play to their eyes ? What criterion have they to examine the conduct of the emissaries or agents of the Americans, other than the memory of having been often duped and robbed by them ? " Father De Smet was guided in his apostolate by very different-motives; his views were supernatural.' How many times have I heard him utter this wish: "Oh! how I'should'like to pass my life and end it, among our dear Indians !"
When he felt his end at hand, one of his greatest consolations as to think of the many little children whom he had regenerated in the holy waters of baptism, and whose prayers would, at the supreme moment, be of such great aid to him. ' He had also the greatest trust in the merits of the adult savages who had persevered in their faith, and who would be praying for him also. When I saw Father De Smet last, on Wednesday, the 2ist of May, two days before his death, I found him full of courage and hope. He said to me, " I have served the gond God for many years ; I am going to come before him pretty soon, and my heart is very full of confidence and of real consolation. I have the greatest hope," he said further, " in the efficacy of the prayers of ail those to whom the Lord has sent me in times past ; I count especially on the merits of Jesus Christ, poor sinner that I am, and I love to think that the Lord will have pity on me in the hour of my agony." - Tell me, my brethren,, could a man who had passed fifty years of his life in crime, and in whom remorse for his sins had inspired the deepest repentance, have spoken of himself with greater humility and contrition? Forgetting his stern toil and his incontestable merits, the good Father thought only of turning lovingly toward the infinite satisfactions of Jesus Christ, and of reposing upon the Lord's inexhaustible mercy. Such should be the sentiments of every true Christian. The more nearly we approach God by the exercise of virtues, the more also we become convinced of our own infirmity or weakness ; the more too does our conscience become enlightened and delicate, and the more do