labor
exacted, body and mind were dead. Hence it is, we may believe, that man
must everywhere labor even for the food which is necessary to mere
existence. Life is made dear to us by an instinct--we shrink from
nothing as we do from the mere thought of non-existence--but still it is
death or toil; that is the alternative. So that labor is thus insured
wherever man is found, and it is this that makes him what he is. Then he
is made, moreover, so as to crave not only food but knowledge as much,
and also virtue; but between him and both these objects there are
interposed, for the same reason doubtless, mountains of difficulty,
which he must clamber up and over before he can bask in the pleasant
fields that lie beyond, and then ascend the distant mountain-tops, from
which but a single step removes him from the abode of God. Doubt it not,
lady, that it is never in vain and for naught that man labors and
suffers; but that the good which redounds is in proportion to what is
undergone, and more than a compensation. If, in these times of darkness
and fear, suffering is more, goodness and faith are more also. There are
Christians, and men, made by such trials, that are never made elsewhere
nor otherwise--nor can be; just as the arm of Hercules could not be but
by the labors of Hercules. What says Macer? Why even this, that God is
to be thanked for this danger, for that the church needs it! The brief
prosperity it has enjoyed since the time of Valerian and Macrianus, has
corrupted it, and it must be purged anew, and tried by fire! I think not
that; but I think this; that if suffering ever so extreme is ordained,
there will be a virtue begotten in the souls of the sufferers, and
abroad through them, that shall prove it not to have been in vain.'

'I can believe what you say,' said Julia, 'at least I can believe in the
virtue ascribed to labor, and the collision with difficulty. Suffering
is passive; may it not be that we may come to place too much merit in
this?'

'It is not to be doubted that we may,' replied Probus. 'The temptation
to do so is great. It is easy to suffer. In comparison with labor and
duty--life-long labor and duty--it is a light service. Yet it carries
with it an imposing air, and is too apt to take to itself all the glory
of the Christian's course. Many who have lived as Christians but
indifferently have, in the hour of persecution, and in the heat of that
hour, rushed upon death and borne it well, and before