When Secretary Walsingham arrived at retirement age, he retired to the country to spend his days in quiet. Some of his former companions came to see him, and tried to cheer him in his melancholy. He answered, "No, I am not melancholy, but I am serious; and it is very proper that we should be so! Ah, my friends, while we laugh everything is serious about us. God is serious, who exercises his patience towards us; Christ is serious, who shed his atoning blood for us; the Holy Ghost is serious, who strives against the stubbornness of our hearts; the Holy Scriptures are serious books; they present to our thoughts the most serious concerns in all the world; the holy sacraments represent very serious and awful matters; the whole creation is serious in serving God and us; all in heaven are serous. How then can we be merry and trifling?"