Life in the world is like a manuscript of writings that is still in rough draft.

he can add something or subtract from it | and make changes in the writings. | But the life in the world to come is like documents written on clean scrolls and sealed with the royal seal | where no addition or deletion is possible. | Therefore, so long as we are found in the midst of change | let us pay heed to ourselves | and while we have power over the manuscript of our life | which we have written by our own hand | let us strive earnestly to add to it by leading a good manner of life | and let us erase from it the failings of our former life. | We have power to erase our debts from it as long as we are here. | And God will take into account every change we make in it | so that we may be deemed worthy of eternal life before we go before the King | and He sets His seal upon it. | For so long as we are in this world | God does not affix His seal either to what is good or to what is evil | even up to the moment of our departure when the service of our fatherland is completed | and we set out upon our journey. | Homily 62, p. 442