Page:Thecompleteascet01grimuoft.djvu/96

 ment; "But  if  you  have  said  it  is  sufficient,  you  have perished." ' If  you  have  said  that  you  have  already attained sufficient  perfection,  you  are  lost;  for  not  to advance  in  the  way  of  God  is  to  retrograde. And, as St.  Bernard  says,  "Not  to  wish  to  go  forward,  is  certainly to  fail." Hence St.  John  Chrysostom  exhorts  us  to think  continually  on  the  virtues  which  we  do  not possess, and  never  to  reflect  on  the  little  good  which we have  done;  for  the  thought  of  our  good  works "generates indolence  and  inspires  arrogance,"  and serves only  to  engender  sloth  in  the  way  of  the  Lord, and to  swell  the  heart  with  vain-glory,  which  exposes the soul  to  the  danger  of  losing  the  virtues  she  has acquired. "He that  runs,"  continues  the  saint,  "does not  compute  the  progress  he  has  made,  but  the  distance he  has  to  travel." He that  aspires  after  perfection does not  stop  to  calculate  the  proficiency  he  has  made, but directs  all  his  attention  to  the  virtue  he  has  still  to acquire. Fervent Christians,  as  they  that  dig  a  treasure, advance  in  virtue  as  they  approach  the  end  of  life. As St.  Gregory  says,  in  his  comment  on  this  passage  of Job,  that  the  man  who  seeks  a  treasure,  the  deeper  he has  dug  the  more  he  exerts  himself  in  the  hope  of  finding it;  so  the  soul  that  pants  after  holiness  multiplies its efforts  to  attain  it  in  proportion  to  the  advancement it has  made.

IV. The fourth  means  is  that  which  St. Bernard employed to  excite  his  fervor. " He  had,"  says  Surius, " this  always  in  his  heart,  and  frequently  in  his  mouth: