Rensselaer Republican, Volume 13, Number 24, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 3 March 1881 — The Way of the Werlds. [ARTICLE]

The Way of the Werlds.

Ifthfoh nots perfectly true story, it ought to be, for It has lo do with a nubieet or region coneeming which the Catholic clergy claim great exactitude of knowledge, and it was told at an English dinner p-rty, where were gathered some famous • people, by a jaudsome Irish priest, in a voice to wile the bird off the bush. Sister Marv Placida died after a life of such fervent faith and good works, and such surpassing personal sanctity, that, without a moment’s delay, she was sent straight to heaven. ing .is gate, she found it closed, but hear t within a sound as of some one marching up and down close at hand, and clanking heavy k<*y« as he went. The nun knocked timidly. “Who’s there?” growled a gruff voice. ' . x.. “It’s only me, sir,” returned the little sister. “And who’s ‘me’?” “Sister Mary Placida, from the Nazareth convent.” - “Ah! Bister Mary Placida, you’re expected!’ Walk in! and the doors were riung wide open, and the nun saw St Peter 1 eckoning her forward tn the most impetuous way. Hut she saw nobody else, and nothing extraordinary, as she had fancied even Heaven’s ante-chamber must be. “Where shall I go?" she asked anxiously,' “Oh, anywhere you like. Make yourself entirely at home!” replied St.Teter, resuming his sentinel march. But the poor nun, frightened out of her life by finding herself really safe in Heaven, and a little upset, too, with the bald character of her reception there shrank back into a niche in the wall near the gate and watched St. Peter. Presently another knock was heard at the door—a knock as from one ofDahte’s “certain people of importance.” and different indeed from that given by the sister’s trembling little hand. "Who is it?” again bluffly demanded St. Peter. ■ “X John, archbishop of— !” was the answer; and then the sister knew die resounding knock had been given by the head oi a crosier, and that the suppliant for admission was a mighty prelate whom meu had reckoned as noly as he was powerful. Sc. Peter did not instantly open the door. Instead, be made vehement signals toward some distant heights, and soon came a great rushing-of wings, and, behold! a troop of angels, blowing silver trumpets, waving palm branches, and filling the air with alleluias, and the chant: Justus at palma rtorebit-. ticut cednu Libani multiplicabitur: plantatim in domo Domini, in atriit domut Dei nottri. Then St. Peter unfastened the gate* and tlie joyjul host of angels ana saints bore off the archbishop, and the poor little nun was left unnoticed in ner niche. Her heart swelled. Was this the heaven she had worked for, hoped for, lived a life of martyrdom for ? *

She approached St. Peter, for bluff as he was he looked benignant, too. . “Holy Father St. Peter,” she began, “may I ask you a question?” “Surely, my daughter, a dozen of them," “Holy father, I have a trouble, and would‘know if it is a wicked temptation.” “Say on, my child.” “Holy father, are there distinctions in.heaven as upon earth? Now, lam only a simple nun, but all my life upon earth I strove, in my obscurity, for heaven. I hid myself, died to myself, as far as I was able. I did the little humble things, careless that no one knew or reckoned, so sure was I our Lord would remember, and heaven would pay all that earth cost. “In the world I was the last and least of creatures; hut thou knowest K holy father, I was adjudged, by God’s great mercy, fit to come .hither without passing through pergatory; yet here noltody came to meet me, iiobody noticed me. When the .Archbishop came you summoned a choir of angels and crowds of saints, and what a welcome he had! Is it to be here as on earth—the congratulations, the splendors, the acclamations for great and lofty ones, and no place, no thought, no greeting for the humble server who has toiled to the limit of her measure?" “I will tell you how it is,, dear child,” said St. Peter. “The truth is that such as you are no strangers here. Heaven belongs to you and is full of you, and we take your coining as a matter of course. But an Aichbishop! We so seldom get one of them that ’tis no wonder we make a fuss!"