Look, then, my son, at the pattern which has been shewn thee on the Mount, and act accordingly. Behold here the mystical Serpent lifted up on high, for so wilt thou be easily cured from the bites of the old serpent, and be healed of all thy infirmities.
Man. I acknowledge that the highest and most profitable knowledge is to know Jesus, and him crucified. Far be it from me, therefore, to boast, except in the Cross of my Lord Jesus Christ. For, as the word of the Cross, to them that perish, is a stumbling-block and foolishness, so, to them that are saved, it is the power and the wisdom of God. Oh, that by thee, O Jesus, the world may be crucified to me, and I to the world! Oh, that I may be ignorant of all things rather than of thee, in whom are all the treasures of the knowledge and wisdom of God! Blessed is the man whom thou instructest, O Lord, and teachest him out of thy law. Teach me, not only to know, but also to do thy will.
Christ. Then wilt thou be indeed my disciple and my friend, if thou dost what I command thee, not by my words only, but also, and much more, by my examples. But few, alas! are they who love and imitate me truly 1 Nor is this wonderful, for very many find it irksome to inquire into and meditate on what I did or what I taught, and how, then, can it please them to imitate me? I am forgotten by them; there is not one of them that thinks of me in his heart; but how can one love what he knows nothing of? Love cannot possibly be drawn towards what is unknown.
Therefore assure thyself that there is nothing more productive of the love of me, nothing more profitable to man’s salvation, than is constant meditation on my Life and Passion. The heart must be hard as iron which so great a love has no power to soften. Who will dare to sin, if he seriously reflects what horrors I suffered, that I might deliver men from the yoke of sin and death? But all this thou losest, and tramplest my Blood under foot, as soon as thou knowingly consentest to sin. What! shall thy soul be of no value to thee, for which I laboured in this world thirty-three years? Wilt thou sell that for nought which I bought for so great a price as my own Blood, and which I held dearer to me than my own life?
Look, my son, what thou dost; on either side of thee thou hast the greatest rewards and the greatest punishments: these have I prepared, amid much toil and sorrow, for them that love me; those await the degenerate and the despisers.
If thou wilt be happy, fol-
