SACRED TO JESUS. original: "JESU SACRUM"

Preface to the remaining children of God—the Simeons, Nicodemuses, Josephs, Zachariahs, Marys, Annas, etc. The author uses these biblical figures as "types" for different kinds of believers: Simeon and Anna (the patient aged), Nicodemus (the seeker), Joseph of Arimathea (the secret disciple), and Mary (the devoted). — in all stations and places: and to all those who, through true conversion out of Satan’s kingdom, join themselves to them as members of the universal Christian Church under the one head, Christ.

Dear fathers, brothers, and sisters in Christ Jesus: what a fearful, timid, unbelieving, wicked, defiant, fickle, and perverse heart we carry in our bodies! It is a heart that either, in good days, wants to push God Himself down from His throne, seat itself in His place, and—through its own self-will eigenheit original: "eigenheit" — refers to the ego, self-centeredness, or the desire to be independent of God's will.—be its own god and the god of all people; or, alternatively, in times of adversity,