for sin and vice and public scandal. One abounds in wealth and makes a wrong use of it; another is poor who, if he had riches, would do much for the honor and glory of God. The rich man, the prince, the king, the emperor, whose sole desire is to have an heir for the good of the family and of the whole nation and kingdom, receives no children from God, although he may weary Heaven with prayers for years; while poor people who have hardly enough to eat have children enough, more than they can feed. The best, dearest, and most beautiful child, the one whom the parents are most anxious to keep alive, dies; while the stupid, ugly, decrepit child remains alive, although they would readily have given him to God. Children die before bap tism, although if they had been kept alive for the space of one Our Father they would have been freed from original sin and have been happy in heaven; and on the other hand a young man dies in the state of sin who if he had been taken off at an early age would not have been lost forever.
Amongst sinners and the just. We see, says St. John Chrysostom, not a few who, having attained a high degree of perfection, fall into grievous sin and are lost eternally; while on the other hand many who have for a long time led bad lives are converted and go to heaven. We see how God chastises and punishes a man, although He allows another, who is equally deserving of punishment, to get off scot free. In all public calamities the good and pious, who try by their prayers to avert the scourge from their fatherland, are generally much more severely smitten than the rich and the wicked, whose sins and vices have caused God to draw the sword of vengeance and to afflict the whole country with a plague. We see and generally experience that many sinners and wicked men enjoy prosperity, wealth, and honor in the world, and live in pleasures and delights; while most of the good and pious, who try to serve God faithfully and zealously, and to fulfil His holy will in all things, spend their days in poverty, misfortune, contempt, and sorrow, overwhelmed with trials, persecuted by others, and oppressed on all sides; and there are countless similar dispensations of Providence.
An arrangement that seems unjust.
O my Lord and my God! what a wonderful arrangement is this! For it is Thou alone who hast so ordered things! Art Thou not the common Father in this great household of the world? Are not all men the works of Thy hands? Of what kind, then, is this providence of Thine? What are we to think of
