they remain defeated, because they want the resolute will to please God alone. A resolute will overcomes everything; for when once a soul determines really to give itself wholly to God, God immediately gives it the hand and the strength to surmount all difficulties that may occur in the way of perfection. This was the splendid promise which Isaias signified to us in these words: O, that Thou wouldst rend the heavens and wouldst come down; the mountains would melt away at Thy presence. [64:1] The crooked shall become straight, and the rough ways plain. [40:4] At the coming of the Redeemer He will endow our souls with such a strength of good-will that they will find levelled down the mountains of all the carnal appetites; and they will find the crooked ways made straight, and the rough ways plain; that is, the contempts and labors which formerly were so difficult and hard for men to bear will, by means of the grace given by Jesus Christ, and of the Divine love which He enkindles in their hearts, be afterwards all made sweet and easy. Thus was it that St. John of God rejoiced at being beaten as a fool in a hospital; thus St. Lydwine was glad to find herself during so many years tied down to her bed by a body full of wounds and sores; thus St. Laurence exulted and mocked the tyrant, while scorching on a gridiron, and giving his life for Jesus Christ. And so likewise do so many souls enamoured of God find peace and contentment, not, indeed, in the pleasures and honors of the world, but in sufferings and insults.
Ah! let us beg Jesus Christ to impart to us that fire which He came on earth to enkindle; that so we may no longer find it difficult to despise goods of dirt, and to undertake great things for God. "He that loves, labors
