4. And the Apostle teaches us how to dung it, saying: “I count all things but dung, that I may gain Christ,” Phil. iii. 8. and he, through evil report and good report, attained to pleasing Christ. For he had read that Abraham, when confessing himself to be but dust and ashes, Gen. xviii. 27. in his deep humility found favour with God. He had read how Job, sitting among the ashes, Job ii. 8. regained all that he had lost. Job xlii. 10. He had heard in the utterance of David, how God “raiseth the poor out of the dust, and lifteth the needy out of the dunghill.” Ps. cxiii. [cxii.] 7.