?

C. The entrance into the Church of the redeemed by baptism.

F. What does our Catechism say about this?

C. That it is our being "called to a state of salvation."

F. What are the gifts bestowed upon them?

C. God's word is the book of light; conscience enlightened by God is the
little lamp of each; the oil in the golden vial is the help and teaching
of God's grace; and the staff is the help and assistance of the Church.

F. Why was it so easy to get out of the path, and so hard to get back?

C. Because it is easy to go wrong, and very hard to return into the way
of righteousness.

F. What were the baits which the phantom offered to the youths?

C. The pleasures of sin, which are but for a season.

F. Why was the staff rough to those that were coming back from
wandering?

C. Because the discipline of the Church, which is easy to the obedient,
is often galling to those who offend.

F. Why was Irrgeist, after he was brought back, still so sad a pilgrim?

C. Because, though he was accepted and forgiven, the effects of his
former sins still weakened and grieved him: as says the Lord, by the
mouth of the Prophet Ezekiel (chap. xvi. ver. 63), "That thou mayest
remember, and be confounded, and never open thy mouth any more because of
thy shame, when I am pacified toward thee for all that thou hast done,
saith the Lord God."

The Little Wanderers.

In a miserable little hovel, built on the edge of a wide and desolate
common, lived a poor widow woman, who had two sons. The eldest of them
was quite young, and the least was scarcely more than an infant. They
were dressed in torn and dirty rags, for the widow had no better clothes
to put upon them; and often they were very hungry and very cold, for she
had not food or fire with which to feed and warm them. No one taught the
biggest boy any thing; and as for the poor mother, she did not know a
letter. She had no friends; and the only playfellows the little ones
ever knew were other children as poor, and as dirty, and as untaught as
they were themselves, from whom they learnt nothing but to say bad words
and do naughty tricks. Poor children! it was a sad life, you would say,
which lay before them.

Just at this time the widow was taken very ill with a fever. Long she
lay in that desolate hut, groaning and suffering, and no one knew how ill
she was but the little children. They would sit and cry by her miserable
bed all day, for they w