HELIOTROPIUM
Conformity of the Human
Will
to the Divine
By FATHER
JEREMIAS
DREXELIUS
"The
Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away
. . . blessed be the name of the Lord."
Job
1: 21
TAN
BOOKS AND PUBLISHERS, INC.
Book Five:
Chapter Ten: How
Great Want of Trust in God is Yet Shown by Very Many
THERE was nothing which
our Lord more frequently and more sharply
rebuked in His disciples than want of Trust. Thus He often addressed
them as "of little faith" [Matt. VI. 30]; "slow of heart" [Luke XXIV.
25]; "unbelieving and perverse generation." [Matt. XVII. 16] In various
ways He tried them, that they might unlearn their want of Trust in Him.
For what was the object of that sleep of our Lord in the ship? [Matt.
VIII. 24] Or of that want of bread, and the question about providing
food in the wilderness? [John VI. 5] Or of the sinking of Peter in the
waves? [Matt. XIV. 30] Their want of Trust was set before them as a
thing to be unlearnt. Now want of Trust manifests itself under various
forms. There are some
who distrust God because they think that He is too indulgent to their
enemies and holds them under no restraint. Others are distrustful about
obtaining from God what they ask, especially if on account of sins
formerly committed, He should have denied them forgiveness, even when
they
sought it. Others distrust God, lest, perchance, He should withdraw the
necessaries of life. This threefold kind of distrust separates many
from God by a course of deception which is most subtle in its effect,
and hurries them on to ruin. But this sin of distrust is the more
harmful in proportion as it is less known. If, however, we search for
the source of this sin we shall discover that want of Trust in God
arises from the fact that man trusts too much in himself. How common,
then, but fatal, a sin this trust in self is! I must now explain before
we proceed to consider anything else.
1. Solomon rebukes with
severity this trust in self, when he says, -----"He
that trusteth in his own heart, is a fool." [Prov. XXVIII. 26] And
therefore he admonishes us,-----"Have confidence in the Lord with all
thy
heart, and lean not upon thy own prudence. Be not wise in thy own
conceit." [Prov. III. 5, 7] In good truth the first elements of folly
are to believe oneself a wise man. But who is such a Phoenix as not to
have a high opinion of his own interests, but think meanly of them, and
not occasionally contemplate his personal graces, prowess, learning, or
prudence with approving eyes, but regard them as his loss? "He that
trusteth in his own devices doth wickedly" [Prov. XII. 2], and
therefore God, in order to wrest this wickedness from us, often
chastises us with severity, or when we prove rebellious, altogether
cuts us off from Himself by His correction.
Goliath appears to me
to have had such
overweening trust in himself as
if with his single breath he could scatter whole armies. And so when he
saw David, the shepherd youth, advancing to meet him, he assailed so
contemptible an adversary with a bitter taunt, and said,
-----"Come to me,
and I will give thy flesh to the birds of the air, and to the beasts of
the earth." [1 Kings XVII. 44] But how soon was this self-confidence
crushed! And who guided the stone so as with unerring aim to strike the
forehead of Goliath but the Hand of God, which overthrew that haughty
tower, not indeed with warlike engines, but with a single pebble?
Holofernes was equally
confident in himself, and yet he was not of such
estimation in God's sight as to fall even by the hand of a man; for a
woman trampled all his arrogance under foot. Nabuchodonosor as "he was
walking in the palace of Babylon, answered and said: Is not this the
great Babylon, which I have built to be the seat of the kingdom, by the
strength of my power, and in the glory of my excellence?" [Dan. IV.
26, 27] Alas, Nabuchodonosor! up to this time a hundred dishes were
wont to be placed before you as a royal repast, but hereafter you shall
be served with but one, and that a wondrous strange one, until you
learn both to think and speak aright. But how will your breakfast taste
to you? You shall eat grass as oxen, until you learn to be wise, and
descend from your haughty pretensions. Your bath shall be the cold dew
of Heaven; your hair shall be to you instead of garments interwoven
with gold, and in place of nails you shall have the claws of birds.
