IBID. — 'And again the waters are poured out most widely.' 53. Afterward softened in some, and dissolved into rain. — For after the frost the Lord poured out the widest waters, because after He had endured the savagery of the Jews even unto death, He straightway liquefied their hearts from the hardness of unbelief by the breathing of His love; so that afterward they might run to obey the more desirably, in proportion as they had before resisted His precepts the more obstinately. Whence it is well said through a certain wise man: 'As ice in fair weather, so shall thy sins be dissolved' (Ecclus. III, 17). From this frost of cold torpor the Prophet had desired to be loosed, when he said: 'Turn, O Lord, our captivity, as a stream in the South' (Ps.
CXXV, 4). Of these waters, that is, of the peoples running together to God, it is again said: 'He shall send forth His word, and shall melt them; His spirit shall blow, and the waters shall flow' (Ps. CXLVII, 18). The waters run from the frost, because very many out of hard persecutors become great preachers. The frost, therefore, is liquefied into water, when the torpor of inward cold is turned to the irrigation of preaching. 879. Or was not Paul frost, who, having received letters and going to Damascus (Acts IX, 1-2), sought to restrain in the heart of the faithful the seeds of God's word, as though cast upon the earth, lest they rise up to the perfection of works? But this frost returned into water, because those whom he first was zealous to oppress by persecuting, these he afterward flooded with the streams of holy exhortation;
so that a harvest of the elect might rise up the more abundantly, in proportion as the rain of God watered it even from the mouth of a persecutor. Whence it is also well added: