Marcus Aurelius and Human Comfort

I would yield to none in my admiration of the splendid character and morality of Marcus Aurelius; but when Marcus Aurelius wants to comfort men in trouble, what has he to say? Only this he says: “Don’t fret; don’t fume; you will soon be at the end of it; think of the great men, think of Trajan, for instance, what a stir he made; how he troubled himself with the enemies in other nations, and now he is in the dust; don’t worry yourselves; don’t beat yourselves to pieces against these rocks; you will soon be dead.”

That was his own message. I turn from that to the glorious eleventh chapter in the Epistle to the Hebrews, where the writer wants to strengthen men who are fighting the Christian battle; and what does he tell them? He gives them a list of the heroes of faith in the olden time; and then he tells them that they form a cloud of witnesses. « Rhonda Williams