Help then, dear Lord, that we so believe and live that we need not fear to die. Time passes away. Where does it lead our footsteps? Are we on the right path to the heavenly Canaan? A stork and a crane are prepared. They point to their time. Likewise the swallow and the turtle-dove do not let themselves be robbed of their time. The little animal and the like teach us a nice lesson, how we in the time of grace should gather for eternity. Motto 25. For one sees it and finds it recorded how great a factor time is. Therefore guard it well and be diligent in seeing how the same is spent in order that thou mayest enter into His rest.
And when he had called the people unto Him with His disciples also, He said unto them, as follows: Whosoever will come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me. For whosoever will save his life shall lose it; but whosoever shall lose his life for My sake and the Gospel's sake the same shall save it. For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul? Whoever therefore shall be ashamed of Me and of My words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him also shall the Son of man be ashamed, when He cometh in the glory of His Father with the holy angels. (Mark viii, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38.)
Oh, my God, help us to live a Christian life and to die a blessed death, for a Christian life and a blessed death are sufficient rewards here upon this earth.
