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| Chapter XIII. Of the method by which we can remove the dross from our memory.
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Chapter XIII.
Of the method by which we can remove the dross from our
memory.
Nesteros: From this very fact,
from which there springs up for you the utmost despair of your
purification, a speedy and effectual remedy may arise if only you will
transfer to the reading of and meditation upon the writings of the
Spirit, the same diligence and earnestness which you say that you
showed in those secular studies of yours. For your mind is sure to be
taken up with those poems until it is gaining with the same zeal and
assiduity other matters for it to reflect upon, and is in labour with
spiritual and divine things instead of unprofitable earthly ones. But
when these are thoroughly and entirely conceived and it has been
nourished upon them, then by degrees the former thoughts can be
expelled and utterly got rid of. For the mind of man cannot be emptied
of all thoughts, and so as long as it is not taken up with spiritual
interests, is sure to be occupied with what it learnt long since. For
as long as it has nothing to recur to and exercise itself upon
unweariedly, it is sure to fall back upon what it learnt in childhood,
and ever to think about what it took in by long use and meditation. In
order then that this spiritual knowledge may be strengthened in you
with a lasting steadfastness, and that you may not enjoy it only for a
time like those who just touch it not by their own exertions but at the
recital of another, and if I may use the expression, perceive its scent
in the air; but that it may be laid up in your heart, and deeply noted
in it, and thoroughly seen and handled, it is well for you to use the
utmost care in securing that, even if perhaps you hear things that you
know very well produced in the Conference, you do not regard them in a
scornful and disdainful way because you already know them, but that you
lay them to your heart with the same eagerness,
with which the words of salvation which
we are longing for ought to be constantly poured into our ears or
should ever proceed from our lips. For although the narration of holy
things be often repeated, yet in a mind that feels a thirst for true
knowledge the satiety will never create disgust, but as it receives it
every day as if it were something new and what it wanted however often
it may have taken it in, it will so much the more eagerly either hear
or speak, and from the repetition of these things will gain
confirmation of the knowledge it already possesses, rather than
weariness of any sort from the frequent Conference. For it is a sure
sign of a mind that is cold and proud, if it receives with disdain and
carelessness the medicine of the words of salvation, although it be
offered with the zeal of excessive persistence. For “a soul that
is full jeers at honeycomb: but to a soul that is in want even little
things appear sweet.”1904
And so if these
things have been carefully taken in and stored up in the recesses of
the soul and stamped with the seal of silence, afterwards like some
sweet scented wine that maketh glad the heart of man, they will, when
mellowed by the antiquity of the thoughts and by long-standing
patience, be brought forth from the jar of your heart with great
fragrance, and like some perennial fountain will flow abundantly from
the veins of experience and irrigating channels of virtue and will pour
forth copious streams as if from some deep well in your heart. For that
will happen in your case, which is spoken in Proverbs to one who has
achieved this in his work: “Drink waters from your own cisterns
and from the fount of your own wells. Let waters from your own fountain
flow in abundance for you, but let your waters pass through into your
streets.”1905
And according to
the prophet Isaiah: “Thou shalt be like a watered garden, and
like a fountain of water whose waters shall not fail. And the places
that have been desolate for ages shall be built in thee; thou shalt
raise up the foundations of generation and generation; and thou shalt
be called the repairer of the fences, turning the paths into
rest.”1906
And that
blessedness shall come upon thee which the same prophet promises:
“And the Lord will not cause thy teacher to flee away from thee
any more, and thine eyes shall see thy teacher. And thine ears shall
hear the word of one admonishing thee behind thy back: This is the way,
walk ye in it, and go not aside either to the right hand or to the
left.”1907
And so it will
come to pass that not only every purpose and thought of your heart, but
also all the wanderings and rovings of your imagination will become to
you a holy and unceasing pondering of the Divine
law.E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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