26. Cry we therefore with the
spirit of charity, and until we come to the inheritance in which we
are alway to remain, let us be, through love which becometh the
free-born, not through fear which becometh bondmen, patient of
suffering. Cry we, so long as we are poor, until we be with that
inheritance made rich. Seeing how great earnest thereof we have
received, in that Christ to make us rich made Himself poor; Who
being exalted unto the riches which are above, there was sent One
Who should breathe into our hearts holy longings, the Holy Spirit.
Of these poor, as yet believing, not yet beholding; as yet hoping,
not yet enjoying; as yet sighing in desire, not yet reigning in
felicity; as yet hungering and thirsting, not yet
satisfied: of these poor, then, “the patience shall not perish
for ever:”2706
not that
there will be
patience there also, where aught to
endure shall not
be; but “will not
perish,” meaning that it will not be
unfruitful. But its fruit it will have for ever, therefore it
“shall not
perish for ever.” For he who
labors in
vain, when
his
hope fails for which he
labored, says with good cause, “I
have lost so much
labor:” but he who comes to the
promise of his
labor says, congratulating himself, I have not lost my
labor.
Labor
then is said not to
perish (or be lost), not because it lasts
perpetually, but because it is not spent in
vain. So also the
patience of the
poor of
Christ (who yet are to be made
rich as
heirs of
Christ) shall not
perish for ever: not because there also
we shall be commanded patiently to bear, but because for that which
we have here patiently borne, we shall
enjoy eternal bliss. He will
put no end to
everlasting felicity, Who giveth temporal
patience
unto the will: because both the one and the other is of Him
bestowed as a gift upon charity, Whose gift that charity is
also.
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