Do you wonder at Paul because the serpent fastened upon his hand and did no harm? Wonder not: the serpent reverenced the chains, and so did the ocean, for then he was in fetters. If anyone were to give me now the power of raising the dead I would not have it, but I would have those chains. If I were free from the cares of the Church, and were sound in body, I would go that long journey only to look at those chains, to see the prison in which he was bound. Although amongst his wonderful deeds there are many signs everywhere, they are not so enviable as the marks of Christ. And in the Scripture he does not encourage me so much by wonder-working as he does when he is suffering persecution, being scourged, and dragged away. _So that_, he says, _they brought handkerchiefs and aprons from his body to the sick_. These were truly wonders, but not so great as those others: _They scourged him and laid many stripes upon him, they cast them into prison_; and again: _They gave praise to God in their chains_; and again: _They stoned him and drew him out of the city, thinking him to be dead_. Would you know what a privilege it is for the body of a servant to wear an iron chain for Christ’s sake? Then listen to Christ’s words: _Blessed are ye_. Why blessed, O Lord? When you raise the dead? No, not for this. When you cure the blind? Not at all. Then why? _When they shall reproach you, and pursue you, and say every evil against you, lying, for My sake._ And if evil report makes men so blessed, what will suffering evil not do for them? Listen to that holy one who says this in another place: _For the rest a crown of justice awaits me_. Yet the chains are brighter than this crown; they will make me worthy of it, he says, and I value nothing so much. Suffering for Christ’s sake is a perpetual remedy to me. May it be given to me to utter those words, _I make up in my flesh what is wanting to the sufferings of Christ_: and I shall want nothing more. · · · · · · · The Seed not vivified unless it dies. (_Homilies on First Epistle to Corinthians_, xli., vol. ii., p. 517.) · · · · · · ·