In the same manner, ought we daily to apply ourselves, to gain and lay up new treasures for heaven, as if hitherto we had gathered no treasures, but rather made every effort to squander and lose them.
This is the means St Gregory thinks most convenient for all sorts of persons, nay even for the mot perfect. And as perfect as the holy prophet David was, he did not, for all that, forbear to make use of it, as he himself signifies in these words, " I said to myself now I do but begin." (Psal. lxxvi. 1 1.) He had so much fervour and zeal for God's service, that even in his old age he continued the same fervent desire and diligence to serve God, as if he had but then begun to serve him. It is likewise evident from the saying of the Wise Man, " When a man shall have finished his task, then he shall begin anew" (Ecclus. xviii. 6); the more the true servants of God advance and approach to their end, which is perfection, the more they increase in fervour and redouble their activity. For as St. Gregory says, " Men who are digging for a great treasure, the deeper they dig the more earnestly and diligently they go on still in their work; for hoping they are not far from what they looked for, they imagine that a little more pains will bring them to it; and by these hopes they encourage themselves to work afresh, without being tired. In like manner those who truly take to heart the great affair of their salvation, the farther they are advanced in the way of perfection, and the nearer they approach, they are still the more pressing to arrive at it. There is but a little earth that hides your treasure from you, dig a little farther and you will discover it, take courage, make haste (Greg. 1. v. Mor. c. 3), and labour so much the harder, as you see the day nearer to approach (Heb. x. 25), as the apostle counsels the Hebrews; as if he would say, that the nearer we draw towards our end, the harder we ought to labour. When a stone falls down from above, the nearer it draws towards its centre, the quicker it moves, till it reaches it: so when a man walks diligently in the way of God and proposes no other end to himself, than to please him alone, the more he advances in perfection, and the nearer he approaches to him, who is his centre, and his last end, the more he hastens and labours to arrive thither. Those who live thus, says St. Basil, are perfectly such as the apostle would have them be; " Perpetually careful, most fervent in spirit, knowing that it is God whom they serve." (Rom. xii. 1 1.) There are certain religious who have
