prived of house and home, abandoned by all, lying on a dung-hill, covered with putrid sores, and bitterly complaining of his lot. The hand of the Lord has touched me; “He hath stripped me of my glory, and hath taken the crown from my head. He hath destroyed me on every side.” He has slain my children, taken my goods from me, and reduced me to extreme want. “His wrath is kindled against me, and He hath counted me as His enemy. He hath put my brethren far from me, and my acquaintance like strangers have departed from me. My kinsmen have forsaken me, and they that knew me have forgotten me. They that dwell in my house and my maid-servants have counted me as a stranger, and I have been like an alien in their eyes. I called my servant, and he gave me no answer, I entreated him with my own mouth;” and he did not even deign to take notice. “My wife hath abhorred my breath;” she laughs at and mocks me. “The flesh being consumed, my bone hath cleaved to my skin, and nothing but lips are left about my teeth.” Yet after enumerating all those evils, he adds: “Who will grant me that my words may be written? who will grant me that they may be marked down in a book with an iron pen, and in a plate of lead, or else be graven with an instrument in flint-stone?”[1] For I know that my Redeemer liveth; I do not only believe it; I know and am sure of it; I know that I shall come to Him, arid that I shall see God in this flesh. “Whence had he that certainty?” asks St. Gregory. “He found it in his great misery, in the harshness with which God treated him here.”
Tobias and David. When did Tobias count himself amongst the chosen children of God? “We are the children of saints, and look for that life which God will give to them that never change their faith from Him.”[2] Was it not when, after a holy life filled with works of mercy, he lay down to rest wearied with burying the dead, and the swallow’s dung fell into his eyes and blinded him, while his friends came and mocked and ridiculed him? When did David
- ↑ Spoliavit me gloria mea, et abstulit coronam de capite meo. Destruxit me undique. Iratus est contra me furor ejus, et sic me habuit quasi hostem suum. Fratres meos longe fecit a me, et noti mei quasi alieni recesserunt a me. Dereliquerunt me propinqui mei, et qui me noverant obliti sunt mei. Inquilini domus meæ, et ancillæ meæ, sicut alienum habuerunt me, et quasi peregrinus fui in oculis eorum. Servum meum vocavi, et non respondit; ore proprio deprecabar ilium. Halitum meum exhorruit uxor mea. Pelli meæ consumptis carnibus, adhæsit os meum; et derelicta sunt tantummodo labia circa dentes meos. Quis mihi tribuat ut scribantur sermones mei? Quis mihi det ut exarentur in libro, stylo ferreo, et plumbi lamina, vel celte sculpantur in silice?—Job xix. 9–11, 13–17, 20, 23, 24.
- ↑ Fllii sanctorum sumus, et vitam illam exspectamus quam Deus daturus est his qui fidem suam nunquam mutant ab eo.—Tobias ii. 18.
