Reader, do you seek to realize the birth into Truth? There is only one way:
_Let self die_. All those lusts, appetites, desires, opinions, limited
conceptions and prejudices to which you have hitherto so tenaciously clung,
let them fall from you. Let them no longer hold you in bondage, and Truth
will be yours. Cease to look upon your own religion as superior to all
others, and strive humbly to learn the supreme lesson of charity. No longer
cling to the idea, so productive of strife and sorrow, that the Savior whom
you worship is the only Savior, and that the Savior whom your brother
worships with equal sincerity and ardor, is an impostor; but seek
diligently the path of holiness, and then you will realize that every holy
man is a savior of mankind.
The giving up of self is not merely the renunciation of outward things. It
consists of the renunciation of the inward sin, the inward error. Not by
giving up vain clothing; not by relinquishing riches; not by abstaining
from certain foods; not by speaking smooth words; not by merely doing these
things is the Truth found; but by giving up the spirit of vanity; by
relinquishing the desire for riches; by abstaining from the lust of
self-indulgence; by giving up all hatred, strife, condemnation, and
self-seeking, and becoming gentle and pure at heart; by doing these things
is the Truth found. To do the former, and not to do the latter, is
pharisaism and hypocrisy, whereas the latter includes the former.
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