You cry out for restoration and protection from unjust demands and retaliation. The Lord knows your affliction, for He too was unjustly judged. But consider: this very trial is the pruning of the Husbandman, clearing away the shoots that bear no fruit, that you may yield a richer harvest. He purgeth every branch that beareth fruit, that it may bear more fruit. Do not therefore imagine that persecution destroys you, it rather makes you stronger, if you endure it as He commanded.
You ask that the inspector be stopped and his retaliations ended. Yet how shall they be stopped? Not by meeting fretfulness with fretfulness, nor by seeking to quench fire with fire. One fire is not quenched by another, but fire by water. So too, the evil one is not overcome by resistance of that kind, but by giving yourself up to suffer wrongfully. For the one who begins with unjust acts destroys his own eyes, and is justly hated of all, while the one who is wronged, even after equal retaliation, remains clear and has many to sympathize. But if you refrain from retaliation and bear the wrong, you prevail entirely; you win the crown. This is the way the martyrs conquered. Stephen, stoned and dying, cried, "Lay not this sin to their charge." They were men who feared and fled; yet God was in their scattering, and the word increased. So do not think this trial is abandonment; it is divine ordering, that you should no longer sit idle in your Jerusalem, but be forced to trust wholly in Him.
Why do you run to human helpers, when you have God for your Debtor? You have lent to One whose treasures are unspeakable, whose munificence is indescribable. Lay hold on Him, and make your demand. He is pleased when we thus demand the debt of Him. But if you go about seeking a requital from mortals, acting as though He were unwilling or poor, you insult Him, and He will repay no more. What is the inspector but a poor and wretched mortal, who will soon enough be separated from his power even against his will? Why then do you fix your eyes on him and his unjust demands, which are as chaff before the wind? Collect yourselves. There are daily submersions, destructions innumerable, and the wrath of God encloses the world as in a net. Yet we, as though well-pleasing to Him, are terrified of poverty and human checks, while no one trembles lest he fall into hell. Let us not be more insensible than a rock.
Your prayer is for right Godly help. That help is ever near, but He waits for you to do your part. Though we can do no good thing without aid from above, unless we contribute our own share, sending our will before, we shall not obtain that help. What is your part? To cease from anxiety, to commit the matter into His hands, and to occupy yourselves not with the inspector’s demands but with the commands of Christ. While you are bracing every nerve to order your house perfectly for this unjust check, where is your care for the household of God? Engage rather in a spiritual traffic. Track out the strangers, clothe the naked, send to the prison, put an end to the distresses of others. Brother aided by brother becomes a fortified city. If you truly care for one another, hinder those things which lead away to hell, and God shall be your protector. For He is not slack concerning His promise. The meek and gentle King entered not with an army but with an ass; so He comes now in meekness to you, if you will but open the door. His help shall be a right Godly help, restoring all that the locust has eaten, and the unjust demands shall be brought to nothing in His time. Only fear not, and let not your hands be ready for plundering your own peace, but for helping others. Then shall the peace of God garrison your hearts, and the inspector’s coming shall be as nothing, for your house shall be set in order by the Lord Himself.