{"collection":"chr","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/chr/sil/alex/alex.htm","path":"chr/sil/alex/alex.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/chr/sil/alex/alex.htm","text":"Children Cry Over Dolls (6:224)\n| | Thou laughest that a child cries o'er its broken doll;\u2014 The things o'er which thou mournest\u2014are they not playthings all? | \nMine and Thine (5:238)\n| | Naught more than \"mine and thine\"\u2014(and mark this lesson well)\u2014 Can plunge thee bodily into the jaws of hell. | \nSeek No Outward Honor (6:25)\n| | By outward marks of honor no wise man is elated. Honor enough for him in being God-related. | \nVictory Brings Peace (6:75)\n| | To strive is not enough; thou must succeed, my friend, In order to win peace and quiet at life's end. | \nWise and Foolish Beauty (6:208)\n| | Within the clever maiden her rich adornments shine. It is the foolish one who thinks her clothes so fine. | \nLove Godlier Than Wisdom (5:307)\n| | Love, unannounced, to God may quickly penetrate. Intelligence and wit long in the court must wait. | \nSpace For Souls (1:187)\n| | For me the world's too narrow and heaven itself too strait. Where can I for my soul find space that's adequate? | \nSimplicity (1:219)\n| | Simplicity's so great that should God lack her might He would be neither God, nor Wisdom, nor the Light. | \nDeath is Best (1:35)\n| | I say: since it alone can set my spirit free That death must be the best of all good things for me. | \nA Standstill is Regression (1:302)\n| | He who in paths of God doth every progress shun Doth but retrace himself, and court oblivion. | \nSilence is the Highest State (2:19)\n| | To work is very good; better, at prayer to be, Best, to approach the Lord wordlessly, silently. | \nThe Middle View (2:24)\n| | He who the centerpoint hath chosen, of earth's drama, Sees at a glance from there life's total panorama. | \nYour Own Unrest (2:25)\n| | Not God nor yet creation your heart to turmoil brings; It is yourself (Oh folly!) excites yourself with things. | \nThe Center Wall (2:43)\n| | Away with middle ways! That no light be deflected, Suffer no walls to be before thine eyes erected. | \nThe Spiritual Mountain (2:83)\n| | I am a hill of God, and must myself ascend That God may then reveal his face to me, my friend. | \nDearest Upon Earth (2:127)\n| | Thou askest how my soul would liefest go its way? 'Twould walk the paths of earth unspattered by its clay. | \nHeavenly Peace (2:239)\n| | With God and with oneself to be at utter ease Must be, in sooth, to know a peace beyond all peace. | \nThe Solstice (2:231)\n| | Wonder not, friend, if I the sight of all things shun That I may better turn my eyes upon the sun. | \nThe Angelic Life (2:254)\n| | In love to walk and halt, to breathe, speak, sing of love, Means: all one's life to live like seraphim above. | \nThe Only Day (3:48)\n| | Three days: Today, Tomorrow and Yesterday, I know, Yet if the past were cancelled within the here and now And then the future hidden, I could regain that Day Which I, before I was, had lived in God's own way. | \nMeekness Possesses the Earth (3:100)\n| | Pitiful, how thou yearnest for just a fleck of earth When meekness would appoint thee master of all its girth. | \nA Pure Man is Above the Angels (3:107)\n| | 'Twere much to be an angel, yet more to stay a man Neither befouled nor sullied by mire along life's span. | \nHonor Thy Body (3:109)\n| | Honor thy body well, for 'tis a shrine serene In which to keep God's image forever safe and clean. | \nThe Straight Path to Life (3:129)\n| | The everlasting life if thou would'st see unfurled, Leave standing on thy left thyself and all the world. | \nServants, Friends and Children (3:153)\n| | 'Tis knaves who fear their God, and friends who love him tensely, But children give to him their hearts and souls immensely. | \nLove Eternal (3:160)\n| | Hope ends, and even faith is often circumspect, Tongues are no longer spoken, and all that we erect Is levelled soon by time. 'Tis love alone persists, And therefore he is wise who on her hope insists. | \nFools Seek Variety (3:171)\n| | Wise men to gain one thing\u2014the Highest Good\u2014connive; 'Tis fools who for the little and many blessings strive. | \nPerpetual Motion (3:170)\n| | You seek unceasingly Life's neverending motion; I seek perpetual peace. Which is the wiser notion? | \nOf Love (3:179)\n| | A man long e'er his end his earthly love must lose; To love unending beauty my heart doth therefore choose. | \nDivinity (3:168)\n| | Divinity's a spring; all things therefrom have motion And yet again flow back as if it were an ocean. | \nWisdom the Best Spouse (3:194)\n| | Desirest thou a wife resplendent, rich, and free? Then take unto thee Wisdom, who'll be all these to thee. | \nGod's Great Gifts (3:201)\n| | God, being great, preferreth great blessings to impart. Ah that we needy show him but such a paltry heart! | \nOf Knowledge (3:207)\n| | Much knowledge may be fine, but greater joy is won By being free of guile from earliest childhood on. | \nDo Not Presume (3:232)\n| | Even though arrived at fame, tarry not till thine end. Thou should'st proceed from one light into the next, my friend. | \nGreat in Small (4:14)\n| | Take what the Lord bestows. He gives thee great-in-small, Even in cinders gold, when prayed for least of all. | \nThe Goal of Virtue (4:18)\n| | God is the goal of virtue, its purpose and renown, Its only cause for being, its sole reward and crown. | \nVirtue of God (4:23)\n| | The far most gleaming light of this world can be seen Best from the darkest place where thou hast ever been. | \nThe Blessed (4:27)\n| | What is the Holy Saints' most certain occupation? They contemplate high beauty in endless adoration. | \nMan's Three Foes (3:233)\n| | Man hath three enemies:\u2014himself, the world, the devil . . Of these the first is far the most unyielding evil. | \nLove (4:29)\n| | Love is in this like death: it kills in me my senses, It breaks my heart, and with my very soul dispenses. | \nMystic Ascension (4:56)\n| | Couldst thou forget thyself, give God the leading role, Thou wouldst experience Ascension in thy soul. | \nSin (4:69)\n| | Sin is not otherwise than that man turns his face From God, and finds instead Death standing in that place. | \nGrapes From Thorns (4:76)\n| | Who loves his evil-wisher, speaks kindly of his foe, Is he not like a man who grapes from thorns can grow? | \nThe Wise Man (4:109)\n| | The wise man seeketh peace and fleeth from confusion. His fatherland is heaven, his hell the world's illusion. | \nThe Heaven-seeker (4:120)\n| | The heaven-seeker dies to earth and to creation. Why? Since he lives alone for God and adoration. | \nBrooks Become Seas (1:135)\n| | Here I still flow in God as a small stream of time, There I shall be a sea of blessedness sublime. | \nThe Sweetest Tone (4:143)\n| | Never in endless time will ring a sound as sweetly As when a human heart in God is tuned completely. | \nHidden Source (4:163)\n| | Who would believe this true? From darkness light is wrought, Life out of death, and Something out of Nought. | \nThe Cross Reveals (4:190)\n| | Comfort and sweetness witness never what thou hast been; Only thy Cross reveals that which thou art within. | \nRenunciation (4:191)\n| | Friend, wouldst thou leave at once the world thou knowest of? Then