GRAND is the seen, the light, to me—grand are the sky and stars, Grand is the earth, and grand are lasting time and space, And grand their laws, so multiform, puzzling, evolutionary; But grander far the unseen soul of me, comprehending, endowing all those, Lighting the light, the sky and stars, delving the earth, sailing [...]
TO God, the everlasting, who abides, One Life within things infinite that die: To Him whose unity no thought divides: Whose breath is breathèd through immensity. Him neither eye hath seen, nor ear hath heard; Nor reason, seated in the souls of men, Though pondering oft on the mysterious word, Hath e’er revealed His Being [...]
A wise lover values not so much the gift of the lover as the love of the giver. Thomas à Kempis
The decline of the influence of Calvin, or Fenelon, or Wesley, or Channing, need give us no uneasiness. The builder of heaven has not so ill constructed his creature as that the religion, that is, the public nature, should fall out: the public and the private element, like north and south, like inside and outside, [...]
If God also adds that mystical and creative sensuality, which seeks to give external reality to everything inward, to the striving toward extension and penetration of those who move in this course, then after every flight of their spirit to the infinite they must set down in pictures or words the impression it made on [...]
Respectfully offer up with me a lock of hair to the means of the holy rejected Spinoza! The high world spirit permeated him, the infinite was his beginning and end, the universe his only and eternal love; in holy innocence and deep humility he was reflected in the eternal world and saw how he too [...]
To defend something is always to disparage it. Suppose that someone has a warehouse full of gold, and suppose he is willing to give every ducat to the poor – but in addition, suppose he is stupid enough to begin this charitable enterprise of his with a defense in which he justifies it on three [...]
“So let him [Satan] not drive you both out of the Garden, so that thou art miserable.” (20:117) The words in Arabic are short and resonant, but in particular the first verb is in the dual form, referring to Adam and Eve, while the second is in the masculine singular, referring to Adam alone. This creates a sense [...]
Only through a more exact knowledge of religion will one be able to judge the dreadful products of a religious sleep, those dreams and deliria of the sacred organ. Only then will one be able to assess properly the importance of such a gift. Where there are no gods, phantoms rule. The period of the [...]
The LORD is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? The LORD is the strength of my life; of whom shall I be afraid? When the wicked, even mine enemies and my foes, came upon me to eat up my flesh, they stumbled and fell. Though a host should encamp against me, my [...]
