6 THE PATH OF LIFE

the season for obtaining favour and mercy be past, may He open the eyes of your conscience and show you the way of safety and salvation. Accordingly, while something remains to you of life and a few days are yet left you to obtain salvation, take advantage of the opportunity to think about it and strive hard for it. And despise not the guidance which your sincere friend the author will offer you in these pages, to lead you to the goal of salvation and to its attainment, nor put it from you, but peruse his words with due thought, for in them your internal disease will be made clear and be demonstrated through the word of God, and, moreover, the prescription for its cure will be made known to you by verses drawn from that true dispensary of healing. And do you pray to God Most High, who is the guide of all, to enlighten you, to show you the way of truth, and to reveal to you the state of your heart as it really is. And if in reading this book you become aware that your heart is in the condition which is therein stated, and that the way of salvation is that which is here explained to you, then pray once more that God Most High may cause you to walk in this way of salvation, and may keep you firm therein, so that you may, in this manner, obtain true happiness and eternal salvation. If, therefore, you read these words with this thought and prayer, you will assuredly obtain from them much blessing and grace, and, enlightened by the divine light, you will be guided in the way of truth, the path of life.

INTRODUCTION 7

We shall now deal with these subjects in three chapters, in such a manner that in the first chapter we shall state and explain the nature of sin, its result and its consequences, in the second the means by which the forgiveness of sin may be obtained, and in the third the happiness which is produced through the pardon of sin.