be ready day and night like one who fights against the heathen!"Where is now what you were wont,in the presence of grace,to say a thousand times interiorly:"Art thou prepared to combat steadily when forsaken?"No more is heard the sad and lamentable cry which you so often uttered:"O God,why hast Thou forsaken me!"Rather do I hear the sweet words lovingly sounding in your ears:"Come hither to Me,My blessed ones,possess the everlasting kingdom prepared for you from the beginning of the world."Where is now all the sorrow and affliction which ye ever endured on earth?O God,how swiftly is it all vanished like a dream as though ye had never known tribulation!Of a truth,gentle Lord,how inscrutable are Thy judgments to the world!Happy you,ye elect,it is all over now with dwelling in nooks and corners,with stealing away and hiding yourselves from the senseless follies of other men.
Oh,if all hearts were but one heart,they could not sufficiently reflect on the great honour,the immeasurable deserts,the praise which you will evermore possess.O ye heavenly princes,O ye noble kings and emperors,O ye eternal children of God,how full of joy are your countenances,how full of gladness your hearts!What a loftiness of soul ye have!How right cheerfully do your voices swell forth in this song:Praise and thanksgiving,glory and benediction,grace and joy and everlasting honour to Him,from world to world,from eternity to eternity,from the very bottom of our hearts,to Him by whose goodness we possess all these things for ever and ever!Amen!Lo,here is our fatherland,here is heartfelt jubilation,here is unfathomable everlasting life!
The Servant.--O wonder above all wonders!Ah,fathomless good,what art Thou?Yes,my gentle Lord,my chosen One,how good it is to be here!O my only Love,let us tarry here!
Eternal Wisdom.--It is not yet time to tarry here.Many a sharp conflict hast thou still to endure.This vision has only been shown to thee that thou mayest presently revert to it in all thy sufferings,as thus thou canst never lose courage,and wilt forget all thy sorrow;and further,as an answer to the complaint of foolish men who say that I allow My friends to fare so hard.See then what a difference there is between My friendship and the friendship of this temporal state;and to speak according to the truth,how much better than others My friends fare at My hands.I will say nothing of the great trouble,labour,and many a severe tribulation in which they swim and wade,night and day;only this,that they are so blinded they do not understand it.It is indeed My eternal economy that a mind not regulated should be a sharp torment and heavy burden to itself.My friends have bodily distress,but then they have peace of heart.The friends of the world hunt after bodily comfort and ease,but in their hearts,their souls and minds,they gain nothing but trouble and vexation.
The Servant.--Those persons,Lord,are out of their right senses,and are raving,who would needs compare Thy faithful friendship and the world's friendship together.That they should do so because Thou hast few friends who have no suffering to complain of,is the fault of their great blindness.
O Lord,how very soft and gentle is Thy Fatherly rod!Blessed is he on whom Thou sparest it not.Lord,I now plainly see that tribulation does not proceed from Thy harshness,but rather from Thy tender love.Let no one say for the future that Thou hast forgotten Thy friends.Those hast Thou forgotten (for Thou hast despaired of them),on whom Thou dost spare chastisement here below.Lord,in all fairness those ought not to have joyous days,nor pleasures,nor comfort here below,whom Thou dost intend to shield above from eternal misery,and endow with everlasting delight.Grant,O Lord,that these two visions may never disappear from the eyes of my heart,so that I never may lose Thy friendship.
CHAPTER XIII.On The Immeasurable Dignity of Temporal Suffering The Servant.
--Tell me now,tender Lord,what this suffering is which Thou thinkest so very profitable and good?
Eternal Wisdom.--What I mean is every kind of suffering,whether willingly accepted or unwillingly incurred--as when a man makes a virtue of necessity in not wishing to be exempt from suffering without My will,and ordering it,in humble patience,to My eternal praise;and the more willingly he does this,the more precious and agreeable it is to Me.
Touching such kinds of suffering,hear further,and write it down in the bottom of thy heart,and keep it as a sign to set before the spiritual eyes of thy soul.My dwelling is in the pure soul as in a paradise of delights,for which reason I cannot endure that she should lovingly and longingly attach herself to anything.But,from her very nature,she is inclined to pernicious lusts,and therefore I encompass her path with thorns.I garnish all her outlets with adversity,whether she like it or not,so that she may not escape from Me;her ways I strew with tribulation,so that she may not set the foot of her heart's desire anywhere except in the loftiness of My divine nature.And if all hearts were but one heart,they would not be able to bear even that least reward which I certainly will give for the suffering endured by anyone for love of Me.Such is My eternal order in all nature,from which I do not swerve;what is precious and good must be earned with bitterness;he who recoils at thus,let him recoil;many are indeed called,but few are chosen.
The Servant.--It may well be,Lord,that suffering is an infinite good,provided it be not without measure,and not too dreadful and overwhelming.
