XV.

AN EVENING VISIT.

Stay with us, because it is towards evening.--_Luke_ xxiv. 29.

It is at night especially that the shepherd looks well to his sheep. Good Shepherd, I gather round You to-night the sheep of Your world-wide flock and commit them to Your keeping. Wherever they are to be found, there are You in the midst of them. In crowded cities--the guardian of the multitudes sleeping around You on every side. In the one spot of the quiet village where a light will burn to-night--the Keeper of the simple souls around You there. In many a hut the wide world over--content among savage tribes to share the poor shelter of Your priest. Everywhere warding off the prowling wolf and the evil that walketh in the dark.[48] With us not only all days, but all nights unto the end of time.

_Stay with us_, Lord, to-night. Stay to adore, and praise, and give thanks for us whilst we sleep; to draw down mercy and grace upon the world; to succour from earth’s tabernacles the holy suffering souls in purgatory in their long night of weary pain.

_Stay with us_, to ward off the anger of God from our crowded cities with their dens of vice, their crimes that call to Heaven for vengeance.

_Stay with us_, to guard the innocent, to sustain the tempted, to raise the fallen, to curb the power of the evil one, to prevent sin.

_Stay with us_, to comfort the sorrowing, to bless the death-beds, to grant contrition to the dying, to receive into the arms of Your mercy the thousands that this night must come before You for judgment. O Good Shepherd, stay with Your sheep! Secure them against the perils that beset them. Stay, above all, with the suffering and the dying. “Grant us a quiet night and a perfect end.” Be our merciful Shepherd to the last, that without fear we may appear before You as our Judge.

_Stay with us, Lord, to-night._ More favoured than the camp of Israel slumbering under the guardianship of the pillar of fire, we sleep with the Presence of God Incarnate shielding us on every side. Well may we say: “In peace, in the self same, I will sleep and I will rest”.

* * * * *

“Vouchsafe, O Lord, this night to keep us without sin.”

I map out the whole world into districts, and place each under the jurisdiction of the nearest tabernacle. From that centre let the radiance of the Divine protection go forth to every soul within its circuit, enlightening, guarding--above all, strengthening against sin. O Lord, from every tabernacle send forth to-night a strong efficacious grace, to stop not one but a thousand sins. Because we have made the Most High our refuge,[49] let no evil come near to hurt us. “Save us, O Lord, waking, and keep us while we sleep, that we may watch with Christ and rest in peace.”

[48] Psa. xc.

[49] Psa. xc.