Page:SermonsFromTheLatins.djvu/467

 of Apostles,  will  you  find  the  good  without  the wicked, and  everywhere  they  conflict,  because,  says Christ, "  The  world  loves  its  own,  but  since  you  are not  of  this  world,  therefore  does  the  world  hate  you." This, besides  being  natural,  is  a  divine  dispensation. For, above  all  things,  God  desires  His  disciples  to preserve  the  spiritual  goods  with  which  He  endows them, and  who  is  ignorant  that  virtue  is  often  lost  in prosperity  and  perfected  in  infirmity? A straight column is  stronger  the  heavier  load  it  bears,  but  the crooked gives  way  under  the  strain. Saul the  shepherd, was  an  innocent  lad;  but  Saul  the  king,  was  a villain. King David  when  deposed  and  a  miserable fugitive, could  pardon  his  would-be  assassin,  but, restored to  his  throne,  he  murdered  his  most  devoted servant. So it  ever  is;  the  lot  of  the  virtuous is affliction. The Patriarchs  were  virtuous,  and  their wandering lives  were  a  series  of  miseries,  threatened or experienced;  the  prophets  were  virtuous,  and  see the tortures  they  endured  and  the  deaths  they  died; the Apostles  were  Christ's  own,  and  St.  Paul  tells  us they  were  treated  as  the  refuse  of  this  world  and  the off-scouring of  mankind;  and  as  for  Christ  the  God of virtue — the  crucifix  is  the  history  of  His  life.

" But  the  Scriptures,"  says  St.  Peter,  "  foretell  not only  the  sufferings  that  are  in  Christ  but  the  glories that  should  follow." " I  am  with  him,"  says  the  Holy Spirit, "  in  tribulation,  I  will  deliver  him  and  glorify him." Where virtue  is  there  is  affliction;  and  where affliction is  patiently  borne,  there  are  God's  sweetest consolations. " Blessed  are  they  that  mourn,"  says