約伯倫理 第 352 章

And his days are like the days of a hireling. The elect, after the manner of a hireling, desires that his days be quickly unrolled. He labours in another's field. He takes care that no day slip away empty of work. The hireling most earnestly desires that his days be unrolled more swiftly, so that without delay he may attain to the reward of his labour. And so the days of a man who is truly and eternally wise are rightly compared to the days of a hireling, because he reckons the present life a road and not a homeland, a warfare and not the palm of victory; and he sees himself the further absent from the reward, the more slowly he comes to the end. It must also be considered that the hireling sweats in the labours of another, yet nevertheless prepares for himself his own proper reward. But by the voice of our Redeemer it is said: My kingdom is not of this world (John

18:36). All of us therefore who, endowed with the hope of heavenly things, are worn down by the exercise of the present life, labour in another's field. For often we are compelled even to serve the reprobate, we are constrained to render to the world the things that are the world's; and by another's labour indeed we are wearied, yet nevertheless we receive our own rewards; and we come to what is our own through this, that we purely administer what is another's. Contrariwise, to certain ones the Truth says: If you have not been faithful in that which is another's, who will give you that which is your own (Luke 16:12)? It must also be understood that the hireling anxiously takes care to watch that never a day slip by empty of work, and that the awaited end of the time come not fruitless to the remuneration.

For in the zeal of his labour he perceives what he may receive in the time of remuneration. For when the work grows, the confidence of reward advances; but when the work has grown sluggish, the hope of remuneration flags. Whence each of the elect also, weighing his own life as it were the days of a hireling, presses toward the reward with hope the more confidently, the more robustly he now perseveres toward the increase of his labour; he weighs what may be the course of the present time, he numbers his days together with his works, he dreads lest the moments of life pass by empty of labour; he rejoices in adversities, is refreshed by suffering, is warmed by sorrow, because he sees himself remunerated the more abundantly with the rewards of the life to come, the more truly he spends himself in daily deaths for the love of it.

Hence indeed it is that the citizens of the heavenly homeland say to its Founder in the words of the Psalmist: For thy sake we are put to death all the day long (Ps. 43:22). Hence Paul says: I die daily for your glory, brethren (1 Cor. 15:31). Hence again he says: For which cause I also suffer these things; but I am not confounded, for I know whom I have believed, and I am certain that he is able to keep my deposit unto that day (2 Tim. 1:12). Holy men therefore, as many labours as they now display, entrusting them to the Truth, so many pledges of their remuneration do they already hold shut up within the chamber of hope. But now a heavy heat is felt in the work, that at some time refreshment may be received from rest. Whence also fitly it is presently subjoined: