our kind sponsors.
The Imitation of Christ
Thomas à Kempis
The Fourth Chapter
WE MUST WALK BEFORE GOD IN HUMILITY AND TRUTH
THE VOICE OF CHRIST
MY CHILD, walk before Me in truth, and seek Me always in the simplicity of your
heart. He who walks before Me in truth shall be defended from the attacks of
evil, and the truth shall free him from seducers and from the slanders of wicked
men. For if the truth has made you free, then you shall be free indeed, and you
shall not care for the vain words of men.
THE DISCIPLE
O Lord, it is true. I ask that it be with me as You say. Let your truth teach
me. Let it guard me, and keep me safe to the end. Let it free me from all evil
affection and badly ordered love, and I shall walk with You in great freedom of
heart.
THE VOICE OF CHRIST
I shall teach you those things which are right and pleasing to Me. Consider your
sins with great displeasure and sorrow, and never think yourself to be someone
because of your good works. You are truly a sinner. You are subject to many
passions and entangled in them. Of yourself you always tend to nothing. You fall
quickly, are quickly overcome, quickly troubled, and quickly undone. You have
nothing in which you can glory, but you have many things for which you should
think yourself vile, for you are much weaker than you can comprehend. Hence, let
none of the things you do seem great to you. Let nothing seem important or
precious or desirable except that which is everlasting. Let the eternal truth
please you above all things, and let your extreme unworthiness always displease
you. Fear nothing, abhor nothing, and fly nothing as you do your own vices and
sins; these should be more unpleasant for you than any material losses.
Some men walk before Me without sincerity. Led on by a certain curiosity and
arrogance, they wish to know My secrets and to understand the high things of
God, to the neglect of themselves and their own salvation. Through their own
pride and curiosity, and because I am against them, such men often fall into
great temptations and sins.
Fear the judgments of God! Dread the wrath of the Almighty! Do not discuss the
works of the Most High, but examine your sins -- in what serious things you have
offended and how many good things you have neglected.
Some carry their devotion only in books, some in pictures, some in outward signs
and figures. Some have Me on their lips when there is little of Me in their
hearts. Others, indeed, with enlightened understanding and purified affections,
constantly long for everlasting things; they are unwilling to hear of earthly
affairs and only with reluctance do they serve the necessities of nature. These
sense what the Spirit of truth speaks within them: for He teaches them to
despise earthly things and to love those of heaven, to neglect the world, and
each day and night to desire heaven.
