ning any injurious thought or suspicion, whatever
certainty our conjectures or our senses may seem to rely on; and as
guarded in our tongue! We commit these faults only because in our hearts
we are devoid of that true charity and simplicity, whereof St. Joseph
sets us so eminent an example on this occasion.

In the next place we may admire in secret contemplation, with what
devotion, respect, and tenderness, he beheld and adored the first of all
men, the new-born Saviour of the world, and with what fidelity he
acquitted himself of his double charge, the education of Jesus, and the
guardianship of his blessed mother. "He was truly the faithful and
prudent servant," says St. Bernard,[2] "whom our Lord appointed the
master of his household, the comfort and support of his mother, his
fosterfather, and most faithful co-operator to the execution of his
deepest counsels on earth." "What a happiness," {621} says the same
father, "not only to see Jesus Christ, but also to hear him, to carry
him in his arms, to lead him from place to place, to embrace and caress
him, to feed him, and to be privy to all the great secrets which were
concealed from the princes of this world!"

"O astonishing elevation! O unparalleled dignity!" cries out the pious
Gerson,[3] in a devout address to St. Joseph, "that the mother of God,
queen of heaven, should call you her lord; that God himself, made man,
should call you father, and obey your commands. O glorious Triad on
earth, Jesus, Mary, Joseph, how dear a family to the glorious Trinity in
heaven, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost! Nothing is on earth so great, so
good, so excellent." Amidst these his extraordinary graces, what more
wonderful than his humility! He conceals his privileges, lives as the
most obscure of men, publishes nothing of God's great mysteries, makes
no further inquiries into them, leaving it to God to manifest them at
his own time, seeks to fulfil the order of providence in his regard,
without interfering with any thing but what concerns himself. Though
descended from the royal family which had long been in possession of the
throne of Judaea, he is content with his condition, that of a mechanic
or handicraftsman,[4] and makes it his business, by laboring in it, to
maintain himself, his spouse, and the divine Child.

We should be ungrateful to this great saint, if we did not remember that
it is to him, as the instrument under God, that we are indebted for the
preservation of the in