dost thou delay about them? Hear this: There was once a
monk who spoke to a distinguished man about the faith, and got him to
answer why he did not believe. He answered thus: "You yourself do not
believe, for if you believed you would show other works." Therefore, to
you also I say: If you believe, where are your works? Your faith is
something every one knows, for every one knows that Christ was put to
death by the Jews, and that everywhere men pray to Him. The whole world
knows that His glory has not been spread by force and weapons, but by
poor fishermen. O wise man, do you think the poor fishermen were not
clever enough for this? Where they worked, there they made hearts
better; where they could not work, there men remained bad; and therefore
was the faith true and from God. The signs which the Lord had promised
followed their teaching: in His name they drove out the devil; they
spoke in new tongues; if they drank any deadly drink, they received
therefrom no harm. Even if these wonders had not occurred, there would
have been the wonder of wonders, that poor fishermen without any miracle
could accomplish so great a work as the faith. It came from God, and so
is Christ true and Christ is thy God, who is in heaven and awaits thee.

You say you believe the Gospel, but you do not believe me. But the purer
anything is, so much the nearer it stands to its end and purpose. The
Christian life purifies the heart, and places it very near to the truth.
To the Christian life will I lead you, if you would have the knowledge
of the truth. If I had wished to deceive you, why should I have given
you as the chief of my gifts the means of discovering my fraud? I would
be verily a fool to try to impose upon you with a falsehood which you
would soon detect; only because I offered you the truth, did I call
you. Come here, I fear you not; the closer you examine, the clearer the
truth will become to you.

There are some, however, who are ashamed of the cross of Jesus Christ,
and say: If we should believe that, we should be despised everywhere,
especially by the wisest. But if you would know the truth, look only on
the lives of those who would have to cry wo on their unbelief if they
should be measured by deeds. If you are ashamed of the cross, the Lord
was not ashamed to bear that cross for you, and to die on that cross for
you. Be not ashamed of His service and of the defense of the truth. Look
at the servants of the devil, who are not as