His only-begotten Son. It is the hope of this incomparable inheritance which sustains and comforts the just in all their tribulations; for they feel even in the midst of the most cruel adversity that "that which is at present momentary and light of our tribulation worketh for us above measure exceedingly an eternal weight of glory."*[1]
These are the graces comprehended in the inestimable benefit of justification, which St. Augustine justly ranks above that of creation.[2] For God created the world by a single act of His will, but to redeem it He shed the last drop of His Blood and expired under the most grievous torments. St. Thomas gives a like opinion in his "Sum of Theology."
Though it is true that no man can be certain of his justification, yet there are signs by which we can form a favorable judgment. The principal of these is a change of life; as, for example, when a man who without scruple hitherto committed innumerable mortal sins would not now be guilty of a single grave offence against God even to gain the whole world.
Let him, then, who has attained these happy dispositions reflect upon what he owes the Author of his justification, Who has delivered him from the multitude of evils which are the consequences of sin, and overwhelmed him with the benefits which we have attempted to explain. And as for him who has the misfortune to be still in a state of sin, I know nothing more efficacious to rouse him from his miserable condition than
