ials, and to purify their virtue in the crucible, that by being
exercised it may be made heroic and perfect. By suffering with patience,
and in a Christian spirit, a soul makes higher and quicker advances in
pure love, than by any other means or by any other good works. Let no
one then repine, if by sickness, persecution, or disgraces, they are
hindered from doing the good actions which they desire, or rendered
incapable of discharging the duties of their station, or of laboring to
convert others. God always knows what is best for us and others: we may
safely commend to him his own cause, and all souls, which are dearer to
him than they can be to us. By this earnest prayer and perfect sacrifice
of ourselves to God, we shall more effectually draw upon ourselves the
divine mercy than by any endeavors of our own. Let us leave to God the
choice of his instruments and means in the salvation of others. As to
ourselves, it is our duty to give him what he requires of us: nor can we
glorify him by any sacrifice either greater or more honorable, and more
agreeable to him, than that of a heart under the heaviest pressure, ever
submissive to him, embracing with love and joy every order of his
wisdom, and placing its entire happiness and comfort in the
accomplishment of his adorable most holy will. The great care of a
Christian in this state, in order to sanctify his sufferings, must be to
be constantly {585} united to God, and to employ his affections in the
most fervent interior exercises of entire sacrifice and resignation, of
confidence, love, praise, adoration, penance, and compunction, which he
excites by suitable aspirations.

Footnotes:
1. The Confession of Faith which, upon his promotion, he sent to pope
Leo III., is published by Baronius ad an. 811 and in the seventh
tome of Labbe's councils, &c. In it the saint gives a clear
exposition of the principal mysteries of faith, of the invocation of
saints, and the veneration due to relics and holy images.
2. Eph. iv. 11.
3. St. Nicephorus has left us a chronicle from the beginning of the
world: of which the best editions are that of F. Goar, with the
chronicle of George Syncellus at Paris, in 1652, and that of Venice
among the Byzantine historians, in 1729. Also a short history from
the reign of Mauritius to that of Constantine and Irene, published
at Paris, in 1616, by F. Petau; and reprinted among the Byzantine
historians, at Paris,