(1) God's care for His children. O son, the pious are God's children, Deem Him not absent when they are endangered, He saith, "These saints are my children, For their trial they are orphans and wretched, Thou art backed by all my protection; My children are, as it were, parts of me. Verily these Darveshes of mine Are thousands on thousands, and yet no more than One; For if not, how did Moses with one magic staff

(21) Esteem nothing to be precious, which a bad man may take from you.

He is dear to divinity, who considers those things alone to be precious, which are esteemed to be so by divinity.

(44) Therefore, thou child of man, be not discouraged, be not so timorous and despondent; for if thou sowest in thy zeal and earnest sincerity the seed of thy tears, thou dost not sow it in earth, but in heaven; for in thy astral birth thou sowest, and in thy animated or soulish birth thou reapest, and in the kingdom of heaven thou possessest and enjoyest it.

(340) If you take on the guardianship of orphans, you will be the father of many children (and) you will be beloved of God.

(45) Make me no Absence of the Body and Blood of Christ, the Soul needs not run far for it; and besides, the Body of Christ in his Blood (in this Testament) is not the Food of the Soul; but the mere Deity is the Food of the Soul; and the Body of Christ is the Food of the new Man, which the Soul has put on from the Body of Jesus Christ, and the Body and the Blood of Jesus Christ feeds the new Man; and if the new Man abides faithful in the Body of Jesus Christ, then the noble Pearl of the Light of God is given to him, so that he can see the noble Virgin of the Wisdom of God; and that Virgin takes the Pearl into her Bosom, and goes continually with the Soul into the new Body, and warns the Soul of the false [or evil] Way. But what Manner of Pearl this is, I would that all Men might know it. But how much it is known, is plain before our Eyes. It is brighter than the splendor of the Sun, and of more Worth than the whole World; but how clear soever it is, yet it is also secret.

(62) 'These sons belong to me, and this wealth belongs to me,' with such thoughts a fool is tormented. He himself does not belong to himself; how much less sons and wealth?

(1) Our holy Saviour applied poverty and riches, and the like, both to spiritual things and objects of sense. For when He said, "Blessed are they that are persecuted for righteousness' sake," He clearly taught us in every circumstance to seek for the martyr who, if poor for righteousness' sake, witnesses that the righteousness which he loves is a good thing; and if he "hunger and thirst for righteousness' sake," testifies that righteousness is the best thing. Likewise he, that weeps and mourns for righteousness' sake, testifies to the best law that it is beautiful. As, then, "those that are persecuted," so also "those that hunger and thirst" for righteousness' sake, are called "blessed" by Him who approves of the true desire, which not even famine can put a stop to. And if "they hunger after righteousness itself," they are blessed. "And blessed are the poor," whether "in spirit" or in circumstances - that is, if for righteousness' sake. It is not the poor simply, but those that have wished to become poor for righteousness' sake, that He pronounces blessed - those who have despised the honours of this world in order to attain "the good;" likewise also those who, through chastity, have become comely in person and character, and those who are of noble birth, and honourable, having through righteousness attained to adoption, and therefore "have received power to become the sons of God," and "to tread on serpents and scorpions," and to rule over demons and "the host of the adversary." And, in fine, the Lord's disciplines draws the soul away gladly from the body, even if it wrench itself away in its removal. "For he that loveth his life shall lose it, and he that loseth his life shall find it," if we only join that which is mortal of us with the immortality of God. It is the will of God [that we should attain] the knowledge of God, which is the communication of immortality. He therefore, who, in accordance with the word of repentance, knows his life to be sinful will lose it - losing it from sin, from which it is wrenched; but losing it, will find it, according to the obedience which lives again to faith, but dies to sin. This, then, is what it is "to find one's life," "to know one's self."

(20) Children, how hard is it for them that trust in riches to enter into the kingdom of God! Verily I say unto you, That a rich man shall hardly enter into the kingdom of heaven! And again I say unto you, It is easier for a camel to go through a needle's eye, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God.

(20) Thus the Soul desired the Pearl again, but it was gone, and must be generated anew, and be sown as a Grain of Mustard-seed, which is small and little, and afterwards there grows a great Tree out of it; and thus the Pearl grows in the Bosom of the Virgin in the Soul. Therefore keep what thou hast, for Misery is an ill Guest; regard not what Sugar the Devil strows, though the Kingdom of this World seems as sweet as Sugar, it is nothing else but Gall; consider that the poor Soul in this World, and in the Flesh and Blood, is not in its true Home, it must travel into another Country. Therefore suffer not the Devil to cover it thus with the Untowardness of the Flesh, for great Earnestness is requisite for the Driving away of the Devil; though that would not be in our Ability [and Power,] if the exceeding worthy Champion did not aid and assist us.

(9) ¶Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal: but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal. For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.

(100) And in those days the destitute shall go forth and carry off their children, And they shall abandon them, so that their children shall perish through them: Yea, they shall abandon their children (that are still) sucklings, and not return to them, And shall have no pity on their beloved ones.

