P. 385. For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory.' The thought is the same in Bernard of Clugny's hymn: Hic breve vivitur, hic breve plangitur, hic breve fletur: Non breve vivere, non breve plangere retribuetur ; O retributio! stat brevis actio, vita perennis; O retributio! caelica mansio stat lue plenis. Which is rendered in English thus: Brief life is here our portion, Brief sorrow, short-lived care; O happy retribution ! Short toil, eternal rest; P. 390. 'Whose names are in the book of life.' There is a book By seraphs writ with beams of heavenly light, A chronicle of actions just and bright: There all thy deeds, my faithful Mary, shine, And since thou own'st that praise, I spare thee mine. (Cowper, 'To Mrs. Unwin.') P. 396. 'My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations; knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience,' etc. 'I cannot praise a fugitive and cloister'd virtue, unexercis'd and unbreath'd, that never sallies out and sees her adversary, but slinks out of the race, where that immortal garland is to be run for not without dust and heat. Assuredly we bring not innocence into the world, we bring impurity much rather: that which purifies us is trial, and trial is by what is contrary' (Milton, 'Areopagitica'). P. 398. Now are we the sons of God. . . And every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself.' We may compare Epictetus, 'Dissertations,' ii. 8. 11 sqq.: 'Thou art a particle of God; thou hast a portion of Him in thyself. ignorant of thy noble birth? How comes it then that thou art How is it that thou knowest not whence thou camest?... Miserable man, thou bearest about God with thee and knowest it not. Thinkest thou I mean a god of silver or gold hung on thy body? Thou carriest him within thee, and per ceivest not that thou dost pollute him by foul thoughts and base actions. In the presence of God's image thou wouldest not dare to do any of those things that thou doest; and yet when God is present in thee and seeth all things and heareth all things, thou art not ashamed to think these thoughts and to do these deeds.' Marcus Aurelius says (iii. 16) that it is a mark of a good man ‘not to defile the divinity that lodges in his breast.' P. 408. Every man that striveth for the mastery is temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain a corruptible crown.' Compare Epictetus, 'Enchiridion,' 29: 'Would you win an Olympic victory? You must lead an orderly life, eat sparingly, abstain from dainties, take hard exercise, at fixed times, in heat, in cold; you must drink no iced drinks nor wine at pleasure: in a word you must give yourself up to your trainer as to a physician. Then in the contest you must be prepared to roll in the dust, to dislocate an arm, to sprain an ankle, to swallow much sand, to be struck, and after all perhaps to be vanquished.' |