Our Lord, " for they shall be comforted." If a particular portion of the human body is wounded, the blood quickly rushes thither, and the whole man is soon so concerned about that particular member as to seem to have forgotten about the others. So, too, you recollect how, long ago, when your brother or sister was taken ill, your father and mother and the entire household danced attendance on him or her until, possibly, your little breast was filled with envy and you said to yourself, " What a blessed thing it is to be sick! 99 Now, each of us is a member of Christ's mystical body, and He loves each so intensely that, without Him, not even a hair of our head can fall to the ground. Hence, I say, He is with us in tribulation, and the greater the tribulation the more evident His presence. The world dearly loves the rich and the happy, while the poor and wretched vainly cry to it for justice, but God is the Father of the orphan and the Judge of the widow, and the only source of true consolation. Brethren, were there no other lesson than this in all the Bible, it would still preserve its full claim to our attention as a masterpiece of wisdom. For happiness here or hereafter is essentially every man's pursuit, and here in this lesson we have the secret of true happiness. St. Andrew rejoicing at the sight of his cross; St. Stephen praying for his murderers; St. Lawrence smiling at his tormentors from amid the flames; St. Theodore complaining only when his torturers desisted; all these and thousands of such like raises are inexplicable to one who has not studied the Scriptures and mastered their prevailing
