Saints are always grumbling because the world will not take them at their
own estimate; so they cry out upon this place and upon that, saying it
does not know the things belonging to its peace and that it will be too
late soon and that people will be very sorry then that they did not make
more of the grumbler, whoever he may be, inasmuch as he will make it hot
for them and pay them out generally.
All this means: “Put me in a better social and financial position than I
now occupy; give me more of the good things of this life, if not actual
money yet authority (which is better loved by most men than even money
itself), to reward me because I am to have such an extraordinary good
fortune and high position in the world which is to come.”
When their contemporaries do not see this and tell them that they cannot
expect to have it both ways, they lose their tempers, shake the dust from
their feet and go sulking off into the wilderness.
This is as regards themselves; to their followers they say: “You must not
expect to be able to make the best of both worlds. The thing is absurd;
it cannot be done. You must choose which you prefer, go in for it and
leave the other, for you cannot have both.”
When a saint complains that people do not know the things belonging to
their peace, what he really means is that they do not sufficiently care
about the things belonging to his own peace.