iring faith. He says to all the
suffering and comfortless: My dear brother, think not that thou alone
sufferest distress and temptation. Many of thy brethren have suffered
quite as heavily, perhaps more heavily. I, myself, have been as weak
as thou canst ever be. If thou dost not believe this, look and see
what occurred in the house of Caiaphas, the high-priest, when I, who
protested my readiness to go with Christ into prison and death, at a
word spoken to me by a maid, fell, and denied and abjured most
shamefully my beloved Lord. For three whole days I lay in misery. I
had no one to comfort me and none who suffered equally with myself. I
had no consolation except that my dear Master gave me, with his eyes,
one friendly look.

81. Therefore, no one should regard his distress and need as too
heavy and fearful, as if it were an entirely new thing, something
which had never been experienced by others. To thee it may be
something new and untried. But look about thee, at the great
multitude of the Church, from the beginning until this hour. The
Church has been set in the world to suffer the attacks of the devil,
and without ceasing it must be sifted as wheat, as Christ's words
suggest, Luke 22, 31.

My friend, thou hast not yet seen nor experienced what our first
parents endured their whole life long, and after them all the holy
fathers until Christ. Peter, also, has been farther in this school
than I and thou, and I would say that the same temptation as his
could hardly be found. Paul says of him and the beloved apostles (1
Cor 4, 9): "For, I think, God hath set forth us the apostles last of
all, as men doomed to death: for we are made a spectacle unto the
world, both to angels and men"--so that Satan may torment us
according to his will, and thus work out his pleasure upon us. And
what are the sufferings of all men combined when compared with
Christ's agony and conflict, in that he sweat blood for thee?

82. When the devil plagues and assails thee with his manifold
temptations, refer him to Christ, with whom to dispute about the
severe temptations, the death struggle, the anguish of hell, etc.
Comfort thyself that thou art one of a great company of sufferers,
past present and future. O beautiful, glorious company! All under one
lord and head, who took from the devil his power and hell-fire. In
short, thy affliction cannot prove so great that thou wilt not find
it paralleled in the lives of the apostles, prophets, patri