men, only to forfeit our
place at the banquet of angels. But our heavenly reward and our celestial
crown are to be merited and won here below; they are to follow upon our
earthly labors. "Only he shall be crowned," says St. Paul, "who has
legitimately engaged in the battle."(50) And did not the Master say
Himself, "Let him who wishes to come after me deny himself and take up his
cross and follow me?"(51) Did He not declare that we must die to live?
that we must surrender our life here, if we would keep it eternally?
"Amen, amen, I say to you, unless the grain of wheat falling into the
ground die, itself remaineth alone. But if it die it bringeth forth much
fruit. He that loveth his life shall lose it; and he that hateth his life
in this world, keepeth it unto life eternal."(52) We cannot serve two
masters, we cannot serve God and mammon. If we would seek to avoid all
pain and sorrow, and spend our lives in the pleasures of sense, we must be
prepared to forego the future joys of the soul; if we would pass our days
indulging the flesh and chasing the phantoms of time, we must needs make
ready for the death of the spirit and the forfeit of all that is lasting.

We have no choice, then; if we would succeed eternally, we must follow the
way of the cross. This is the only way to life--to that abundant, celestial
life which our Creator has wished us to live. And it is the bearing of our
cross, patiently and resignedly to the will of God, together with our
other good works, that enables us to merit, in so far as we can, the joys
of the kingdom of Heaven. But the sufferings and labors, so inevitable and
necessary to our earthly state, which serve as a means to supernal
rewards, have still another, deeper meaning, and serve another purpose. We
cannot evade them, we must encounter them. They are not only unavoidable,
but necessary to our dearest interests, as we see, since they are strewn
as thorns and brambles all along the narrow way that leads to eternal
life. We cannot choose them or lay them aside at will. We may, indeed, if
we be foolish and impious enough, refuse to walk the narrow way of the
just and choose the broad road that leadeth to destruction; but we shall
not even thus escape the pains and perils inseparable from this mortal
life. Or again, we may, in our folly, rebel against the crosses and labors
that confront and pursue us; but whether we go this way or that, whether
we will it or not, we can no more eschew all th