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The_Savior_from_Spiritual_Error, page : 94
danger of hell-fire unless I set about to mend my ways.
I reflected on this continuously for a time, while the choice still remained
open to me. One day I would form the resolution to quit Baghdad and get
rid of these adverse circumstances; the next day I would abandon my
resolution. I put one foot forward and drew the other back. If in the morning
I had a genuine longing to seek eternal life, by the evening the attack of a
whole host of desires had reduced it to impotence. Worldly desires were
striving to keep me by their chains just where I was, while the voice of faith
was calling, `To the road! To the road! What is left of life is but little and the
journey before you is long. All that keeps you busy, both intellectually and
practically, is but hypocrisy and delusion. If you do not prepare now for
eternal life, when will you prepare? If you do not now sever these
attachments, when will you sever them?‟ On hearing that, the impulse
would be stirred and the resolution made to take to flight.
Soon, however, Satan would return. `This is a passing mood‟, he would
say; `do not yield to it, for it will quickly disappear; if you comply with it and
leave this influential position, these comfortable and dignified
I reflected on this continuously for a time, while the choice still remained
open to me. One day I would form the resolution to quit Baghdad and get
rid of these adverse circumstances; the next day I would abandon my
resolution. I put one foot forward and drew the other back. If in the morning
I had a genuine longing to seek eternal life, by the evening the attack of a
whole host of desires had reduced it to impotence. Worldly desires were
striving to keep me by their chains just where I was, while the voice of faith
was calling, `To the road! To the road! What is left of life is but little and the
journey before you is long. All that keeps you busy, both intellectually and
practically, is but hypocrisy and delusion. If you do not prepare now for
eternal life, when will you prepare? If you do not now sever these
attachments, when will you sever them?‟ On hearing that, the impulse
would be stirred and the resolution made to take to flight.
Soon, however, Satan would return. `This is a passing mood‟, he would
say; `do not yield to it, for it will quickly disappear; if you comply with it and
leave this influential position, these comfortable and dignified