The Progress and Struggles of the Cause.

1 These doctrines, therefore, we are earnestly declaring to you as we recite them forth from memory, words till now unheard with faith by those who by means of the doctrinal vows of the harmful Lie are delivering the settlements of Righteousness to death, but words which are of the best unto those who are heartily devoted to the Wise Lord.

2 And if by this means the indubitable truths are not seen in the soul, then, as better than these words, I will come to you all in my person with that power, and in that way according to which God, the Wise Lord, knows and appoints His ruler, that ruler over both the two struggling bands, in order that we, in obedience to him, may live according to Righteousness.

3 And that keenness, that deciding satisfaction, which Thou hast given by Thy Spirit, and by the light that is Thy sign, and by Thy Righteousness itself, to the two battling sides, do Thou declare unto us, O Wise Lord; that vow which is for the seeing, as by those endowed with mental light. Yea, do Thou declare this that we may know it, O Wise Lord! Speak it through Thy revelation, that as I preach its mighty truths I may make all the living believers!

4 And when Thy Righteousness shall be inclined to my appeal, and with it all those who serve Thee, then with the blessedness of the reward, with my piety and with Thy Best Mind active within me, I will pray for that mighty Kingdom by whose force we may overcome the demon of the Lie.

5 Aye, do Thou tell me that I may discern it, since through Thy Righteous Order the better lot is given; tell me this that I may know it with Thy Good Mind as it speaks within me, and that I may ponder that to which these my truths belong, and of which Thy messenger speaks; yea, tell me those things, O Wise Lord, which may not be, and which may be.

6 And that verily shall be the best of all words which the All-wise One will declare to me in very deed, that word which is the sacred word of welfare and of immortality, for it proclaims His beneficent power. And to the Great Creator shall there be a Realm such as that whose strength I asked for victory, and which at the last shall flourish in its holiness to His glory!

7 For He has sovereign control. He who conceived of these truths as their first inspirer, and as He willed their existence, His glorious signs appeared in the lights of the stars, He is through His understanding the Creator of the Righteous Order. And thus likewise He supports His Beneficent Mind in His saints. And these holy creatures mayest Thou cause to prosper by Thy Spirit, since they are Thine own, O Wise Lord, Thou who art for every hour the same!

8 Therefore I conceived of Thee, O Wise Lord, as the First, as the One to be adored with the mind in the creation, as the Source of the Good Mind within us, when with the enlightened eye of the mind I perceived Thee as the veritable maker of our Righteousness, as the Lord of the actions of life!

9 Thine, O Wise Lord, was Piety; yea, Thine, O Creator of the Kine, were understanding and the Spirit, when Thou didst ordain a path for her guidance. Aided by the tiller of the earth, she goes in that allotted way, or by him who was never a tiller. Thy path has given her choice.

10 But she did not pause in temptation. Of the two she chose the husbandman, the thrifty toiler in the fields, as a holy master endowed with the Good Mind's wealth. Never, O Wise Lord, shall the thieving raider, so long as he plunders, share the good creed. For the choice of the Kine would bestow it!

11 And this doctrine was the first of rules to regulate our actions. Yet the opposer speaks beside Thee. For when first, O Wise Lord, Thou didst create the holy settlements, and didst reveal the religious laws; and when Thou gavest us understanding from Thy own knowledge, and madest our full bodily life, and didst thus determine actions by Thy power, and didst moreover deliver to us nearer injunctions whereby, as by a rule, the wisher may place his choices,

12 there strife at once arose, and still is raging. There, beside Thy prophet, the truthful or the liar, the enlightened or the unenlightened, lifts his voice to utter his faith, and with devoted mind and heart. But without hindrance from this striving, or pausing with feeble search, our Piety steadily searches out both the good and the evil, even in the unseen world where each has his abode.

13 Yea, my Piety searches thoroughly, for Thou, O Maker, hast Thy view on all; we cannot question lightly. Whether the questions asked are open, or furtive, or whatever decision we may make, and the man who for the smallest sin binds on the heaviest penance, on all Thou lookest with Thy all-seeing knowledge as a righteous guardian!

14 This then I will ask Thee, O Wise Lord, as I seek Thy counsel once again. What events are coming now, and what events shall come in the future; and what prayers with confessions of debt are offered with the offerings of the holy? And what are the awards for the wicked? And how shall they be in the final state of completion?

15 And I would ask Thee this, O Wise Lord, concerning the coadjutor of the wicked: What is the award for him who prepares the throne for the evil, for the evil-doer, O Wise Lord, for him who cannot else reclaim his life, nor else save it, except with lawless harm to the tiller's herd, to the pious husbandman's flock, who speaks no word with lying, who abjures the faith of the Lie?

16 Yea, I would ask Thee such a thing as this: How may such an one as he who, with wise action, has striven to promote Thy holy Rule over house, and region, and province, in Righteousness and in truth, become Thy true servant, near to Thee, O Great Creator, Living Lord? And when he may so become, this also I would ask, and in what actions living he may so be.

17 And which of the religions is the greater and the more prevailing as to these questions which thus concern the soul? Is it that which the righteous believes, or that of the wicked? Let then our questionings cease. Let the enlightened alone speak to the enlightened. Let not the ignorant further deceive us, high though he may lift his voice. Do Thou Thyself, O Wise Lord, declare to us the truth, Thou the full revealer through Thy Good Mind.

18 And you, ye assembled throngs, let not a man of you lend a hearing to the word or the command of that sinner, ignorant as he is, for home, village, region, and province he would deliver to ruin and death. But rise ye in defence, and strike with the weapon those who assail you!

19 Let them hear Him who conceived of Righteousness for the worlds, the All-wise One, the Wise Lord. For truthful speech He rules with absolute sway over words, and ever free in speech to guide us in our way. By Thy shining light, Thy sign, decision and grace are sent forth for the good of the strivers.

20 But, O ye listening men, he who renders the saint deceived, for him shall be later destruction. Long shall be his abiding in the darkness; foul shall be his food; his speech shall be of the lowest. And this, which is such a life as your own, O ye vile, your perverted conscience through your own deeds will bring you!

21 But the Wise Lord will give both universal Welfare and Immortality, in the fulness of His Righteous Order, and from His own Dominion within His saints. And He will likewise give the Good Mind's vigorous might to him who in spirit and deeds is His friend, and with faith fulfils his vows.

22 And to the wise are these things clear, as to the one discerning with his mind, not blinded by the perverter. With Thy Good Mind and Thy holy Kingdom he follows Righteousness both in his words and his actions. And to Thee, O Wise Lord, such a man shall be the most helpful and vigorous being, for he serves with every power!