r of the saints. This benevolent virtue so entirely possessed
their hearts, that they were constantly disposed to sacrifice even their
lives to the relief and assistance of others. Zealously employed in
removing their temporal necessities, they labored with redoubled vigor
to succor their spiritual wants, {317} by rooting out from their souls
the dominion of sin, and substituting in its room the kingdom of God's
grace. Ingratitude and ill-treatment, which was the return they
frequently met with for their charitable endeavors, were not able to
allay their ardent zeal: they considered men on these occasions as
patients under the pressure of diseases, more properly the object of
compassion than of resentment. They recommended them to God in their
private devotions, and earnestly besought his mercy in their favor. This
conduct of the saints, extraordinary as it is, ceases to appear
surprising when we recollect the powerful arguments our Blessed Saviour
made use of to excite us to the love of our neighbor. But how shall we
justify our unfeeling hard-heartedness, that seeks every trifling
pretence to exempt us from the duty of succoring the unfortunate? Have
we forgot that Jesus Christ our Redeemer, who alone hath bestowed on us
whatever we possess, hath made charity towards our fellow-creature, but
especially towards the needy, an indispensable precept? Do we not know
that he bids us consider the suffering poor as members of the same head,
heirs of the same promises, as our brethren and his children who
represent him on earth? He declares, that whatever we bestow upon them
he will esteem it as given to himself; and pledges his sacred word that
he will reward our alms with an eternity of bliss. Such motives, says
St. Chrysostom, would be sufficient to touch a heart of stone: but there
is something still more cogent, continues the same holy father, which
is, that the same Jesus Christ, whom we refuse to nourish in the persons
of the poor, feeds our souls with his precious body and blood. If such
considerations move not our hearts to commiserate and assist the
indigent, what share of mercy and relief can we hope for in the hour of
need? Oh, incomprehensible blindness! we perhaps prepare for ourselves
an eternal abyss, by those very means which, properly applied, would
secure as the conquest of a kingdom which will never have an end.[6]

Footnotes:
1. A century before, the counts of Barcelona were become kings of
Aragon by