Page:Literature and Dogma (1883).djvu/84

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walketh in his ways; happy shall he be, and it shall be well with him![1] O taste and see how gracious the Eternal is! blessed is the man that trusteth in him.[2] Blessed is the man whose delight is in the law of the Eternal; his leaf shall not wither, and whatsoever he doeth, it shall prosper.[3] And the more a man walks in this way of righteousness, the more he feels himself borne by a power not his own: Not by might and not by power, but by my spirit, saith the Eternal.[4] O Eternal, I know that the way of man is not in himself! all things come of thee; in thy light do we see light; man's goings are of the Eternal; the Eternal ordereth a good man's going, and maketh his way acceptable to himself.[5] But man feels, too, how far he always is from fulfilling or even from fully perceiving this true law of his being, these indications of the Eternal, the way of righteousness. He says, and must say: I am a stranger upon earth, Oh, hide not thy commandments from me! Enter not into judgment with thy servant, O Eternal, for in thy sight shall no man living be justified![6] Nevertheless, as a man holds on to practice as well as he can, and avoids, at any rate, 'presumptuous sins,' courses he can clearly see to be wrong, films fall away from his eyes, the indications of the Eternal come out more and more fully, we are cleansed from faults which were hitherto secret to us. Examine me, O God, and prove me, try out my reins and my heart; look well if there be any way of wickedness in me, and lead me in the way everlasting![7] O cleanse thou me from my secret faults! thou hast proved my heart, thou hast visited me in the night, thou hast tried me and shalt find nothing.[8] And the more we thus get to keep innocency, the

  1. Ps., cxxviii, 1.
  2. Ps., xxxiv, 8.
  3. Ps., i, 1, 2, 3.
  4. Zechariah, iv, 6.
  5. Jeremiah, x, 23; I Chronicles, xxix, 14; Ps. xxxvi, 9; Prov., xx, 24; Ps. xxxvii, 23.
  6. Ps. cxix, 89; cxliii, 2.
  7. Ps. xix, 13; cxxxix, 23, 24.
  8. Ps. xix, 12; xvii, 3.