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| Chapter XXV. Of the good which an attack of temptation brings about.
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Chapter XXV.
Of the good which an attack of temptation brings
about.
And so by the struggle with
temptation the kindly grace of the Saviour bestows on us larger rewards
of praise than if it had taken away from us all need of conflict. For
it is a mark of a loftier and grander virtue to remain ever unmoved
when hemmed in by persecutions and trials, and to stand faithfully and
courageously at the ramparts of God, and in the attacks of men, girt as
it were with the arms of unconquered virtue, to triumph gloriously over
impatience and somehow to gain strength out of weakness, for
“strength is made perfect in weakness.” “For behold I
have made thee.” saith the Lord, “a pillar of iron and a
wall of brass, over all the land, to the kings of Judah, and the
princes and the
priests
thereof, and all the people of the land. And they shall fight against
thee and shall not prevail: for I am with thee to deliver thee, saith
the Lord.”2344
Therefore
according to the plain teaching of the Lord the king’s highway is
easy and smooth, though it may be felt as hard and rough: for those who
piously and faithfully serve Him, when they have taken upon them the
yoke of the Lord, and have learnt of Him, that He is meek and lowly of
heart, at once somehow or other lay aside the burden of earthly
passions, and find no labour but rest for their souls, by the gift of
the Lord, as He Himself testifies by Jeremiah the prophet, saying:
“Stand ye on the ways and see, and ask for the old paths, which
is the good way, and walk ye in it: and you shall find refreshment for
your souls.” For to them at once “the crooked shall become
straight and the rough ways plain;” and they shall “taste
and see that the Lord is gracious,”2345
| 2345 Jer. vi. 16; Isa. xl. 4; Ps. xxxiii. (xxxiv.)
9. | and when they hear Christ proclaiming in
the gospel: “Come unto Me all ye that labour and are heavy laden,
and I will refresh you,” they will lay aside the burden of their
sins, and realize what follows: “For My yoke is easy, and My
burden is light.”2346
The way of the
Lord then has refreshment if it is kept to according to His law. But it
is we who by troublesome distractions bring sorrows and troubles upon
ourselves, while we try even with the utmost exertion and difficulty to
follow the crooked and perverse ways of this world. But when in this
way we have made the Lord’s yoke heavy and hard to us, we at once
complain in a blasphemous spirit of the hardness and roughness of the
yoke itself or of Christ who lays it upon us, in accordance with this
passage: “The folly of man corrupteth his ways, but he blames God
in his heart;”2347
and as Haggai
the prophet says, when we say that “the way of the Lord is not
right” the reply is aptly made to us by the Lord: “Is not
My way right? Are not your ways rather crooked?”2348
And indeed if you will compare the
sweet scented flower of virginity, and tender purity of chastity to the
foul and fetid sloughs of lust, the calm and security of monks to the
dangers and losses in which the men of this world are involved, the
peace of our poverty to the gnawing vexations and anxious cares of
riches, in which they are night and day consumed not without the utmost
peril to life, then you will prove that the yoke of Christ is most easy
and His burden most light.E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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