And I Am One of Them

This seems a cheerful world, Donatus, when I
view it from this fair garden, under the shadow
of these vines. But if I climbed some great
mountain and looked out over the wide lands,
you know very well what I would see--brigands on
the high roads, pirates on the seas; in the
amphitheaters men murdered to please applauding
crowds; under all roofs misery and selfishness.

It is really a bad world, Donatus, an incredibly
bad world. Yet in the midst of it I have found a
quiet and holy people. They have discovered a
joy which is a thousand times better than any
pleasures of this sinful life. They are
despised and persecuted, but they care not. They
have overcome the world. These people, Donatus,
are the Christians--and I am one of them.
... St. Cyprian (?-258), a letter in A Treasury of Sermon
Illustrations, Charles Langworthy Wallis, ed.,
Abingdon-Cokesbury Press, 1950, p. 59

photo taken near Oceanside, Oregon

Oregon photography