friends who would have made
such remarks to their advantage. But as they acted thus without pretence and
from wholly disinterested motives, they did not point it out to any one; and
I believe that many such facts have not been noticed till now, which is
evidence of the natural disinterestedness with which the thing has been
done.

799. An artisan who speaks of wealth, a lawyer who speaks of war, of
royalty, etc.; but the rich man rightly speaks of wealth, a king speaks
indifferently of a great gift he has just made, and God rightly speaks of
God.

800. Who has taught the evangelists the qualities of a perfectly heroic
soul, that they paint it so perfectly in Jesus Christ? Why do they make Him
weak in His agony? Do they not know how to paint a resolute death? Yes, for
the same Saint Luke paints the death of Saint Stephen as braver than that of
Jesus Christ.

They make Him, therefore, capable of fear, before the necessity of dying has
come, and then altogether brave.

But when they make Him so troubled, it is when He afflicts Himself; and when
men afflict Him, He is altogether strong.

801. Proof of Jesus Christ.--The supposition that the apostles were
impostors is very absurd. Let us think it out. Let us imagine those twelve
men, assembled after the death of Jesus Christ, plotting to say that He was
risen. By this they attack all the powers. The heart of man is strangely
inclined to fickleness, to change, to promises, to gain. However little any
of them might have been led astray by all these attractions, nay more, by
the fear of prisons, tortures, and death, th