us, to continue discoursing on to the set limit when we fail to
CHAP. XIII.] A FOURTH SOUPvCE OF TEDIOUSNESS. 293 when men come to ns with the purpose ah^eady formed of obtaining the knowledge of God Himself, with a view to (the knowledge of) whom all things should be learned which are to be learned ! And how ought we to feel ourselves renewed in their newness (of experience), so that if our ordinary preaching is somewhat frigid, it may rise to fresh warmth under
(the stimulus of) their extraordinary hearing ! There is also this additional consideration to help us in the attainment of gladness, namely, that we ponder and bear in mind out of what death of error the man is passing over into the life of faith. And if we walk through streets which are most familiar to us, with a beneficent cheerfulness, when w^e happen to be pointing out the way to some individual who had been in distress in consequence of missing his direction, how much more should be the alacrity of spirit, and how much greater the joy with which, in the matter of saving doctrine, we ought to traverse again and again even those tracks which, so far as we are ourselves concerned, there is no need to open up any more ; seeing that we are leading a miserable soul, and one worn out with the devious courses of this world, through the paths of peace, at the command of Him who made that peace^ good to us !
Chap. xiii.—Of the remedy for the fourth source of weariness.
18. But in good truth it is a serious demand to make upon us, to continue discoursing on to the set limit when we fail to see our hearer in any degree moved; Avhether it be that, under the restraints of the awe of religion, he has not the boldness to signify his approval by voice or by any movement of his body, or that he is kept back by the modesty proper to man,^ or that he does not understand our sayings, or that he counts them of no value. Since, then, this must be a matter of uncertainty to us, as w^e cannot discern his mind, it becomes our duty in our discourse to make trial of all tilings which may be of any avail in stirring him up and drawing him forth as it were from his place of concealment. For tliat sort of fear which is excessive, and wliich obstructs the
' Instead of earn, the reading ca= those things, also occurs.
2 Or= by the reverence wliich he feels for the man : liumana verccundia.