Letters

⁴ But all this, you argue, only touches the case of martyrs. Ah! My brother, you are mistaken, you are mistaken, if you suppose that there is ever a time when the Christian does not suffer persecution. Then are you most hardly beset when you know not that you are beset at all. “Our adversary as a roaring lion walks about seeking whom he may devour,” and do you think of peace? “He sits in the lurking-places of the villages: in the secret places does he murder the innocent; his eyes are privily set against the poor. He lies in wait secretly as a lion in his den; he lies in wait to catch the poor;” and do you slumber under a shady tree, so as to fall an easy prey? On one side self-indulgence presses me hard; on another covetousness strives to make an inroad; my belly wishes to be a God to me, in place of Christ, and lust would fain drive away the Holy Spirit that dwells in me and defile His temple. I am pursued, I say, by an enemy

Whose name is Legion and his wiles untold;
and, hapless wretch that I am, how shall I hold myself a victor when I am being led away a captive?