see to it that thou despise thine own self-love. | \nRays Without Sun (4:202)\n| | If broken from its sun, a ray's no longer bright; Thou neither, leaving God, thy necessary light. | \nTime is not Swift (5:23)\n| | 'Tis said that time is swift, but who hath seen her fly? Rather, she lies unmoved within world-destiny. | \nEyes Cannot Behold God (5:24)\n| | Wouldst thou behold thy God, imagine nothing new; 'Twill be an inner sight, and not external view. | \nView Depths From Heights (5:29)\n| | God, being a great abyss, to men his depth reveals Who climb the highest peak of the eternal hills. | \nGod Plumbs the Depths (5:37)\n| | By how, and not how much, God judgeth thy good deed; Beholdeth not the fruit but only root and seed. | \nInsatiate (5:39)\n| | The blessed may rejoice at never being filled, Dear hunger and sweet thirstare what their hearts have willed. | \nInstability (4:168)\n| | Nought more unstable is in affluence or pain Than thine own heart, oh man. Ponder this yet again. | \nAs the School, So the Lesson (5:267)\n| | In schools throughout the world God's but described to you. Within the spirit's school one sees and loves him too. | \nNo Laws For the Just (5:277)\n| | Laws are for evil-doers. Were no commandments, then The pious still would love God and their fellow-men. | \nLove is Fire and Flood (5:290)\n| | Love is a flood, a blaze. Sheltered thine heart within, 'Twill put out God's displeasure and burn away thy sin. | \nPath to God (5:320)\n| | The nearest path to God is through the gates of love. The path of knowledge leads more slowly up above. | \nThe Soul's Origin (5:369)\n| | A spark without its fire, a drop without its sea, Without reincarnation what more, pray, wouldst thou be? | \nGod Beyond Creation (1:199)\n| | Go where you cannot go, see what you cannot see, Hear where there is no sound; then where God speaks you'll be. | \nFind God by not Seeking (1:171)\n| | God's neither here nor there. While striving him to find. Let them your hands and feet, your soul and body bind. | \nUnexplored (1:263)\n| | Our everlasting God's so rich in deed and word That he has never quite his own great depth explored. | \nSpoken in Silence (2:68)\n| | Man, if thou wouldst the truth of Life Eternal preach, Then must thou previously wean thee of every speech. | \nLove Seeks no Reward (2:47)\n| | If you love God, my friend, but ask therefor a fee, You have not tasted, yet, what love and loving be. | \nCreatures (1:109)\n| | Because all creatures have in God their sojourn here, How can they ever then die out or disappear? | \nPredestination (1:295)\n| | Mortal, if Paradise were not first set in thee, Believe me, thou wouldst never reach its security. | \nThe Source in Us (1:55)\n| | Thou needst not cry to God; within thyself's a spring. Unless its source be clogged, 'twill keep on issuing. | \nOutward Appearance Enriches Nothing (6:209)\n| | Men say: wealth begets worth, but that is idle twaddle; Men are not known by clothes, nor horses by their saddle. | \nHumility (1:94)\n| | Humbleness is the floor, the cover and the bin That holds the virtues all, and they are locked therein. | \nNew and Old Love (5:210)\n| | A new love bubbles up and sparkles, like new wine; Older and clearer love is always still and fine. | \nGod Lives Not Without Me (1:8)\n| | I know that God no hour without myself can live. If I die, God himself his precious life must give. | \nHow to View God (1:72)\n| | God dwelleth in a light toward which there is no path; He must become that light who need of vision hath. | \nTo be Part of the Whole, Progress (6:42)\n| | The sun sets all in motion, makes even the planets dance. You are not part of all unless you too advance. | \nPretenseless is Sinless (3:98)\n| | How seems it, not to sin? Ask not thyself nor me But go where voiceless flowers will teach it thee. | \nLaugh and Weep at the World (6:223)\n| | Truly, who all this world would accurately see Must now Democritus, now Heraclitus be. | \nGod is a Well (5:216)\n| | God is a flowing well which constantly may pour Into his whole Creation, and yet be as before. | \nUnity (1:265)\n| | Pity we foolish mortals can not as lustily Cry all our songs together, as birds upon a tree. | \nHow God is in Man (4:156)\n| | God dwelleth more complete within this shell of me Than if a tiny sponge contained the mighty sea. | \nAll You Desire is Within you (4:183)\n| | Man, all that you desire within you lies concealed; You simply have not wrought until it be revealed. | \nNought For Itself (4:186)\n| | Not for itself the rain, nor for herself the sun; Thou too wert born for others, earthly one. | \nThe Dwelling of God (4:127)\n| | God liveth in himself; his life is his abode. Away from him there leads no pathway and no road. | \nThe Soul is Helpless Without God (5:311)\n| | As sweet as sounds the lute of its own effort singing, So sweetly sings the soul whom God's not set a-ringing. | \nGod is for All (2:17)\n| | Come then and drink thy fill, for all of God is free; Divinity itself becomes thy hostelry. | \nThe Rose (1:108)\n| | The rose beheld today by thine external eye Hath burgeoned thus in God through all eternity. | \nGod Died on the Cross Before (5:103)\n| | God died not on the Cross an only time or first; His murderer hath been long as Abel's murderer curst. | \nVariety is Becoming (1:268)\n| | The more variety of voices we can bring, The more remarkable the tunes that we shall sing. | \nAll Things Equal in God (1:269)\n| | God listens full as well when raw-voiced creatures bark As to the carolling of the more tuneful lark. | \nBeauty (3:89)\n| | I too love beauty dearly, but she is fairer yet Wherever among thorns I see her fairness set. | \nGod's Lute (5:366)\n| | God toucheth tenderly a heart in him grown mute, And lo! it answereth and hath become his lute. | \nOne Must be Crucified (3:88)\n| | He who for heaven's bliss a great desire shows Must here encounter thorns for every heavenly rose. | \nAll is Present in God (2:182)\n| | There's no before or after; that which the morrow has Waiting in store for you, God knew before time was. | \nScoffers Admire Nothing (1:266)\n| | I know the nightingale mocks not the cuckoo's call; Though my song apes not yours, may I not sing at all? | \nGod Becomes What He Wills (5:358)\n| | God is an endless force that what it wills attaineth, That formless, without goal, still as it is remaineth. | \nSpiritual Alchemy (1:104)\n| | As soon as God's great fire has duly melted me, He will have stamped his nature on me indelibly. | \nOne Abyss Calls to the Other (1:68)\n| | The tumult of my soul cries from its great abyss To the abyss of God. Tell me which deeper is? | \nThe Crowning Virtue (5:324)\n| | One virtue can bestow the crown of deathless fame: (Be sure you hold her fast)\u2014Persistence is her name. | \nTo God All Deeds Are Equal (5:170)\n| | To God all deeds are equal; our drinking pleases him As much as does a prayer, or singing of a hymn. | \nGod's Other Self (1:278)\n| | I am God's other self. He findeth but in me That which resembleth him eternally. | \nThe Heart Encompasseth God (3:135)\n| | Although the Supreme God is not, can not be bounded, Yet by a human heart can he be quite surrounded. | \nSpace is Within Thee (1:185)\n| | Thou standest not in spaee; space is a thing in thee, And so thou cast it out, behold!\u2014Eternity! | \nGod is Without Will (1:294)\n| | We pray: our Lord and Master, we do thy mighty will. . Behold, God hath no will, he is so deep and still. | \nThe Spirit Remains Free (1:118)\n| | As sternly as thou wilt, bind me by thousand chains; The true self that is I unfettered still remains. | \nWhy the Soul is Eternal (4:201)\n| | God is the eternal sun of which I am a beam. That I then praise myself is in the eternal scheme. | \nEach in His Element (1:80)\n| | A bird can rest in air, a stone upon the land, A fish within the sea, my spirit in God's hand. | \nEyes of the Soul (3:228)\n| | I have a mighty soul; two piercing eyes hath she, Of which the one sees Time, the one eternity. | \nOne Must Apply Pressure (1:181)\n| | Who asketh not to be dear child of the Most High Remaineth in the stable where grooms and cattle lie. | \nSelf-rule is Royal (3:128)\n| | That man is well entitled to bear the rank of kings Who under own dominion his strength and senses brings. | \nOf Him Who Desires God (3:56)\n| | The present point in time, to him who seeketh bliss Seemeth much more prolonged than all the future is. | \nMan (4:70)\n| | Man is, of all the world, the strangest wonder still, Transformed into a God or demon, at his will. | \nHow to Become Godlike (1:84)\n| | He who would grow like god unlike all else must be, Must rid him of himself, of all complaints be free. | \nMan's Nobility (4:146)\n| | I know that what I will on earth I then can be: King, emperor or God\u2014and that's nobility. | \nHeaven Lies Within (1:82)\n| | Tarry! for whither away? Thy heaven lies within; To seek it elsewhere leads to folly and to sin. | \nRestlessness Inherent Within (1:37)\n| | There's nought to spur thee on; thou art the turning wheel That spins of its own force, nor any rest may steal. | \nYou Must Become Childlike (1:153)\n| | For those who cannot be as children, you must know That gate is all too small through which God's children go. | \nBabel (1:226)\n| | Babel is what thou art. End all this mad carouse, Or thou wilt be forever the devil's haunted house. | \nSolitude (2:117)\n| | To be alone is good. Be not gregarious And thou wilt everywhere walk in a wilderness. | \nWho Works and Rests (5:364)\n| | Wise men who o'er themselves a victory have won Create while they behold, can even rest and run. | \nDistrust is Scorn of God (1:56)\n| | If you petition God, by doubt and distrust torn, And let him not prevail, beware lest that be scorn. | \nVirtue Brings Composure (1:53)\n| | While you accomplish virtue through labor and through zest You battle for her still; she is not yet possessed. | \nGod-Equality (1:51)\n| | He who remains impassive through grief and pain and glee, He must be very close to God-equality. | \nGod Has No Thoughts (5:173)\n| | Mortal, God thinketh not. Were he imbued with thought, He could be made to doubt; that would become him not. | \nHow Hear God's Word? (1:85)\n| | If thou the immortal word wouldst hear pronounced in thee, Then must thou previously from all unrest be free. | \nThe Essential Man (2:71)\n| | The unencompassed man, like immortality, Uninfluenced remains by all externity. | \nOne Changes into What One Loves (5:200)\n| | That which you love enough can render you rebirth: Love God and become God, love earth and become earth. | \nHonor God in Silence (4:11)\n| | If thou wouldst duly honor God's holy majesty Thou shouldst address him only in silent sanctity. | \nEach His Own Prison (2:85)\n| | The world contains thee not; a universe thou art, That with thee, in thyself so firmly holds thee barred. | \nLoathsomeness of Malice (1:228)\n| | Creature, if thou couldst know what vermin crawl in thee, Thou wouldst thyself more fright than frights the devil thee, | \nGod is Our Pasture (1:156)\n| | Behold this miracle: God willingly debased Till he becomes the pasture in which his lambs are grazed. | \nBe Nothing, Want Nothing (1:24)\n| | While you still love and hate, until you cease to be, So long must you still bear your burdens wearily. | \nSeek the Source (1:119)\n| | All water at its spring is clean and clear as beryl. Unless you drink its source you are inviting peril. | \nThe Noblest Prayer (4:140)\n| | By far the noblest prayer is when the kneeler's soul Is caught by that it worships to form a perfect whole. | \nThe External is of No Use (1:62)\n| | Even the Cross of Golgotha can not atone your sin Unless it be erected in humbleness within. | \nThe Worthiest (3:94)\n| | Esteem no thing on earth more highly than to learn Of men who zealously toward no distinction yearn. | \nTrue Love Persisteth (5:231)\n| | By no means turn from God in your adversities; He who loves God aright shares even his miseries. | \nYou Must Rouse Yourself (5:350)\n| | Dear Christian, you yourself must rouse your zeal in God; Sans effort you remain through life a dreaming clod. | \nGod Judges the Deed by the Man (6:334)\n| | God regards more intently the slumber of the strong Than how the sinner prays and sings the whole night long. | \nEven the Smallest Worm (4:221)\n| | No worm is so concealed within the deeper soil But God ordains it food as a reward of toil. | \nGod Wills No Evil (5:218)\n| | No evil wills our God. Planned he the sinner's end And our unhappiness, he were not God, my friend. | \nOf Death (4:102)\n| | A mortal yearns for death yet flees it constantly; Yon lies impatience's way, this way timidity. | \nUnwilling to Die is Unwilling to Live (6:121)\n| | Unless you gladly die, you are not glad to live. Only another death another life can give. | \nSaints Do Not Die (6:252)\n| | The saints are dead, you say; our need they cannot see. The wise man answereth: dead to the fool, maybe. | \nForm is Temporal (4:96)\n| | Mortal, the world's design in time doth disappear; Why do you stake so much upon the glory here? | \nEternal Death (1:29)\n| | It is that death from which no new life bourgeoneth Of which my coward soul is frightened unto death. | \nGod's Glory in Everything (4:160)\n| | No fleck however small, no dust however slight, The wise man seeth God reflected there in light. | \nThe Heart is God's Hearth (1:66)\n| | Where God becomes the fire my heart a grate must be Upon which he consumes the logs of vanity. | \nSilence the Eternal Negation (2:248)\n| | Nothing is more negation than solitude and peace; That is where, if at all, my soul shall find release. | \nAll in All (4:161)\n| | Within a kernel's heart, to him who fathoms all, The total semblance lies of all things great and small. | \nEquality (2:134)\n| | The man whom no one knows and who was born nowhere May grow at peace in hell and find his country there. | \nConfidence (1:223)\n| | Courage and confidence are very well and fine, But if you be unjust, e'er long you will repine. | \nEffect of the Holy Trinity (3:199)\n| | Law guides the universe and knowledge is her lord; By virtue is she blest. Is God to be ignored? | \nAs the Person, so his Dues (6:299)\n| | His bride with one kiss God more truly honoreth Than all his menial serfs with labor unto death. | \nOne Must Become Essential (1:71)\n| | It is a hardy task to live love; we must not Love only, but we must become love, as is God. | \nUncrucified, None Attains Heaven (5:354)\n| | Christian, flee not the Cross. Thou must lie crucified Before the gates of heaven will welcome thee inside. | \nTo Labor and Rest is Godly (1:217)\n| | Thou asketh which God loves, man's labor or his leisure? I say that to know both, like God himself, gives pleasure. | \nLord, Thy Will Be Done (1:232)\n| | Those of your words which God most willingly hears said Are when you mean and say: His will be honor\u00e8d. | \nThe Devil is Good (5:30)\n| | The devil in his way is just as good as we. The qualities he lacks?