Did not I see thee? the sun will say; have you not used mv light to carry out your wicked purpose. Did you not often, like the bats and owls, shun my light, and wait for the darkness in order to steal into that house of ill-fame to satisfy your brutal lusts? Did not I see thee? the moon will say. Have I not been obliged to give you my light in order to show you the way to the place where you went for the purpose of indulging your passions? Did not I see thee? the earth will say. How long have I not been wearied with bearing your accursed wickedness, while you were sullying me with abominable crimes? Did not I see thee? the other elements will say: the fire that allowed itself to be damped and extinguished that it might not oppose any obstacle to the heat of your passions; the water that bore you even while you were committing thefts and acts of injustice; the air that you poisoned with your oaths and curses. Did not I see thee? the gold and silver in your coffers will say. Have you not shut me up, while poor people were famishing with hunger? “Your gold and silver is cankered,” says the apostle St. James, “and the rust of them shall be for a testimony against you.”[1] Did not I see thee? your clothes will say, which were eaten by the moths, or shut up in your wardrobe when you might have covered your poor brothers or sisters with them. The corn you heaped up in your granaries will give testimony that you preferred to allow it to rot away in the time of scarcity, in unfruitful seasons, rather than sell it to poor citizens and peasants at a low price. Even the stones in the walls shall cry out against you, says the Prophet Habacuc: “The stone shall cry out of the wall; and the timber that is between the joints of the building shall answer.”[2] Did not I see thee? shall exclaim the stones and walls of the churches. Have we not often seen you come here with a bad intention? The stones of the streets, of that drinking-house, of that place of ill-fame, of the building in which you dwelt, the walls of your room, the doors that you bolted, the windows that you shut, the curtains that you drew around your bed; all these shall cry out: did not I see thee? Have we not been witnesses of your actions?
Hence David and St. Jerome feared their couch and cell. I shudder with fear when I hear a St. Jerome in the wilderness giving expression to the terror that possessed him in these
