Nor will this expectation be reversed except by a reversal of the
nature. None can anticipate such a heaven as God has revealed, except
they that are born of the Spirit; therefore to believe that Jesus is
the Christ, a man must be born of God. You will observe that no other
victory overcomes the world: for this is what St. John means by
saying, "Who is he that overcometh the world, but he that believeth
that Jesus is the Christ?" For then it comes to pass that a man begins
to feel, that to do wrong is hell; and that to love God, to be like
God, to have the mind of Christ, is the only heaven. Until this
victory is gained, the world retains its stronghold in the heart.

Do you think that the temperate man has overcome the world, who,
instead of the short-lived rapture of intoxication, chooses regular
employment, health, and prosperity? Is it not the world in another
form, which has his homage? Or do you suppose that the so-called
religious man is really the world's conqueror by being content to give
up seventy years of enjoyment in order to win innumerable ages of the
very same species of enjoyment? Has he not only made earth a hell, in
order that earthly things may be his heaven for ever?

Thus the victory of Faith proceeds from stage to stage: the first
victory is, when the Present is conquered by the Future; the last,
when the Visible and Sensual is despised in comparison of the
Invisible and Eternal. Then earth has lost its power for ever; for if
_all_ that it has to give be lost eternally, the gain of faith is
still infinite.