Now, when the Apostle says that '_all things work together for good_,' he means not only prosperity, but also what is called adversity. And why? Why, because those who truly and perfectly love God remain unchanged in all the vicissitudes of life. They have but one end in view--eternal life, and only one means to attain to it, namely, to do the will of God. This they can do in all weathers, in rain or sunshine. Indeed, like the stormy petrel, they gather most in stormy weather. For what reflecting Christian does not know the sweet uses of adversity, which, by severing the hopes that bound us to the earth, and opening our eyes to the fact that we are but pilgrims here, with a right of passage only, teach us to fix our hopes on heaven alone, and labor to build up our fortunes there? The great Apostle, who himself had passed through the various paths of adversity, teaches us how to turn all the vicissitudes of life, both its joys and sorrows, into golden occasions of merit, fighting our way onward to heaven, as he says, '_with the strength which God gives us, by the arms of justice, on the right hand and on the left;_' that is, as he goes on to explain, '_through honor and dishonor, through infamy and good name, as dying and behold we live, as sorrowful and yet always rejoicing, as having nothing and yet possessing all things?_' [Footnote 70] [Footnote 70: 2 Cor. vi., 8-10] {185} "All therefore, that passes for prosperity, and is consequently _on the right hand_, such as glory, and good reputation, and success in temporal affairs, and all that passes for adversity, and thus, according to the language of St. Paul, is _on the left hand_, such as disgrace and evil report, and temporal disappointment;--all to the perfect Christian serve alike for arms of justice, holy weapons to win his crown with, because he receives every thing that comes with the same great heart, and allows himself to be cast down by nothing. And therefore the Prophet says of him: '_The holy man continues in wisdom like the sun_.'[Footnote 71] [Footnote 71: Ecclus. xxvii. 12.] [Transcriber's note: Ecclesiastes ends at chapter 12. Text is similar to Sirach xxvii. 11.] But for those who change every moment, and show different humors and different dispositions of heart, according to the different chances and changes of life--let them listen to these words of the same Prophet, which were spoken for their especial benefit: _The fool changes like the moon.'_ [Footnote 72] [Footnote 72: Ecclus. xxvii. 12.] [Transcriber's note: The USCCB citation is Sirach xxvii. 11; "the godless man, like the moon, is inconstant."] {186}