wish to be looked up to on their account, and who do not truft enough in Divine Providence. Such as these collapse at the touch of the lighteft injuries; they lie and mourn when falfe and fleeting pleasures defert their minds, which are vain and childish, and ignorant of all folid pleasure. But the man who does not allow himself to be inflated by profperity, nor depreffed by adverfity, but trufts moft fully in Divine Providence, retains a foul of well-tried firmness, which is invincible against either condition, and is defended with the panoply of all virtues. In a fingle word he wills that which God wills.

Whether or no it can be that one should never be fad, and whether this State is to be brought about in the fame way in which we conform our own Will to the Divine.

OLOMON, a very ocean and prodigy of human wisdom, fearlessly declared,"There fhall no evil happen to the

juft." (Prov. XII. 21.) That wifest of kings is fpeaking of cafual things which befall a perfon of upright mind contrary to his will, juft as if he said,—“ Voluntary evils, fuch as fins and injuries, make a man anxious, however good he may be, and afflict him with grief; but thofe freaks of fortune, fuch as lofs of wealth or honour, failure of health, and death of those who are dear, do not fo much afflict and torment an upright man, as to prevent him from very often reckoning fuch things to be benefits, and not confider them evils, but believe them to be for the

"Nothing that happens to the juft fhall make him fad." (Vulgo.)

exercise of his patience, and give God thanks for

them, as is right.

For to an upright mind every

calamity is an occafion of virtue.”

And that a righteous man may receive external evils

of any kind with ftedfaft and cheerful mind S. Paul gives the most abundant teftimony:-" I am filled with comfort, I am exceeding joyful in all our tribulation." (2 Cor. VII. 4.) Not merely in hunger or thirst, not only in bonds or ftripes, but in all troubles and difficulties,-" In ALL our tribulation." Nor am I affected with merely a paffing joy, he would fay, but-" I am filled with comfort, I am exceeding joyful!" even when I am beaten with rods, when I am ftoned, when I suffer fhipwreck. S. Martin, Bishop of Tours, was never feen, during a period of many years, by Severus Sulpicius either to be angry or forrowful, but always calm and felf-poffeffed. And thus in truth" there shall no evil happen to the just." S. Chryfoftom (In 2 Cor. Hom. 1.) entirely confirms this when he says,-" There is nothing miserable, fave the offending against God; but this apart, neither afflictions, nor confpiracies, nor any other thing has power to grieve the right-minded foul; but like as a little fpark, if you caft it into a mighty deep you presently put it out, fo does even a total and exceffive forrow, if it light on a good conscience, easily die away and disappear." And the fame Doctor of the goldenmouth, in order to bring the matter more clearly before our eyes, compares the mind to the sky, and fays," The sky is higher than fhowers and ftorms.

It is obfcured, indeed, with clouds, and is thought to

suffer, but it suffers nothing at all.

And in the fame thought to fuffer,

way we too, even though we are suffer nothing; that is to fay, we are thought to be obfcured with sadness, as if with clouds, but we are not made fad." S. Ambrofe (De Off. 111. 5.) also says,— "Granted, that in such things, that is to say, in labours, there is fome degree of bitterness. Yet what grief does not virtue hide? For I should not deny that the sea is deep, because its shore is shallow; nor that the fky is bright, because it is sometimes covered with clouds; nor that the earth is fruitful, because in some places there is only barren gravel; nor that crops are abundant, because they occafionally have wild oats intermingled with them. And in the fame way believe that the harvest of a good confcience is fometimes interrupted by a bitter grief; but yet if any adversity or forrow befall the fheaves of a bleffed life, it is hidden, like the wild oats; or like the bitterness of the darnel is overcome by the sweetness of the good corn.” Therefore" there fhall no evil happen to the just.” He will feel sadness, but will not yield to it. The sky will be covered with clouds, but will not be disturbed in its ferenity. Darnel will mingle with the wheat, but will not harm it. To be infenfible to one's own evils is not the part of any man; to be unable to bear them is not the part of a good man.

1. But it is not only Chriftian wisdom that receives this, for even to the ancients fuch vigour of foul was not unknown. Truly enough did the Bard of Venu

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