Who shall resist charity?

Conferences of the Rev. Père Lacordaire, p. 35-36*

History only addresses itself to those who have studied it; ideas enlighten only those who can compare them; civilisation is only appreciable to civilised men. The Church needed a yet more human, that is to say, a more general source of persuasion. God gave to his Church charity. There was no heart into which the Church could not penetrate by charity; for misfortune is the monarch of this lower world, and sooner or later every heart is touched by his sceptre. Men may resist grace and reason, but who shall resist charity? Why hate those who do good? Why kill those who give their life?… A humble priest, a curé of a country village, never enters with the sciences into the cottage of the poor. He goes there with charity. He finds there a heart suffering, and consequently open; and the poor man, seeing the priest coming to him full of respect for his misery, and of feeling for his trouble, easily recognises truth in the garb of love. But whilst I speak of charity a doubt presents itself to me. Ah! are we as charitable as we ought to be? Are there among you who are young souls ardent and affectionate towards God and towards the poor? Do you not see that troubles increase around you, that the measure is filling, and the world leans over frightful abysses? O Lord, give us saints, so long a period has elapsed since we saw them! And we had so many formerly! Cause some to rise again from their ashes! Exoriare aliquis ex ossibus! (Someone will spring from the bones!)