have time, let us work good to all." And as the
Apostle counsels us, he did himself: for from the first hour of the day
until the fifth, he worked with his hands to win his food: and from the
fifth to the tenth, he preached to the people: from the tenth to even he
served the poor and pilgrims with such goods as he had; by night he was
praying, and thus spent he his time.

In three ways, man loses his time: in idleness; or in works that no good
comes of; or in good works, but not ordained as they should be. Against
idleness, Solomon says--"Idleness teaches much evil"; and Holy Writ says
"Whoso followeth idleness, is most foolish." A great fool he is who
forbears not from the thing that harms him. More fool he is, because he
wins himself no reward: most fool he is, because he wins himself pain.
Therefore GOD blames the idle: and says "Why standest thou all the day
idle?" Idleness wastes the goods that are prudently gotten, and entices
the fiend to the house: for as by good works the fiend is hindered from
entering man's heart, so idleness draws him thereto. And Seneca says:
"he lives not to himself who lives for his stomach and the ease of his
flesh whenever he can." For Job says "Man is born to labour." To work
was man bound after he had sinned, through GOD'S bidding, Who said to
him: "In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat thy bread, till thou
returnest unto the ground from whence thou wast taken; because from the
ground thou art, and into the ground thou shalt go." Thou shalt work
stalwartly and not faintly, for He bids thee work, "with sweat of thy
face, even till thou returnest to the earth"; that is, all thy life time
that thou losest no time in idleness. Idleness smites a man as if he
were in a paralysis, and makes his limbs dry that he cannot work.
Therefore says the Psalmist: "They have hands and handle not; feet have
they but they walk not; mouths have they but they speak not; eyes have
they and see not; ears have they and hear not"; for their limbs are so
bound in sin, that to all good things, they are as dead; and to evil,
they are easy. Idleness is nurse to all vices, and makes a man reckless
about not doing what he is bound to do. And when the fiend finds a man
idle, he puts in his heart foul thoughts of fleshly filth, and other
follies that may bring him to sin; afterwards, he eggs him on to do them
indeed, and thus he does against the Apostle's bidding: "Will not to
give place to the devil." The idle man