Page:The Eternal Priesthood (4th ed).djvu/235

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THE PRIEST'S REWARDS.
223

earthly rights of the rich in this world in no way bar the enjoyment of the faithful. The earth is the Lord's and the fulness thereof.[1] And through "the Heir of all things" we inherit all things. The earth, sea, and sky were made before the human laws of property existed. A priest who has nothing but his bare sustenance enjoys without burden or responsibility all the works of Nature in all their brightness and sweetness, and that in a higher degree, perhaps, than the lord of the soil. The beauty of the world is a common inheritance, and none enjoy it so keenly as those who by the donum scientiæ see God in everything, and everything in God.[2] The whole world to them is like the bush that burned on Mount Horeb. The presence and glory of God are everywhere. "All things" are theirs; and this includes the whole revelation of God, and the whole regeneration of mankind. A priest begins the day at the altar within the veil, encompassed by the Divine Presence and the heavenly court. The vision of faith, conscious and unconscious, becomes a second nature. He sees always the world that is invisible. Its beauty, its sweetness, and its fragrance are per-

  1. Ps. xxiii. 1.
  2. "Fidelis homo cujus totus mundus divitiarum est, et quasi nihil haheus omnia possidet inhærendo tibi cui serviunt omnia."—S. Aug. Confess. lib. v. 4.