nothing to gain heaven. you have hitherto taken for it? To believe that such an immense good is there spread out before you, and to go to such little pains to get possession of it, how can that be explained? Do you do as much to gain heaven as sinners do, as you yourselves have perhaps done before now, to accomplish a sinful action, to be revenged on an enemy, to enjoy the forbidden love of a creature, to get possession unjustly of what belongs to another, to lose your souls eternally? For shame that I should have to ask such a question that should cause you to feel the utmost confusion! Do you work as hard for heaven as those people of the simile to get the money out of the royal treasury? Do you do as much for heaven as those athletes among the Eonians of old who contended in the public games in order to gain a crown of victory and the applause of the public? The Apostle writes of them to the Corinthians: “Every one that striveth for the mastery refraiueth himself from all things,” from excess in eating and drinking, from too much comfort, from all that might enervate the body and weaken the limbs; no mortification is too great for them, no wounds which they expect too painful; the danger of death even they despise, and all that in the hope of gaining the crown of victory. And what sort of a crown? asks Paul. Ah! “And they indeed that they may receive a corruptible crown;” they do all that for a wreath of withered laurel leaves; what then, he continues, should we not do to gain the imperishable crown of eternal glory? “But we an incorruptible one.”[1] Do you do as much for heaven as you do to regain your health if it is in any way affected? as you still do to make some profit, or to secure success in your domestic arrangements, to get a good situation, to gain a lawsuit, to curry favor with the great, to please some mortal, to look after your bodily comforts? Is then heaven, eternal happiness, of less importance than all this trumpery that will come to an end with this short life? Ah, if even a tenth part of the trouble were devoted to gaining heaven, things would not be in such a bad state.
They have no inclination or liking for it. But there is no use in talking of working for heaven; people hardly ever think of it; or if they do, what impression does the thought leave on their minds? Talk to a worldling, a tepid Christian, about heaven when he is troubled or sad; say to him: be comforted; God has sent you this affliction for your good; it is
- ↑ Omnia qui in agone contendit, ab omnibus se abstinet; et illi quidem, ut corruptibilem coronam accipiant; nos autem incorruptam.—I. Cor. ix. 25.