\u2014Will and serenity. | \nEternity Our Heritage (5:235)\n| | We are so well imbued with immortality, Whether we will or not, immortal we must be. | \nMany Thousand Suns (1:141)\n| | You say the firmament is lighted by one sun. I say that it contains a thousand more than one. | \nThe Lord is Immeasurable (3:112)\n| | A heart that goes content with present time and space Verily does not know its unencompassed place. | \nThe Sun is Enough (1:114)\n| | He whom a great sun warmeth had best not gaze around, Whether in nearby spheres the moon and stars abound. | \nGlory More Attainable Than Damnation (1:230)\n| | 'Twould seem that reaching heaven of much less effort is, Than by the toil of sinning to enter hell's abyss. | \nA Ray Becomes the Sun (4:136)\n| | My spirit, caught in god, hath glory's self become, Just as a ray is nothing but sun within its sun. | \nThe Fault is Yours (1:178)\n| | If looking at the sun should rob you of your sight, That would be fault of eyes, and not of the great light. | \nOnly the Hellish Burns (5:96)\n| | Hell cannot do me harm though I abide therein; If hellfire burneth me, the cause is in my sin. | \nWise Men Desire No Heaven (5:68)\n| | The wise man, when he dies, no cry for heaven makes. He has but come from there before his spirit breaks. | \nYou Yourself Must Be Sun (1:115)\n| | I must myself be sun and with my rays the sea Illuminate, of colorless Divinity. | \nGod Is; He Lives Not (2:55)\n| | Indeed, God only is\u2014can neither live nor love As you and I and things of earth are spoken of. | \nLight Inherent in Fire (1:195)\n| | Light gives the world its power; God too resides in light, Yet were he not the fire, it too would change to night. | \nEvil Originates in You (1:129)\n| | God is unblemished good; damnation, death and pain And all that evil is, you, man, alone contain. | \nTemple of God (3:113)\n| | I am the church of God. The altar of my heart, Is holiest when clean and empty of all art. | \nNot Without Me (1:96)\n| | Create a single worm God may not without me; It dies if we prolong not its vitality. | \nThe Virtues Are Related (5:171)\n| | Virtues are wound so tightly into so close a ball, He that possesses one also possesses all. | \nGod Yields As You Ask (1:21)\n| | God giveth gifts to none, to everyone is free, That he, when thou desirest, completely thine may be. | \nThe Secret Death (1:26)\n| | Death is a thing of glory; the mightier it be, The lovelier thereafter will new life surge in thee. | \nImitate God (1:18)\n| | God loves beyond himself; loved I him more than me, I would then give as much as he, of charity. | \nNothing On Earth is Great (6:218)\n| | The earth a mote of dust must seem in heaven's sphere; Ah fool, how can there then be any greatness here? | \nGod in Me and I in Him (1:11)\n| | God is the fire in me and I in him the glow. Are we not deeply similar since this is so? | \nNo Death WIthout a Life (1:36)\n| | I say that nothing dies; rather, another life By dying is bestowed, though it be lived in strife. | \nGod Incomprehensible (1:25)\n| | God is all Nothingness, knoweth not here nor now; The more we grope the more elusive will he grow. | \nWhat is Fine Persists (1:1)\n| | Pure as the finest gold, firmer than porphyry, Lucid and crystal-clear\u2014thus shall thy spirit be. | \nNo Crown Without a Battle (6:55)\n| | The world's a battleplace\u2014the wreathlet and the crown Not his who fears to fight, nor glory nor renown. | \nTemporal Things Are Smoke (6:20)\n| | Temporal good is like a bitter smoke that flies; Allowed in thy soul's house, 'twill bite out both her eyes. | \nSwiftest (5:302)\n| | Swiftest of wing is love, for she may sometimes even In one short moment's time reach highest heaven. | \nHeaven Omnipresent (4:71)\n| | Creation soars in God, by him is motion given. Since this is so, why ask for further trace of heaven? | \nThe Kingdom of Heaven is for Children (1:253)\n| | Christian, become a child with all thy heart. and see How soon upon this earth heav'n will descend to thee. | \nRage (1:229)\n| | Rage is a fire of hell; until it has abated, So long the Holy Ghost by thee is violated. | \nWisdom's Beginning, Middle and End (3:185)\n| | Fear of the Lord at wisdom's source you'll find, Love at the end, and midway a keen mind. | \nLove is the Stone of the Wise (1:244)\n| | Love is the wise man's magnet that draweth gold from clod, That maketh aught from naught, transformeth me to God. | \nOnly the Present is in God (2:182)\n| | There's no before nor after; that which the morrow has Waiting in store for you God saw before time was. | \nNow Blossom (3:90)\n| | Awake, oh frozen Christian, for May is at thy door. Unless thou bloomest now, thou diest evermore. | \nGod Plays With Creation (2:198)\n| | All this is but a game played by Divinity, Which for its own diversion created you and me. | \nSerene Beauty (1:288)\n| | We mortals may learn best from tender meadow flowers How, while our deeds please God, beauty may still be ours. | \nRevenge (1:227)\n| | Revenge is like a wheel which never can be still, And yet the more it runs the more it augurs ill. | \nLove Fears Not (5:298)\n| | True love is never timid and cannot fear to die. Before that God would lose his immortality. | \nThe Fault is Yours (2:53)\n| | Could but your heart become a manger for his birth, God would again become a child upon this earth. | \nLove Vanquishes God (3:59)\n| | Heaven's kingdom and its life are not so hard to win; Beleaguer God with love, and he must let you in. | \nSowing Upon Hope (3:198)\n| | The wheat is strewn in hope upon the waiting land. So too must heaven be dealt to those who understand. | \nThe Human Heart (3:111)\n| | These clamor for my heart: God, Satan, earth and all! It must be splendid then, and of high rank withal? | \nThere is No Death (1:30)\n| | Death will I not acknowledge, although I died each hour, Each time would only place new life within my power. | \nSpiritual Sowing (1:64)\n| | God is a ploughman, corn the wealth his word doth yield, The plough his spirit, and my soul the harrowed field. | \nGod's Measure (1:42)\n| | If thou art one with God, this truth will give thee pleasure: God probes himself sans probe, measures himself sans measure. | \nGod Creates Nothing New (5:179)\n| | There's no new thing in God though it to us seems new; For him has always been what we see breaking through. | \nThe Careless Will Not Reach God (6:115)\n| | You say that some day you win see God and his light? Ah fool, if not today, you never will have sight. | \nThe Spiritual Virgin (1:23)\n| | I must be Virgin Mary and carry God in me If he's to grant me glory unto eternity. | \nAll Senses Are One (5:351)\n| | The senses are, in spirit, an one sense and degree. Who sees God, feels and bears him simultaneously. | \nBlessedness (4:10)\n| | No man can e'er attain to utter blessedness Before his oneness hath devoured his otherness. | \nThe Complete Man (2:237)\n| | Outgrow thyself, my child. To God if thou wouldst go Thou must before