Bad Advertisement?
Are you a Christian?
Online Store:Visit Our Store
| To the Virgins of Æmona.
PREVIOUS SECTION - NEXT SECTION - HELP 
Letter XI. To the Virgins of Æmona.
Æmona was a Roman colony not far from Stridon,
Jerome’s birthplace. The virgins to whom the note is addressed
had omitted to answer his letters, and he now writes to upbraid them
for their remissness. The date of the letter is 374 a.d.
This scanty sheet of paper shows in what a wilderness I
live, and because of it I have to say much in few words. For, desirous
though I am to speak to you more fully, this miserable scrap compels me
to leave much unsaid. Still ingenuity makes up for lack of means, and
by writing small I can say a great deal. Observe, I beseech you, how I
love you, even in the midst of my difficulties, since even the want of
materials does not stop me from writing to you.
Pardon, I beseech you, an aggrieved man: if I speak in
tears and in anger it is because I have been injured. For in return for
my regular letters you have not sent me a single syllable. Light, I
know, has no communion with darkness,142
and
God’s handmaidens no fellowship with a sinner, yet a harlot was
allowed to wash the Lord’s feet with her tears,143
and dogs are permitted to eat of their
masters’ crumbs.144
It was the
Saviour’s mission to call sinners and not the righteous; for, as
He said Himself, “they that be whole need not a
physician.”145
He wills the
repentance of a sinner rather than his death,146
and
carries home the poor stray sheep on His own shoulders.147
So, too, when the prodigal son returns,
his father receives him with joy.148
Nay more,
the apostle says: “Judge nothing before the time.”149
For “who art thou that judgest
another man’s servant? To his own master he standeth or
falleth.”150
And “let him
that standeth take heed lest he fall.”151
“Bear ye one another’s burdens.”152
Dear sisters, man’s envy judges in one way, Christ
in another; and the whisper of a corner is not the same as the sentence
of His tribunal. Many ways seem right to men which are afterwards found
to be wrong.153
And a treasure is often stowed in
earthen vessels.154
Peter thrice denied
his Lord, yet his bitter tears restored him to his place. “To
whom much is forgiven, the same loveth much.”155
No word is said of the flock as a whole, yet the angels joy in heaven
over the safety of one sick ewe.156
And if any one
demurs to this reasoning, the Lord Himself has said: “Friend, is
thine eye evil because I am good?”157
E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
|
