124. Who is so patient in suffering as not
to pray for death? who has such endurance in weakness as not to wish
rather to die than to live in debility? Who is so brave in sorrow
as not to desire to escape from it even by death? But if we
ourselves are dissatisfied while life lasts, although we know that a
limit is fixed for it, how much more weary should we become of this
life if we saw that the troubles of the body would be with us without
end! For who is there who would wish to be excepted from
death? Or what would be more unendurable than a miserable
immortality? “If in this life only,” he says,
“we hope in Christ, we are more miserable than all
men;” 1 Cor. xv. 19. not because to
hope in Christ is miserable, but because Christ has prepared another
life for those who hope in Him. For this life is liable to sin,
that life is reserved for the reward.