Page:Readings in European History Vol 1.djvu/123

 The Monks and the Conversion of tJie Germans 87 God ! What would you, brother, in the world, you that are greater than the world? How long are the shades of roofs to oppress you? How long the dungeon of a city's smoke ? Believe me, I see more of light ! How refreshing to cast off the things that oppress the body and fly away into the pure sparkling ether ! Do you fear poverty ? Christ called the poor " blessed." Are you terrified at labor? No athlete without sweat is crowned. Do you think of food? Faith fears not hunger. Do you dread the naked ground for limbs consumed with fasts ? The Lord lies with you. Does the thought of unkempt locks disturb you? Your head is Christ. Does the infinite vastness of the desert affright you? In the mind walk abroad in Paradise. So often as you do this there will be no desert. Does your skin roughen without baths? Who is once washed in Christ needs not to wash again. In a word, hear the apostle as he answers: "The sufferings of the present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us ! " You are too pleasure-loving, brother, if you wish to rejoice in this world and hereafter to reign with Christ! The spirit of rigorous mpnasticism is admirably ex- pressed by a monk of the sixteenth century, as follows : First of all, carefully excite in yourself an habitual affec- tionate will in all things to imitate Jesus Christ. If any- thing agreeable offers itself to your senses, yet does not at the same time tend purely to the honor and glory of God, renounce it and separate yourself from it for the love of Christ, who all his life long had no other taste or wish than to do the will of his Father, whom he called his meat and nourishment. For example, you take satisfaction in hearing of things in which the glory of God bears no part. Deny yourself this satisfaction : mortify your wish to listen. You take pleasure in seeing objects which do not raise your mind to God: refuse yourself this pleasure, and turn away your eyes. The same with conversations and all other things. 33. The practice of monasticism as described by a Spanish monk of the sixteenth century.