Slave-chains are borne by all who cling to something selfishly, who love themselves, who desire the outer world with eagerness and longing and curiosity, who seek the things that flatter the senses and not the things that further the Kingdom of Christ, who will always build and strengthen what yet hath no foundation; for everything falleth into nothingness that is not born of God.
Hold thyself to this short saying, for it meaneth much: Forsake all, and thou findest all.
Bid farewell to every desire; then enterest thou upon rest. Let this word never leave thy thoughts; bear it within thee day and night; and when thou hast brought it to fulfilment, then shalt thou understand all.
But this, O Lord, is not the work of a single day, nor is it child’s play. In this shell lies the whole kernel of the perfection of those who seek God.
Son, that must not frighten thee back, nor discourage thee, but rather draw thee to climb upward to the higher goal, or at the least to bear a longing thereto in thy heart. If thou wert already so far on the way that thou wert free from all blind love to thyself, and wert ready and prepared to obey every beck of thy fatherly superior whom I have set over thee, then might mine eye rest with pleasure upon thee, and thy whole life would flow along in peace and joy. For as soon as thou no longer wishest this or that in thine own self-conceit, but shalt have yielded thyself wholly to thy God without gainsay and from the innermost depth of thy heart, and shalt have laid down all thy wishes into the hand of God, from that moment onward shalt thou be at rest, and shalt find thyself at one with God, in that no other thing shall be to thee so agreeable and pleasing as God’s pleasure.
Whoever hath thus, in simplicity of heart, swung his thoughts upward to God, and hath loosed himself from the inordinate love or hate of any created thing, he alone shall be fit and worthy to receive the gift of devotion. For where the Lord findeth empty vessels, there He layeth in his blessing. And the more completely any one looseneth his heart from the love of that which perisheth, and the more completely he maketh his own self to waste away under deepest disregard, by so much the quicker cometh this mercy, by so much the deeper it presseth in, and by so much the higher the free heart of man is lifted up.
Then the eyes of man are opened, then standeth he amazed in rapture, then his whole heart is dilated, for the hand of the Lord is now with him, and he hath given himself wholly and for all eternity into His hand. Lo, thus is that man blest who seeketh God with his whole heart, and letteth his spirit no longer cling to the things that perish.
I
Everything spoken in this dialogue is wholly true; only it is not merely not the work of a single day, but not even the work of a single life-period; it is rather an uncompromising process of growth that can not be hastened at will, but must gradually unfold itself in four great stages and must furthermore be properly brought to maturity in each separate period, if any real and beneficial good is to arise therefrom. There may be no compulsion about it; a hastening of growth occurs only in times of suffering; the first half of every task is mostly the hardest; from that point onward it goes more quickly and easily to the end.
The first stage is the seeking for a philosophy of life, and the dissatisfaction with the usual conceptions of the universe: “How many hired servants of my father’s have bread enough and to spare, and I perish here with hunger!” The second is the turning to the eternal, supernatural truth: “Look unto me and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth; for I am God, and there is none else.” The third stage is the new life which must gradually take shape therefrom, though falling into many divisions. And the last has the promise of the prophet Zechariah: “At evening time there shall be light.” Out of the first stage the youthful man must pass with pure thoughts directed toward an ideal, with no stigma of immorality upon his conscience, with pleasure in work, and with a considerable amount of knowledge useful for his life-calling. If the second period is rightly spent, it will be devoted to the acquisition of three important things: position as a citizen of the state, a worthy marriage, and a sound religious and philosophical view of life. The third stage is that of the confirmation of this view in the struggle of life; this stage forms the real work of life. The fourth is the crowning of life with true success, and the final transition to a larger sphere of activity.