m to divide their gathered store. "What did you in the
summer time that you gathered nothing?" asked the ants. "We sang,"
the grasshoppers replied. "If you sang in the summer, you must dance
for it in the winter," was the response. Similarly should fools
unwilling to learn the will of God be answered. Terrible and alarming
is the wrath of God when with scorn and mockery he turns away a soul.
In Proverbs 1, 24 and 26 he threatens: "Because I have called, and ye
have refused; I have stretched out my hand, and no man hath
regarded.... I also will laugh in the day of your calamity; I will
mock when your fear cometh."

22. Some may ask what Paul means by adding to the phrase, "Redeeming
the time," the modifier, "because the days are evil"; if we are to
regard the present opportunity golden, why are the days evil?

EVIL DOCTRINES EVER OPPOSE THE CHRISTIAN.

23. I answer: The time is unquestionably good so long as the Gospel
is sounded--is faithfully preached and received. At the same time,
even today the world is filled with evils, factions, false theories
and bad examples of every sort; much of this wickedness is inherent
in ourselves. With these things the Christian must always contend;
the devil pursues, and our own flesh discourages us and allures from
recognition and observance of the divine will. If we strive not
against it, we shall soon lose sight of God's will, to our own
injury, even while listening to the Gospel. For the devil's strongest
fury is exerted to befoul the world with fanaticism, and to draw from
the pure doctrine of faith into that evil even them who possess the
Gospel. Moreover, being still flesh and blood we are always
self-secure, unwilling to be led by the Spirit, and indolent and
unresponsive in relation to the Word of God and to prayer. Again, in
the outward walks of life, in temporal conditions, only obstacles and
evils meet us everywhere, impeding our spiritual progress and
impelling us to suppress the Gospel and to rend the Church.

24. Let no one, then, expect to enjoy an era of peace and pleasure
here on earth. Although the present time is in itself good, and God
bestows upon us the golden year of his Word and his grace, yet the
devil is here with his factions and followers, and our own flesh
supports him. He corrupts the blessed days of grace at every possible
opportunity, and so oppresses Christians that they must contend
against him with their utmost strength and vigilance if they wo