KIERKEGAARDtwo

Every good and every perfect gift is from above and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning. (James 1:17) These words are so beautiful, so eloquent, so moving, that it was certainly not the fault of the words if they found no entrance to the listener's ear, no echo in his heart. They are by an apostle of the Lord, and insofar as we ourselves have not felt their significance more deeply, we still dare have confidence that they are not loose and idle words, not a graceful expression for an airy thought, but that they are faithful and unfailing, tested and proven, as was the life of the apostle who wrote them.

Oh, would it were possible for me to flee to a desert isle where never any man had come or would come; oh, that there were a place of refuge whither I could flee far away from myself, that there were a hiding-place where I am so thoroughly hid that not even the consciousness of my sin could find me out, that there were a frnotier line, which were it never so narrow, would yet be a separation between my sin and me, that on the farther side of the yawning abyss there were a spot never so small where I might stand while the consciousness of my sin must remain on the other side, that there were a pardon, a pardon whihc does not make me increasingly sensible of my sin, but truly takes my sin from me and the consciousness of it as well, would that there were oblivion!

PRAYER: From Thy hand, O Lord, do we receive everything! Thou stretchest out Thy powerful hand and takest the wise in their foolishness. Thou openest it, Thy gentle hand, and satisfiest whatever lives with blessing. And even if it seems that Thine arm is shortened, then do Thou increase our faith and our confidence, so that we may hold Thee fast. And if it sometimes seems that Thou dost withdraw Thine hand from us, oh, then we know that it is only so because Thou dost close it, that Thou dost close it only in order to conceal the more abundant blessing within it, that Thou dost close it in order again to open it and satisfy everything which lives with Thy blessing. Amen.

The loving man, he in whom there is love, hides the multitude of sins, sees not his neighbor's fault, or, if he sees, hides it from himself and from others; love makes him blind in a sense far more beautiful than this can be said of a lover, blind to his neighbor's sins. On the other hand, the loving man, he in whom there is love, though he has his faults, his inperfections, yea, though they were a multitude of sins, yet love, the fact that there is love in him, hides the multitude of sins.

The parson can only preach in general terms--but the preacher within thee is exactly the opposite: he preaches solely and alone about thee, to thee, in thee.

These words are again and again repeated in the world, and yet many go on as if they had never heard the, and it would perhaps have affected them disturbingly if they had heard them. [specifically refering to James 1:17, but generally to the Word in general]

To one unnamed whose name one day will be named, is dedicated this little work as well as my whole authorship from the beginning.