"While the word was yet in the king's mouth, a voice came down from
Heaven: To thee, O king Nabuchodonosor, it is said: Thy kingdom shall
pass from thee, and they hall cast thee out from among men, and thy
dwelling hall be with cattle and wild beasts: thou shalt eat grass like
an ox, and seven times shall pass over thee, "thou know that the most
High ruleth in the kingdom of men, and giveth it to whomsoever He
will." [Ver. 28, 29] Thus, then, excessive self-confidence changed him
from a man into a beast; but hear how he changed again from a beast
into a man, and learnt to trust in God and not in himself:
-----"Now at the
end of the days, I Nabuchodonosor lifted up my eyes to Heaven, and my
sense was restored to me; and I blessed the most High, and I praised
and glorified Him that liveth for ever; for His power is an everlasting
power, md His kingdom is to all generations. And all the inhabitants of
the earth are reputed as nothing before Him: for He doth according to
His Will, as well with the powers of Heaven, as among the inhabitants
of the earth: and there is none that can resist His Hand, and lay to
Him: why hast Thou done it?" [Ver. 31, 32]
A great evil was that
confidence in self which impelled even the chief
of the Apostles to his fall! Why, O Peter, do you weep now that the
cock crows? It would have beseemed you to have wept before, when the
Lord was uttering His parting words, when after supper was ended He
made sad mention of His death, here indeed tears would have been well
timed: but self-confidence then altogether quenched tears; and instead
of weeping words of high promise were heard, -----"Although all shall be
scandalized in Thee, I will never be scandalized." [Matt. XXVI. 33] But
is it so? Will you never be offended? Only a few hours will pass by,
and all this promise, arising from nothing but confidence
in self, will collapse. S. Basil thinks that no one is overcome by any
temptation, unless he trusts in himself more than is right. He, on the
other hand, who really distrusts himself never thinks of undertaking
anything until he has previously invoked the Divine Aid. Let no one,
then, trust in his strength, or skill, or in a crown and riches, or in
learning and wisdom. The occasion comes when all these collapse before
a gentle breeze. "Thus saith the Lord: Let not the wise man glory in
his wisdom, and let not the strong man glory in his strength, and let
not the rich man glory in his riches." [Jer. IX. 23]
2. And not merely let
not one place his hope and trust in himself, but
neither in any other. Jeremias the prophet exclaims, -----"Cursed be the man
that trusteth in man, and maketh flesh his arm, and whose heart
departeth from the Lord." [Chap. XVII. 5] And here Origen says, when
explaining the words, "Cursed is everyone that hangeth on a tree" [Gal.
III. 13]-----"I
think that the meaning is the same
as, 'Cursed be the man
that trusteth in man.' For to hang on a tree is the same as to have
one's hope suspended from a man, who is, as it were, the frail trunk of
a tree."
It is the practice of
hunters, when they wish to take an elephant, to
set a snare of this kind. They cut through the centre of a tree against
which the elephant usually rests when sleeping, but they leave it still
standing, as if it were sound and untouched. When the elephant comes,
according to his custom, to take repose, he leans against the part
which has been cut in sunder, and thus the tree and the beast fall
together with great violence. And numberless are the people who choose
trees for themselves against which to rest. One person tries with the
utmost pains to please a prince; another courts the favour of a rich
prelate; a third insinuates himself into friendship with a great man;
some try to obtain the goodwill of others by presents, while others try
to acquire favour in various ways. O miserable ones that you are! you
are only deceiving yourselves, and preparing all this for your own
destruction! The trees against which you think that you will lean have
long ago been sapped by a secret wound, when you little thought it, and
soon they will fall, and with them all your hopes. Jonas made for
himself a booth, and sat under the shadow of it, and he "was exceeding
glad of the ivy." [Jonas IV. 6] Alas! for his short and empty joy; for
his twining plant had two enemies, the sun and a worm, and thus in a
single day all the pleasure of its shadow passed away. And now behold
the world, I pray you, and you will find it full of shadowing plants
like this; they flourish, indeed, for a short time, but destruction is
ever being threatened by worms of various kinds. What a common error it
is to rest on human favour! and would that even Religious persons would
here forbear to be so forgetful of their dignity, and with hidden
practices seek for favour! These are but shading booths which the
various worms of envy, detraction, calumny, and death itself, gnaw, and
scatter, and devour. Take the case of a household which reposes the
utmost trust in its master; in a short time death hurries away that
master, and where now is the shade of all the family? Another relies on
a patron who is rich and powerful; the patron dies, or his riches and
power are diminished, and so this man's ivy also withers away.
