31.

Let us not marvel if the martyrs' blessedness — to come in deep peace and calm and fair weather — must begin from something gloomier and, so to call it, wintry. First the narrow and afflicted road must be walked in winter, displaying the helmsmanship of the blessed each gained — that afterwards may come what in the Song of Songs is said to the bride who swam through winter: 'He answers, my kinsman says to me: Rise, come, my neighbor, my fair one, my dove. For lo, winter passed, the rain went, went its way.' And you still remember: no hearing 'winter passed' unless the present winter be warred robustly. After winter passes and rain departs, 'flowers shall appear' — for 'planted in the Lord's house, in our God's courts they shall blossom.' And know this: persuaded by Jesus to leave idols and polytheist atheism, the enemy cannot persuade us to idolatry but wills to force us — working on whom he gets authority such things as to make the tempted either martyrs or idolaters. Often even now he says, 'All these will I give thee, if falling thou worship me.' Let us beware lest we idolatrize and subject ourselves to demons — for 'the idols of the nations are demons.' What a thing, leaving Christ's kindly yoke and 'light burden,' to subject oneself again to demons' yoke and bear heaviest sin's burden — after knowing 'ash is the heart' of idol-servers and 'their life viler than clay,' and saying 'lies did our fathers gain, idols, and in them is no rain.'