Page:Sermons by John-Baptist Massillon.djvu/219

 pleasure in  the  possession  of  all  they  enjoy:  in  a  word,  considering as  the  greatest  misfortune  the  least  interruption,  however  trifling, to  their  sensual  happiness.

Yes, my  brethren,  it  is  the  great  and  powerful  alone  who  complain;  who  continually  imagine  themselves  the  only  unhappy; who never  have  enough  of  comforters;  who,  on  the  slightest  reverse, see  assembled  around  them,  not  only  those  worldly  friends whom their  rank  and  fortune  procure,  but  likewise  all  the  pious and enlightened  ministers  of  the  gospel,  distinguished  by  the  public esteem, and  whose  holy  instructions  would,  in  general,  be  much better bestowed  on  so  many  other  unfortunate  individuals  who  are destitute of  every  worldly  resource  and  religious  assistance,  and  to whom  they  would  likewise  be  so  much  more  beneficial. But, before the  tribunal  of  Jesus  Christ,  your  afflictions  shall  be  weighed with those  of  so  many  of  your  unfortunate  fellow-creatures,  and whose misfortunes  are  so  much  the  more  dreadful  as  they  are  more hidden and  more  neglected. It will  then  be  demanded  of  you,  if it  belonged  to  you  to  complain  and  to  murmur. It will  be  demanded, if  you  were  entitled  to  lay  such  stress  upon  calamities which would  have  been  consolations  to  so  many  others:  if  it  was your business  to  murmur  so  highly  against  a  God  who  treated  you with such  indulgence,  while  his  hand  was  so  heavy  on  such  an  infinity of  unhappy  fellow-creatures:  if  they  had  less  right  to  the riches and  to  the  pleasure  of  the  earth  than  you:  if  their  soul  was less noble,  and  less  precious  before  God,  than  yours  i  in  a  word,  if they  were  either  more  criminal,  or  of  another  nature  than  you?

Alas! it is  not  only  our  own  self-love,  but  it  is  likewise  our hardness toward  our  brethren,  which  magnifies  to  us  our  own  misfortunes. Let us  enter  those  poor,  unprovided  dwellings,  where shame conceals  such  bitter  and  affecting  poverty;  let  us  view  those asylums of  public  compassion  where  every  calamity  seems  to  reign: it is  there  that  we  shall  learn  to  appreciate  our  own  afflictions:  it is  there  that,  touched  to  the  heart  with  the  excess  of  so  many  evils, we shall  blush  to  give  even  a  name  to  the  slightness  of  ours:  it  is there  that  our  murmurs  against  Heaven  shall  be  changed  into thanksgivings, and  that,  less  taken  up  with  the  slight  crosses  sent us by  the  Lord,  than  with  so  many  others  from  which  he  spareth us, we  shall  begin  to  dread  his  indulgence,  far  from  complaining  of his  severity. My God! how awful  shall  be  the  judgment  of  the great and  the  mighty,  since,  besides  the  inevitable  abuse  of  their prosperity, the  afflictions,  which  ought  to  have  sanctified  its  use  and expiated its  abuses,  shall  become  themselves  their  greatest  crimes!

But how  employ  afflictions  in  sanctifying  the  dangers  of  their station, or  in  working  out  salvation,  since  they  seem  to  cast  such invincible obstacles  in  their  way? This is  the  last  pretext  drawn from the  incompatibility  which  afflictions  seem  to  have  with  our salvation.

Part III. — It is  very  surprising,  that  the  corruption  of  the  human heart  finds,  even  in  sufferances,  obstacles  to  salvation,  and