52 THE APOSTLE PAUL is his pupil, and imitator, and true offspring, whom that exalted Father educates, like a true Father, somewhat sternly. God cherishes a fatherly feeling towards the good, and loves mankind ; amid trouble, pains, and evils, He bids them win strength. With- out adversaries virtue weakens ; its powers are known to no one who has not put them to the test ; therefore God teaches those whom He loves to endure hard- ness, puts them to the proof, exercises them. As a tree grows strong only by braving the blast, so it is to the interest of the good to learn fearlessness and calm by exposure to alarms. Therefore the wise man will say: ‘There is nothing to which I am compelled, there is nothing which I suffer against my will; I serve God not as servant, but am in concord with Him, I follow Him from the heart, not because I must’” (de Provid., i—v.; Ep. xevi.). “God heaps upon us a multitude of benefits without hope of return—of which He has no need, while we are powerless to give it; therefore beneficence itself must be a thing desirable” (de Benefic., iv. 10). “Wouldst thou imitate the Gods, then give to the unthankful ; for the sun rises on the ungodly, and the seas are open to pirates; the wind blows not only as suits the good, and the rain is not turned aside from falling on the fields of the godless” (ibid. 26, 28; of: Matt. v. 45). ‘What moves the Gods to well- doing? Their nature. He who holds that they desire to injure men, is wrong ; that they cannot do ; they can do injustice as little as they can suffer it. The first point in the service of the Gods is to believe in the Gods, the next to recognise their majesty, and their goodness, without which there is no majesty ; the next,