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The privileges of virtue which we considered in the
preceding chapters are the spiritual blessings
accorded to the just in this life, independently of
the eternal reward of Heaven. As, however, there may
be some who, like the Jews of old, cling to the
things of the flesh rather than to those of the
spirit, we shall devote this chapter to the temporal
blessings which the virtuous enjoy.
The Wise Man says of wisdom, which is the perfection
of virtue, that "length of days is in her right hand,
and in her left hand riches and glory." (Prov. 3:16).
Perfect virtue, then, possesses this double reward
with which she wins men to her allegiance, holding
out to them with one hand the temporal blessings of
this life, and with the other the eternal blessings
of the life to come. Oh, no; God does not leave His
followers in want! He who so carefully provides for
the ant, the worm, the smallest of His creatures,
cannot disregard the necessities of His faithful
servants. I do not ask you to receive this upon my
word, but I do ask you to read the Gospel according
to St. Matthew, in which you will find many
assurances and promises on this subject. "Behold the
birds of the air," says Our Saviour, "for they
neither sow, nor do they reap, nor gather into barns;
and your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are not you of
much more value than they? � Be not solicitous,
therefore, saying: What shall we eat, or what shall
we drink, or wherewith shall we be clothed? For after
all these things do the heathen seek. For your Father
knoweth that you have need of all these things. Seek
ye, therefore, first the kingdom of God, and his
justice, and all these things shall be added unto
you." (Matt. 6:26, 31-33). "Fear the Lord, all ye
his saints," the psalmist sings, "for they that fear
him know no want. The rich have wanted, and have
suffered hunger; but they that seek the Lord shall
not be deprived of any good." (Ps. 33:10-11). "I have
been young, and now am old, and I have not seen the
just forsaken nor his seed seeking bread." (Ps.
36:25). If you would satisfy yourself still
further concerning the temporal blessings conferred
on the just, read the divine promises recorded in
Deuteronomy: "If thou wilt hear the voice of the Lord
thy God, to do and keep all his commandments which I
command thee this day, the Lord thy God will make
thee higher than all the nations that are on the
earth. And all these blessings shall come upon thee
and overtake thee, if thou hear his precepts. Blessed
shalt thou be in the city, and blessed in the field.
Blessed shall be the fruit of thy womb, and the fruit
of thy ground, and the fruit of thy cattle, the
droves of thy herds, and the folds of thy sheep.
Blessed shall be thy barns and blessed thy stores.
Blessed shalt thou be coming in and going out. The
Lord shall cause thy enemies that rise up against
thee to fall down before thy face; one way shall they
come out against thee, and seven ways shall they thee
before thee. The Lord will send forth a blessing upon
thy storehouses, and upon all the works of thy hands,
and will bless thee in the land that thou shalt
receive. "The Lord will raise thee up to be a holy
people to himself, as he swore to thee, if thou keep
the commandments of the Lord thy God and walk in his
ways. And all the people of the earth shall see that
the name of the Lord is invoked upon thee, and they
shall fear thee. The Lord will make thee abound with
all goods, with the fruit of thy womb, and the fruit
of thy cattle, with the fruit of thy land which the
Lord swore to thy fathers that he would give thee.
The Lord will open his excellent treasure, the
heaven, that it may give rain in due season; and he
will bless all the works of thy hands." (Deut.
28:1-12). What riches can be compared to such
blessings as these? And they have been promised not
only to the Jews, but to all Christians who are
faithful to God's law. Moreover, they are bestowed
with two extraordinary advantages unknown to the
wicked. The first of these is the wisdom with which
God awards them. Like a skillful physician, He gives
His servants temporal blessings according to their
necessities, and not in such measure as to inflate
them with pride or endanger their salvation. The
wicked despise this moderation and madly heap up all
the riches they can acquire, forgetting that excess
in this respect is as dangerous to the soul as excess
of nourishment is injurious to the body. Though a
man's life lies in his blood, too copious a supply
only tends to choke him. The second of these
advantages is that temporal blessings afford the
just, with far less disturbance or display, that rest
and contentment which all men seek in worldly goods.