(22) He said, Of a child. Have compassion on us. Jesus said,

(3) Whosoever therefore shall humble himself as this little child, the same is greatest in the kingdom of heaven. And whoso shall receive one such little child in my name receiveth me.

(7) "Give them daughters and sons. Let them not meet disgrace, nor misfortune, let not the deceiver come behind or before them. Let them not fall, let them not be wounded, let them not fornicate, nor be condemned by justice. Let them not fall on the descent or on the ascent of the road. Let them not encounter obstacles back of them or before them, nor anything which strikes them. Grant them good roads, beautiful, level roads. Let them not have misfortune, nor disgrace, through Thy fault, through Thy sorceries.

(6) Wherefore "let the false lips become speechless, and let the Lord destroy the boastful tongue: those who say, We shall magnify our tongue, and our lips are our own; who is Lord over us? For the affliction of the poor and the groaning of the needy now will I arise, saith the Lord; I will set him in safety; I will speak out in his case." For it is to the humble that Christ belongs, who do not exalt themselves against His flock. "Lay not up for yourselves, therefore, treasures on the earth, where moth and rust destroy, and thieves break through and steal," says the Lord, in reproach perchance of the covetous, and perchance also of those who are simply anxious and full of cares, and those too who indulge their bodies. For amours, and diseases, and evil thoughts "break through" the mind and the whole man. But our true "treasure" is where what is allied to our mind is, since it bestows the communicative power of righteousness, showing that we must assign to the habit of our old conversation what we have acquired by it, and have recourse to God, beseeching mercy. He is, in truth, "the bag that waxeth not old," the provisions of eternal life, "the treasure that faileth not in heaven." "For I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy," saith the Lord. And they say those things to those who wish to be poor for righteousness' sake. For they have heard in the commandment that "the broad and wide way leadeth to destruction, and many there are who go in by it." It is not of anything else that the assertion is made, but of profligacy, and love of women, and love of glory, and ambition, and similar passions. For so He says, "Fool, this night shall thy soul be required of thee; and whose shall those things be which thou hast prepared?" And the commandment is expressed in these very words, "Take heed, therefore, of covetousness. For a man's life does not consist in the abundance of those things which he possesses. For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?" "Wherefore I say, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat; neither for your body, what ye shall put on.

(41) Accidents serve only to manifest the secret essence; The essential quality abides, and accidents pass away. This mark of gold endures not the touchstone, But only the gold itself, genuine and undoubted. These prayers and holy war and fasting Will not endure, only the noble soul endures. The soul exhibits acts and words of this sort, Then it rubs its substance on the touchstone of God's command, Saying, "My faith is true, behold my witnesses!" Know that witnesses must be purified,

(32) For Christ said also, Let little Children come to me, for to such belongs the Kingdom of God. Say not, What does Baptism avail a Child, which understands it not? The Matter lies not in our Understanding, we are altogether ignorant concerning the Kingdom of God. If the Child be a Bud, grown in thy Tree, and that thou standest in the Covenant, why bringest thou not also thy Bud 1 into the Covenant? Thy Faith is its Faith, and thy Confidence towards God in the Covenant is its Confidence. It is indeed thy Essences, and generated from thy Soul. And thou art to know, according to its exceeding Worth, if thou art a true Christian, in the Covenant of Jesus Christ, that thy Child also (in the Kindling of its Life) passes into the Covenant of Christ, and though it should die in the Mother's Womb, it would be found in the Covenant of Christ. For the Deity stands in the Center of the Light of Life; and so now if the Tree stands in the Covenant, then the Branch may well do so.

(93) "Do not give what is holy to dogs, lest they throw them on the dung-heap. Do not throw the pearls to swine, lest they grind it [to bits]."

(1) Then the god of the realms gives them some of those who serve him. . . . They come on that land where the great ones are who have not been defiled, nor will they be defiled by any desire. For their souls did not come from a defiled hand, but from an eternal angel's great command.

(10) What is better and nobler than true poorness in spirit? Yet when that is held up before us, we will have none of it, but are always seeking ourselves, and our own things. We like to have our mouths always filled with good things, that we may have in ourselves a lively taste of pleasure and sweetness. When this is so, we are well pleased, and think it standeth not amiss with us. But we are yet a long way off from a perfect life. For when God will draw us up to something higher, that is, to an utter loss and forsaking of our own things, spiritual and natural, and withdraweth His comfort and sweetness from us, we faint and are troubled, and can in no wise bring our minds to it; and we forget God and neglect holy exercises, and fancy we are lost for ever. This is a great error and a bad sign. For a true lover of God, loveth Him or the Eternal Goodness alike, in having and in not having, in sweetness and bitterness, in good or evil report, and the like, for he seeketh alone the honour of God, and not his own, either in spiritual or natural things. And therefore he standeth alike unshaken in all things, at all seasons. Hereby let every man prove himself, how he standeth towards God, his Creator and Lord.