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Legion HANDBOOK D10944_1 26/02/2014 15:53 Page 301

CHAPTER 39 CARDINAL POINTS OF THE LEGION APOSTOLATE 301
hurt on the soul of every man. Sometimes the first link in this
process is visible, when one person leads another to sin. But
visible or unseen, sin leads to sin; and likewise one sin
prevented wards off another. And similarly does not the
averting of that second sin prevent a third, and so on
unendingly until that chain gathers in the whole world and
stretches throughout all time? Is it, therefore, too much to say
that each sinner converted to a good life, will eventually
represent a goodly host marching behind him into heaven?
Accordingly, to prevent a grave sin would justify most
arduous labours — even the effort of a lifetime — for thereby
every soul will feel the glow of extra grace. It may be that the
saving of that sin will be a moment of destiny, the
inauguration of a process of uplift, which will in time transfer
a whole people from a godless life to one of virtue.

24. THE MARK OF THE CROSS IS A SIGN OF HOPE
But the chief danger of discouragement does not lie in the
resist ance — however strong — of the forces against which
the Legion finds itself arrayed. It lies in the distress which the
legionary cannot but feel when aids and circumstances, on
which he feels entitled to rely, are found wanting. Friends fail,
good people fail, one’s instru ments fail; and all whereon we
lean is traitor to our peace. O what a harvest of good could be
reaped — it seems — but for the bluntness of the sickle, but
for the deficiencies in one’s own camp, but for that cross
which crushes one!
This impatience at the narrowing down of the possible good
to souls may be a danger. It may bring the discouragement
which the hostile forces had not been able to create.
It must always be remembered that the work of the Lord
will bear the Lord’s own mark, the mark of the cross. Without
that imprint, the supernatural character of a work may be
doubted: true results will not be forthcoming. Janet Erskine-
Stuart states this principle in another way. “If you look,” she
says, “to Sacred History, Church History, and even to your
own experience which each year must add to, you will see
that God’s work is never done in ideal conditions, never as we
should have imagined or chosen.” That is to say — amazing