that time into full manhood grow. | \nAs Ye Seek Ye Find (4:203)\n| | And as you seek you find; and if you raise your palms, The doors will be unbarred and they will give you alms. | \nSolitude is Godlike (2:202)\n| | He who lives quite alone in common with no other, Though he be not yet God, is holier than his brother. | \nTo Look Back is to be Lost Again (5:256)\n| | From Sodom if thou fleest and wouldst outrun thy fate, Forbear to east a glance behind, at any rate. | \nEquanimity Brings Peace (1:38)\n| | If you accept all things without a differenee, You will be still the same through every circumstanee. | \nLove (1:70)\n| | Love is the mortal god, all creatures live by love. Thrice bless\u00e8d every man for whom this thought's enough. | \nGod's Image (1:105)\n| | I but reflect God's image. Himself if he would see, He must behold myself or who resembles me. | \nAbove Knowledge (1:284)\n| | I am not satisfied with flight of cherubim; I will go higher still, where knowledge too is dim. | \nGod's Likeness (4:164)\n| | God's likeness have I seen, for he is copied fair Within his creatures all, and you may search him there. | \nTime is Eternity (1:47)\n| | Time's like eternity, eternity like time Provided you yourself can only make them rhyme. | \nTo an Eccentric (6:251)\n| | Opinions are as sand,\u2014a fool would build thereon. You, building on opinions, are not the wisest one. | \nOne Learns is Silence (2:8)\n| | Rush, oh my dear one, hush! Become completely stilled And God will manifest more good than thou hadst willed. | \nPrudence is Admired (4:169)\n| | Squander not what thou hast. That merchant with his gold Safeguarded most securely, him doth the world uphold. | \nGod Cannot Hate (5:247)\n| | Mortal, malign not God; his creatures hates not he, Not even the devil's brood. Impossibility! | \nHe Who Believes Too Much (4:209)\n| | That God will grant you glory may all be very true; You err, though, if you think he wills it without you. | \nThe Alchemist's Stone in You (3:118)\n| | Man, penetrate yourself! To gather wisdom's stone One need not seek in lands so very far from home. | \nGod is What He Wills (1:40)\n| | God is a wondrous thing, is that he wills to be, And wills that which he is, from goal and measure free. | \nThe Deaf Man Hears the Word (2:63)\n| | Friend, credit me not,\u2014the word of God can come More surely to my ears if I am deaf and dumb. | \nOne Should Love Humanity (1:163)\n| | That you do not love men is right and wise enough. It is humanity in man that we should love. | \nAll Things Are in Man (1:88)\n| | Canst thou desire, oh man, another thing to be When thou hast God himself and all things locked in thee? | \nThe Eternal Restingplace (1:2)\n| | Let others be concerned about their burials And mark their bag of bones with proud memorials; It matters not to me,\u2014my grave, my shrine, my stone In which I'll soundly sleep, is Jesus' heart alone. | \nI am Like God and God Like Me (1:10)\n| | I am as Great as God, he is as small as I; He is not over me, not under him am I. | \nLove Without Perception (1:43)\n| | One single thing love I, yet know not what it be; I've reached it, since I guessed not its identity. | \nThe Spiritual Seed (1:52)\n| | My spirit is a seed; illumined by God's sun It grows unto Godlikeness in Joyous unison. | \nIn Weakness God is Found (1:57)\n| | The man whose gait is lame and he whose eyes are blind, If he but seek about, God easily may find. | \nClarity (1:95)\n| | I need but wait, to find him, at peace and quietly When I have once attained through God to clarity. | \nOne Contains the Other (1:100)\n| | I mean as much to God as he can mean to me; Each helps the other cherish his own identity. | \nGod Has No Favorites (1:127)\n| | Unvarying is God, and unity's his code; As much in yonder fly as in thee his abode. | \nThe Fairest Inn (1:207)\n| | Oh sweetest hostelry! God's self becomes the wine, The bench and food, the music and servant, as we dine. | \nBlessed Satiety (1:208)\n| | Too much is never good; I hate satiety Yet would I fain to God as much as Jesus be. | \nSin (1:213)\n| | Though thirst is not a thing, its plague can give thee pause; Why is it then not true that sin the sinner gnaws? | \nPraise God in Silence (1:239)\n| | Dost deem, oh Pitiful, that all thy mouth's loud cries Are proper songs of praise for Godhood, still and wise? | \nLet God Provide (1:290)\n| | Who paints the lilies and who feeds narcissus flowers? Why does your Self concern you all through your living hours? | \nThings Below Us Are Harmless (2:42)\n| | Who sits where vales and hills and even clouds are under Need never turn a hair at lightning or at thunder. | \nThe Heart (2:82)\n| | Below, my heart is narrow, above is open wide That it be closed to earth, admitting God inside. | \nThe Lamb and Lion Too (2:95)\n| | He who can tread on all, yet suffer patiently Must be both lamb and lion,\u2014both simultaneously. | \nOne Should Act Sensibly (2:113)\n| | Friend, if you care to drink be sure to press your mouth, Like any man of sense, against the barrel's spout. | \nOne Thing As Old As the Other (2:168)\n| | Children who on this earth a single hour abide Become as old as e'er Methuselah's described. | \nAll Works Are Equal (2:214)\n| | Do not discriminate; angels at God's behest As gladly spread the dung as only sing and rest. | \nThe Eightfold Blessed One (2:217)\n| | Be hungry, poor and meek, pure, peaceful, brotherly, Troubled, pursued for God, then wilt thou blessed be. | \nThe Christening\u2014I (2:226)\n| | Sinner, be not disturbed if christened thou once wert, For even the loveliest lily grows muddy in the dirt! | \nThe Christening\u2014II (2:227)\n| | Of what avail that once some water washed thee If thou wilt nibble mud in intervals between? | \nTree of Life (2:230)\n| | Shall life's tree rescue thee from pangs of death and strife? Thou must thyself become in God a tree of life. | \nGreen and White Win (2:232)\n| | Two colors I approve and seek industriously: These\u2014green in righteousness, white in Christ's chastity. | \nChoose What You Prefer (2:234)\n| | Love is the queen; the virtues, they are her maids-in-waiting; Her servants, works and deeds. Whom wilt thou choose for mating? | \nDerision Brings Joy (2:244)\n| | Derided and forlorn, to suffer much in time To be, know and have nothing, that is my state sublime. | \nGod Is My Mother (2:245)\n| | I was born but of God; rightly interpreted, You must not ask what mother my Heavenly Father wed. | \nThe Humanized God (3:11)\n| | God drinketh mankind's milk, refusing Godhood's wine; Why should he then not be a humanized Divine? | \nUpon the Cross of Our Saviour (3:34)\n| | Surely the Tree of Life itself calls this its heir Since it such precious fruit, even life itself, can bear? | \nTo the Sinner (3:55)\n| | Sinner didst thou regard this moment's fleetingness Against eternity, thou wouldst not then transgress. | \nHumility Endures (3:61)\n| | Man, you should not presume. You need humility. A tower without foundation crumbles spontaneously. | \nWealth of the Pious (3:69)\n| | Be poor! The pious man owns nothing in this life Save what he's loth to own: this mortal body's strife. | \nWealth of the Pious and Wicked (3:74)\n| | The pious call no thing within this world their own, The godless not a thing within the heavenly zone. | \nGoo Must Have Help (3:80)\n| | God, who made all the world and may destroy it too, Cannot without my will make my rebirth come true. | \nEach of His Own (3:82)\n| | The sailor speaks of ships, the hunter of his hounds, The miser of his gold, the soldier of his wounds; I, since I am a lover, have nought to prattle of Save always to discourse of God and of his love. | \nTo Open Like the Rose (3:87)\n| | Thy heart receives thy God and all that with him goes When it expands toward him as does an opening rose. | \nThe Great Sanctuary (3:93)\n| | There can no greater blessing upon this earth be found Than With a body chaste a sinless soul and sound. | \nThe Most Harmful Thing (3:95)\n| | Sinning, which angers God and wounds yourself, can do Far more decisive harm than Satan's self, to you. | \nYour Pure Heart Beholds God (3:99)\n| | The eagle's glance goes boldly straightway into the sun; Yours may encounter lightning if your heart's pure, dear one. | \nThe Best Tinting (3:120)\n| | Him do I call a master of color undisputed Who for the sake of God his heart to gold's commuted. | \nSpiritual Overthrow of the Dragon (3:124)\n| | When sin and its confusion out of your heart are driven, Is when St. Michael casts the dragon out of heaven. | \nArrogance and Humility (3:125)\n| | Though arrogance is hated and humbleness approved, Men to observe the latter are far too rarely moved. | \nGod's Drink (3:130)\n| | The drink which God the Master finds most to satisfy Is water that has dropped from out my loving eye. | \nLove is the Virtues All (3:137)\n| | Love is not ever lonesome; he who takes her to bride, He weds as well all virgins of virtue, far and wide. | \nLove Is Dead (3:138)\n| | Alas! for love is dead! Of what, then, did she die? She suffered from the frost, since none esteemed her high. | \nOne Finds What One Seeks (3:139)\n| | The rich man hunteth gold, the poor man seeketh God; Gold, will the pauper truly find, the rich his clod. | \nThe Royal Life (3:140)\n| | Offer thy will to God, for he to whom 'tis lost It is he only wins a truly royal post. | \nGod Dwells in Gentleness (3:142)\n| | Becalm thy stormy heart, for never in high winds In earthquakes or in fires a heart God ever finds. | \nDawn and Soul (3:144)\n| | The glow of dawn is lovely; still lovelier I rate The soul into whose depth God's light doth penetrate. | \nGod Wants To Be Alone (3:147)\n| | Let thou no other in; bar God within thine heart, Then he'll thy prisoner be and nevermore depart. | \nGod is My Circle and Centerpoint (3:148)\n| | God is my centerpoint when I lock him in me, And my circumference when love dissolveth me. | \nThe Lord's Yoke and Burden (3:150)\n| | Sweet is the master's yoke, his burden light and sort; 'Tis well when on your shoulders you carry it aloft. | \nThe Pious Never Sorrow (3:151)\n| | The pious man is never much troubled in his mind. Why? He in great affliction still praise of God will find. | \nSignpost to Joy (3:155)\n| | A heart replete with God, a body full of woe, Point us the sign which way the road to bliss must go. | \nVirginity Must Produce (3:158)\n| | Only for its sweet fruits does God love maidenhood; Alone she never yet has in his presence stood. | \nWhom God Denies (3:161)\n| | God, who all other things discerns and brings to light, Wastrel nor barren virgin will ever view aright. | \nWill-o-the-Wisp (3:162)\n| | His is not heaven's kingdom who loveless goes his way; He leaps this way and that, like will-o-the-wisps at play. | \nThe Cross (3:166)\n| | Once on a time the cross meant deepest shame and scorn; Now on the emperor's brow and on his throne 'tis borne. | \nConfession (3:169)\n| | Confession is a stream whose waves can soon dispel The greatest wrath of God, and check the fires of hell. | \nNoblest is Commonest (3:172)\n| | The loftier a thing, the commoner 'twill be, As thou may'st see in God, and his sun's clarity. | \nLove is the Sign (3:173)\n| | Man, if among the people thou would'st select God's friends Behold then who holds love in both his heart and hands. | \nGod Be Your Only \"Why\" (3:174)\n| | Not you, your friend nor foe shall ever give you pause; To honor God's your wherefore, your only end and cause. | \nOne Must Battle (3:182)\n| | Fight bravely, worthy man, until you reach the crown. Who fails to win the battle reaps others' scorn and frown. | \nYou Must Have Patience (3:184)\n| | Be patient, oh my soul; the robe of majesty No man receives in times of such brutality. | \nOf Sinners and God's Spirit (3:190)\n| | The spirit of the Lord fills all this earthly sphere. Where is a sinner, even, untouched and unaware? | \nThree Words Are Frightening (3:192)\n| | Three words affright my heart: forever, unabated, Eternally to be: lost, damned and execrated. | \nLove is the Best (3:193)\n| | Of all the arts on earth there's none I'd practise freer Than always to love God more deeply and sincerer. | \nWisdom and Love (3:196)\n| | 'Tis knowledge vieweth God and love that him doth kiss. Ah, that I were imbued with love's and wisdom's bliss! | \nWisdom is God's Advisor (3:197)\n| | He who would like to share the secrets of the Lord Must turn to wisdom then; she hides his secret hoard. | \nThe Eternal is Disregarded (3:204)\n| | Alas! on idle pleasures they waste their wealth and blood, But for the joys of heaven not one of them has sued. | \nMost Loving is Most Holy (3:205)\n| | Who then is holiest? Those who most deeply love. Love is the cause why some are rated high, above. | \nOf Conscience (3:206)\n| | A goodly conscience rests, a bad one bites and barks And is a chained-up dog that to no order harks. | \nBeasts Live By Their Senses (3:212)\n| | Who lives for just his senses I rank among the beasts; To him who grows divine I bend upon my knees. | \nWisdom is a Spring (3:213)\n| | Knowledge is like a spring; the more one drinks its flow, The more and mightier it then will sprout and grow. | \nHeaven Has Neither Man Nor Woman (3:218)\n| | No man or woman's seen in heaven. Why not so? There but angelic virgins and virgin angels go. | \nThe Soul's Highest Station (3:220)\n| | No one has yet attained as great and high a station As has the soul whose moods are free from tribulation. | \nEvil Ones Cannot Rest (3:221)\n| | Ah wonder! all thing's hurry to come at last to rest, Yet is an evil man thereby the more depressed. | \nAlone and Not Alone (3:226)\n| | 'Tis true I shun the crowd, but never go alone: For ah, without my Saviour how sad I should have grown! | \nSoul is Most Precious (3:234)\n| | I hold my soul to be the dearest thing of aught, That with the blood of God has been so dearly bought. | \nNever Be Sure (3:244)\n| | Hast thou become a mother, beware, oh Virgin mild! The foe will straightway seek the murder of thy child. | \nDepth, Height, Width and Length of God (4:35)\n| | Through wisdom God is deep, broad through his charity, Through mighty power high, long through eternity. | \nModesty (4:37)\n| | The measure of the mind is modesty's sweet savor; Who gauges not by that shall fail of virtue's favor. | \nPoint, Line and Plane (4:62)\n| | God-Father is the point; from him flows God-the-Son, The line; and God-the-Spirit of both is plane and crown. | \nOne Must Become a Citizen Here (4:73)\n| | Toward citizenship in heaven strive while thou tarriest here; It will not then hereafter cost thee so very dear. | \nHoly Writ (4:82)\n| | Much