Choked With the Earthly

If earthly plants are permitted to spring up in the heart, how is it possible that the tree of holiness should flourish? With the ground already occupied with earthly products, the roots of sanctification, deprived of the nourishment which should sustain them, necessarily  wither and die. There is not nutriment enough to sustain both. Hence it is that our Savior in his divine wisdom, tells us of those who are choked with the riches, and cares, and pleasures of this life, "and BRING NO FRUIT TO PERFECTION."

— Religious Maxims XXXII.