13. Woe to the man who says to himself that he has delivered himself from sin.
14. That is sinless wherein there is no consciousness of oneness with God and with all Spirit life. Thus plants and animals are free from sin. But man is conscious at the same time of animal and of God within, and therefore can not be sinless. We call children sinless, but this is an error. A child is not free from sin. He has less sins than an adult, but he has already his sins of the body. Neither is the saintliest man free from sin. He has fewer sins, than others, but he has sins nevertheless, for without sins there is no life.
15. In order to train yourself to combat sin, it is advisable from time to time to stop doing the things to which you are accustomed, in order to learn whether you are master of your body, or your body is master over you.
V.
The Significance of Sins, Errors, Superstitions and False Doctrines for the Manifestation of Spiritual Life
1. People who believe that God created the world frequently ask: Why did God so create man that he must sin, that he cannot help sinning? It is like asking why God created mothers so that they must bear children in pain, nurse them and bring them up. Would it not have been simpler for God to give infants to mothers all finished, without pangs of child-birth, without nursing, care and fear ? No mother will ask this question, because she loves the child for the very pain it cost her, and the joy of her life is in nursing, raising and caring for it.
Even so with human life: sins, errors, superstitions, the struggle with them and the overcoming of them,—therein is the meaning and the joy of htunan life.
2. It is a heavy burden to man to know about his sins, but it is a great joy to feel that you are being delivered from them. But for the night, we should not rejoice in the light of the sun.' But for sins, man would not know the joy of righteousness.
3. If man had no soul, he would not know the sins of the body, and if it were not for the sins of the body, he would not know that he had a soul.
4. Since man, a rational creature, has been in this world, he has distinguished good from evil, and made use of the experience of those who had gone before in distin-
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THE PATHWAY OF LIFE
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guishing good from evil, struggling against evil, seeking the true, good path, and slowly, but resolutely progressing upon this path. And ever obstructing this path, sins, errors and superstitions confronted the people, whispering to them that all this is superfluous, that there is no need to seek anything, that they are as well off without it, and that they should live just as they happen to live.
5. Sins, errors and superstitions are the soil that must cover the seeds of love that they may spring into life.
SURFEIT
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SURFEIT
The only true happiness of man is in love. But man loses this happiness when instead of developing the love within him he developes the appetites of his body by humoring the same.
I.
All that is Superfluous is Harmful to the Body
and to the Soul
1. The body must be served only when it demands it. But to employ one's reason in inventing pleasures for the body is to live inside out: forcing the soul to serve the body, instead of the body serving the soul.
2. The less needs the happier is the life. This is an old truth, but one which is far from having been accepted by all.
3. The more you accustom yourself to luxury, the more you fall into servitude, because the more things you require, the more you curtail your freedom. Perfect freedom is in needing nothing at all, and next to it is needing very little. 5-^ John Chrysostom.
4. There are sins against people, and sins against self. Sins against people are due to the failure to respect the Spirit of God in oneself.
5. If you would live the life of peace and liberty, learn not to crave that which you can do without.
6. All that the body needs is easily obtained. Only the unnecessary things are difficult to procure.
7. It is well to have what you desire, but it is still better not to desire more than you have. Menedem.
8. If you are well and have labored unto weariness, your bread and water will taste sweeter to you than all his dainties to a rich man, your bed of straw will feel softer than spring mattresses, and working clothes will caress your body more smoothly than raiments of velvet and furs.
9. If you humor your body too much, you are bound to weaken it, if you overwork it, you are bound to weaken it. But if you must choose one or the other, it is better to tire it than to enervate it, because if you sleep or eat insufficiently, or if you overwork yourself, your body will soon remind you of your error. But if you enervate your body, it will not remind you of your error at (Mice, but much later—through weakness and sickness.
10. Socrates abstained from all foods that are eaten not to appease hunger, but mainly because of their flavor and he urged his disciples to do likewise. He said that excess of food and drink is harmful not only to the body, but also to the soul, and his advice was to leave the table while the desire to eat is still present. He reminded his disciples of Ulysses of old: Circe, the enchantress, failed to bewitch Ulysses only because he refused to overeat, but as soon as his comrades devoured her dainties, she turned them into swine.
11. It seems that rich and well-informed men, men who call themselves educated, should understand that there
' is no good in gluttony, drunkenness and overdressing; but they are just the people who invent dainty foods, intoxicating drinks and all sorts of adornments, and in addition their example ruins and corrupts the laboring people.
"If educated people enjoy luxurious living, it must be the right thing," say the laborers, and in endeavoring to imitate the rich, they ruin their own life.
12. In these days the majority of the people think that
the happiness of life consists in serving the body. It is seen from the fact that the most popular doctrine is the doctrine of the socialists. According to this doctrine, the life of few wants is the life of the beasts, and the growth of human wants is the first mark of an educated man, is tne sign of his consciousness of human dignity. Men of our day so strongly adhere to this doctrine that they ridicule those wise men who see the happiness of man in the diminution of human needs.
13. Consider how the slave longs to live. First of all he yearns to be set at liberty. He thinks that he cannot be free or happy in any other way. He says to himself: If I be given my liberty, I shall immediately attain happiness ; I shall not be compelled to serve and humor my master, I could speak to any man as an equal, I could go where I pleased without asking any man's leave.
But no sooner is he given his freedom, he immediately seeks to curry favor with somebody, in order to secure better food. He is ready to stoop to any indignity for this purpose. And establishing himself near some prosperous man, he relapses into the slavery from which he had so recently desired to escape.
If such a man prospers, he takes a mistress, and enters a state of still more arduous servitude. When he becomes wealthy, he has still less liberty. He begins to suffer and whine. And in moments when he feels particularly burdened, he remembers the days of his slavery and says:
"After all I was not so badly off with my master. I had no worries, I was clad, sbod and fed; when I was ill, I was taken care of. And my service was not so hard. And now how much work I have to do. Once I had one master, now I have many. How many people must I please now I"
Epic fetus.
II.
The Whims of the Body are Insatiable
1. To sustain the life of the body, little is needed, but the whims of the body have no end.
2. The needs of the body, of one body alone are easily filled. Only in the case of a special calamity man lacks raiment to cover his body or a piece of bread to appease his hunger. But no power can procure all the things that a man may crave.