Elder Ephraim of Arizona
May an angel of God, my child, follow you and show you the path of God and of your
salvation. Amen; so be it. I pray that God gives you health of soul, for this is
a special gift of sonship which is bestowed only upon those souls that have been
completely devoted to the worship and love of God.
The world attracts the youth like a magnet; worldly things have great power over
the newly enlightened soul that just started to find its bearings and see its purpose
in life and the duty calling him. “Friendship with the world is enmity with God.
Whoever, therefore, wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of
God.” God has stored up pleasures for eternity, for both He and our soul are
eternal. There is no comparison between the pleasures of the world and the pure
pleasures of God.
The pleasures of the world are obtained with toil and expenses, and after their
momentary enjoyment, they are followed by various consequences, so that they are
incorrectly called pleasures. The pleasures of God, however, do not have such consequences,
because spiritual pleasures down here on earth are the firstfruits of an eternal
series of pleasures and delights in the kingdom of God. Whereas on the contrary,
one who has been corrupted by the pleasures of the world is compelled to undergo
eternal damnation along with the first instigator of corruption, the devil.
The time of our life, my child, has been given to us as a sum of money so that each
of us may trade for his salvation, and depending on the trade we deal in, we shall
become either rich or poor. If we take advantage of the “money” of time by trading
to increase our spiritual wealth, then we shall truly be skilled traders, and we
shall hear the blessed voice: “Well done, good and faithful servant! You were faithful
over a few things, I will make you ruler over many things. Enter into the joy of
your Lord.”
At the end of our life, an exact account will be demanded of each one of us: how
and where we spent the money of time, and woe to us if we have squandered it in
movie theaters, in entertainments, in debauchery, in futile dreams, in carnal pleasures.
Then what defense will our tied tongue be able to utter, and how will we be able
to lift up our eyes and see our Christ, when He enumerates the countless benefactions
which His boundless love profusely poured upon us?
Now that we have time, now that the money of time has not yet been spent completely
and we still have it at our disposal, let us reflect sensibly on the vagrant world
which seeks to rob us. Let us push it away like a putrid dead dog, and with that
money let us run to buy precious works which, when tried by fire, will become very
bright—gifts worthy of our Holy God, fit to be used as a decoration in the holy
Jerusalem of Heaven. We should not purchase chaff, that is, punishable works of
darkness, for we shall go down with them into the eternal fire of damnation, where
the multitude of people who embezzled God’s gifts will reap whatever they sowed!
Sow good works with tears, and then in a time of visitation you will reap the sheaves
of enjoying eternal life!
From Counsels from the Holy Mountain, by Elder Ephraim of Philotheou, Mount
Athos,(Now St.Anthony's Arizona)
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