heaven and earth? Is He not the best? the highest, the loveliest, and the most beautiful?
"How, if God should, one day, be ashamed of you? If, on the terrible judgment day He let you perish in your nothingness? If, then, He should deny you, as you deny Him now, if He should refuse to know you? What then?
"Whosoever shall be ashamed of Me, and of My words, of him shall the Son of man be ashamed, when He shall come in His majesty" (Luke ix. 26), says the Lord - and He will keep His word.
"Tell me, at least, before whom are you ashamed?
"Before the good and virtuous? Before those who will, one day, come with the saints of heaven to sit in judgment over the world?
"Is it not rather before sinners, evil-doers, perverts, and fools? Yes, indeed - fools. The Sacred Scripture says: 'Fools hate them that flee from evil things' (Prov. xiii. 19). Yes, indeed - sinners. 'The worship of -God is an abomination to a sinner' (Ecclus. i. 32). And again: 'He that walketh in the right, and feareth God, is despised by him that goeth by an infamous way' (Prov. xiv. 2). . "Are you so sensitive as to the recognition or respect of men? Why, then, do you not labor for the esteem and praise of the just and good?
"Why all these cowardly fears? Is virtue, then, something disgraceful? What has any worth, if not it, and it alone?
"Riches vanish, honors evaporate, pleasures slip away - virtue, valuable in itself, recognized by God, fostered by the noblest and best of men - an object of envy, even to the wicked - virtue remains, reaches even beyond the
