Preface.

remained lost, as long as the faithful reaching out of the will toward such offered goods was lacking. Just as even Christ could not perform the slightest miracle among his countrymen in Nazareth because of their unbelief.

By virtue of this free power of the willoriginal: "VVillens-Krafft" of ours, God even today cannot deal with us in any other way; He cannot draw the strayed free spirit of man back into His fellowshiporiginal: "Gemeinschafft" until that spirit, in the desire of its willoriginal: "VVillens-Begierde", hungers and thirsts for lost righteousnessoriginal: "Gerechtigkeit" through prayer and the longing of faith. It must direct its imaginationIn theosophical writing, "imagination" is not just fantasy, but a spiritual faculty used to focus the mind and "image" divine reality within oneself. toward that which God Himself is active in His own desire of love: namely, to destroy the established kingdom of sin and, in its place, build up the kingdom of light and love.

It is, therefore, the earnest desire of faithoriginal: "Glaubens-Begierde" in those people—which expresses itself through a thousand sighs, cooings An allusion to the "moaning of the dove," a common metaphor for the soul's yearning for God., and longings of the spirit—that serves as that mighty power. This power is communicated from the Word of God through the Holy Spirit and makes the heart capable of receiving God and His grace. For when the soul perceives its spiritual misery and evil and recognizes God's help, it draws the help of a heavenly Comforter to itself through its sighing. Conversely, the soul is removed further and further from such heavenly goods the less it desires to sigh for them.

And with this purpose in mind, these Theosophical Heart-Devotions have been composed with all diligence, so that one may increasingly strengthen oneself in the knowledgeoriginal: "Erkæntnis" of those duties which our sole, true, and holy religion requires of us. For we recognize and confess only one single

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