Quesnel: Moral Reflections on the Gospels Vol 1

36 ST. MATTHEW.
A blind obedience is due to God, because he is
God, and can neither deceive, nor be deceived.
Our trust in his wisdom and his love, should make
us take the cross without arguing or disputing. As
soon as ever we know the will of God, nothing
should keep us from doing it. It is for man to
obey, it is for God to answer for the success of obe-
dience. It is he who sometimes stops and hinders
us, when invincible difficulties seem to do it. That
man always performs his will, who puts himself in a
disposition to perform it. God bestows the means,
even when he seems to take them away.
" 15. And was there until the death of Herod :
that it might be fulfilled which was spoken of the
Lord by the prophet, saying. Out of Egypt have I
called my son."
What humiliation was it for Christ to be, as it
were, driven from amidst the people of God, and
banished by his Father into a country of idolatry and
abomination. How many lights extinguished, how
many graces hidden ! But nothing is lost, when it is
lost for God. Thus God sometimes obliges his ser-
vants to remain, as it were, buried in a (supei'^titious
and) heretical country, or amongst wicked people,
to worship him in their stead, to gather up those
graces which they neglect, or to spread them in a
secret manner; or, perhaps, to secure themselves
from the ill-will of false brethren.
" 16. ^ Then Herod, when he saw that he was
mocked of the wise men, was exceeding wroth, and
sent forth, and slew all the children that were in
Bethlehem, and in all the coasts thereof, from two
years old and under, according to the time which
he had diligently inquired of the wise men."