And thus Aman, who was
the eye of King Assuerus, recounted to his
friends and his wife, with great self-congratulation, "the greatness of
his riches, and the multitude of his children. and with how great glory
the king had advanced him above all his princes and servants." [Esth.
V. 11] Oh! splendid shade. But full soon must it be ignominiously
destroyed by the sun and worms. Aman himself was hanged [Chap. VII.
10], and his ten sons were put to death. [Chap. IX. 14]
3. We must rely, good
friends, on the bounty, favour, and power of God,
and not on that of men. David exclaims, -----"Put
not your trust in princes:
in the children of men." [Ps. CXLV. 2, 3] And why, I pray, must we not
trust in those who are possessed of the greatest power amongst us? The
Psalmist mmediately adds the reason, "in whom there is no salvation."
And for this reason must trust be reposed in none, even of the most
powerful of kings, not even in the invincible Caesars themselves, since
they also are only men. For why, O man, do you trust in a nan, in whom
"there is no salvation?" "His spirit shall go forth and he shall return
into his earth: in that day all their thoughts shall perish;" but
"blessed is he who hath the God of Jacob for his helper, whose hope is
in the Lord his God." [Ps. CXLV. 4, 5] The Holy Scriptures declare that
trust in man is but a shadow; "trusting in the shadow of Egypt." [Isai.
XXX. 2] What can be more fleeting, or more inconstant and deceptive
than a shadow? And such is trust reposed in man. "Many seek the face of
the prince: but the judgment of everyone cometh forth from the Lord."
[Prov. XXIX. 26]
When Jacob was
returning from Mesopotamia into Canaan, and was about
to meet his brother Esau attended with four hundred men, he was afraid,
and earnestly besought Divine help. God listened to his prayer, and
promised him the fullest assistance, and yet He sent him away lame.
[Gen. XXXII. 25] And what sort of help or Providence is this, you may
ask? Jacob implores aid, and he is dismissed with his thigh out of
joint! Is this the way to help, to make a man lame? Yes, this was in
truth the very way to help him; for there is a time when wounds cause
health, and temporary loss is gain; and there are many occasions in
which we are overcome for our own good. And therefore God sent away
Jacob with his thigh thus out of joint that he might learn, and we
through him, not to trust in ourselves or our own strength, nor yet in
that of others, but to rely on the power and g.oodness of God alone.
But because the sound man trusts in his health, the strong in his
strength, the learned in his learning, the rich in his gold, the wise
in his wisdom, and because the poor man hopes to be supported by the
rich, and the weak by the powerful, therefore God, in the perfection of
His wisdom, frequently removes all these, that, when the props on which
we used to rest are gone, we may learn to rest on God alone.
Gedeon dismissed from
his standard twenty-two thousand men [Judges VII.
3], keeping with him only three hundred [Ver. 6], for so God had
commanded him, "lest Israel should glory against Me, and say: I was
delivered by my own strength." [Ver. 2] Benadad, king of Syria,
reproaching Achab, king of Israel, with his weakness, threatened to
destroy him utterly. [3 Kings XX. 1 and fol.] But these threats were
vain, for although Benadad had brought with him to the war thirty-two
kings, and an incredible number of horsemen and chariots with scythes,
he was nevertheless routed in the very first battle, and a
hundred-thousand of the Syrians fell in one day. And "they that
remained fled to Aphec, into the city: and the wall fell upon seven and
twenty thousand men, that were left." [V er. 30] This is how Benadad
fared; let him now go and trust in himself and his own strength! That
excellent King Asa, whom we can never mention without sorrow, exhibited
great Trust in God, if it had only been constant. And this God most
signally rewarded when he routed an army of ten hundred thousand men
which Zara the Ethiopian had led out against him. [2 Par. XIV. 9] But
alas! after passing so many years of his life in such an illustrious
way, trust in human strength proved his ruin. And thus the prophet said
plainly to him, -----"Because
thou hast relied on the king of
Syria, and not
relied on the Lord thy God, therefore is the host of the king of Syria
escaped out of thine hand." [2 Par. XVI. 7] And then followed a long
series of reverses.
