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,