th
many of his most cherished plans, so a few days later, when Francis
asked him for the rule again, he said that he had lost it. Francis
answered never a word. He returned to the same solitude with the same
companions, and dictated the Rule a second time. This Rule has been
handed down to us intact. It is very largely an application of those
first verses of the Gospel which were to Francis his call to his
life-work. It is remarkable for its clearness. If any Brother
transgressed this Rule, he did it with his eyes open, and knew what he
was doing too. There is no sign of any laxity in it. As Francis
advanced in years, he became more and more strongly attached to that
simplicity of faith and work which was the light of all his life.

At the next Chapter a copy of the Rule was given to all the Brethren.
They were told to carry it about with them always, and learn it by
heart, and repeat it often to themselves.

[Sidenote: _Keeping Christmas._]

It was drawing near Christmas time when this Rule was finally passed
by the Church, and as Francis was in Rome just then he determined to
put in practice an idea which long had been simmering in his brain. It
was an innovation, but then he was convinced that it would make men
think more deeply of the Holy Baby that was born to bring peace and
goodwill to earth. Accordingly, he sent the following message to a
nobleman named John, who was devotedly attached to Francis:--

"I wish to keep Christmas night with you, and, if you agree, this is
how we will celebrate it. You will choose a place in your woods, a
grotto if there is one, you will put in it a manger and hay: there
must be an ox and an ass also. It must as much as possible be like the
manger at Bethlehem."

All was prepared, and when Christmas night came an immense multitude,
carrying torches and lighted tapers, poured through the dark, midnight
woods to the grotto. The Brethren sang carols as they came, and these
were caught up by the people till the forest resounded again and
again. Francis himself led this mighty procession to the manger, and
there, standing at its head, the oxen and asses pressing close beside
him, and the flaring torches lighting up the whole with an unearthly
lurid light, he preached to them about the meek and lowly Jesus, Who
came to earth to be despised, persecuted, and put to death. It was a
time of much blessing, and that night saw a dawning of "peace and
goodwill" in souls once darkened and lif