The Best of Our Time Belongs to God

'But beware that Satan will use all his strength [to bring it to pass] that ye [shall] watch during the night, and afterward be sleeping when by commandment of God ye ought to be praying and listening to the word of God.'

'Tell me, would it please you if a friend of yours should eat the meat and give you the bones?'

Peter answered: 'No, master, for such an one ought not to be called friend, but a mocker.'

Jesus answered with a sigh: 'Thou hast well said the truth, O Peter, for verily every one that watcheth with the body more than is necessary, sleeping, or having his head weighed down with slumber when he should be praying or listening to the words of God, such a wretch mocketh God his creator, and so is guilty of such a sin. Moreover, he is a robber, seeing that he stealeth the time that he ought to give to God, and spendeth it then, and as much as, pleaseth him.'

'In a vessel of the best wine a man gave his enemies to drink so long as the wine was at its best, but when the wine came down to the dregs he gave to his lord to drink. What, think ye, will the master do to his servant when he shall know all, and the servant be before him? Assuredly, he will beat him and slay him in righteous indignation according to the laws of the world. And now what shall God do to the man that spendeth the best of his time in business, and the worst in prayer and study of the law? Woe to the wicked, because with this and with greater sin is its heart weighed down! Accordingly, when I said unto you that laughter should be turned into weeping, feasts into fasting, and sleep into watching, I compassed in three words all that ye have heard—that here on earth one ought always to weep, and that weeping should be from the heart, because God our creator is offended; that ye ought to fast in order to have lordship over the sense, and to watch in order not to sin; and that bodily weeping and bodily fasting and watching should be taken according to the constitution of each one.'