Admirably does S.
Augustine say [In Ps. XXX. Exp. 2] ,"Thou hatest them
that hold to vanity uselessly. But I, who do not hold to vanity, have
trusted in the Lord. Thou trustest in money, thou holdest to vanity:
thou trustest in honour, and in some eminence of human power, thou
holdest to vanity: thou trustest in some principal friend, thou holdest
to vanity. When thou trustest in all these things, either thou diest
and leavest them here, or in thy lifeime they all perish, and thou
failest in thy trust."
4. Moses was most
beloved by God, but, because he twice sinned through
want of Trust, he expiated his sin by death, and was only permitted to
see that fruitful Land of Promise afar off. The first display of want
of Trust was when, like a master of a household who is filled with
anxiety about feeding his family, he began to argue and say,"There are
six hundred thousand footmen of this people, and sayest Thou, I will
give them flesh to eat a whole month? Shall then a multitude of sheep
and oxen be killed, that it may suffice for their food? or shall the
fishes of the sea be gathered together to fill them?" [Numb. XI. 21,
22] But this, O Moses, is to reason with your want of Trust, and not
with Divine Providence. Is the Hand of the Lord shortened? [Isai. L.
2]
And this should have
made Moses more careful for the future; but his
want of Trust returned, and displayed itself just as on the former
occasion, for when all the congregation were gathered together at the
rock he exclaimed,------"Hear, ye rebellious and incredulous:
Can we bring
you forth water out of this rock? And the Lord said to Moses and Aaron:
"Because you have not believed Me, to sanctify Me before the children
of Israel, you shall not bring these people into the land, which I will
give them." [Numb. XX. 10, 12] And therefore God showed to Moses, when
he was about to die, that land afar off from the top of a mountain,
saying,-----"Thou
hast seen it with thy eyes, and
shalt not pass over to
it." [Deut. XXXIV. 4] Of so great consequence is it entirely to expel
from the soul this plague of want of Trust, against which, as being so
thoroughly opposed to God's glory, He exacted the severest penalties!
The children of Israel
also sinned most grievously, and upon many
occasions, through exhibiting afresh their want of Trust. Nor did any
wonders or miracles avail their hands, they immediately relapsed into
their former
want of Trust, and affirmed that it could not be done. To such a pitch
did this at length arrive that with continual murmurings they accused
God, either of forgetting them, or caring not for them. And how wicked
were those exclamations, -----"Would
God that we had died in Egypt:
and
would God we may die in this vast wilderness, and that the Lord may not
bring us into this land, lest we fall by the sword, and our wives and
children be led away captives. Is it not better to return into Egypt?
And they said one to another: Let us appoint a captain, and let us
return into Egypt." [Numb. XIV. 3-4] And is it come to this, ye wicked
ones? Just as if there were not everywhere a place for dying! But some
may wonder, perhaps, why God not merely gave no wine to His Own chosen
people, but permitted them also to want water! In this way their want
of Trust was to be expiated. Why did he send fiery serpents against
this same people, which not only bit so many, but also slew them? On
account of their want of Trust. Why did He sometimes permit twenty or
thirty thousand men to be slain in a single battle? On account of this
same want of Trust. Why did He set before them warlike enemies, who
were never entirely subdued? On account of the same want of Trust,
which He could not extinguish in this murmuring people by any
punishments, but it was ever bursting out afresh. At length,-----"The Lord
said to Moses: How long will this people detract Me? How long will they
not believe Me for all the signs that I have wrought before them? I
will strike them, therefore, with pestilence, and will consume them:
but thee I will make a ruler over a great nation, and a mightier than
this is." [Numb. XIV. 11, 12] Upon this Moses pleaded with God on their
behalf, and still the Divine Decree was,-----"According as you have spoken
in my hearing, so will I do to you. In the wilderness shall your
carcasses lie. But your children, of whom you said that they should be
a prey to the enemies, will I bring in: that they may see the land
which you have despised." [Numb. XIV. 28, 29, 31] And so the Divine
threatenings were executed, for out of so many hundred thousand men
whom God had brought up out of Egypt, not one so much as saw the
fruitful land, for they all perished in the wilderness. Only Caleb and
Josue, who had never cast away their hope of possessing that land, were
allowed to enter it. In such a way were they to pay the penalty for
their want of Trust! And yet after all this they ceased not from this
sin, but repeated it afresh even at the very passage of the Jordan!
