The Life of Saint Teresa

"He who loves Thee, O my God, travels safely by the open and royal road. far from the precipice; he has scarcely stumbled at all when Thou stretchest forth Thy hand to save him."-ST. TERESA. " IT was the little girl who made me do it,"pleaded Rodrigo de Cepeda, and although he did not know it, the excuse was as old as the world. The" little girl" in question was Rodrigo's seven-year-old sister Teresa, who had been seized with a burning desire for martyrdom. She wanted to see God, she passionately assured her brother, and as it was necessary to die first, martyrdom was obviously the only means to her end. Rodrigo himself had not seen the matter quite in the same light, but as Teresa was his own particular friend and playmateJ and they had always done everything together J he had considered himself bound to enter into her views. The two had set forth hand in hand at an early hour in the morning to seek the desired martyrdom in the country of the Moors, but fate had been against them. Scarcely had the children left the town of Avila when they fell into the hands of an uncle, who was returning from the country. Untouched by their tears and prayers, he promptly took them home, to the relief of the anxious mother, who was searching everywhere for the missing pair. Rodrigo's excuse has already been given. Teresa with earnest eyes repeated her assertion: " I wanted to go to God, and one cannot do that unless one dies first."