as a spider sucks its poison from the rose, Scripture is oft converted for evil by God's foes. | \nHealers Attend the Sick (4:85)\n| | Why does the Lord persist in being the sinner's friend? Why does a faithful healer the sick and maimed attend? | \nWorldly and Divine Love (4:87)\n| | The aim of worldly love is but itself to please, The love of God would share with others all its flees; This everyone as love must quickly recognize, That should be known as envy, and true love in no wise. | \nTheophilic Apartness (4:91)\n| | You say that godly men prefer alone to be; Do eagles fraternize with small birds, answer me? | \nTimes of Day (4:92)\n| | In heaven is the day, in hell the bitter night And here we have the twilight. Blest he who finds this right. | \nOf John the Baptist (4:93)\n| | St. John ate very little, he wore coarse raiment too, Sat in the wilderness his whole long lifetime through. Holy he was, yet fell most humbly at God's feet. I say the greatest saints do penance most complete. | \nThe World (4:94)\n| | One reaches God through God, but through the world the devil; Alas, that mortals still serve such a whore of evil! | \nRepentance Quenches Fire (4:100)\n| | The fires of hell can never be quenched, I hear you cry. Behold! Penance can quench them with one tear from her eye. | \nTo a Self-lover (4:111)\n| | Narcissus drowns, attempting to love himself. But see, Self-lover, laughest thou? This thing was writ of thee. | \nOne Thing Attracts and Repels the Other (4:116)\n| | One thing's the other's end, and also is its source; While God is being born, Adam must die, of course. | \nThe World and the New Jerusalem (4:117)\n| | The world seems spherical and therefore may not stay; Foursquare God's city's built, shall therefore stand for aye. | \nThe Mirror (4:118)\n| | Your mirror but reveals your outer countenance; Alas that it forbears to show your inner glance! | \nThe Barrel Must Be Clean (4:119)\n| | The barrel of your heart you must keep clean and fine; If yeast remains therein, God will ilot pour his wine. | \nThere Are Beasts in Heaven Too (4:121)\n| | 'Tis said no beast shall enter where God the Master's been. Who then may be those four that stand so near to him? | \nMan is a Coal (4:133)\n| | Man, thou art but a coal; God is thy fire and light. Thou art black, dull and cold, unsheltered by his might. | \nThe Happy Drowning (4:139)\n| | Once thou hast launched thy skiff on Godhood's mighty sea, If thou canst drown in it, how blissful shalt thou be! | \nWhat Expands the Soul (4:148)\n| | What is it that expands the heart and soul of man? A love of God does this as nothing other can. | \nA Loveless Thing Smells Ill (4:149)\n| | Comest thou, man, sans love, then stand away from here! That which smells not of love stinks in God's house, I fear. | \nHow Loves Consumes Sin (4:152)\n| | As you see flax and tow consumed within a fire, So do your sins in love as in a flame expire. | \nThe Sea Within a Drop (4:153)\n| | How into one small drop\u2014yea, tell how this can be?\u2014 Doth flow the sea of God when it flows into me? | \nHow God is in Man (4:155)\n| | Closer than soul in body, intelligence in mind, In thee and in thy hovel wilt thou God's presence find. | \nOne in the Other (4:162)\n| | The hen is in the egg; the egg is in the hen; Two are in one and yet one is in two again. | \nMedicine for Lovesickness (4:170)\n| | A heart once sick with love will strengthen nevermore Till God has further wounded and pierced it to the core. | \nMarvel at God's Commonness (4:177)\n| | It is astonishing that I, dust, ash and clod, Stand on such common ground and friendly terms with God. | \nCreatures Compared With God (4:178)\n| | What is a speck of dust compared to all the earth? And what am I, oh God, compared with thy great worth? | \nDay and Dawn of Souls (4:180)\n| | God is the dawn of souls within this present time But he will be their noon in future states sublime. | \nParable of the Joy of God (4:182)\n| | Friend, even as you prefer honey to dirt and dust, So is your joy in God compared to body's lust. | \nCreation in God (4:185)\n| | As fire in flint and trees in seed are always found, So must you find creation in the Creator bound. | \nSinners Never Quite Gay (4:189)\n| | Sinners, though they may live in constant gaiety, Yet must their souls still float in great anxiety. | \nWhat Spiritual Tranquility Is (4:198)\n| | Tranquility God loves is sin- and hunger-free, Will-less, serene, and fraught with deep sincerity. | \nEarthly Wealth is Dung (5:13)\n| | All earthly wealth is dung; the poor are soil for it, And he reaps goodly harvest who hauls and scatters it. | \nThe Spiritual Seasons (5:18)\n| | Sin is the wintertime, and spring is the atonement; Summer is state of grace, and autumn is fulfillment. | \nThe Firm Rock (5:20)\n| | A man of many virtues is like a rocky wall; Storm though it may severely, he will not ever fall. | \nThe Nature of Sin and Virtue (5:21)\n| | Fragrant is atonement, but all the sins smell evil. The virtues upright go, but limpingly the devil. | \nGod Can Do Much, Better Than Little (5:35)\n| | Scoffer, forbear to laugh. There's nought God cannot do. Though he cannot make God, he can make gods anew. | \nEverything is Perfected (5:61)\n| | Man, nothing's incomplete; gravel is ruby's kin, And frogs are just as lovely as angels seraphim. | \nWe Serve Ourselves, Not God (5:64)\n| | You man, do not serve God with fasting, watching, prayer; In those you serve yourself, becoming heaven's heir. | \nAs You Are, So You Become (5:58)\n| | The sun can soften wax or harden softest clay; God gives you life or death, according to your way. | \nHe is at Peace Who Knows Nothing (5:85)\n| | If at the tree of knowledge Adam had not grown clever, He would have had his sojourn in Paradise forever. | \nWhy So Few Enter at the Doop of Life (5:78)\n| | Strange that at heaven's doorway so few crave to go in! None wish to shed thereon their old and outworn skin. | \nSinners' Paradise (5:162)\n| | What praises of the Lord are by the unjust given Are less by him regarded than dogs barking to heaven. | \nMan in the Beast (5:228)\n| | Crawl forth, oh man, that still abidest in the beast. Thou canst not reach to God till thou hast been released. | \nThe Cross Brings Joy and Pain (5:237)\n| | For you the cross has grief but joy as well in store\u2014 Grief but a little while, then joy forevermore. | \nThe Soul Without God (5:254)\n| | A sheep without its shepherd, a body dead as clod, A well without a spring,\u2014such is the soul sans God. | \nCompassion Open Heaven's Door (5:314)\n| | Child, cultivate compassion, she is the porteress That serves thee at the door of Castle Blessedness. | \nHow to Look Into Heaven (5:318)\n| | You need no telescope for spying into heaven. Just turn you from the world, 'tis then already given. | \nThe Devil's Beast of Slaughter (5:333)\n| | The soul that has submitted to sin's foul murderdom \u2014For shame!