Жизнь

Christian life in this world is nothing more than a constant battle. Our life in this world is nothing more than wandering and migration, as the Lord says: you are strangers and migrants before Me (Lev. 25:23). Like a burning candle in front of you, so is your life in front of you. The longer the candle burns, the more it decreases. So you, the longer you live, the more your life shortens. The candle burns out and goes out. This is how a person ends his life and dies. When the candle goes out, it seems as if it never existed. So, when a person dies and is buried, it seems that he never existed. You see, Christian, what a person is and what his life is. Remember that your life will go out, just like you see a candle go out. Prepare in advance for your death - may you die blissfully. Tell me, Lord, my death and the number of my days: what it is, so that I may understand what remains for me. Behold, You have measured my days with spans and my composition is as if it were nothing before You. Truly, everything is vanity, every man who lives. Yes, man walks like a ghost; in vain he only worries, he collects treasure, but does not know for whom he is collecting it (Ps. 38:5-7). As water flows by, so is our life and everything that happens in life. We see that the water in the river constantly flows and passes, and everything floating on top of the water, such as forest, rubbish, etc., passes. Christian! So our life, and with life all prosperity and adversity, passes by. I did not exist before, and now I am in the world, like other creatures. Thy hands created me and created me, O Lord (Ps. 119:73). I was a baby, and that passed. I was a boy, and that passed away. I was a young man, and that left me. I was a perfect and strong husband, but that’s gone. Now my hair is turning gray, and I am exhausted from old age. But even this passes, and I am approaching the end, and I will go on the path of the whole earth. I was born to die. I die so that I can live. Remember me, Lord, in Your Kingdom (Luke 23:42)! What happened to me happens to every person. I was healthy and sick, and healthy again and sick again - and it passed. There was prosperity and disadvantage - time passed, and over time everything passed. I was in honor - that time has passed, and honor has receded from me. People revered and worshiped me - that time has passed, and I don’t see it. I was happy, I was sad, I was happy and I cried. And now the same thing happens to me: days pass, sadness and joy, joy and crying pass with them. People praised and glorified me, they blasphemed and reviled me. And those who praised, they also cursed, and those who blasphemed, they also praised - time passed, everything passed, praise and blasphemy, glory and disgrace passed. I hear the same thing now: sometimes they praise, sometimes they blaspheme, sometimes they glorify, sometimes they disgrace. I know that even that will fall: time will pass, blasphemy and praise, glory and disgrace will pass. What happened and happens to me, happens to every person living in this world. Such is the world, such is its constancy, such is our life in the world. A man is poor from his mother's womb even to the grave: he is born crying, lives in the world like a ship floats on the sea, and then ascends, then descends, then rises, then descends, and dies crying. I lived in a rich house, and I also lived in a hut. Time passed, and such peace retreated from me. I now live in a hut and cramped conditions, and that won’t happen. I sat at a rich meal, and I sat at a meager one. These days have passed, and everything that was in them has passed. The same thing is happening now, and it will pass. I tasted sweets and sorrows - the taste receded, sweetness and sorrow retreated from me. Heard sweet music. The time of hearing passed, and my joy ceased. I dressed in good clothes. This time has passed, that robe has left me. I rode a chariot. That time has passed, and that is no longer the case. Servants and slaves stood before me. That time passed, and they retreated from me. I had friends and acquaintances. Those days have passed, and they have turned some into my enemies, some into false brothers. What happens to me happens to everyone. Where is the time in which I was happy, in which I was healthy, cheerful, joyful, glorified, praised, honored, in which I consoled myself with a rich meal and music, rode in a chariot in a train? Time has passed, and all my happiness and my consolation have passed with it. Where is the time when I was unhappy, sick, sad, sorrowful, blasphemed and reviled, reproached and scolded, etc.? Those days have passed, and all my misfortune has passed. Everything that happens now in this time will pass, just as everything passes with passing time. What one person discovers in himself happens to everyone. There is no such person who would remain in constant prosperity or disadvantage from birth to death. Just as the sky is sometimes cloudy, sometimes cloudy, sometimes bad weather and stormy, sometimes clear and quiet, so every person happens to be sometimes in prosperity, sometimes in trouble, sometimes in fear, sometimes in peace, sometimes in sadness, sometimes in joy. But as days and hours pass, so does every happiness and misfortune pass with them. You see, Christian, that like water flowing by, and everything floating on it, so the time of our life and all our well-being and ill-being passes over time. This is how our whole life will pass. Just as we now have our past days, and everything that happened in them, our happiness and misfortune, has passed, so our whole other life, and everything that happens in it, will pass. And just as we see our past days, as in a dream, and with them all the well-being and adversity, so we will see the rest of the time at the end of life, as in a dream. And only then will we remember and dream that such and such happened to us. Such is our life in this world!.. 