Our Lord saith: he that followeth me walketh not in darkness.
These are the words of Christ in the which we are admonished to follow
his life and his manners if we would be truly enlightened and be
delivered from all manner of blindness of heart.
Wherefore let our chief study be upon the life of Jesus Christ.
Sublime words make not a man holy and righteous, but it is a virtuous
life that maketh him dear to God.
I desire rather to know compunction than its definition. If thou knewest
all the sayings of all the philosophers, what should that avail thee
without charity and grace?
All other things in the world, save only to love God and serve him, are
vanity of vanities and all vanity.
And it is vanity also to desire honour and for a man to lift himself on
high.
And it is vanity to follow the desires of the flesh and to desire the
thing for which man must afterward grievously be punished.
And it is vanity to desire a long life and to take no care to live a
good life.
And it is vanity for a man to take heed only to this present life and
not to see before those things that are to come.
Study therefore to withdraw thy heart from love of things visible and
turn thee to things invisible.
For they that follow their senses stain their consciences and lose the
grace of God.