We Must Strive in Order to Be Crowned.

Chapter VII.—We Must Strive in Order to Be Crowned.

Wherefore, then, my brethren, let us struggle with all earnestness, knowing that the contest is [in our case] close at hand, and that many undertake long voyages to strive for a corruptible reward;⁴³⁶⁸ yet all are not crowned, but those only that have laboured hard and striven gloriously.  Let us therefore so strive, that we may all be crowned.  Let us run the straight⁴³⁶⁹ course, even the race that is incorruptible; and let us in great numbers set out⁴³⁷⁰ for it, and strive that we may be crowned.  And should we not all be able to obtain the crown, let us at least come near to it.  We must remember⁴³⁷¹ that he who strives in the corruptible contest, if he be found acting unfairly,⁴³⁷² is taken away and scourged, and cast forth from the lists.  What then think ye?  If one does anything unseemly in the incorruptible contest, what shall he have to bear?  For of those who do not preserve the seal⁴³⁷³ [unbroken], [the Scripture] saith, “Their worm shall not die, and their fire shall not be quenched, and they shall be a spectacle to all flesh.”⁴³⁷⁴