While he was teaching in Paris, he became acquainted with St. Ignatius of Loyola, the founder of the Society of Jesus.

St. Xavier joined him, and he was sent, at the request of the king of Portugal, to the East Indies, to reform the Christians settled there in the Portuguese possessions, and convert the infidels to Christianity.

He labored to the end of his life at Goa, Socotra, Malacca, Ceylon, and on some of the islands of the Japanese empire, and with such success that he converted millions to the true faith.

He performed countless miracles, which were well attested.

He was the greatest missionary that has lived since the time of the apostles. Before his time, St. Columbanus, the Irish missionary of the sixth century, and St. Dominic, the Spanish missionary of the thirteenth century, had converted millions in Europe from sin and error.

But no one since the days of St. Paul had brought into the church such a

multitude of pagans as St. Xavier. He baptized one million infidels with his own hand, and converted fifty-two kings to the gospel of Christ.

He was a man of wonderful zeal and piety. Although distinguished for his learning, he loved to teach Catechism, and instruct little children and the poor and ignorant in the doctrines of our Lord.

St. Francis Xavier died on a little barren island off the coast of China in 1552.

He was declared a saint by Pope Gregory XV. in 1622, and since that time, many colleges and churches throughout the world have been named after him.

This shows that the fame of the saint is often greater than that of the statesman or of the warrior.

Every church named after a saint is a monument erected in his honor. A saint's memory is ever green and loved; but not so the memory of the great ones of the world.

So eō'trä

Ma lǎe'ea

Çey lon'

trībe

LESSON XXXVI.

sense

wind

pu på

lär vå

a eūte

sta'geş

hatched (cht)

în těl'li gençe

are small in

sects, the largest being

not more than a half an inch in length.

They can carry loads ten times their own weight. Their sense of smell is very acute, and they are both brave and busy.

Ants live in societies, made up of two classes the king and queen ants, and the workers. The first are few in number. They have delicate glistening wings, and the queen is the larger.

The workers are smaller in size, are wingless, and are made up, also, of two classes: workers and soldiers.

The workers do the building, keep house, gather food, and nurse the young. The duty of the soldier is to defend his own society, and to go to war upon other tribes.

There are three stages in the babyhood of an ant: first, the egg; second, the larva, or worm; and third, the pupa, or cocoon.

Through all these stages, the young insect receives the greatest care; not from its mother, but from the slave

nurse.

The nurse seizes the eggs as soon as they are laid, moistens them with her tongue, and carries them to a safe place.

The larva and the pupa are the small white objects, which one sees the workers carrying away in great haste, whenever a nest of ants has been disturbed. Most people think that they are grains of wheat.

The eggs are hatched in a few days, and then the young larvæ take even more of the nurse's care.

She feeds them from her own mouth, washes them often with her tongue, and, every morning, if the day is fine, she carries them out into the air and sunlight. At sunset, also, if the day is cold or wet, she takes them back in again.

She is also ever at hand to help them, when, as real ants, they are ready to come out of their cocoons.

In the system with which they carry out their duties day by day, in the intelligence which seems to guide all their actions, ants are among the most wonderful of God's creatures.