perversity. This is a nation, he says, that obeyeth not the voice of the Lord their God (Jer. vii. 28). You are not ready, oh! miserable men, to say with David, I will hearken what the Lord God will say with regard to me (Ps. lxxxv. 8), for being exhausted abroad upon [the quest of] vanity and false folly, you seek not for the deepest and best hearing of the truth. Oh! ye sons of men, how long will ye blaspheme mine honour, and have such pleasure in vanity and seek after leasing (Ps. iv. 2). You are deaf to the voice of truth, and you know not the purpose of Him who thinks thoughts of peace, who also speaks peace to His people, and to His saints, and to such as are converted in heart. Now, he says, ye are clean through the word which I have spoken to you (S. John xv. 3). Therefore, they who hear not this word are unclean.

13. But do you, dearly beloved, if you are making ready your inward ear for this Voice of God that is sweeter than honey and the honey-comb, flee from outward cares, that with your inmost heart clear and free you also may say with Samuel, Speak, Lord, for thy servant heareth (1 Sam. iii. 9). This Voice sounds not in the market-place, and is not heard in public. It is a secret purpose, and seeks to be heard in secret. It will of a surety give you joy and gladness in hearing it, if you listen with attentive ear. Once it ordered Abraham (Gen. xii. 1) to get him out of his country and from his kindred, that he might see and possess the land of the living. Jacob (Gen. xxxii.

10. left his brother and his home, and passed over Jordan with his staff, and was received in Rachel’s embrace (Gen. xxix. 11). Joseph was lord in Egypt (Gen. xxxvii. and xli.), having been torn by a fraudful purchase

from his father and his home. Thus the Church is bidden, in order that the King may have pleasure in her beauty, to forget her own people and her father’s house (Ps. xlv. 11, 12). The boy Jesus was sought by His parents among their kinsfolk and acquaintance, and was not found (S. Luke ii. 44, 45). Do you also flee from your brethren, if you wish to find the way of salvation. Flee, I say, from the midst of Babylon, flee from before the sword of the northwind. A bare sustenance I am ready to offer for the help of every one that flees. You call me your abbot; I refuse not the title for obedience’ sake—obedience, I say, not that I demand it, but that I render it in service to others, even as The Son of Man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister and to give His life a ransom for many (S. Matt. xx. 28). But if you deem me worthy, receive as your fellow-disciple him whom you choose for your master. For we both have one Master, Christ. And so let Him be the end of this Letter, who is The end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth (Rom. x. 4).

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Footnotes

1. So all texts, except a few, in which the reading is: “Indeed, that Sun is promised to those who have been called,” &c. In the first edition, and many subsequent ones: “For the Sun which arises is not that which is daily to be seen rising over good and bad, but one promised by the prophetic warning to such as fear God, to those only who have been called,” &c. ↩

2. The lxx. has Ιδοὺ θεοσέβεια ἐστὶ σοφία. The Vulgate reads “Ecce timor Domini ipsa est sapientia,” with which the A. V, coincides, “Behold the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom.” Does Bernard quote from memory? ↩

3. This must be the reading, not “congregation” [concilio], as in Ps. i., for the sense demands “purpose” [consilio], and the MSS. so read. ↩