one who remembers not evil, and is moved with compassion towards his
creature. Do thou, therefore, cleanse thy heart of doubt, and ask of
Him, and thou shalt receive thy request. But when thou doubtest, thou
shalt not receive. For they who doubt towards God are the
double-hearted, and shall receive nothing whatever of their desires. For
those who are whole in the faith, ask every thing, trusting in the Lord,
and they receive because they ask nothing doubting. [See St. James i.
6.] And if thou shouldest be tardy in receiving, do not doubt in thy
mind because thou dost not receive soon the request of thy soul. For the
cause of the tardiness of thy receiving is some trial, or some
transgression which thou knowest not of. Do thou then {78} not cease to
offer the request of thy soul, and thou shalt receive it. But if thou
grow faint in asking, accuse thyself, and not the Giver. For
double-heartedness is a daughter of the devil, and works much mischief
towards the servants of God. Do thou, therefore, take to thyself the
faith that is strong."

In the twelfth section of the ninth Similitude, in the third book, in
the midst of much to the same import, and of much, too, which is strange
and altogether unworthy of the pen from which the previous quotation
proceeded, he thus writes, as the Latin records his words, the Greek of
this passage having been lost.

"These all are messengers to be reverenced for their dignity. By these,
therefore, as it were by a wall, the Lord is girded round. But the gate
is the Son of God, who is the only way to God. For no one shall enter in
to God except by his Son." [Book iii. Simil. 2.]

On the subject of prayer, I cannot refrain from referring you to a
beautiful similitude, illustrative of the powerful and beneficial