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AND so by the struggle with temptation the kindly grace of the Saviour
bestows on us larger rewards of praise than if it had taken away from us
all need of conflict. For it is a mark of a loftier and grander virtue to
remain ever unmoved when hemmed in by persecutions and trials, and to stand
faithfully and courageously at the ramparts of God, and in the attacks of
men, girt as it were with the arms of unconquered virtue, to triumph
gloriously over impatience and somehow to gain strength out of weakness,
for "strength is made perfect in weakness." "For behold I have made thee."
saith the Lord, "a pillar of iron and a wall of brass, over all the land,
to the kings of Judah, and the princes and the priests thereof, and all the
people of the land. And they shall fight against thee and shall not
prevail: for I am with thee to deliver thee, saith the Lord." Therefore
according to the plain teaching of the Lord the king's highway is easy and
smooth, though it may be felt as hard and rough: for those who piously and
faithfully serve Him, when they have taken upon them the yoke of the Lord,
and have learnt of Him, that He is meek and lowly of heart, at once somehow
or other lay aside the burden of earthly passions, and find no labour but
rest for their souls, by the gift of the Lord, as He Himself testifies by
Jeremiah the prophet, saying: "Stand ye on the ways and see, and ask for
the old paths, which is the good way, and walk ye in it: and you shall find
refreshment for your souls." For to them at once "the crooked shall become
straight and the rough ways plain;" and they shall "taste and see that the
Lord is gracious," and when they hear Christ proclaiming in the gospel:
"Come unto Me all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will refresh
you," they will lay aside the burden of their sins, and realize what
follows: "For My yoke is easy, and My burden is light." The way of the
Lord then has refreshment if it is kept to according to His law. But it is
we who by troublesome distractions bring sorrows and troubles upon
ourselves, while we try even With the utmost exertion and difficulty to
follow the crooked and perverse ways of this world. But when in this way we
have made the Lord's yoke heavy and hard to us, we at once complain in a
blasphemous spirit of the hardness and roughness of the yoke itself or of
Christ who lays it upon us, in accordance with this passage: "The folly of
man corrupteth his ways, but he blames God in his heart;" and as Haggai
the prophet says, when we say that "the way of the Lord is not right" the
reply is aptly made to us by the Lord: "Is not My way right? Are not your
ways rather crooked?" And indeed if you will compare the sweet scented
flower of virginity, and tender purity of chastity to the foul and fetid
sloughs of lust, the calm and security of monks to the dangers and losses
in which the men of this world are involved, the peace of our poverty to
the gnawing vexations and anxious cares of riches, in which they are night
and day consumed not without the utmost peril to life, then you will prove
that the yoke of Christ is most easy and His burden most light.
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