1. Since our temporary life is impermanent and everything in it changes and passes, we should not cleave to temporary and worldly things, but seek eternal life and those blessings with all possible diligence. Set your mind on things above, and not on earthly things (Col. 3:2). 2. We should not be proud of the well-being of this world, that is, wealth, glory, honor, praise, etc., for all well-being is temporary - as it comes, so it departs from us, and we are like one of the unhappy, the poor, the poor and the despised. 3. Don’t be discouraged in adversity, as it too will pass. And just as after the last night there is a day and after a storm and bad weather a bucket shines, so after grief and sadness there is joy, and after adversity comes prosperity 4. It is generous to endure slander, blasphemy, reproach and reproach of self-willed and lawless people and not be upset, for this too all passes. God is strong and can turn their oath into a blessing for us, according to what has been said: they will curse, but You will bless (Ps. 108:28). 5. Whoever is equally constant in patience, in prosperity and adversity, will always remain in silence, peace and peace; and a life that is favorable, sweet, similar and in keeping with Christ’s life, will have a life; and on heavenly earth he will feel joy, and in the temporary life of eternal life he will taste sweetness. If our life in this world is so dangerous and poor, Christian, why should we desire a long life in this world? To live in this world is nothing other than to always be in poverty; and to wish to live long in this world is nothing other than to live in poverty for a long time. Therefore, the holy prophet complains about this and sighs, saying: woe is me, that my life in exile is long (Ps. 119:5). A day of blessed death is better than a day of birth. We are born into troubles, but a blessed death puts an end to all troubles. Do not wish, Christian, a long life, as the sons of this age do, but wish for a blessed death. You see that the candle burns and then burns out. This example shows you that our life, while we live, is like a candle that burns and then goes out. And we must remember about her death, which is unknown, on what day and hour it will be, and therefore we must always expect it. You see that some from the glorious become dishonest, some from the rich become beggars, some from the healthy become weak, some from the free become a slave, and others from a master become a slave. These changes clearly show us that our life on earth is fickle, vain, poor and deplorable, and this is a sign that we were created by our Creator not for this, but for another, better and more blessed life. And thereby we learn and, as it were, are convinced to seek that constant and blissful life. And in this case, we should not only not grumble, as our blind flesh wants, but also greatly thank God, although it seems disgusting to us that His grace thus convinces us to enter eternal life. Our life is like a path that we constantly walk from birth to death. Whether we are watching, or sleeping, working, or resting, this path continually shortens, and everyone approaches his end. When we are born, we enter this path, and when we die, we end this path. And the more we live, the further we move from the border of birth and the more we approach the border of the end. So, our life on earth is nothing more than a constant and continuous approach to death. This path - long for one, short for another - was determined by God. Some in infancy, others in adolescence, others in youth, others in adulthood, and others graduate from it in old age. As we know that we started this path, we know that we will finish it. But when we finish it, God’s providence hid it from us, so that we would always expect the end, and would always try to be what we want to be at the end. Real life is filled with many troubles and illnesses. There is no one who lives in constant happiness to the end. We see a constant change: from the rich becomes a beggar, from the glorious - inglorious, from the healthy - the weak, the prison receives the free, fear from enemies, fear from evil people, fear from fire, fear from the flesh, the beautiful world, fear from the adversary of the devil, who walks like a roaring lion, looking for someone to devour (1 Peter 5:8). We are born with crying. We live in troubles, sorrows, weaknesses, and fear. We end our lives in fear and cramped conditions. Our life in this world is so poor and deplorable! But if we die in the Lord, we are freed from all these troubles.