for our misfortune! We have at the same time lost the Paradise of bodily delight in which we were, and that of spiritual delight, which we were ourselves. We have been cast out into the deserts of the earth, and have ourselves become wild and horrible wildernesses. We were ungrateful for the gifts, both of the body and of the soul, with which God had so richly provided Paradise ; with right therefore have we been deprived of them and been dowered with calamity. But glory, praise , honour, and blessing for everlasting to our merciful God who abandoned us for a while but did not thrust us from Him for ever. . . . The garden of the Church, the delight of God’s heart, blooms anew.
But does this new plantation of God succeed entirely according to His wishes? Do all the shoots grow successfully? Do all the newly-planted trees bring forth spikenard, crocus, cinnamon, myrrh, spices, and costly fruits? Do we hear the voice of God calling to His Church: I had planted thee a noble vine, wholly a right seed: how then art thou turned into the degenerate plant of a strange vine unto me? (Jeremiah ii. 21). Here we have the complaint of God that even this new plantation of Paradise is deteriorating. . . .
He who knows not that he is ill cannot heal himself; he who feels not his pain utters no sigh; he who sees not his danger does not start back, even though he be on the brink of an abyss; and so it is not to be wondered at that he who perceives not the wave of disorder which is sweeping over the human race and over the Church, does not lament the fact. But he who sees himself and others covered with countless wounds; he who remarks that the wounds and boils, both his own and other men’s, fester ever more and more; and who knows that he, with others, stands in the midst of gulfs and precipices and wanders among snares, in which he sees one man after another being caught, it is hard for him not to be terrified, not to marvel, not to perish with grief.
For what part of us or of our concerns is in good condition? None. Everything lies overturned or in
