A Magistrate Chastised

Βραχυτελῆ ού μόνον τὴν ἀρχὴν, ἀλλὰ καὶ αὐτὴν ἔχεις τὴν ζωήν. Τί τοίνυν ἁμαρτάνεις ἀτελεύτητα, ἐν ὀλίγαις ὥραις τὴν αἰώιον ἑαυτῷ κατασκευάζων κόλασιν; Καταμαθὼν οὖν πᾶσαν τὴν πολύστροφον καὶ πολύτρεπτον τῶν πραγμάτων ἀπιστίαν, μᾶλλον ἐπὶ χρηστοῖς γνωρίζεσθαι· κατορθώμασι σπούδαζε, ὦν καὶ οἱ ἐνταῦθα τυγχάνουσιν ἔπαινοι, καὶ οἱ μέλλοντες μισθοὶ οὐκ ἀπόλλυνται. Ἅγιος Ἰσίδωρος Του Πηλουσιώτου, Βιβλιον Πρῶτον, Ἐπιστολή ΛΑ', Διοφαντῃ Ἀρχοντι Source: Migne PG 78.201b

It is not only your office that is of brief duration but even the life you have. Why then do you sin endlessly, in such few hours heaping up eternal punishment? Learn then that ever changing and shifting  faithless deeds should rather be beneficial acts. Be eager then for good deeds which even in this age will be celebrated and in the future will not lose reward. Saint Isidore of Pelusium, Book 1,Letter 31, To Diophantes the Magistrate