They honor their cowardice with the specious names of moderation and prudence; under a pretence that they must not carry their zeal too far, they have none at all; by wishing to avoid the rock of imprudence and over-engagedness, they often fall, without scruple, upon that of cowardice and indolence. They wish to be able to render themselves useful to sinners, and at the same time, render sinners favora.ble to them; that is to say, they wish to have their zeal applauded to be able to oppose the passions of men, and at the same time, to secure their praisesto condemn the vices which others love, and to be approved of those whom they condemn. But is there any means of applying a caustic to a wound without exciting pain? No, my brethren, let us not deceive ourselves; if that apostolical zeal that magnani. mous, wise, disinterested zeal that zeal which feared not formerly to say to an Emperor, "Imitate David in his repentance, as you have imitated him in his sins" *if that zeal is so uncommon among us, it is because we regard ourselves alone, instead of seeking the glory of God and the salvation of sinners. Our views in entering into the ministry do not lead us to examine whether we shall be useful, but whether we shall be applauded; we esteem ourselves successful, no further than we acquire honor in the eyes of men. Whatever would subject us to mortifications and reproaches from them, although God should be glori fied thereby, and his grace should make use of it to spread blessings upon our ministry, we avoid as a disappointment and an unhappiness; as if we were ministers for ourselves alone. Glory and infamy were regarded by the great Apostle to the Gentiles in the same light, when he was discharging the duties of his apostleship; he did not think it possible to please men, and be a true servant of Jesus Christ. But we would unite what that heavenly man thought • St. Ambrose. could not be united; though he learned, even in heaven, secrets which the ear has never heard. Let us not deceive ourselves; the Son of God came not to send peace upon the earth, but a sword; the truths of which we are the interpreters cannot please the world, because they condemn the world. If we expect that the gospel should be according to the taste of the world, and that the truth will find no gainsay ers, we expect what Christ has foretold will never happen. The world will always remain, even to the end, inimical to him and his doctrine; it will always reply to us as the Jews did to Christ, "this is a hard saying," these truths are extravagant; these maxims are impracticable; and it is not possible to hear them without revolting against them. "This is an hard saying; Who can hear it?"* The world will never change its language; we must expect to find it always armed against us; opposing the arms of flesh and blood to the spiritual armor of our holy warfare; thwarting our projects; rendering our labors abortive; turning our doctrine into ridicule; decrying our ministry; and often attempting to injure our reputations with the poison of censure and calumny. Why then should that which is to console us under our troubles, and crown our labors, become the only motive to give us a distaste for them? Let us remember that success, in their ministry, was not promised to the Apostles, 'by their great Master, but in connection with contempt, opprobrium, contradiction, and sufferings. If they had had no other motive to induce them to preach the gospel but the expectation that cities and provinces would receive it with applause, the whole universe would have been still in idolatry; and instead of true faith and holy doctrines, we should have received from our ancestors only blindness, profane superstition, and idolatry. It is the glorious characteristic of the doctrines of Chris * John vi. 60. tianity, and a great proof of their divinity, to be always opposed and always victorious; to raise the world against them, and to subject the world to their yoke; to be opposed to flesh and blood, to pride, ambition, false wisdom, and all the passions of man; and to establish themselves alone, without strength, without support, without protection, by the arms of grace and truth, upon the ruins of all human lusts. To fear contradictions and obstacles, is then to be wanting in faith; since faith itself proposes them to us as the glory and recompense of our ministry. Have not ministers, animated with the Spirit of God, experienced contradictions, in all ages? În succeeding to the zeal and ministry of the apostles, have they not succeeded to their tribulations and reproaches? It was not by temporizing with sinners that they converted them; it was by combatting them ; it was not by flattering the great and the powerful, that they induced them to submit to the yoke of Christ; it was by making them tremble, as Paul formerly did even kings upon their thrones, by the terrors of the holy word-by the frightful image of a judgment to come, and of the punishments reserved for the worldly minded and unchaste. We however flatter ourselves with succeeding better by adopting another method towards the great and the powerful; and this is a perpetual illusion which conceals from us our prevarication and weakness. We hardly dare show them, even at a distance, truths which displease them, which yet alone can be useful to them. Their most public and most shameful vices are to us like sacred things; and we touch them only with circumspection, and with strokes so slight and tender that they are not perceived. Our great object seems to be, not to convert them, but to forbear irritating them; as if our ministry, as respects them, consisted in humoring them, not in converting them; and in preaching to them the words of salvation in such a manner, that they cannot find any thing that regards and interests them. We persuade ourselves that we ought not, by an indiscreet zeal, to deprive the Church of worldly greatness which may be useful to it; as if the Church had need of an arm of flesh to support it ; as if men, plunged in sin, could be useful in the work of God; as if it was necessary to flatter the great, for the maintenance of a religion which was at first established by combatting their passions; in fine, as if it was indiscreet not to use flattery and collusion in our ministry. My brethren, let us not seek supports of flesh and blood for religion. Let us unite fidelity in our ministry with the respect and regard due to human greatness what we owe to a love of the truth with a proper regard to the rules of Christian prudence. Religion does not authorize excesses and indiscretion in zeal; it condemns only a fear of man, and the cowardly and interested views of self-love. Let us respect the great and the powerful, but let us not respect their vices and their sins; let us render to their persons the love, the homage, and the regard which are due to them, but let us not render the same to their vices; let us exhibit to the common people examples of submission and fidelity to the great, not of adulation and shameful meanness. The men of the world study enough to corrupt and blind them by the poison of continual flattery; let us not prostitute our ministry to so unworthy a use; but, by a wise and respectable sincerity, let us preserve for them a resource for knowing the truth. If in consequence of our places and stations we have free access to them, let us not be occupied in advancing our own fortune, but their salvation. The only means of being useful to them is not to desire them to be useful to us. If we aspire at procuring their favor, we must begin by humoring their foibles. It is rare that their good graces are to be purchased but by weakness and base complaisance on our part. We should tremble when they load us with favors; the higher they elevate us, the lower, we have reason to fear we are in reality degraded; their gifts cost us dear, since they must, almost always, be purchased at the expense of truth, and of the dignity of our ministry. Not that the great are unsusceptible of the truth; on the contrary, by their being the less accustomed to it, it would make the stronger impression. Their ruin generally proceeds from this source, that there is no person near them who dares to show them the precipice, and reach forth a hand to hinder them from falling into destruction. It is then an improper respect for man which extinguishes in us sacerdotal zeal and a love of the truth. To this source of the want of zeal we may add another, which yet, I hope, will not apply to those who now hear me; I mean disorderly morals. It is not indeed to be wondered at, that a minister, whose soul is polluted with criminal passions, should find himself without strength, without emotion, without courage, when it is necessary for him to reprove and condemn the same passions in others. How ean sins which we love, and which we ourselves practise, awaken zeal or regret in us? If we were capable of being affected by seeing them in others, we should first feel our own misery. Familiarized with iniquity, it becomes in others an object more suited to corrupt us than to give us pain; more adapted to excite our passions than to stimulate our zeal. The open transgressions which we witness are no longer any thing, as respects us, but inducements to impenitence; they justify, in our view, our secret sins; and that which ought to pierce the heart with the most lively grief, calms us, encourages us, and completes the extinction of every pious sentiment. So that if our stations then oblige us to preach the truths of salvation, and to speak against public vices, how cold, how constrained, how disconcerted our manner! My brethren, our reproofs ought not to |