d him
with unconquerable disgust, he gladly ministered to the lepers, in the
hope that, by so doing, he might impart to them the infinite
consolations of the Cross. Worn as he soon became, he set out to tramp
from land to land in order that he might proclaim through Europe and
Asia the matchless message of the Cross. In his walks through the lonely
woods he loved to proclaim to the very birds the story of the Cross. It
is another link with Bunyan. Bunyan felt that he should like to tell the
crows on the ploughed fields the story of his soul's salvation; but
Francis actually did it. He would sit down in the forest: wait until the
oaks and beeches and elms about him were filled with sparrows and
finches and wrens; and then tell of the dying love of Him who made them.
And, as they flew away, he loved to fancy that they formed themselves
into a cross-shaped cloud above him, and that the songs that they sang
were the rapt expression of their adoring worship. In his long
journeyings he was often compelled to subsist on roots and nuts and
berries. Meeting a kindred spirit in the woods he one day suggested that
they should commune together. His companion looked about him in
bewilderment. But Francis pointed to a rock. 'See!' he said, 'the rock
shall be our altar; the berries shall be our bread; the water in the
hollow of the rock shall be our wine!' It took very little to turn the
thoughts of Francis to the Cross; he easily lifted his soul into
communion with the Crucified. Whenever and wherever Francis opened his
lips, the Cross was always his theme. 'He poured into my heart the
sweetness of Christ!' said his most eminent convert, and thousands could
have said the same. Feeling the magnitude of his task and the meagerness
of his powers, he called upon his converts to assist him, and sent them
out, two by two, to tell of the ineffable grace of the Cross. In
humanness and common sense he founded his famous Order. His followers
were to respect domestic ties; they were to regard all work as
honorable, and to return an equivalent in labor for all that they
received. They were to husband their own powers; to regard their bodies
as sacred, and on no account to exhaust their energies in needless
vigils and fastings. The grey friars soon became familiar figures in
every town in Europe. They endured every conceivable privation and dared
every form of danger in order that, like their founder, they might tell
of the deathless love of the C