Humility at the Threshold
(A Rosaecrucian Exhortation of the Middle Ages)
Translated by "Profundis" Ill.
[From The American Rosae Crucis June 1916]
AT the threshold I stand before my God as but dust and ashes. If I count myself
more, behold Thou standest against me, and my iniquities bear true testimony,
and I cannot gainsay it. But if I humble myself and bring myself to naught, and
shrink from all self-esteem, and grind myself to dust, which I am, thy Spirit
will be favourable unto me, and Thy Light will cast its rays upon me; and all
my self-esteem, how little soever it be, shall be swallowed up in the depths of
my nothingness, and shall perish forever.
At the Threshold Thou showest to me myself, WHAT I AM, what I was, and whither
I have come: SO FOOLISH WAS I AND IGNORANT. If I am left to myself, behold I am
nothing, I am all weakness; but if suddenly I face the Spirit, immediately I am
made strong, and filled with joy. And it is a great marvel that I am so
suddenly raised up and so graciously illumined by Thy Light.
All this is the work of Thy Love which freely goeth before me and succoureth me
in so many necessities, which guardeth me also in great dangers and snatcheth
me, as I may truly say, from innumerable evils.
Therefore will I approach the Threshold with humility, and without hope or
desire for material reward will I seek permission to come into God's Temple.
For a little reward men make a long journey; for eternal life many will scarce
lift a foot once from the ground. Mean reward is often sought after; for a
single piece of money sometimes there is shameful striving; for a thing which
is vain and for a trifling promise, men shrink not from toiling day and night.
"I," saith my God, "taught the masters and the Great Prophets,
from the beginning, and even now cease I not to speak unto them; but many
others are deaf and hardened against my voice; many love to listen to the world
rather than to God, they follow after the desires of the flesh more readily
than after the good pleasure of God. The world promiseth things that are
temporal and small. I promise things that are great and eternal, and the hearts
of mortals are slow to stir. What I have promised I will give; what I have said
I will fulfil; if only Man remain humble and faithful in my Love unto the end.
Therefore am I the rewarder of all good men at the Crossing of the Threshold."
|