things to be but loss for the
excellent knowledge of Jesus Christ my Lord, for whom I have suffered the
loss of all things, and count them but as waste, that I may gain
Christ."(63) What a struggle, too, was that which St. Augustine describes,
speaking of his own conversion! The parting with those sinful delights
which had hitherto held him in chains was like the forfeiture of all he
possessed, and it seemed to him that life thereafter would not be worth
living; yet he generously and vigorously gave them up that Christ might
become his possession. He has also described for us the change. "How
sweet," he says, "did it at once become to me to want the sweetness of
those trifles, which to lose had been my fear, but which to have lost was
now a joy! Thou didst cast them forth from me, oh Thou true and highest
sweetness! Thou didst cast them forth, and in their stead didst enter in
Thyself, sweeter than all pleasure!"(64)

It is such as these, heroic souls, who for the sake of God and His
kingdom, have made the world their enemy, that compose the company of the
elect. And for these alone it is that the Shepherd of souls has spread a
table of rest and peace, even in this life, of which they partake in the
sight of their enemies, in the presence of those who think evil of them,
who despise and deride them, in the sight of the world which hates them.
These holy souls, the elect of God, whom the Father has chosen for
Himself, have learned, through the trials and losses of life, the lessons
of peace and detachment which crosses are intended to teach. They have
learned, by exclusion and retirement from worldly festivities and
pernicious delights, to draw near to God, out of love for His beauty and
mercy, or if only to ease their breaking hearts and dispel the loneliness
of their forsaken lives. In the words of the Psalmist, they have tasted
and seen that the Lord is sweet, and that there is no one like unto
God.(65) With the image of the Crucified before their eyes and conscious
of the presence of their loving Shepherd, they greet with delight the
sufferings that oppress them, and they feast in peace in the presence of
their enemies. They know that all is arranged or permitted by the hand
that guards them, and by the One that loves them; and, though He slay
them, yet will they trust Him.(66) For what can happen to those that love
God? what evil can befall them? Angels have charge over them to keep them
in all their ways.(67)

It