(1) 1 John ii. 15. (2) Psalm lxviii. 30.


CHAPTER XXXV

That there is no security against temptation in this life

"My Son, thou art never secure in this life, but thy spiritual
armour will always be needful for thee as long as thou livest.
Thou dwellest among foes, and art attacked on the right hand and
on the left. If therefore thou use not on all sides the shield
of patience, thou wilt not remain long unwounded. Above all, if
thou keep not thy heart fixed upon Me with steadfast purpose to
bear all things for My sake, thou shalt not be able to bear the
fierceness of the attack, nor to attain to the victory of the
blessed. Therefore must thou struggle bravely all thy life
through, and put forth a strong hand against those things which
oppose thee. For to him that overcometh is the hidden manna
given,(1) but great misery is reserved for the slothful.

2. "If thou seek rest in this life, how then wilt thou attain
unto the rest which is eternal? Set not thyself to attain much
rest, but much patience. Seek the true peace, not in earth but
in heaven, not in man nor in any created thing, but in God alone.
For the love of God thou must willingly undergo all things,
whether labours or sorrows, temptations, vexations, anxieties,
necessities, infirmities, injuries, gainsayings, rebukes,
humiliations, confusions, corrections, despisings; these things
help unto virtue, these things prove the scholar of Christ; these