your anxieties and
perplexities; if, I say, you would partake of this salvation, this
supremely glorious Life, then conquer yourself. Bring every thought, every
impulse, every desire into perfect obedience to the divine power resident
within you. There is no other way to peace but this, and if you refuse to
walk it, your much praying and your strict adherence to ritual will be
fruitless and unavailing, and neither gods nor angels can help you. Only to
him that overcometh is given the white stone of the regenerate life, on
which is written the New and Ineffable Name.
Come away, for awhile, from external things, from the pleasures of the
senses, from the arguments of the intellect, from the noise and the
excitements of the world, and withdraw yourself into the inmost chamber of
your heart, and there, free from the sacrilegious intrusion of all selfish
desires, you will find a deep silence, a holy calm, a blissful repose, and
if you will rest awhile in that holy place, and will meditate there, the
faultless eye of Truth will open within you, and you will see things as
they really are. This holy place within you is your real and eternal self;
it is the divine within you; and only when you identify yourself with it
can you be said to be "clothed and in your right mind." It is the abode of
peace, the temple of wisdom, the dwelling-place of immortality. Apart from
this inward resting-place, this Mount of Vision, there can be no true
peace, no knowledge of the Divine, and if you can remain there for one
minute, one hour, or one day, it is possible for you to remain there
always. All your sins and sorrows, your fears and anxieties are your own,
and you can cling to them or you can give them up. Of your own accord you
cling to your unrest; of your own accord you can come to abiding peace. No
one else can give up sin for you; you must give it up yourself. The
greatest teacher can do no more than walk the way of Truth for himself, and
point it out to you; you yourself must walk it for yourself. You can obtain
freedom and peace alone by your own efforts, by yielding up that which
binds the soul, and which is destructive of peace.
The angels of divine peace and joy are always at hand, and if you do not
see them, and hear them, and dwell with them, it is because you shut
yourself out from them, and prefer the company of the spirits of evil
within you. You are what you will to be, what you wish to be, what you
prefer to be. You can
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