Bruté, Father Simon, Care of Doctor Chatard, Emmitsburg, Maryland, 1821?, 1st Sunday in Advent

Bruté asks William whether it displeases him if, while her Mrs. Seton's dear voice is silent, he writes them in her name "the word which from this day was so pleasingly kept on here by all you love." Christmas time is coming again. What a time Anna Rebecca and Mother had for themselves united for many years, now parted! William, Dick, and Joe were also united for a time. They are gone to the "face to face." They we are left to the mystery "yet a little while." Christmas and Eternity are words that come to William from the little woods after his long absence. Providence returns him safe but Absolute will does not return the voice and sight of his mother to him. Bruté asks William to forgive him for these sad memories. Eternity was her Mrs. Seton's only thought. Now she has it. William should keep it this letter? as a sacred inheritance as if she herself had written it. Today the religious year begins again. He began in his last sermon to the people of Emmitsburg by asking them three questions that he may also put to himself. They are, "What to say," "I believe Everlasting life? Should we think in earnest about it?--and how should we prepare for it?" the first has immense meaning. The second is contested only by the fool, though many who would not deny it forget it. Some say it is not in our present nature to think of its spiritual reality beyond the sensible. Then, it is not in our nature to resist sin. But we are obliged to resist a corrupt sinful nature and a forgetful earthly-minded one. The answer to the third is to seek and obey grace to "its full and sincere extent." He asks William not to be too displeased with him. He ends with a drawing of a fenced-in plot of graves. The second from the right is surmounted by a cross. :: II-1-a A.L. 1p. 8vo., 2