What wilt thou have of us, brother? you ask.  I desire that you serve Christ with zeal and not with sloth and indifference.  I desire that you do not mourn, but in thankfulness raise your hands to heaven, whenever your brother or your son enters the service of Christ.  The time is come when Christ will work not only in you but through you and in others; whoever hears, let him say:  “Come brother.  Let one draw the other.  Turn about, thou who thinkest that thou art of a superior mind and therefore canst not accept the faith.”  If I could only explain this whole Gospel to thee word for word, I would then scourge thy forehead and prove to thee that the faith could not be false and that Christ is thy God who is enthroned in heaven, and waits for thee.  Or dost thou believe?  Where are thy works?  Why dost thou delay about them?  Hear this:  There was once a monk who spoke to a distinguished man about the faith, and got him to answer why he did not believe.  He answered thus:  “You yourself do not believe, for if you believed you would show other works.”  Therefore, to you also I say:  If you believe, where are your works?  Your faith is something every one knows, for every one knows that Christ was put to death by the Jews, and that everywhere men pray to Him.  The whole world knows that His glory has not been spread by force and weapons, but by poor fishermen.  O wise man, do you think the poor fishermen were not clever enough for this?  Where they worked, there they made hearts better; where they could not work, there men remained bad; and therefore was the faith true and from God.  The signs which the Lord had promised followed their teaching:  in His name they drove out the devil; they spoke in new tongues; if they drank any deadly drink, they received therefrom no harm.  Even if these wonders had not occurred, there would have been the wonder of wonders, that poor fishermen without any miracle could accomplish so great a work as the faith.  It came from God, and so is Christ true and Christ is thy God, who is in heaven and awaits thee.

You say you believe the Gospel, but you do not believe me.  But the purer anything is, so much the nearer it stands to its end and purpose.  The Christian life purifies the heart, and places it very near to the truth.  To the Christian life will I lead you, if you would have the knowledge of the truth.  If I had wished to deceive you, why should I have given you as the chief of my gifts the means of discovering my fraud?  I would be verily a fool to try to impose upon you with a falsehood which you would soon detect; only because I offered you the truth, did I call you.  Come here, I fear you not; the closer you examine, the clearer the truth will become to you.