3) Since our efforts are not strong without God's help, for we have a very corrupt heart, therefore we must call upon Christ for help, so that He Himself may help us, and instead of our wickedness, He may plant His good morals in our hearts by His Holy Spirit. For this purpose He came into the world, in order to expel malice, like the stench that has dwelt in our souls, and to implant in them the fragrance of His divine morals. May our diligence, faith and prayer be diligent, seeing this, He will bow down to mercy and give us the grace of His Holy Spirit, which will help us in everything that concerns the work of our salvation.

CXLVI. You see that the farmer first places in his heart the hope of gathering fruits, and then, having placed such hope, he sets about the work by means of which the fulfillment of hope is achieved: he cultivates the land, ploughs and sows. In the same way, in every thing, the hope received in the heart encourages the hopeful person to work and the means by which hope can be realized. The merchant is persuaded by the hope of wealth to be a merchant, the warrior by the hope of victory and glory to fight, the hope of reason and wisdom by the hope of reason and wisdom to study in schools, and so on, and in the work begun it exhorts not to weaken. Christians must act in the same way in the matter of their salvation. Christian hope is eternal life in the age to come, as the holy Symbol of Faith says: "I look forward to the resurrection of the dead and the life of the age to come." We lost this hope in Adam; but in Christ we find it, if we sincerely believe in Him and show our faith with love and patience. Every believer in Christ must place this hope in his heart and affirm it, as farmers do, and so in the podvig of faith and other Christian duties he must labor, not weakening, looking at the longed-for and priceless fruit of eternal life.

Farmers clean their fields, uproot tares, so that they do not hinder the growth of wheat. In the same way, we must cut off whims and passions from our hearts, so that the seed of God's word does not hinder the growth, and so that they do not make it fruitless.

Farmers expect early and late rain on their fields, without which the fields are barren, no matter how much they work on them. In the same way, our work is in vain if the rain of God's grace does not descend on the fields of our hearts. We too must labor, and wait for the rain of God's mercy, and pray to God that He would send us from above the dew of His goodness and give it to the fields of our hearts. We must lift up our hands and eyes to Him who dwells in heaven, as the Psalmist did and gave us an image. To Thee have I lifted up my eyes, Who dwelleth in heaven! Behold, as the eyes of servants are on the hand of their masters, as the eyes of a handmaiden are on the hand of her mistress: so our eyes are fixed on the Lord our God, until He has mercy on us (Psalm 122:1-2).

Farmers work all summer, sweat and endure the heat of the sun in order to get the desired fruit. In the same way, Christians must work all their lives, fight and endure the misfortunes that befall them, so as not to be deprived of the fruit of eternal life, which Christ, the Son of God, has acquired for us through His labors and blood.

Farmers are happy to gather ripe fruits. In the same way, Christians, who work out their salvation with fear and trembling (Phil. 2:12), will gladly receive it from the hands of the Lord, which He promised to those who believe and love Him. Those who sow with tears will reap with joy. Those who sow with tears will reap with joy. With weeping he who bears the seed will return with joy, carrying his sheaves. (Psalm 125:5-6). And they shall return, delivered by the Lord, and shall come to Zion with a shout of joy; and everlasting joy shall be upon their heads; they will find joy and gladness, but sorrow and sighing will depart (Isaiah 35:10).

Lazy farmers and living in idleness, when they see their brethren gathering the fruits of their labors and rejoicing, but having nothing for themselves, because they have not labored, they grieve, sorrow, and scold themselves because they did not labor in the summer and therefore have no fruit. In the same way, Christians who live carelessly, when they see others for the feat of faith and labors taken up in piety, blessed, and glorified by the Lord, will weep, and weep inconsolably, and will scold themselves for not wanting to labor in temporal life. Lazarus, mentioned in the Gospel, rests in the bosom of Abraham after his labors and temporary illnesses; but the foolish rich man, who clothed himself in purple and fine linen, and feasted magnificently every day, after the merriment and luxury of a short time, is in torment, and sees Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom, and cries out, saying, Father Abraham! Have mercy on me, and send Lazarus, that he may dip the tip of his finger in water, and cool my tongue, for I am tormented in this flame (Luke 16:19-24), and he will forever cry out, but he will receive nothing. From what has been said above, you see, Christian:

1) that the present time for Christians is a time of labor, podvig, sorrows and the cross; and the age to come is a time of rest, retribution, joy and rejoicing, for through many tribulations we must enter into the kingdom of God, according to the Apostle's word (Acts 14:22).