5. When the city of
Siceleg had been burnt with fire by the
Amalecites, and all the women and children had been taken captive,
matters had come to such a dreadful pass that the people spoke of
stoning David. But the greater was the want of Trust in the rest, the
loftier was the confidence of David. He "took courage in the Lord his
God." [1 Kings XXX. 6] Thus, then, conceiving the most confident hope,
he pursued the enemy with four hundred men, and having found them
"spread upon all the ground, eating and drinking," he "slew them from
the evening unto the evening of the next day. So David recovered all
that the Amalecites had taken." [Ver. 16-18]
Eliseus
predicted, at a time of the utmost scarcity, that there would
shortly be great plenty of corn. A certain nobleman of Samaria heard
his words, and, mocking them through want of Trust, exclaimed,
-----"If the
Lord should make flood-gates in Heaven, can that possibly be which thou
sayest?" To whom Eliseus replied,-----"Thou
shalt see it with thy eyes, but
shalt not eat thereof." [4 Kings VII. 2] And it turned out as the
prophet had said, for that lord was trodden under foot of the people in
the gate, and died. A worthy reward for his want of Trust! Of a truth
"the thoughts of mortal
men are fearful, and our counsels uncertain." [Wisd. IX. 14] But God
knows all things alike, as well future as present and past. And yet
because this abyss of Divine Providence is utterly secret, many people,
when they perceive so many acts of wickedness remaining unpunished, and
unseen, as it were, by God, and when also they see good men sorely
scourged with troubles, precipitate themselves into the whirlpool of
want of Trust, just as if God had no care for human affairs, since
oftentimes no difference
appears between the just and unjust. "All things," says the Preacher
[Eccles. IX. 2], "equally happen to the just and to the wicked, to the
good and to the evil, to the clean and to the unclean, to him that
offereth victims, and to him that despiseth sacrifices. As the good is,
so also is the sinner: as the perjured, so he also that sweareth
truth." These things seem to us to happen at random, and by
chance. And thus we are like a man who looks at a clock in a
tower; he sees its face indeed, and the hands by which the time is
told, but the clock itself, and its skilfully-constructed mechanism of
wheels he cannot see. A child or an idiot might believe that the hands
of the clock move by themselves, and not according to any fixed design,
but by chance. The people, however, who live in that town know full
well that this is not the case, but that behind the wall the works of
the clock are concealed. And just in the same way the government of God
is secret, but conducted on principles of most perfect order. We
perceive outward indications of its presence in everything, but the
marvelous mechanism we cannot see.
And this Horologe of
Divine Providence has inscribed on its dial the
hours of all men, even to the smallest seconds. Baltasar, king of
Babylon, when drinking wine at his most sumptuous banquet, saw a man's
handwriting upon the opposite wall. "Then was the king's countenance
changed, and his thoughts troubled him; and the joints of his loins
were loosed, and his knees struck one against the other." [Dan. V. 6]
But what do you see, O king? Why are you troubled? Whose is this hand?
If you know it, how is it that you do not also know the writer? But if
you recognize neither one nor the other, why do you fear so
exceedingly? The wretched king consulted all the wise men of the city
about this mysterious writing, but none could understand it; all could
see the face of the horologe, but none its interior works. Yet who
could doubt that the hands were made to revolve by Divine Providence?
Then came Daniel and proclaimed, -----"This is the interpretation of the
word. Mane: God hath numbered thy kingdom, and hath finished it."
