hamed in the open places, in
the palaces, and everywhere to speak evil and to revile us. Bear then a
little shame only for your Lord; for whoever follows Him will, according
to our gospel, in His name drive out the devil; that is, he will drive
out his sins, and lead a virtuous life; he will drive out serpents; he
will throw out the lazy who come into the houses, and say evil things
under the pretense of righteousness, and so are like poisonous serpents.
You will see how children can withstand them with the truth of God, and
drive them away. If a believer drinks anything deadly it will not hurt
him: this deadly drink is the false doctrines of the lazy, from whom, as
you contend with them, a little comes also to you. But he who stands
unharmed in the faith, cries to you: See that you do good; seek God's
glory, not your own. He that does that is of the truth, and remains
unharmed. The Lord says further of the faithful: They shall lay their
hands on the sick and shall heal them. The hands are the works, and the
good lay such hands on the weak that they may support them when they
totter. Do I not teach you according to the Gospel? Why do you hesitate
and go not into the service of the Lord? Do you ask me still what you
ought to do? I will, in conclusion, tell you.

Look to Christ and you will find that all He says concerns faith. Ask
the apostle; he speaks of nothing else than of faith. If you have the
ground of all, if you have faith, you will always do what is good.
Without faith man always falls into sin. You must seek faith in order to
be good, or else your faith will become false. Christ commanded His
disciples to preach the Gospel to all the world, and your wise men call
a man a little world, a microcosm. So then preach to yourself, O man,
woman, and child. Three parts the world has in you also. Preach first of
all to your knowledge, and say to it: If you draw near this truth, you
will have much faith; wherefore do you hesitate to use it? To your will,
say: Thou seest that everything passes away; therefore love not the
world, love Christ. Thereupon turn to the second part of your world,
and say to it: Be thankful, my memory, for the mercies God has shown
thee, that thou thinkest not of the things of this world but of the
mercy of thy creation, and thy redemption through the blood of the Son
of God. Then go to the third part, to thy imagination, and proclaim to
it: Set nothing before my eyes but my death, bring nothing