the entrails of the fish on burning coals, and thereupon the demon that slew the seven suitors of his bride was quickly driven away. So, too, the guardian angel counsels the one committed to his care to set not his entire mind and heart on earthly things, but to expend at least a portion of them in thought on hell or on the fire of God's love, for thus the devil must be routed and his temptations met. And since Our Lord Himself has warned us that the devil once ejected is ill content unless with seven other devils viler than himself he can return and regain possession, the angel guardian instructs his client how he can best prevent his last state becoming worse than was his first. Gedeon with thirty-two thousand armed men went forth against the Madianites, but an angel of God commanded that all the weak and timid should return, and immediately twenty-two thousand soldiers laid down their arms. The angel then bade Gedeon lead the ten thousand men remaining to a stream, and watch how each should drink, " for," said he, " those men alone are fit
