duties which have succeeded to the frenzies of the passions and the tumult of a worldly life, which have provided for us much more happy and peaceful days than those we had ever passed in the midst of dissipation, and which, though they still leave us something to suffer, yet occasion us to enjoy a more tranquil and supportable lot.
Lastly. Faith, which brings eternity nearer to us; which discovers to us the insignificancy of worldly affairs; that we approach the happy term; that the present life is but a rapid instant; and consequently, that our sufferings cannot endure long, but that this fleeting moment of tribulation assures to us a glorious and immortal futurity, which will endure as long as God himself. What resources for a faithful heart! What disproportion between the sufferings of virtue and those of guilt! It is in order to make us feel the difference that God often permits the world to possess us for a time; that in youth we deliver ourselves up to the sway of the passions, on purpose, that, when he afterward recalls us to himself, we may know by experience how much more easy is his yoke than that of the world. I will permit, says he, in the Scriptures, that my people serve the nations of the earth for some time; that they allow themselves to be seduced by their profane superstitions, in order that they may know the difference between my service and the service of the kings of the earth; and that they may feel how much more easy is my yoke than the servitude of men.
Happy the souls, who, in order to be undeceived, have had no occasion for this experience, and who have not so dearly bought the knowledge of this world's vanity, and the melancholy lot of iniquitous passions. Alas! since at last we must be undeceived, and must abandon and despise it; since the day will come, when we shall find it frivolous, disgusting, and insupportable; when, of all its foolish joys, there shall no longer remain to us but the cruel remorse of having yielded to them; the confusion of having followed them; the obstacles to good which they will have left in our heart; why not anticipate and prevent such melancholy regrets? Why not do to-day what we ourselves allow must one day be done? Why wait till the world has made such deep wounds in our heart, to run afterward to remedies, which cannot re-establish us without greater pain, and costing us doubly dear? We complain of some slight disgusts which accompany virtue; but, alas! the first believers, who, to the maxims of the gospel, sacrificed their riches, reputation, and life; who ran to the scaffolds to confess Jesus Christ; who passed their days in chains, in prisons, in shame and in sufferance, and to whom it cost so much to serve Jesus Christ; did they complain of the bitterness of his service? Did they reproach him with rendering unhappy those who served him? Ah! they glorified themselves in their tribulation; they preferred shame and disgrace with Jesus Christ, to all the vain pleasures of Egypt; they reckoned as nothing, wheels, fires, and every instrument of torture, in the hopes of a blessed immortality, which would amply recompense their present sufferings: in the midst of torments they