[Ver. 26] The last hour of your life, O king, is come, it is even now
hastening to its end. Therefore, make haste to live; the last moment of
the clock is passing away. And how did Daniel know this? He saw it on
the Horologe of Divine Providence.
6. Hence it appears
that all the affairs of men, whether they be
adverse or prosperous, are most accurately and exactly inscribed on
this Horologe of Divine Providence, which cannot be so deceived in even
the minutest point as not to cause all things to be directed to the end
which is most expedient. "One jot or one tittle shall not pass." [Matt.
v. 18] "Neither will I leave thee, till I shall have accomplished all
that I have said." [Gen. XXVIII. 15] But if we trust a clock which has
a most skilful workman to attend to its mechanism, what folly and
madness it is sometimes to find fault with that Horologe of the
universe, which cannot err, and wherein all events are most admirably
ordered? "But Thy Providence, O Father, governeth it: for Thou hast
made a way even in the sea, and a most sure path among the waves.
Shewing that Thou art able to save out of all things, yea though a man
went to sea without art." [Wisd. XIV. 3, 4] When excellent men,
however, are oppressed and afflicted, while the wicked flourish, and
bring all their undertakings to a prosperous issue, Divine Providence
seems to sleep, or to wink at this. And this thought has sometimes
disquieted even the saintliest of men; but their disquietude is our
instruction and confirmation. David says of himself, -----"But my feet
were almost moved; my steps had well-nigh slipped. Because I had a zeal
on occasion of the wicked, seeing the prosperity of sinners. They are
not in the labour of men: neither shall they be scourged like other
men. And I said: Then have I in vain justified my heart, and washed my
hands among the innocent." [Ps. LXXII, 2, 3, 5, 13] David evidently
thought that he could discover the reason for this, for he says,-----"I
studied that I might know this thing, it is a labour in my sight: until
I go into the sanctuary of God, and understand concerning their last
ends." [Ver. 16, 17] We shall one day know all this in Heaven, but now
we must not attempt to find it out. "Thou indeed, O Lord, art just, if
I plead with Thee, but yet I will speak what is just to Thee: Why doth
the way of the wicked prosper: Why is it well with all them that
transgress, and do wickedly? Thou hast planted them, and they have
taken root: they prosper and bring forth fruit: Thou art near in their
mouth, and far from their reins." [Jer. XII. 1, 2] And in the same way
Habacuc complains [Chap. 1. 13, 14],-----"Why lookest Thou upon them that
do unjust things, and holdest Thy peace when the wicked devoureth the
man that is more just than himself? And thou wilt make men as the
fishes of the sea, and as the creeping things that have no ruler." But
all such complaints arise from our seeing only one part of Divine
Providence; the other is entirely hidden from our eyes, and yet, when
the manifestation of an event should be waited for until the day of
judgment, we nevertheless pass a rash judgment before that day. And
therefore S. Paul says [1 Cor. IV. 5]:-----"Therefore judge not before the
time, until the Lord come, Who both will bring to light the hidden
things of darkness, and will make manifest the counsels of the hearts."
Hereafter,
when we
shall see not merely the face of that great
Horologe, but the very works themselves of Divine Providence, and it
will be permitted to us to inspect them all, then each person will
behold most clearly the courses of all ages, and the events of his own
life, and then will be seen with what wonderful Providence God has
governed all men, individually and collectively, and with what fatherly
care He has ordered every moment of each person's life for their good
and salvation, and has never allowed anything to happen to anyone which
might not help towards this end. Then it will be seen why God permitted
the Angels to be tast down from Heaven, and the first Pair to fall. Why
He chose the Jews, a stubborn nation, to be His Own people, while he
rejected the rest of mankind. Why He has decreed that some should be
born of Christian parents, while He has permitted others to be born
among idolaters. Why He has early delivered one person from all kinds
of sorrows, while He has allowed another to grow old in calamity and
die in it. Then whatever has been patiently endured for love of Christ
will be of priceless value. Whoever seriously reflects on this, salutes
with a reverent kiss the sceptre of Assuerus [Esth. V. 2], that is to
say, every chastisement of God.
  
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