The Spiritual Fruit of This Life

"For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit. To set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace."--Rom 8:5-6 

                                                                        "Yea, my King," 
I began—"thou dost well in rejecting mere comforts that spring 
From the mere mortal life held in common by man and by brute: 
In our flesh grows the branch of this life, in our soul it bears fruit. 
Thou hast marked the slow rise of the tree,—how its stem trembled first 
Till it passed the kid's lip, the stag's antler; then safely outburst 
The fan-branches all round; and thou mindest when these too, in turn 
Broke a-bloom and the palm-tree seemed perfect: yet more was to learn, 
E'en the good that comes in with the palm-fruit. Our dates shall we slight. 
When their juice brings a cure for all sorrow? or care for the plight 
Of the palm's self whose slow growth produced them? Not so! stem and branch
Shall decay, nor be known in their place, while the palm-wine shall staunch 
Every wound in man's spirit in winter. I pour thee such wine. 
Leave the flesh to the fate it was fit for! the spirit be thine!"

 --Robert Browning, "Saul," XIII, ll. 147-160