CONSIDERATION XIX
The Gift of grace is a great God, and the loss of grace is a great evil.
"Man knoweth not the price thereof." Job xxviii. 13.
First Point.
THE Lord says, " If thou take forth the precious from the, vile, thou shalt be as My mouth." (Jer. xv. 19.) He who knows how to separate things precious from things vile, becomes like God; he rejects the evil and he chooses the good. Let us mark how blessed is the gift of the grace of God, and how sad is the loss of it. Men do not consider the value of Divine grace, they know not " the price thereof," and therefore they barter it away for nothing for a passing vapour, for a little land, for an animal pleasure; yet it is an infinite treasure, one which renders xis worthy of the friendship of God. " He is an infinite treasure to me, which they that use, become the friends of God." (Wisd. vii. 14.) So that a soul in grace, is a friend of God. The heathen who were deprived of the light of faith deemed it impossible that the creature should have any friendship with God; and speaking according to natural light, they said justly, since friendship can only exist amongst equals; or, as S. Jerome says, " Friendship either finds or makes equals." But God has in many places of Holy Scripture declared, that by means of His grace we may become His friends if we observe His laws, "Ye are my friends if ye do whatsoever I command you: henceforth I call you not servants, but I have called you friends." (S.