\u2014the devil's beast of slaughter has become. | \nPoverty is in the Mind (5:344)\n| | Poverty's in the mind; I could an emperor be Yet share with an the saints their earthly poverty. | \nMilk is for Children (5:346)\n| | God giveth to grown men a drink of stronger wine; While thou art still a child, a milder drink be thine. | \nMasked Men (5:365)\n| | Those men who, like the beasts, in all their lusts persist They are but human masks, and seem but to exist. | \nTo the Small All Things Are Large (6:213)\n| | Child, grow and be adult. As long as thou art small, Small things win seem enlarged and of great moment all. | \nGod is Not Virtuous (5:50)\n| | God is not virtuous; from him thy virtues seep As rays from out the sun or water from the deep. | \nGod Cannot Steer the Will (5:98)\n| | None stronger is than God, yet may he not decree Either what I shall will, nor what I choose for me. | \nA Man Has Two Beings (5:120)\n| | Two men exist in me; one serves the will of God, The other wants the world, the devil and earth's clod. | \nEternity is Considered Nothing (6:18)\n| | Oh folly! Man will strive for time unto his death Yet for eternity will never waste a breath! | \nGrasping at Mist is Foolish (6:22)\n| | How foolish is a man who seeks to grasp at mist; How foolish too were you, that empty honors wished. | \nA Worm Can Shame Us (6:32)\n| | The silkworm works and spins until it learns to fly. For shame, that as thou art upon the earth dost lie! | \nOne Must Change (6:33)\n| | Man, why must you alone, since all things tend to move, Remain a clod of flesh which nothing can improve, | \nNo Sparkle Withou Sun (6:37)\n| | The moon itself is harsh without sun's clarity. As harsh without thy Sun would thy soul's image be. | \nThe Isolated Part and the Whole (6:46)\n| | The sere and fallen leaf, the drop of sour wine,\u2014 What semblance bear they now to spreading tree or vine? | \nThe Disgraced Prisoner (6:50)\n| | Fie upon thee whom earth, that nullity of all, Holds, like a woman's web, so endlessly in thrall. | \nChoose the Best (6:62)\n| | Up, soldier, up and fight! You will reap more from life In victory-given peace than if peace ends in strife. | \nThe Greatest Fool (6:64)\n| | Christian, him you behold hell-bound in headless haste, You may name errant fool without a moment's waste. | \nGood and Evil Retreat (6:71)\n| | How wisely he retreats who from the Fiend would flee; Who turns his back on God, how more than evil he! | \nWe Ape Not What We Praise (6:85)\n| | E'en while we extol the man of diffidence, We reach out to devour like sores and pestilence. | \nOther Faiths, Other Deeds (6:91)\n| | You say it is more blessed to give than to receive, Yet to prepare to give is bitter, I perceive. | \nMeekness is Free, Miserliness Bound (6:94)\n| | A gentle man expands, a miser shrinks his span; The latter's soon enslaved, the former a free man. | \nPoison in Place of Sugar (6:98)\n| | Sugar is strewn by God, by Satan poisoned gall. Man spurns the sweet but licks the poison, to his fall. | \nTreasury of the Wise and the Stingy (6:99)\n| | The wise man, wisely rich, keeps money in a chest, The miser in his soul, and therefore has no rest. | \nA Sage Outwits Thieves (6:100)\n| | The wise man never waits till robbers cause him grief; He sooner robs himself, and thereby robs the thief. | \nSensitive are Eye and Heart (6:102)\n| | The heart is like the eye;\u2014a single tiny grain Lodging within thine heart can cause thee mighty pain. | \nProgress, Beladen, Is Slow (6:103)\n| | The skipper in a storm heaves ballast from the hold. Thinkst thou to enter heaven beladen with thy gold? | \nA Spiritual Doghouse (6:111)\n| | A spirit truly great will let no baseness in; 'Tis but a doghouse still if thine delights in sin. | \nSated Here, Not Hungry There (6:148)\n| | Why does the glutton fail Last Supper to attend? He has been sated here and hungers not, my friend. | \nGod Cannot Quench the Drunkard's Thirst (6:149)\n| | God wills to succor those who hunger and who thirst. How can he serve thee drink lest thou be sober first? | \nThe Sinner Prays in Vain (6:156)\n| | The sinner aims at God the while he turns apart. How can he then expect to reach the target's heart? | \nHearts Must be Accurately Loaded (6:159)\n| | Nay, load it right and clean. Why puff into the air? That which is blindly loaded will send its shot nowhere. | \nThe Heart Must be Clean and Empty (6:161)\n| | Christian, unless the barrel and chamber of thy gun Be clean, thou'lt cock in vain and only dream thou'st won. | \nNothing in Storage (6:168)\n| | A wise man keeps no wealth in chest or cupboard drawer; Whatever can be lost he reckons his no more. | \nIn Ocean, Drops are Ocean (6:171)\n| | The drop becomes the sea when into sea 'tis blended. The soul turns into God if unto God ascended. | \nMany in One (6:174)\n| | A loaf is many grains, and many drops a sea. So too in God the many are but a unity. | \nActs of the Miser and Sage (6:179)\n| | The dying miser leaves his wealth, and so is vexed; The wise man sends it on from this world to the next. | \nAppraisal of Fool and Sage (6:181)\n| | The fool deems himself rich with just a bag of gold. A sage would still feel poor though all the earth he'd hold. | \nOur Riches Must Lie Within (6:185)\n| | In thee must lie all wealth; what thou dost not contain, Though it be all the earth, would cause thee nought but pain. | \nRetirement is Shelter (6:198)\n| | Bride, if 'tis true you'd shun all strangers and all boors, Then keep your windows shut, and stand away from doors. | \nCaution is Necessary (6:199)\n| | 'Tis well to be on guard. Many would not have died Had they their senses' door more strongly fortified. | \nAudacity Causes Harm (6:200)\n| | Maiden, be not audacious, for who with danger plays Will find herself in trouble and saddened all her days. | \nThree Things to Avoid (6:202)\n| | Child, fear, avoid and flee wine, women and the dark. They've robbed full many a man of soul and body's spark. | \nOf Sinners (3:101)\n| | Man, though your face be fair, your soul of sickly hue Pronounces, though you live, gravediggers kin to you. | \nThe Secret Crowing Figure (5:8)\n| | Ten is the crowning figure, composed of one and nought; When God and his creation amalgamate, 'tis wrought. | \nGod Feels Not Thy Damnation (5:56)\n| | It gives the sun no pain that thou hast spurned her bliss, Nor doth it pain thy God to have thee seek the abyss. | \nPoverty is Godlike (1:65)\n| | God is the poorest thing; He stands unclothed and free, Therefore I say to you: dearth is divinity. | \nCreator in Creation (5:86)\n| | Creation is a book. Who wisely reads its lines Revealed therein completely the great Creator finds. | \nAs His Company, So the Man (5:76)\n| | With whom thou tarriest, his nature dost thou drink; From God receivest God, from devil but hell's brink. | \nTime Nobler Than Eternity (5:125)\n| | Time's of more use to me than great eternities; Here and not there prepare I God to please. | \nNo Night in the Soul (5:128)\n| | In your desires I marvel day plays so great a role Since I have never known a sunset in my soul. | \nYou the First Sinner (5:46)\n| | Hush sinner, and condemn not Adam, and not Eve. Had they not fallen first, you would have, that believe! | \nThe Rich Are Truly Poor (5:157)\n| | Hear'st thou the wealthy man bemoan his poverty? He surely doth not lie. Believe him willingly. | \nSweetest is Love (4:141)\n| | There's not a single joy, no single happiness, Which can outrank love's own and utter blessedness. | \nFINIS\n| | Friend, I have said enough. If thou wouldst read still more, Then go thou and thyself become the script and lore. | \nSacred-Texts Christianity Angelus Silesius Index","title":"Alexandrines of Angelus Silesius","type":"page"}