things of the Spirit; you still have time, the hour is not yet past.† Why will you defer your good purpose form day to day? Arise and in this very instant begin, and say, “Now is the time to be doing, now is the time to be fighting, now is the time to be amending myself.”
When you are ill at ease and much troubled, that is the time to gain most blessing. You must pass through fire and water before you come to the place of refreshing. Unless you discipline yourself severely, you will never get the victory over wickedness.
So long as we carry about us this frail body, we can never be without sin, or live without weariness and pain. We would gladly have rest from all misery, but by sinning we have lost our innocence, and we have lost the true happiness.† Therefore, it becomes us to keep hold on patience, and to wait for the mercy of God, “until the disaster has past”† and “what is mortal may be swallowed up by life”.†
Oh, how great is human frailty, which is always prone to evil!† Today you confess your sins, and tomorrow you commit the very same sins you have confessed today. Now you purpose to take heed, and after an hour you behave yourself as though you had never had any such purpose at all.
Therefore we have good cause to humble ourselves and never to have any
