Learn from your own experience to sympathize with those in
trouble, and never to terrify with destructive despair those who are in danger,
nor harden them with severe speeches, but rather restore them with gentle and
kindly consolations and as the wise Solomon says, ‘Spare not to deliver those
who are led forth to death, and to redeem those who are to be slain, (Prov
24:11) and after the example of our Savior, break not the bruised reed, nor
quench the smoking flax (cf Matt 12:20), and ask of the Lord that grace, by
means of which you yourself may faithfully learn both in deed and power to
sing, ‘the Lord has given me a learned tongue that I should know how to uphold
by word him that is weary (Isaiah 50:4): for no one could bear the devices of
the enemy, or extinguish or repress those carnal fires which burn with a sort
of natural flame, unless God’s grace assisted our weakness, or protected and
supported it.
No comments:
Post a Comment