hey were little and easy, because of His
omnipotence.

553

It seems to me that Jesus Christ only allowed His wounds to be touched
after His resurrection: _Noli me tangere._[206] We must unite ourselves
only to His sufferings.

At the Last Supper He gave Himself in communion as about to die; to the
disciples at Emmaus as risen from the dead; to the whole Church as
ascended into heaven.

554

"Compare not thyself with others, but with Me. If thou dost not find Me
in those with whom thou comparest thyself, thou comparest thyself to one
who is abominable. If thou findest Me in them, compare thyself to Me.
But whom wilt thou compare? Thyself, or Me in thee? If it is thyself, it
is one who is abominable. If it is I, thou comparest Me to Myself. Now I
am God in all.

"I speak to thee, and often counsel thee, because thy director cannot
speak to thee, for I do not want thee to lack a guide.

"And perhaps I do so at his prayers, and thus he leads thee without thy
seeing it. Thou wouldst not seek Me, if thou didst not possess Me.

"Be not therefore troubled."

SECTION VIII

THE FUNDAMENTALS OF THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION

555

... Men blaspheme what they do not know. The Christian religion consists
in two points. It is of equal concern to men to know them, and it is
equally dangerous to be ignorant to them. And it is equally of God's
mercy that He has given indications of both.

And yet they take occasion to conclude that one of these points does not
exist, from that which should have caused them to infer the other. The
sages who have said there is only one God have been persecuted, the Jews
were hated, and still more the Christians. They have seen by the light
of nature that if there be a true religion on earth, the course of all
things must tend to it as to a centre.

The whole course of things must have for its object the establishment
and the greatness of religion. Men must have within them feelings suited
to what religion teaches us. And, finally, religion must so be the
object and centre to which all things tend, that whoever knows the
principles of religion can give an explanation both of the whole nature
of man in particular, and of the whole course of the world in general.

And on this ground they take occasion to revile the Christian religion,
because they misunderstand it. They imagine that it consists simply in
the worship of a God considered as great, powerful, and eternal; which
is stric