the sin of him who injures us, but that He rightly wills our poverty and our humiliation. It is certain that whatever happens, does so by the Divine will. " I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil." (Isa. xlv. 7.) The Preacher had said before, " Prosperity and adversity, life and death, poverty and riches, come of the Lord." (Ecclus. xi. 14.) In short, all things come from God, those that are good and those that are evil.
We call them evil, since we think and make them evil to us; but if we would accept them with resignation as coming from the hands of God, they would become to us, not evils, but blessings. The jewels which makes the crown of the saints so rich, are the tribulations, accepted from God, considering that all things came from His hands.
The holy Job, when he was told that the Sabeans had seized his goods, replied, " The Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away." (Job i. 21.) He did not say that the Lord gave me these goods, and the Sabeans have taken them away; but " the Lord hath taken away;" and therefore Job blessed Him, considering, that all had happened after His will: " Blessed be the Name of the Lord." (Job i. 21.) The holy martyrs, Epictetus and Ato, when they were tortured with iron hooks and burning torches, only said, " Lord, fulfil Thy will in us!" When dying, these were their last words, " Be Thou blessed, O Eternal God, since Thou hast given us grace to fulfil Thy good pleasure."
This should be our frame of mind when adverse things befall us. Let us accept them all from the Divine hand, not only with patience, but with readiness, after the example of the Apostles, who " departed from the presence of the council, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for His Name." (Acts v. 41.) And what greater happiness can there be, than to endure some cross, and to know that by embracing it, we give pleasure to God?
If we desire, then, to live in uninterrupted peace, let us strive from henceforth to embrace the Divine will, saying ever of all things which may happen to us, " Even so, Father: for so it seemed good in Thy sight." (S. Matt. xi. 26.) O Lord, so hath it pleased Thee; so let it be. To this end we should direct all