2) See how blinded the spiritually poor person is! What do people not do for the sake of a temporary and soon perishing profit? What labors and troubles do they accept? But nothing is burdensome or inconvenient for them to get what they want. Thus strongly does the undoubted hope of the desired good impel them, encourage them, and approve them, although they are often deceived. For man does not receive all that he desires and hopes to receive, since in God's power lies our temporal well-being, and not in human power, and to whom he wills, He gives it. However, people, even without perfect hope, still seek, and carefully, the good that they see with their bodily eyes. But eternal bliss, before which all glory, wealth, honor, and the earthly kingdom are as nothing, either carelessly sought, or have completely ceased to seek. Oh, if the inner eye of man were opened, and saw in the twinkling of an eye the future glory prepared for God's chosen ones, he would strive for it as if he were thirsty for a spring of water, and nothing could turn him away from it.

Believe me, Christian, that honor, wealth, glory, sweetness and the pleasures of this world, like stinking corpses, will abhor him, and even suffering and torment will not be able to stop and restrain his strivings. Christ's saving incarnation and suffering teaches us everything. In Adam we lost that future blessedness and fell into eternal calamity, but Christ, the Son of God, being so great and lofty that there is no one greater and higher than Him, for God exists, – for this reason He came into the world and suffered, in order to deliver him from eternal calamity and to return to eternal bliss man who had fallen away. From this alone, Christians, we can know that great and unspeakable is the calamity from which Christ, desiring to deliver us, poured out His Blood; and great and incomprehensible is the blessedness of the future, which by His death He interceded for us who have lost it. Glory to His incomprehensible love for us and mercy! Incomprehensible is both the evil of eternal torment and the good of eternal bliss, for the sake of which the Son of God and true God did not spare Himself, in order to deliver us from the first and return the second to us. But such is our common blindness and wretchedness, that we either believe little or do not believe at all, although God has revealed this blessedness in various ways in His holy word for our benefit and consolation.

3) Those Christians who do not want to fight, to labor in the matter of the Christian calling, but desire to receive eternal life, do senselessly; they want to rejoice in the sweets, luxury, honor, glory and riches of this world – and they want to reign with Christ in the age to come; they refuse to bear the cross with Christ, they are ashamed and horrified of it and avoid it – but they want to be glorified with Him. They are like those people who want to gather fruit, but do not want to plow, sow and work the land; who want to have the glory of victory and triumph, but do not want to fight; they want to receive mercy from the king, but they do not want to serve him faithfully; who desire to reach a certain city, but do not want to go the way leading to that city, but go another way.

Narrow is the path to eternal life, Christian; but he who is long leads to eternal perdition, according to the true word of Christ our Lord (Matt. 7:13-14). Faith, which indicates eternal life and leads to it, is subject to temptation in many ways. The devil, the world with vanity, and the flesh with passions and lusts (Gal. 5:24) try to violate and destroy its integrity. Against all these adversaries we must fight and preserve our faith more than our lives. What follows from this if not unceasing bitterness, sorrow and distress for the soul of the fighter? First one, then another, then a third enemy attacks and wants to take away from the soul an invaluable treasure – eternal salvation. He will not have time to think about the honor, glory, wealth and luxury of this world, about the revenge of the offense inflicted by man, and about other things that belong to the world, who wants to enter into battle with those enemies. He will have only one effort – not to be defeated by them.

Thus, from every case and from every visible creature to the invisible, it is possible to turn reasoning. For example, from the visible world to the invisible, from the visible light to the invisible and eternal, that is, to God, from visible darkness to the invisible, that is, to the devil and sin, from visible sight to the invisible, from bodily blindness to spiritual blindness, from bodily health to spiritual health, from bodily weakness to spiritual weakness, and so on, and by this they bring spiritual benefit to themselves. For what we see in visible things is also present in invisible things, and what we feel in the body is also noticeable in the soul, although in an unequal way, as we read in the Holy Scriptures, in which the state of our soul, good or bad, is described.

Our body has life, death, health, infirmity, poverty, wealth, decorum, ugliness, sorrow, consolation, captivity, freedom, darkness, light, hunger, thirst, food, drink, clothing, work, rest, and so on. The same thing is noticed in our souls. The body is quickened by the soul, it dies when the soul leaves it – the soul lives by the grace of God, it dies when grace leaves it. The sun, the moon, and the lamp shine on our body, but the light by which our soul is enlightened is Christ, Who enlightens every man that cometh into the world (John 1:9), and its lamp is the law of God, according to what is written: "Thy law is a lamp unto my feet for ever" (Psalm 118:105).