For God is wont to bestow His crowns, not according to what is accomplished by good deeds, but according to the intention of those who do them. If you put down only two mites He receives them, and He will do for those who teach what He did for the widow. Therefore, because you are not able to save the world, do not despise the few, nor turn away from small things in your desire for great things. If you cannot give a hundred, look after the ten; and if you cannot give ten, do not despise the five; and if five are beyond you, do not overlook the one; and if you cannot even give the one, do not lose courage, and do not neglect your part. · · · · · · · The Victory of Our Faith. (_Homilies on St. Matthew_, lxxv., vol. ii., p. 376.) · · · · · · · We may wonder the more at the power of Christ, and at the courage of the Apostles, because they were announcing the Gospel at the very time when everything Jewish was particularly attacked, and the Jews were proscribed as seditious, and the Roman emperor commanded their total dispersion. And this happened in a state of things which we may describe in this way. There is a great tempest at sea, the whole atmosphere is wrapped in darkness, wreck follows upon wreck, on board all the sailors are in open rebellion, and from below monsters are darting up, and together with the waves are destroying the men; thunderbolts are falling, pirates attacking, and on board all is mutiny. Suppose that in this extremity anyone should order men who were ignorant of nautical matters, nor even knew the sea, to sit at the rudder, to guide the helm, and to fight their way. And then, in the face of an experienced crew equipped with much labour suppose that these men should use a light boat, in the state of tumult which I have described, and overcome and master it. For as Jews they were hated by the Gentile world, and as the enemies of their own laws they were stoned by the Jews; nowhere was there any standing-ground. Thus, on all sides there were precipices, chasms, and rocks; cities, country-places, dwelling-houses, offered them nothing else; one and all opposed them—commander, and magistrate, and the man in private life, all races and all peoples—and there was a disturbance with which men could not reason. For, indeed, the Jewish race was exceedingly hateful to the Roman rulers, inasmuch as it had caused them trouble in a thousand ways, and yet the Gospel tidings were not prejudiced thereby, but the city itself was ravaged and set on fire, and numberless ills fell upon its inhabitants. Nevertheless the Apostles, going forth from that city, bringing in new laws, mastered even the Romans. Oh, what new and wonderful deeds are these! The Romans at that time subdued countless thousands of Jews, and they did _not_ circumvent twelve poor unarmed men. What words can adequately express