mercies and the God of all comfort.”334 “For He Himself” it is said “hath smitten us, and He will heal us; He will strike, and He will dress the wound and make us whole.”335 For as long as that blessed husband of thine was with thee, thou didst enjoy honour, and care and zealous attention; in fact you enjoyed such as you might expect to enjoy from a husband; but since God took him to Himself He has supplied his place to thee. And this is not my saying but that of the blessed prophet David for he says “He will take up the 122 fatherless and the widow,”336 and elsewhere he calls Him “father of the fatherless and judge of the widow;”337 thus in many passages thou wilt see that He earnestly considereth the cause of this class of mankind. 2. But lest the continual repetition of this name of widow should upset thy soul, and disconcert thy reason, having been inflicted on thee in the very flower of thy age, I wish first of all to discourse on this point, and to prove to you that this name of widow is not a title of calamity but of honour, aye the greatest honour. For do not quote the erroneous opinion of the world as a testimony, but the admonition of the blessed Paul, or rather of Christ. For in his utterances Christ was speaking through him as he himself said “If ye seek a proof of Christ who is speaking in me?”338 What then does he say? “Let not a widow be enrolled under threescore years of age” and again “but the younger widows refuse”339 intending by both these sayings to indicate to us the importance of the matter. And when he is making regulations about bishops he nowhere prescribes a standard of age, but in this case he is very particular on the point, and, pray, why so? not because widowhood is greater than priesthood, but because widows have greater labour to undergo than priests, being encom- passed on many sides by a variety of business public and private. For as an unfortified city lies exposed to all who wish to plunder it, so a young woman living in widowhood has many who form designs upon her on every side not only those who aim at getting her money but also those who are bent upon corrupting her modesty. And besides these we shall find that she is subjected to other conditions also likely to occasion her fall. For the contempt of ser- vants their negligence of business, the loss of that respect which was formerly paid, the sight of contemporaries in prosperity, and often the hankering after luxury, induce women to engage in a second marriage. Some there are who do not choose to unite themselves to men by the law of marriage, but do so secretly and clandestinely. And they act thus in order to enjoy the praise of widowhood; thus it is a state which seems to be not reproached, but ad- 334 2 Cor. i. 3. 335 Hosea vi. 2. 336 Ps. cxlvi. 9. 337 Ps. lxviii. 5. 338 2 Cor. xiii. 3. 339 1 Tim. v. 9, 11. 170 Letter to a Young Widow.