VII.
Sufferings Cannot Hinder the Fulfilment of the WiU of God
1. Man is never closer to God than when he is in trouble. Take advantage of this in order not to miss this opportunity of approaching that which is the sole source of immutable blessedness.
2. How good is the ancient proverb that God sends sufferings to him whom He loves. For him who believes in this, suffering is no suffering bttt blessedness.
3. A rational man who has reached advanced years and feels that he cannot perform by his physical strength even an hundreth part of what he could, say, thirty years earlier, has little cause to grieve, even as he felt no grief or even took any notice at the age of thirty of being unable to do the things which he could do in the days of his childhood. He knows only one thing that all of him, healthy or ill, strong or barely able to move on, then and now,
exists only for the purpose of serving God. And he knows that he can serve God equally well whether he be capable of lifting several hundred pounds with one arm, or have strength barely to nod his head. He now knows that it is only the service of his body which requires more health and strength, and that bodily strength is unnecessary in the service of God, and that on the contrary a feeble state of the body only stimulates the service of God,
The moment man diverts the meaning of his life from a striving after external blessings to the service of the Father, be no longer knows any difference between that which in worldly life is called good fortune and misfortune.
4. Only say to yourself that all things that happen are the will of God, and have faith that the will of God is always good, and you will fear nothing, and your life will be forever a life of blessedness.
DEATH
DEATH
If a man views life as th« life of the body, his life ends with the death of the body. But if man views his life as the life of the spirit he can not even imagine an en to his life.
I.
The Life of Man Does Not Cease With the Death of His Body
1. The whole life of man, from his birth even unto bis death, is like unto one day in his life from the moment of his awaking unto the moment of hts falling into slumber.
2. Remember how sometimes after a heavy sleep you . awake in the morning and fail to realize where you are, or to recognize someone at your bedside who is endeavoring to arouse you from sleep, and you hate to get up, as though you had not the power to do so. Then gradually you come to your senses, begin to realize who you are and where you are, and thoughts commence to get busy in your head, you get up and go about your business. Even so it is with man as he enters into life, gathers strength and reason and begins to do his work.
The only difference is that in the case of a man who was asleep and woke up, the process is a brief one, the thing of one morning, but in the case of the man who is born and grows up the process takes months and years.
There is also another resemblance between the life of one day and the life of man as a whole: When man awakes he settles down to work and is busy and as the day progresses he gathers more and more enet^ until noon, but after that he is no longer as еп«^е,\.\с %.^ VtV-4.^'4«»s*.
during the morning. And towards evening he is still more tired and desires to rest. It is quite so in the life of man.
In his youth man is full of vim and lives merrily, in middle age he lacks the same vigor, but with old age comes weariness, and he longs more and more for rest. And just as night follows day, and man lies down to rest, and the thoughts in his head grow confused, and falling asleep he no tanger realizes himself with his senses and goes off somewhere into the unknown, even so it is with the man who dieth.
Thus the awakening of man in the morning is a sort of a birth, the course of his day from morning until night a little picture of life, and sleep is death in miniature.
We know when we hear thunder that the lightning has already struck and that therefore thunder can not kill and yet we tremble at a peal of thunder. It is even so with death.
He who does not understand life imapnes that with death all is lost, he fears death and hides from it just as itic foolish person seeks to hide from the pealing of thunder, although thunder can not kill him at all. ,
3. If a man start from a place which I can see on a march towards a place where I can not see him any пюге, but another reach this latter place more speedily, I have no reason to assume that he who walked slowly has lived more than he who walked briskly. I only know one thing: that if one man walk past ray window slowly and another hurriedly, they both existed before t saw them and will be after they pass out of my sight. Even so with the life of others before their death which comes to my notice, whether the life was brief or long,
4. Faith in immortality cannot be received from any one. You can not make yourself believe in immortality.
In order to have faith in immortality you must view yoor life in those things wherein it is immortal.
5. Death is a change of the envelope to which our spirit is joined. We must not confuse the envelope with that which is put into it.
6. Remember that you are not standing but passing on, that you are not in a house but on a train which is taking you do death. Remember that your body either crawls or speeds towards death, but it is only the spirit within yott that truly lives.
7. Although I may be unable to prove it, I nevertheless know that the rational, free and incorporeal principle which dwelleth in me cannot die.
8. Even if I were mistaken in the belief that souls are immortal, I should still be happy and content with my error; and while I live no man has the power to rob me of this confidence. This assurance gives me peace and perfect contentment Cicero.
П.
True Life is Apart From Time, and Therefore True Life Has No Future
1. Death is the dissolution of all those oi^ans of association with the world which give us an idea of time. And therefore the question of the future has no meaning in relation to death.
2. Time conceals death. He who lives in time cannot imagine its cessation.
3. The reason why the thought of death does not produce the effect which it might is in that we being by our very nature active creatures ought not really even to think of death. KwA,
4. The question whether there is a life beyond the grave or not is the question whether time is the product of our method of thinking—limited as it is by our body—or a necessary condition of all that exists.
That time cannot be a necessary condition of all that exists is proven by the fact that we are conscious of something within us which is not subject to time. And therefore the question whether there is a life beyond the grave or not IS really a question which of the two is reaclass="underline" our idea of time or the consciousness of our life in the present.
5. If a man sees his life in the present, there can not be for him a question of his life in the future.
III.
Death Cannot Terrify a Man Who Lives the Life
of the Spirit
1. Death so easily delivers us from all difficulties and misfortunes that those who do not believe in immortality should greatly desire death. But those who believe in immortality and hope for a new life should still more ardently desire it. But why is it that the majon'ty of people do not desire it? Because the majority of the people live the life of the body and not the life of the spirit.
2. Suffering and death appear only then as ills to a man if he accepts the law of his carnal, animal existence as the law of his life. Only when, though a human being, he descends to the level of the animal, only then suffering and death stare at him from all sides like bogies, and drive him from the only path of life which is open to him, which is subject to reason and finds its expression in love. Suffering and death are only the violation by man of the law of his life. If man lived a fully spiritual life, there would be neither suffering nor death in store for him.