If ye persist with will until self-righteousness is slain.

If through the mist of mortal eyes, deluded, ye discern

That ye are holier than these, ye have the whole to learn!

If ye are tied with tangled pride because ye learn the Law,

Know then, your purest thoughts deny the Truth ye never saw!

If ye resent in discontent the searchlight of reproof,

Preferring praise, ye waste your days at sin’s not Soul’s behoof!

Each gain for self denies the Self that knows the self is vain.

Who crowns accomplishment with pride must build the whole again!

But if, at each ascending step, more clearly ye perceive