Even with a little, the just enjoy as much repose as
if they possessed the universe. Hence St. Paul speaks
of himself as having nothing, yet possessing all
things. (Cf. 2Cor. 6:10). Thus the just journey
through life, poor but knowing no want, possessing
abundance in the midst of poverty. The wicked, on the
contrary, hunger in the midst of abundance, and
though, like Tantalus, they are surrounded by water,
they can never satisfy their thirst. (Tantalus,
according to the fable of the ancients, was a king of
Corinth, condemned by the gods, for divulging their
secrets, to be placed in Hell in the midst of water
which reached his chin, but which he could not even
taste; to have fruit suspended over his head which he
could not eat; and to be always in fear of a large
stone falling on his hand.). For like reasons
Moses earnestly exhorted the people to the observance
of God's law. "Lay up these words in thy heart," he
says; "teach them to thy children; meditate upon them
sitting in thy house, walking on thy journey,
sleeping and rising. Bind them as a sign upon thy
hand; keep them before thy eyes; write them over the
entrance to thy house, on the doors of thy house. Do
that which is pleasing and good in the sight of the
Lord, that it may be well with thee all the days of
thy life in the land which God shall give thee."
(Deut. 6:6-10). Having been admitted to the counsels
of the Most High, Moses knew the inestimable treasure
contained in the observance of the law. His prophetic
mind saw that all temporal and spiritual blessings,
both present and future, were comprised in this. It
is a compact which God makes with the just, and
which, we may feel assured, will never be broken on
His part. Nay, rather, if we prove ourselves faithful
servants we will find that God will be even more
generous than His promises. "Godliness," says St.
Paul, "is profitable to all things, having promise of
the life that now is, and of that which is to come."
(1Tim. 4:8). Behold how clearly the Apostle promises
to piety, which is the observance of God's
commandments, not only the blessings of eternity but
those of this life also. If you desire to know the
poverty, miseries, and afflictions which are reserved
for the wicked, read the twenty eighth chapter of the
Book of Deuteronomy. Therein Moses, in the name of
God, utters most terrible threats and maledictions
against the impious. "If thou wilt not hear the voice
of the Lord thy God, to keep and to do all his
commandments and ceremonies which I command thee this
day, all these curses shall come upon thee and
overtake thee. Cursed shalt thou be in the city,
cursed in the field. Cursed shall be thy barn, and
cursed thy stores. Cursed shall be the fruit of thy
womb, and the fruit of thy ground, the herds of thy
oxen, and the flocks of thy sheep. Cursed shalt thou
be coming in and going out. The Lord shall send upon
thee famine and hunger, and a rebuke upon all the
works which thou shalt do, until he consume and
destroy thee quickly for thy most wicked inventions,
by which thou hast forsaken me. May the Lord set the
pestilence upon thee until he consume thee out of the
land which thou shalt go in to possess. "May the
Lord afflict thee with miserable want, with the fever
and with cold, with burning and with heat, and with
corrupted air and with blasting, and pursue thee till
thou perish. Be the heaven that is over thee of
brass, and the ground thou treadest on of iron. The
Lord give thee dust for rain upon thy land, and let
ashes come down from heaven upon thee till thou be
consumed. The Lord make thee fall down before thy
enemies; one way mayst thou go out against them, and
flee seven ways, and be scattered throughout all the
kingdoms of the earth. And be thy carcass meat for
all the fowls of the air and the beasts of the earth,
and be there none to drive them away. The Lord strike
thee with madness and blindness, and fury of mind.
And mayst thou grope at midday as the blind is wont
to grope in the dark, and not make straight thy ways.
