Not to know when the end is, or the day of the end, is good for people, lest knowing, they might become negligent of the time between, awaiting the days near the end. For then they would argue that they must only attend to themselves. Therefore, too, [Christ] has been silent about the time when each shall die, lest men, being elated because of this knowledge, should immediately neglect themselves for the greater part of their time. Both the end of all things and the end of each of us, then, has been concealed from us by the Word (for in the end of all is the end of each, and in the end of each the end of all is comprehended), so that since it is uncertain and always in the future, we may advance day by day as if summoned, reaching forward to the things in front of us and forgetting the things behind.
SAINT ATHANASIUS Discourses Against the Arians
