The human soul acquires qualities corresponding to its activity. As the mirror depicts the objects against which it will be placed, so the soul is imprinted by impressions according to its occupations and deeds, according to its surroundings. In an insensible mirror, images disappear when objects move away from the mirror; impressions remain in the verbal soul. They can be erased and replaced by others, but this requires both labor and time. The impressions that constitute the property of the soul at the hour of its death remain its property forever, serve as a pledge either of its eternal bliss or of its eternal misery.

You cannot serve God and mammon,[58] said the Saviour to fallen men, revealing to men the state into which they had been brought by the fall. In this way, the doctor will tell the patient the state into which he has been brought by the disease and which the patient himself cannot understand. Because of our spiritual disorder, we need timely self-denial and renunciation of the world for salvation. No one can serve as two masters: he loves the one and hates the other: or he holds on to the one, and begins to neglect the others.

Experiments constantly confirm the validity of the view of the moral morbidity of people, which was expressed by the all-holy Physician in the words we have quoted, which we have said with decisive definiteness: the satisfaction of vain and sinful desires is always followed by an infatuation with them; Infatuation is followed by captivity, mortification for all that is spiritual. Those who allowed themselves to follow their desires and carnal wisdom were carried away by them, enslaved to them, forgot God and eternity, wasted their earthly life in vain, perished eternal perdition.

It is not possible to fulfill one's own will and the will of God together: from the fulfillment of the former, the fulfillment of the latter is defiled, made unseemly. Thus fragrant, precious myrrh loses its dignity from the insignificant admixture of stench. Only then, declares God through the great Prophet, will you tear down the good earth, when you will voluntarily listen to Me. But if you do not will, you will listen to Me below, you will gird the sword: for this is the mouth of the Lord.

It is not possible to acquire the mind of God by abiding in carnal wisdom. The wisdom of the flesh, said the Apostle, is death. Carnal wisdom is enmity against God: for it does not obey the law of God, for it can do less. What is carnal wisdom? A way of thinking that has arisen from the state into which men have been brought by the fall, directing them to act on earth as if they were eternal on it, exalting all that is perishable and temporary, despising God and everything pertaining to pleasing God, and depriving men of salvation.

Let us renounce our souls, according to the will of the Saviour, in order to gain our souls! Let us voluntarily renounce the vicious state into which they have been brought by their voluntary renunciation of God, in order to receive from God the holy state of renewed human nature by God incarnate! Let us replace our will and the will of the demons, to which our will has submitted and with which our will has merged, with the will of God, announced to us in the Gospel; the wisdom of the flesh, common to fallen spirits and men, let us replace with the mind of God, shining from the Gospel.

Let us renounce our possessions in order to acquire the ability to follow our Lord Jesus Christ! The correct concept of material possessions is provided by the Gospel [62]; but when it is delivered, then the human mind involuntarily realizes all its correctness. Earthly possessions are not our property, as those who have never thought about this subject mistakenly think: otherwise they would always be and would forever remain ours. It passes from hand to hand and thus testifies to itself that it is given only for support. Property belongs to God; A person can only be a temporary manager of property. A faithful steward faithfully fulfills the will of the one who entrusted him with the order. And we, administering the material property entrusted to us for a period of time, strive to manage it according to the will of God. Let us not use it as a means of satisfying our whims and passions, as a means of our eternal perdition: let us use it for the benefit of humanity, so much in need, suffering so much, let us use it as a means of our salvation. Those who desire Christian perfection completely abandon earthly acquisition [63]; those who wish to be saved must give alms as much as they can [64] and refrain from abusing their acquisitiveness.

Let us renounce love of glory and ambition! Let us not pursue honors and ranks, let us not use impermissible and humiliating methods to obtain them, coupled with the trampling of the Law of God, conscience, and the good of our neighbors. Such methods are most commonly used for the acquisition of earthly greatness by those who seek it. Infected and carried away by vanity, the insatiable seeker of human glory is incapable of believing in Christ: "How can ye believe," said Christ to His contemporaries, "that ye receive glory from one another, and seek not glory from the One God? [65] If God's Providence has granted us earthly power and authority, then through them we will become the benefactors of humanity. Let us reject the fierce poison that is so dangerous to the human spirit: stupid and contemptible egoism, which transforms people infected with it into beasts and demons, making these people scourges of humanity, evildoers to themselves.

Let us love the will of God above all; let us prefer it to everything; everything that is contrary to it, let us hate with a pious and God-pleasing hatred. When our nature, damaged by sin, rises up against the teaching of the Gospel, let us express our hatred of nature by rejecting the desires and demands of nature. The more decisive the expression of hatred, the more decisive will be the victory over sin and over the nature possessed by sin, the faster and more lasting our spiritual progress will be.

When people who are close to us in the flesh intend to distract us from following the will of God, let us show them a holy hatred, similar to that which is shown to wolves by lambs that do not transform themselves into wolves and do not defend themselves against wolves with their teeth [66]. Holy hatred of one's neighbor consists in the preservation of faithfulness to God, in the disobedience to the vicious will of men, even though these people are the closest relatives, in the generous endurance of the insults inflicted by them, in prayer for their salvation — by no means in slander, and not in actions similar to slander, by which the hatred of the fallen nature, the hatred of God, is expressed.

Do not think, said the Saviour, that thou hast come to bring peace to the earth: thou hast not come to bring peace, but a sword. For he came to separate a man from his father, and a daughter from his mother, and a bride from her mother-in-law[67]. "Come," St. John Climacus explains the words of the Lord quoted above, "to separate the God-loving from the peace-loving; the carnal from the spiritual; the lovers of glory from the humble-minded; God is pleased with division and separation, when it is done for the sake of love for Him" [68].

The prophet called the earth the place of his coming,[69] and himself a stranger and a stranger in it: "I am a stranger with Thee," he said in his prayer to God, "and a stranger, as Thou art my fathers."70 An obvious, tangible truth! a truth forgotten by men, in spite of its evidence! I am a stranger on earth: I entered by birth, I will go out by death. I am a sojourner on earth: I was brought to it from paradise, where I defiled and disfigured myself by sin. I will also move from the earth, from this urgent exile of mine, in which I have been placed by my God, so that I may come to my senses, be cleansed of sinfulness, and again become capable of living in paradise. For my stubborn, final incorrigibility, I must be cast down forever into the dungeons of hell. I am a pilgrim on earth: I begin my pilgrimage from the cradle, end with the grave; I wander through the ages from childhood to old age, I wander through various earthly circumstances and situations. I am a stranger and a stranger, like all my fathers. My fathers were strangers and strangers on earth: having entered upon it by birth, they departed from its face by death. There were no exceptions: none of the people remained forever on earth. I will also leave. I am already beginning to depart, lacking in strength, submitting to old age. I will depart, I will depart from here according to the immutable law and powerful institution of my Creator and God.