happiness. In the Cross we recognize thoroughly the enormity of our
guilt and the boundless love of God."

With what love and devotion should we, then, make the sign of the
Cross! As often as we sign ourselves with the Cross we profess our
belief in the holy Trinity, and in the merciful and blessed work of the
redemption, and express our gratitude to the holy Trinity, Father, Son
and Holy Ghost. It is hard to believe that there are Christians who are
ashamed to make the sign of the Cross; and yet: there are many such
nowadays. Some act so from motives of cowardly human respect; others
because their faith is dead. But to be ashamed of the Cross means a
denial of our faith. At all times the sign of the Cross has served as a
public and solemn profession of the Christian faith. Thus did in the
days of persecution the faithful profess their belief in Christ, and
seal their profession with their blood, as the acts of the martyrs
record. When the holy Bishop Polycarp was brought before the heathen
judge, who said to him, "Deny Christ and you will be free!" Polycarp's
reply was worthy of a true Christian. "It is now over sixty years that
I have served Him, and He never did me any harm. How, then, can I deny
my beloved Master, King and Saviour?" So speaks the true Christian when
an attempt is made to make him deny his God and Redeemer. The sign of
the Cross also serves as a mark of distinction from those sects, which
centuries ago separated themselves from the mother Church and abandoned
the beautiful custom of making the sign of the Cross. It is a great
crime, then, to be ashamed of a sign which serves for our honor and
distinction. And Jesus Christ says, "For whosoever shall be ashamed of
me, and of my words, of him shall the Son of Man be ashamed, when he
shall come in his majesty, and of his father's, and of the holy angels"
(Luke ix, 26). "But whosoever shall deny me before men, I will also
deny him before my Father, who is in heaven" (Matt, x, 33). Thus does