rd is the beginning of wisdom, and a good
understanding have all they that do thereafter. Must it not be so?
How can it be otherwise? For in God all live and move and have
their being; and all things which he has made are rays from off his
glory, and patterns of his perfect mind. As the Maker is, so is his
work; if, therefore, thou wouldest judge rightly of the work,
acquaint thyself with the Maker of it, and know first, and know for
ever, that his name is Love.

Thus, sooner or later, in God the Father's good time, will thy
thirst for truth be satisfied, and thou shalt see the light of God.
He may keep thee long waiting for full truth. He may send thee by
strange and crooked paths. He may exercise and strain thy reason by
doubts, mistakes, and failures; but sooner or later, if thou dost
not faint and grow weary, he will show to thee the thing which thou
knewest not; for he is thy Father, and wills that all his children,
each according to their powers, should share not only in his
goodness, but in his wisdom also.

Do any of you say, 'These are words too deep for us; they are for
learned people, clever, great saints?' I think not.

I have seen poor people, ignorant people, sick people, poor old
souls on parish pay, satisfied with the plenteousness of God's
house, and drinking so freely of God's pleasure, that they knew no
thirst, fretted not, never were discontented. All vain longings
after this and that were gone from their hearts. They had very
little; but it seemed to be enough. They had nothing indeed, which
we could call pleasure in this world; but somehow what they had
satisfied them, because it came from God. They had a hidden
pleasure, joy, content, and peace.

They had found out that with God was the well of life; that in God
they lived and moved, and had their being. And as long as their
souls lived in God, full of the eternal life and goodness, obeying
his laws, loving the thing which he commanded, and desiring what he
promised, they could trust him for their poor worn-out dying bodies,
that he would not let them perish, but raise them up again at the
last day. They knew very little; but what they did know was full of
light. Cheerful and hopeful they were always; for they saw all
things in the light of God. They knew that God was light, and God
was love; that his love was shining down on them and on all around
them, warming, cheering, quickening into life all things which he
had made; so t