Make the most of your allotted years and secure your salvation through righteous deeds. Tell me: have you discovered the outer limit of the kingdom you will attain, or the final span of your lives?”

They replied, “We do not know; perhaps it will all last no longer than the blink of an eye.”

He said, “Then why do you gamble on so flimsy an illusion?”

They answered, “Out of hope that the term will be long.”

He asked, “How many years have already passed over you?”

They said, “Our youngest is thirty-five years old, and our eldest is forty.”

He responded, “Then set the longest life you can realistically expect at no more than the years you have already lived.”

They said, “We do not hope for more than that, and there is no benefit in living beyond it.”

He said, “Will you not, then, seek in what remains of your lives that which you long for: a dominion that never perishes, bliss that never alters, delight that never ends, and a life untouched by death, untroubled by sorrow, worry, or illness?”