homesickness is, but their longing was not for creatures, for earthly goods and possessions. They longed for the heavenly country, the land of everlasting joy, of peace and blessedness, the home of the saints; they longed for that heavenly fatherland, concerning which the Apostle writes : " Eye hath not seen nor ear heard, neither hath it entered into the heart of man, what things God hath prepared for them that love Him!" Their longing for heaven was so ardent, that they awaited with holy impatience the hour of their death.
God does not require of us that we should feel homesickness of such a kind as this, but what He does require of all men, and especially cf the young, therefore of you, my youthful reader, is that we should love Him and serve Him faithfully. I say that God expects this from young people more especially, since Holy Scripture thus exhorts them, "Remember thy Creator in the days of thy youth." Wherefore love God and serve Him faithfully in the bright days of youth.
2. It was a blessed, a golden day when your pious sponsors, full of joyous hopes, brought you back from the baptismal font to your parents' house. From that hour, warmed by the sun of divine grace, you grew like a lily among thorns; indeed you knew nothing of the thorns of evil, in the blissful ignorance of your childish innocence. Your soul was like an untarnished mirror; your
