well beaten on the threshing-floor, is not gathered into the barn."
But why waste words here, when we see the whole of the Scriptures, the writings and sayings of all the Fathers, and the lives and acts of all the saints, agreeing together in this matter; namely, that they who bring the most harm upon believers are their greatest benefactors, if only we bear with them in the right spirit. As St. Peter says, "And who is he that will harm you, if ye be followers of that which is good?"[1] And Psalm lxxxviii, "The enemy shall not exact upon him; nor the son of wickedness afflict him."[2] How is it that he shall not harm us, seeing that oftentimes he even kills us?[3] Because, forsooth, in harming us he is working us the very greatest gain. Thus we find ourselves every way dwelling in the midst of blessings, if we are wise, and yet, at the same time, also in the midst of evils. So wondrously are all things tempered together under the rule of the goodness of God.
