第20章 PART THE FIRST(16)

Lord,Thou alone knowest all hidden things,and didst create all things in weight,in number and measure;Thou knowest also that my sufferings are measureless,that they are wholly beyond my strength.Lord,is there anyone in all this world who has constantly more painful sufferings than I?They are to me invincible--how am I to endure them?Lord,if Thou wouldst send me ordinary sufferings,I could bear them,but I do not see how I can ever endure such extraordinary sufferings as these--sufferings which in so hidden a manner oppress my heart and soul,which only Thou canst perfectly understand.

Eternal Wisdom.--Every sick man imagines that his own sickness is the worst,and every man in distress,his own distress the greatest.Had I sent thee other sufferings it would have been the same.Conform thyself freely to My will under every pain which I ordain thee to suffer,without excepting this or the other suffering.Dost thou not know that I only desire what is best for thee,even with as kindly a feeling as thou thyself?Hence it is that I am the Eternal Wisdom,and that I know better than thou what is for thy good.Hence it is that thou mayst have felt that the sufferings which I send are much more exquisite,and penetrate deeper,and operate better,for him who does them justice,than all self-chosen sufferings.Why then dost thou so complain to Me?Address Me rather as follows:O my most faithful Father,do to me at all times what Thou wilt!

The Servant.--O Lord,it is so easy to talk,but the reality is so difficult to endure,for it is so very painful.

Eternal Wisdom.--If suffering gave no pain,it could not becalled suffering.There is nothing more painful than suffering,and nothing more joyful than to have suffered.Suffering is a short pain and a long joy.

Suffering gives to the sufferer pain here and joy hereinafter.Suffering kills suffering.Suffering is ordained that the sufferer may not suffer eternally.Hadst thou so much spiritual sweetness and divine consolation and heavenly delight as,at all times,to overflow with the divine dew,it would not be for thee so very meritorious of itself,since,for all this together,I should not have to thank thee so much;it could not exculpate thee so much as an affectionate suffering or patience in adversity,in which thou sufferest for My sake.Sooner will ten be perverted and ruined in the midst of a great delight and joyous sweetness than one in the midst of constant suffering and adversity.If thou hadst as much science as all the astronomers,if thou couldst discourse as ably of God as all the tongues of men and angels,and didst possess the treasures of knowledge of all the masters,not all this could avail to advance thee in a good life,so much as if thou didst give thyself up,and didst abandon thyself in all thy sufferings to God;for the former is common to the good and the bad,but the latter is proper to My elect alone.If anyone were able rightly to weigh time and eternity,he ought rather to desire to lie in a fiery furnace for a hundred years than to be deprived in eternity of the smallest reward for the smallest suffering;for this has an end,but the other is without end.

The Servant.--Ah,sweet and dear Lord,how like a sweet harp are these words to a suffering mortal!Lord,Lord,wouldst Thou but cheer me thus and come to visit me in my sufferings,I should be glad to suffer;it would then be better for me to suffer than not to suffer.

Eternal Wisdom.--Now,then,hearken to the sweet music of the distended strings of that Divine harp--a God-suffering man--how richly it sounds,how sweetly it vibrates.Before the world,suffering is a reproach,but before Me it is an infinite honour.Suffering is an extinguisher of My wrath,and an obtainer of My favour.Suffering makes a man in My sight worthy of love,for the sufferer is like Me.Suffering is a hidden treasure which no one can make good;and though a man might kneel before Me a hundred years to beg a friendly suffering,he nevertheless would not earn it.Suffering changes an earthly man into a heavenly man.Suffering brings with it the estrangement of the world,but confers,instead,My intimate familiarity.It lessens delight and increases grace.He to whom I am to show Myself a friend,must be wholly disclaimed and abandoned by the world.Suffering is the surest way,the nearest way,and the shortest way.He who rightly knows how profitable suffering is,ought to receive it as a gift worthy of God.Oh,how many a man there is who once was a child of eternal death,and plunged in the profoundest sleep,whom suffering has wakened up and encouraged to a good life.How many a wild beast,how many an untamed bird,there is in human form,whom constant suffering has shut up,as it were,in a cage,who,if any one were to leave him time and place free,would do his best to escape from his salvation.Suffering is a safeguard against grievous falls;