Chapter VII
Shows the means of coming to the Same.
IF you would enter on the Way of Contemplation, You must take the path that leads Thereto. The same is a conscience pure and undefiled, A simple and well-regulated life, A modest demeaning of yourself, And temperance in outward things. You must restrain the ungoverned desires of Nature, Supplying her wants with wisdom and discretion, Ministering, in the world without, to all who need, in love and mercy; And, in the world within, emptying yourself of every vain imagining; Gazing inward with an eye uplifted and open to the Eternal Truth; Inwardly abiding in simplicity, and stillness, and in utter peace. So shall you bring with you A burning earnestness of Love, A fiery Flame of devotion, leaping and ascending into the very Goodness of God Himself; A loving longing of the soul to be with God in His Eternity; A turning from all things of self into the freedom of the Will of God, With all the forces of the soul gathered into the unity of the Spirit; Thanking and glorifying God, and loving and serving Him, in everlasting reverence.
So lovingly following this life of virtue, You may hope to come to the Life of Contemplation. And, if you abide faithful to your God and to yourself, Then, in the hour when He shall manifest Himself, You shall behold His Face.