________________
188 LECTURES ON THE SCIENCE OF RELIGION. will be forgiven for the sake of the dust of Christian churches 1.
O Thou who existest from eternity and abidest for ever, sight cannot bear Thy light, praise cannot express Thy perfection;
Thy light melts the understanding, and Thy glory baffles wisdom; to think of Thee destroys reason, Thy essence confounds thought.
Thy holiness pronounces that the blood-drops of human meditation are shed in vain in search of Thy knowledge : human understanding is but an atom of dust.
Thy jealousy, the guard of Thy door, stuns human thought by a blow in the face, and gives human ignorance a slap on the nape of the neck.
Science is like blinding sand of the desert on the road to Thy perfection. The town of literature is a mere hamlet compared with the world of Thy knowledge.
My foot has no power to travel on this path which misleads sages; I have no power to bear the odour of the wine, it confounds my mind.
Man's so-called foresight and guiding reason wander about bewildered in the city of Thy glory.
Human knowledge and thought combined can only spell the first letter of the alphabet of Thy love.
Mere beginners and such as are far advanced in knowledge are both eager for union with Thee; but
1 The sins of Islam are as worthless as the dust of Christianity. On the day of resurrection, both Muhammadans and Christians will see the vanity of their religious doctrines. Men fight about religion on earth; in heaven they shall find out that there is only one true religion, the worship of God's spirit.
