Page:Sermons by John-Baptist Massillon.djvu/198

 perience, have  happened  in  all  ages;  the  calamities  we  behold  are not unexampled;  our  forefathers  have  witnessed  them,  and  even much more  melancholy  and  dreadful:  civil  dissensions,  the  father armed against  the  child,  the  brother  against  brother,  countries ravaged and  laid  waste  by  their  own  inhabitants,  the  kingdom  a prey  to  foreign  enemies,  no  person  in  safety  under  his  own  roof: we see  not  these  miseries;  but  have  they  seen  what  we  witness — so many  public  and  concealed  miseries,  so  many  families  worn  out,  so many  citizens,  formerly  distinguished,  now  low  in  the  dust,  and confounded with  the  meanest  of  the  people? Arts become  almost useless? The image  of  hunger  and  death  spread  over  the  cities and over  the  fields? What shall  I  say? — so many  hidden  iniquities brought  every  day  to  light,  the  dreadful  consequences  of  despair and  horrible  necessity? Whence comes  this,  my  brethren? Is it  not  from  a  luxury  unknown  to  our  fathers,  and  which  engluts every thing? From your  expenses  which  know  no  bounds  and which necessarily  drag  along  with  them  the  extinction  of  charity?

Ah! was the  primitive  church  not  persecuted,  desolated,  and afflicted? Do the  calamities  of  our  age  bear  any  comparison  with the horrors  of  those  times? Proscription of  property,  exilement and imprisonment  were  then  daily;  the  most  burdensome  charges of the  state  fell  upon  those  who  were  suspected  of  Christianity:  in a  word,  so  many  calamities  were  never  beheld;  and,  nevertheless, there was  no  poor  among  them,  says  St. Luke, nor  any  that  lacked. Ah! it is,  because  riches  of  simplicity  sprung  up,  even  from  their poverty itself,  according  to  the  expression  of  the  apostle;  it  is, because they  gave  according  to  their  means,  and  even  beyond  them; it is,  because  the  most  distant  provinces,  through  the  care  of  the apostolic ministers,  flowed  streams  of  charity,  for  the  consolation of their  afflicted  brethren  in  Jerusalem,  more  exposed  than  the  rest to the  rage  and  hatred  of  the  synagogue.

But more  than  all  that;  it  is,  because  the  most  powerful  of  the primitive believers  were  adorned  with  modesty;  and  that  our  great riches are  now  scarcely  sufficient  to  support  that  monstrous  luxury, of which  custom  has  made  a  law  to  us;  it  is,  that  their  festivals were repasts  of  sobriety  and  charity;  and  that  the  holy  abstinence itself, which  we  celebrated,  cannot  moderate  among  us  the  profusions and  the  excesses  of  the  table,  and  of  feasts;  it  is,  that,  having no fixed  city  here  below,  they  did  not  exhaust  themselves  in  forming brilliant  establishments,  in  order  to  render  their  names  illustrious, to  exalt  their  posterity,  and  to  ennoble  their  own  obscurity and meanness;  they  thought  only  of  securing  to  themselves  a  better establishment in  the  celestial  country;  and  that  at  present  no  one is contented  with  his  station;  every  one  wishes  to  mount  higher than his  ancestors:  and  that  their  patrimony  is  only  employed  in buying  titles  and  dignities,  which  may  obliterate  their  name  and the meanness  of  their  origin:  in  a  word,  it  is  because  the  frugality of these  first  believers  constituted  the  whole  wealth  of  their  afflicted brethren, and  that  at  present  our  profusions  occasion  all  their poverty and  want. It is  our  excesses,  then,  my  brethren,  and  our