Toil, it seems to me, assumes a function similar to that of food. As food has made itself a necessity to life and has joined in the same connexion with itself all the conditions active or passive that are involved in life, so toil has made all good things dependent on itself. And therefore just as those who seek to live must not neglect food, so those who desire the acquisition of the good must make provision for toil, for it bears to the noble and excellent the same relation as food does to life. “Never then despise toil, that from the one you may reap a multitude, even the harvest of every good thing. And so though you be the younger in birth you shall be accounted the elder and judged worthy of the elder’s place. And if your life to the end be a progress to the better, the Father will give you not only the birthright of the elder, but the whole inheritance, even as He did to Jacob, who overthrew the seat and foundation of passion—Jacob who confessed his life’s story in the words ‘God has had mercy on me and all things are mine’ (Gen. 33:11), words of sound doctrine and instruction for life, for on God’s mercy, as a sure anchor, all things rest.
On the Sacrifices of Abel and Cain 9
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