How great, how wondrous, the patience of God, Who while enduring with so much forbearance the godless temples, the images of clay, and the accursed abominations set up by men in contempt of His Honor and Majesty, yet makes day begin and His light to shine upon the good and upon the bad; and as He waters this earth with showers he excludes no one from their benefit, bestowing the bounty of His rain alike upon the just and upon the unjust? We can see with what serene patience and impartiality the seasons at His command serve both the innocent and the guilty, the God-fearing and the Godless, those who give thanks and the thankless.  The elements wait on them, the windows flow for them, the streams flow, the harvest abounds, the vines mature, the trees become laden with apples, the woods come out in leaf, and the field in flowers. And though we provoke God by frequent, nay, by continuous offenses, He restrains His wrath and waits in patience for that destined day of retribution.  For though He has the power to punish He chooses rather to go in patience, forbearing in mildness, putting off the day, so that, if it is possible, the long continuing evil-doing may at length be changed, that man, surrounded as he is by the evil contagion of error and of crime, may turn at last to God.