DISCOURSE I.

O deceitful [and] absurd writing, truly ever worthy of mockery, the words of each of whose variations make it manifestly clear that they have been produced from a turbulent and malevolent mind—like turbid water issuing from a bitter stream, exceedingly unpalatable, and utterly despicable to the judicious minds of the mature, who are able to discern and choose the good from the bad, the virtuous from the evil, the precious from the vile, orthodoxy from heterodoxy, the truth-recounting doctrines of the God-bearing Holy Fathers from the deceitful words of deceivers, and, moreover, the soul-benefiting words of the Divinely-inspired Scriptures from the soul-destroying, malicious machinations of Satanic suggestions. Yet all this is achieved through spiritual vigilance, through the clarity of the mind’s thoughts, and through the wakefulness of the conscience. Therefore, the natural light alone does not suffice for so vital a wakefulness, for it also stands in need of the light of Divine grace, which is the awakener of the mind's conscience and the dispeller of the dark, pernicious counsels of Satanic suggestions. Surely it was this light of grace that the Prophet Dawitʻ sought, crying out: "Lighten mine eyes, O Lord, lest I sleep [the sleep of] death" (Ps. 12:4). Seest thou, fair-minded reader, what the Prophet seeketh? He meaneth to say: "O Lord, Creator and Giver of the unwaning light, as

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