Chapter II

OH, LORD, YOU HAVE SUFFERED!

My son, thou hast eased it by seeing.

YOU ARE SO FAR AWAY!

That I once thought of thee.

TO WHERE DOES MY PATH LEAD?

To me, as thou followest.

WHEN IS MY LIFE ENDED?

When it begins.

IS DEATH SO FEARFUL TO MEET?

Didst thou find it so at birth?

WHEN IN DESPAIR, WHAT SHALL WE DO?

Accept the inevitable as becoming thy spiritual heritage.

AM I DOING RIGHT?

If so, how can wrong convince thee that thou art not?

HOW CAN WE KNOW WHEN FREE OF SIN?

When ye know it not.

BUT WHAT IS SIN?

Ask thy conscience.

HOW CAN I BE SURE?

Examine thy scars.

BUT SUPPOSING I AM BLIND TO THEM?

Thy pain will answer thee.

THEN WHAT IS EVIL?

The absence of good.

BUT WHAT IS GOOD?

The sentiment of virtue blind to evil.

WHAT IS GOD?

That part of thee that recognizeth me.

BUT WE ARE SO WEAK!

It is but the soot and smoke of thy burning taper. The love light is there.

WHY ARE WE SO BLIND TO TIME?

Hast thou counted the closing of thy eyelids since birth to realize what time means to them, and thy obligation for the use of them to see clearly; or thy heart-beats in a span of life, when if they were silent but for a few moments, thou art with me?

MASTER IS IT WORTH IT ALL?

Has it not been in the eyes of my Father who willed it thus, even the honor that is thine in living to hear the answer thou shalt know in the eternal cycle before thee?

BUT WHY THIS ECSTASY OF JOY?

Because it is not of thy world of flesh but of the spirit that is all joy. The absence of it is sorrow, doubt and despair of annihilated hope and faith.

BUT WHAT IS HOPE?

The first breath to live.

AND FAITH?

The last breath of mortality for that is immortality.

HOW MAY WE KNOW FAITH?

When there is nothing else left to believe, where faith has made thee complete in thought to deeds.

WHAT SHALL WE DO TO BE HAPPY?

What hast thou done with that happiness once thine to give? Dost thou expect something for nothing; or an oak tree without planting an acorn to possess?

HOW SHALL WE OVERCOME?

The truth shall make thee free.

I THANK YOU, MASTER.

I bless thee, my son.

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