ifted up, as on another cross, before the eyes
of Umbria, before all Italy, warlike and wily, priest and baron,
peasant and Pope. In this world Francis knew nothing, acknowledged
nothing, cared for nothing save Christ and Him crucified--except,
indeed, Christ's world, the universe redeemed, the souls to be
saved, the poor to be comforted, the friends to be cherished, the
singing birds and bubbling fountains, the fair earth and the sweet
sky. Courteous, tender, and gentle as any paladin, sweet-tongued
and harmonious as any poet, liberal as any prince, was the
barefooted beggar and herald of God. We ask no visionary reverence
for the Stigmata, no wondering belief in any miracle. As he stood,
he was as great a miracle as any then existing under God's
abundant, miraculous heavens; more wonderful than are the day and
night, the sun and the dew; only less wonderful than that great
Love which saves the world, and which it was his aim and destiny to
reflect and show forth."

That mystic union to which all the ages attest, the union that may, at
any moment, be formed between the soul and God, that mystery which the
church calls conversion and which finds its perfect interpretation in
the words of St. Paul, when he said, that if any man be in Christ he is
a new creation, had been accomplished in the life of Francis. He
realized the fulness of the knowledge of God's will; he longed only for
wisdom and for spiritual understanding. Nor is this experience one to be
relegated to the realm of miracle. It is simply entering into the
supreme completeness of life. It is not alone St. Paul, but every man,
who may truly say, "I can do all things through Christ, who
strengtheneth me." Nor does this experience, when translated aright into
daily life and action, require any abnormal form of expression. It does
not, in its truest significance, mean a life apart from the ordinary
duties, but rather it means that these duties shall be fulfilled in the
larger and nobler way. The exceptional man may be called to be the
standard bearer; to renounce all domestic ties and give his service to
the world; but such a life as this differs only in degree from that
which in the ordinary home and social relations finds ample means for
its best expression. The persistent aim after perfection should be the
keynote of every life. No one should be satisfied to hold as his
supreme ideal any