"Do not faint” ~ St. Antony the Great

Part of a Sermon to Monks included in St. Athanasius, Life of Antony, §17

“Therefore, children, let us neither faint nor deem that the time is long, or that we aredoing something great, “for...the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us’ (Rom. 8:18). Nor let us think, as we look at the world, that we have renounced anything of much consequence, for the whole earth is very small compared with all the heaven. 

If, by chance, we were lords of the whole earth and gave it all up, it could not compare with the Kingdom of Heaven. For as if a man should despise a copper drachma to gain a hundred drachmas of gold; so if a man were lord of all the earth and were to renounce it, that which he gives up is little, and he receives a hundredfold. But if not even the whole earth is equal in value to the heavens, then he who has given up a few acres leaves as it were nothing; and even if he have given up a house or much gold he ought not to boast nor be low-spirited. 

Further, we should consider that even if we do not relinquish them for virtue’s sake, still afterwards when we die we shall leave them behind--very often, as the Preacher says, to those to whom we do not wish (cf. Eccl. 4:8, 6:2). Why then should we not give them up for virtue’s sake, that we may inherit even a kingdom?... Therefore having already begun and set out in the way of virtue, let us strive the more that we may attain those things that are before.