God, being eternal, is patient.
The last word is the word of mercy, and it belongs to those who believe
in love. "Why art thou sad, O my soul? and why dost thou disquiet me?
_Quare tristis es anima, et quare conturbas me?_" Hope in God. Bless Him
always. Is He not thy Saviour and thy God? _Spera in Deo quoniam adhuc
confitebor illi, salutare vultus mei et Deus meus._
When holy Job, whom God presented as an example of constancy to the
generations to come, had been stricken, blow upon blow, by Satan, with
the loss of his children, of his goods, of his health, his enemies
approached him with provocations to discouragement; his wife urged upon
him a blasphemy and a curse. "Dost thou still continue in thy
simplicity? Curse God, and die." But the man of God was unshaken in his
confidence. "And he said to her: Thou hast spoken like one of the
foolish women: if we have received good things at the hand of God, why
should we not receive evil? _Dominus dedit, Dominus abstulit; sicut
Domino placuit ita factum est. Sit nomen Domini benedictum._" And
experience proved that saintly one to be right. It pleased the Lord to
recompense, even here below, His faithful servant. "The Lord gave Job
twice as much as he had before. And for his sake God pardoned his
friends."
Better than any other man, perhaps, do I know what our unhappy country
has undergone. Nor will any Belgian, I trust, doubt of what I suffer in
my soul, as a citizen and as a Bishop, in sympathy with all this sorrow.
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