Page:PracticeOfChristianAndReligiousPerfectionV1.djvu/76

 which is  said  before,  is,  that  you  should  preserve  the  same fervour you  brought  with  you,  when  treading the  paths  of  virtue, you first  entered  into  religion. With what  zeal  and  resolution  did you then  begin  to  serve  God? Nothing could  then  impede  you, nothing seemed  hard;  re-assume  the  same  fervour  now,  pursue your great  affair  with  the  same  courage,  and  by  this  means  you will make  great  progress  in  virtue. This is  what  holy  men  would have us  understand  by  the  expedient  I  last  spoke  of.

St. Athanasius tells  us  that  St.  Anthony  being  desired  by  his disciples to  give  them  some  advice  concerning  their  spiritual advancement, began  his  discourse  to  them  in  these  words: " What  I  first  must  recommend  to  you  all  in  general  is,  that you  never  relent  in  that  fervour,  with  which  you  first  embraced a  religious  life;  but  that  you  still  go  on,  "always  increasing  it,  as if  you  did  but  now  begin."  (Athan.  et  Surius,  torn.  i.  p.  386.) He  repeated  the  same  advice  to  them  upon  several  other  occasions, and  the  better  to  imprint  it  in  their  minds,  when  he  was near  his  death,  enjoined  them  the  same  thing,  as  his  last  will  and testament,  in  such  pathetic  words  as  expressed  in  him  the  tenderness of  a  father.  "  As  to  me,"  says  he,  "  my  dear  children,  I  am shortly  entering  into  the  way  of  my  forefathers,  according  to  the Scripture expression;  for  our  Lord  already  calls  me  to  him,  and I have  a  longing  desire  to  see  my  heavenly  country;  but  before I go,  I  must  remind  you  of  one  thing. That if  you  will  not  lose the fruit  of  all  the  time  you  have  already  spent,  and  of  all  the pains and  hard  labour  you  have  undergone,  ever  since  you entered into  religion,  you  must  imagine  that  you  begin  only  today to  embrace  a  religious  life,  and  must  live  so,  that  the  fervour and zeal  which  you  had  at  your  first  entrance,  may  daily  increase and  acquire  new  strength."  If  therefore  you  have  a  desire to  advance  in  virtue,  bear  this  continually  in  your  mind,  and suppose  that  you  are  every  day  to  begin  anew,  and  always  to continue  the  same  fervour,  with  which  at  first  you  began,  by which  means  you  will  find  it  very  easy  to  become  a  good  religious.

St. Austin  proposes  another  means,  of  which  we  have  treated in one  of  the  preceding  chapters;  "  Forget,"  says  he,  "  all  that  is past,  and  imagine  that  every  day  you  do  but  begin." But to return  to  what  we  have  quoted  from  St.  Anthony,  which  he  was used to  explain  by  a  familiar  example,  and  said,  that  "  we  ought to  apply  with  the  same  care  and  diligence  to  God's  service,  as  a good  servant  does  to  the  concerns  of  his  master." A good  servant, though  he  has  served  his  master  many  years,  and  taken