It so
happens that I am reading for my own private purposes at this moment an
old book of 1641, Drexilius _On a Right Intention_, and I cannot do
better at this point than share with you the page I am just reading. 'Not
to be too much troubled or daunted at any cross event,' he says, 'is the
happy state of his mind who has entered on any enterprise with a pure and
pious intention. That great apostle James gained no more than eight
persons in all Spain when he was called to lay down his head under
Herod's sword. And was not God ready to give the same reward to James as
to those who converted kings and whole kingdoms? Surely He was. For God
does not give His ministers a charge as to what they shall effect, but
only as to what they shall intend to effect. Wherefore, when his art
faileth a servant of God, when nothing goes forward, when everything
turneth to his ruin, even when his hope is utterly void, he is scarce one
whit troubled; for this, saith he to himself, is not in my power, but in
God's power alone. I have done what I could. I have done what was fit
for me to do.
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