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 "What things  soever  were  written,  were  written for  our  instruction,  that  through  patience  and  the consolation  of  the  Scriptures,  we  might  have  hope unto  life  everlasting." Patience and  consolation; patience and  consolation — patience  in  bearing  with others, and  the  consolation  of  having  others  bear  patiently with  us,  so  that  reading  the  Scriptures  with faith, we  learn  mutual  charity  and  so  hope  unto  life everlasting. But, "  patience  and  consolation  "  have here a  still  deeper  meaning. They give  us  the  double secret of  Christian  resignation  taught  in  the  Bible from Genesis  to  the  Apocalypse  and  embodied  first in St.  Paul's  words:  "  All  that  wish  to  live  piously  in Christ  must  suffer  persecution,"  and  secondly  in  the words of  the  Psalmist:  "I  am  with  him  in  tribulation, I  will  deliver  him  and  I  will  glorify  him." No cross, no  crown;  through  a  gloomy  Good  Friday must we  go  to  a  glorious  Easter  Day,  for  every  true disciple must  take  up  his  cross  and  follow  the  Master. Nay, the  more  holy  one  is,  the  more  tribulation  he experiences,  for  Christ  says:  "  The  branch  that  bears fruit  I  will  prune,  that  it  may  bear  fruit  the  more." Through many  tribulations  men  enter  into  the  kingdom of  heaven. And why? First, because  man  wills it, and  secondly,  because  God  ordains  it. The good and the  bad  in  this  world  are  like  fire  and  water. You plunge  a  live  coal  into  water — the  temperature of the  water  is  raised  and  the  coal  is  extinguished. So, too,  the  brighter  virtue  shines  in  this  world,  the hotter grows  the  angry  persecution  of  the  wicked  to dim  its  lustre. No where,  not  even  in  the  little  band