Untitled - Saints' Books

3 1 6 Material for Instructions. [PART n.
build the 1
house, they labor in vain that build it. Some saints,
with very moderate learning, have converted entire na
tions. By certain discourses that he preached in Rome,
though the language was simple, and even incorrect
(for he had but an imperfect knowledge of the Italian
tongue), St. Ignatius of Loyola, because his words came
from a heart that was humble and enamoured of God,
produced such an effect on the hearers that they instant
ly went to confession, but could scarcely speak on ac
count of the many tears that they shed. 2 But, on the
other hand, many learned theologians, with all their
science and eloquence, preach without converting a
single soul. In them are verified the words of the
Prophet Osee: Give them a womb without children, and dry
breasts? Such preachers, because they are puffed up with
their learning, resemble unfruitful mothers, they have
the name, but are without children. And should they
be intrusted with the child of another, with an infant
that stands in need of milk, the little one shall die of
hunger, for the paps of the proud are filled with wind
and smoke, but give no milk: Knowledge puff eth up* To
this evil the proud are subject. It is, as Cardinal Bellarmine
wrote to one of his nephews, difficult for a man
of learning to be humble, not to despise others, not to
censure their acts, not to be full of his own opinions; he
will hardly submit willingly to the judgment and cor
rection of others.
It is true that we ought not to preach at random, or
without consideration and study; but after we have
studied the discourse, and after we have delivered it
with zeal and success, we ought to say: We are unprofit-
1 "
Nisi Dominus aedificaverit
sedificant earn." Ps. cxxvi. i.
domum, in vanum laboraverunt, qui
8
Ribadeneira, Vit. 1. 3,
c. 2.
3 " Da eis vulvam sine liberis et ubera arentia." Osee, ix. 14.
4 "Scientia inflat." I Cor. viii. i.