Let us then say nay to all hesitation, and present ourselves ever up-girded and ready to give thanks and honour to the Almighty. For we are bidden to keep the Passover, which is the passage from the life of the passions to the practice of virtue, “with our loins girded” ready for service. We must grip the material body of flesh, that is the sandals, with “our feet,” that stand firm and sure. We must bear “in our hands the staff” of discipline, to the end that we may walk without stumbling through all the business of life. Last of all we must eat our meal “in haste” (Exod. 12:11). For it is no mortal passage, since it is called the passover of the Uncreate and Immortal one. And right fitly is it so called, for there is no good thing which is not divine and is not of God. Be this then thy quest, my soul, and that quickly, even as it was with the Practiser Jacob. He, when his father asked him “What is this that thou hast found so quickly, my son?” replied (and the words convey an important truth), “It is what the Lord God set before me” (Gen. 27:20). Long experience had taught him that what the world of creation gives to the soul it makes secure only after long time, as it is with those who impart the arts and their rules to their pupils. They cannot at once fill to the brim the mind of the beginners, as one fills a vessel. But when the fountain of wisdom, God, imparts each form of knowledge to the mortal race, He needs not time for the work. Such persons become apt disciples of the only wise Being and discover quickly what they seek.
On the Sacrifices of Abel and Cain 17
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