Into Thy vineyard I come in haste
Eleven sounds from it's ancient tower
So many years have gone to waste
What can I do in a single hour



Among the absurd fallicies introduced by the demon into
the world none is greater or more pernicious than the
forgetfulness of the hour of death and of what is to
happen at the court of the rigorous Judge. Thus
continually deceived, there are uncountable fools who
live without thought of death and who die forgetful of
the unhappy lot that awaits them.  In order that you
may escape this perversity, begin to convince yourself
now that you must die irrevocably; that you have
received much and paid little; that the account shall
be so much the more rigorous, as the more lavish the
gifts and talents bestowed on you.

The Lord gives us life in order that we may free
ourselves from the effects of original sin, so as to be
unhampered by them at the hour of our death; and the
ignorant and miserable children of Adam spend all their
lives in loading upon themselves new burdens and
fetters, so that they die captives of their passions
and in the tyranny of their hellish foes.

Lamentable and inexcusable is the ignorance of people
in so knowingly forgetting the Eternal Glory, which God
has prepared for those who dispose themselves to merit
it.  For there is no doubt that whoever willfully
forgets the Eternal Glory and happiness is in evident
danger of losing it.  No one is free from this guilt,
not only because people do not apply much labor or
effort in seeking and retaining the remembrance of this
happiness; but they labor with all their powers in
things that make them forget the end for which they
were created.  Undoubtedly this forgetfulness arises
from their entangling themselves in the pride of life,
the covetousness of the eyes, and the desires of the
flesh.  They have no care or attention for the thoughts
of Eternal life. Let people acknowledge and confess,
whether this recollection costs them more labor than
seeking after the vain and transitory pleasures of this
life, which after much striving and labor many people
do not and can never attain.


Oh, mortal and deceived people, what are you doing?
For what purpose are you living?  Do you realize what
it is to see God face to face, to participate in His
Eternal glory and share His company?  Of what are you
thinking?  Who has thus disturbed and fascinated your
judgment? What will you seek, if once you have lost
this true blessing and happiness, since there is no
other.

The labor is short, the reward is Infinite Glory, and
the punishment is Eternal.

  
 
Into Thy vineyard I come in haste

Eleven sounds from it's ancient tower
 So many years have gone to waste
 What can I do in a single hour