hat Thou
hast ever been, through the wonders of Thy generosity and bounty, supreme
over all things, art powerful to do all things, and art nearer unto all
things than they are unto themselves.

Far be it, then, from Thy glory that anyone should gaze on Thy wondrous
beauty with any eye save Thine own eye, or hear the melodies proclaiming
Thine almighty sovereignty with any ear except Thine own ear. Too high art
Thou exalted for the eye of any creature to behold Thy beauty, or for the
understanding of any heart to scale the heights of Thine immeasurable
knowledge. For should the birds of the hearts of them that are nigh unto
Thee be ever enabled to soar as long as Thine own overpowering sovereignty
can endure, or to ascend as long as the empire of Thy Divine holiness can
last, they shall, in no wise, be able to transcend the limitations which a
contingent world hath imposed upon them, nor pass beyond its confines.
How, then, can he whose very creation is restricted by such limitations,
attain unto Him Who is the Lord of the Kingdom of all created things, or
ascend into the heaven of Him Who ruleth the realms of loftiness and
grandeur?

Glorified, immeasurably glorified art Thou, my Best-Beloved! Inasmuch as
Thou hast ordained that the utmost limit to which they who lift their
hearts to Thee can rise is the confession of their powerlessness to enter
the realms of Thy holy and transcendent unity, and that the highest
station which they who aspire to know Thee can reach is the acknowledgment
of their impotence to attain the retreats of Thy sublime knowledge I,
therefore, beseech Thee, by this very powerlessness which is beloved of
Thee, and which Thou hast decreed as the goal of them that have reached
and attained Thy court, and by the splendors of Thy countenance that have
encompassed all things, and by the energies of Thy Will whereby the entire
creation hath been generated, not to deprive them that have set their
hopes in Thee of the wonders of Thy mercy, nor to withhold from such as
have sought Thee the treasures of Thy grace. Ignite, then, within their
hearts the torch of Thy love, that its flame may consume all else except
their wondrous remembrance of Thee, and that no trace may be left in those
hearts except the gem-like evidences of Thy most holy sovereignty, so that
from the land wherein they dwell no voice may be heard except the voice
that extolleth Thy mercifulness and might, that on the earth on which they
wal