H. S. Lewis - Wisdom of the Sages - Thou shalt ask with humility and sincerity
The fourth command of the decalogue is:
THOU SHALT ASK WITH HUMILITY AND SINCERITY!
To the humble all things are possible. This is not an abstraction nor a truism with the Mystic; for he knows it to be so. […]
Humbleness is not meekness in the sense that meekness precludes the existence of character, moral strength and personal magnetism; it rather directs these into the most efficient channels and tends to give more free expression to the personality within while the outer cloak is silently dropped.
One must learn that the soul is but a part of the infinite, temporarily resident within a mortal body; and that comprehension and attunement with perfect, harmonious understanding is dependent upon the realization of the soul's humility and divine association, free from worldly titles and honors or material powers of any kind.
Sincerity seems an obvious qualification; yet, like an open mind, it seldom exists to that degree which is necessary to fulfill the dictum of this command. Lord Lytton, another eminent Rosicrucian, said: "Enthusiasm is the genius of sincerity," and unless one's sincerity manifests itself in the nature of enthusiasm, with an attending degree of willingness to make sacrifices in behalf of the quest--the search for anything like the Light which revealeth itself only to the humble and sincere, is without fruition.
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