ve his lord. It is
enough for the disciple that he be as his master, and the servant as his
lord. If they have called the good man of the house Beelzebub, how much
more them of his household!"(109)

And again, when the servants of God behold the wicked prospering and the
just oppressed; when they see the ambitious, the covetous, the
unscrupulous preferred and honored, and they themselves plotted against
and rejected, their heart is not disturbed, because they know first of all
that "to them that love God, all things work together unto good,"(110) and
secondly, they are persuaded that the efforts of sinners must finally
fail. "For the hope of the wicked is as dust, which is blown away with the
wind, and as a thin froth which is dispersed by the storm: and as a smoke
that is scattered abroad by the wind: and as the remembrance of a guest of
one day that passeth by."(111) In a word, then, those who are really the
friends of God have faith and confidence in their heavenly Master; and all
the perils of earth, and all the powers of darkness cannot avail to daunt
them or turn them aside from their purpose.

This steadfastness of religious trust we, in our turn, must strive to
acquire. It is the only way to peace and victory. If we would ever rise
above the evils of our lives we must learn to look to God for every thing.
And this looking to God must be, not only as to our bountiful benefactor,
but as to a kind master who knows how best to discipline his servants and
preserve them from irreparable harm.

There is a substantially correct translation of the final verse of the
Shepherd Psalm, which may be rendered as follows: "And Thy goodness and
kindness pursue me all the days of my life, _that I may dwell_ in the
house of the Lord forever." It is the special wording of the second clause
of the stanza that expresses the real purpose of divine Providence in
regard to the elect. Everything in life has been ordained and arranged for
their eternal salvation, and for the increase of their heavenly rewards.
"Therefore," wrote St. Paul to Timothy, "I endure all things for the sake
of the elect, that they also may obtain the salvation, which is in Christ
Jesus, with heavenly glory."(112) It is this firm conviction that infinite
love is at the bottom of all the workings of Providence, doing everything
for the sake of the elect, that consoles and steadies the souls of the
just throughout all the trials and crosses of life. In the thick of