And mayst thou at all times suffer wrong, and be
oppressed with violence, and mayest thou have no one
to deliver thee. May thy sons and thy daughters be
given to another people, thy eyes looking on, and
languishing at the sight of them all the day, and may
there be no strength in thy hand. "May a people
which thou knowest not eat the fruits of thy land,
and all thy labors, and mayst thou always suffer
oppression, and be crushed at all times. May the Lord
strike thee with a very sore ulcer in the knees and
in the legs, and be thou incurable from the sole of
thy foot to the top of thy head. � And all these
curses shall come upon thee, and shall pursue and
overtake thee, till thou perish; because thou heardst
not the voice of the Lord thy God, and didst not keep
his commandments. Because thou didst not serve the
Lord thy God with joy and gladness of heart for the
abundance of all things, thou shalt serve thy enemy
whom the Lord will send upon thee, in hunger, in
thirst, and nakedness, and in want of all things; and
he shall put an iron yoke upon thy neck till he
consume thee. The Lord will bring upon thee a nation
from afar, and from the uttermost ends of the earth,
a most insolent nation, that will show no regard to
the ancient, nor have pity on the infant, and will
devour the fruit of thy cattle, and the fruits of thy
land, until thou be destroyed, and will leave thee no
wheat, nor wine, nor oil, nor herds of oxen, nor
flocks of sheep, till he consume thee in all thy
cities, and thy strong and high walls be brought
down, wherein thou trustedst in all thy land. Thou
shalt be besieged within thy gates, and thou shalt
eat the fruit of thy womb, and the flesh of thy sons
and thy daughters, in the distress and extremity
wherewith thy enemies shall oppress thee." Let us
not forget that these maledictions are recorded in
Holy Scripture, with many others, equally terrible,
which we have not cited. Learn from them the rigor
with which Divine Justice pursues the wicked, and the
hatred God must bear to sin, which He punishes with
such severity in this life and with still greater
torments in the next.
Think not these were idle menaces. No; they were
words of prophecy, and were terribly verified in the
Jewish nation. For we read that during the reign of
Achab, King of Israel, his people were besieged by
the army of the King of Syria, and reduced to such
straits that they fed upon pigeons' dung, which sold
at a high price, and that a mother devoured her own
child. (Cf. 4Kg. 6). And these scenes the historian
Josephus tells us, were repeated during the siege of
Jerusalem. The captivity of this people and the
complete destruction of their kingdom and power are
well-known to all. Think not that these calamities
were reserved for the Jewish people only. All the
nations that have known God's law and despised it
have been the objects of His just and terrible anger.
"Did not I bring up Israel out of the land of Egypt,
and the Philistines out of Cappadocia, and the
Syrians out of Cyrene? Behold the eyes of the Lord
God are upon the sinful kingdom, and I will destroy
it from the face of the earth." (Amos 9:7-8). From
this we can understand that wars and revolutions, the
downfall of some kingdoms and the rise of others, are
due to the sins of men. Read the annals of the
early ages of the Church, and you will find that God
has dealt in like manner with the wicked, especially
with those who were once enlightened by His law, and
who afterwards rejected it. See how He has punished
infidelity in Christian nations. Vast portions of
Europe, Asia, and Africa, formerly filled with
Christian churches are now in the hands of infidels
and barbarians. Behold the ravages wrought in
Christian nations by the Goths, the Huns, and the
Vandals! In the time of St. Augustine they laid waste
all the countries of Africa, sparing none of the
inhabitants, not even women and children. At the same
time Dalmatia and the neighboring towns were so
devastated by the barbarians that St. Jerome, who was
a native of that kingdom, said that a traveler
passing through the country would find only earth and
sky, so universal was the desolation. Is it not
evident, therefore, that virtue not only helps us
attain the joys of eternity, but that it also secures
for us the blessings of this life?
Let, then, the consideration of this privilege, with
the others which we have mentioned, excite you to
renewed ardor in the practice of virtue, which is
able to save you from so many miseries and procure
you so many blessings.
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