52. Its harvest is to be attributed to the grace of the dew. — Supply: I said. For the harvest of holy Church is not unfittingly received, when perfect souls, drawn away from their bodies like ripe crops cut from the earth, migrate to the heavenly granaries; which, because it is done not by our virtue but by the bestowing of heavenly grace, he well says: 'And the dew shall abide in my harvest' (Job 29:19). For the dew falls from above, the harvest is gathered below. Therefore the dew abides in the harvest, because grace, coming from above, brings it about that we are worthy to be gathered from the lower things. For it being that very grace pouring us in from above, we bear the fruit of good works. Whence it is also rightly said through Paul: 'By the grace of God I am what I am, and His grace in me hath not been void' (1 Cor. 15:10).
For if it be asked what the dew coming from above is, he says: 'By the grace of God I am what I am.' If we behold the harvest growing under the dew, he says: 'And His grace in me hath not been void, but I have laboured more abundantly than they all.' There follows: