NOTE: — 10 —

[Even as] the eye of this body, though it be healthy in every respect, can see nothing without light, so the eye of this soul, without Thy efficacious grace, hath no power ever to know and choose that which is pleasing according to Thy benevolent will.” This blessed Prophet, ever beholding with a foretelling spirit the ineffable light of grace prepared by Divine philanthropic providence to be bestowed upon the human race—whereby they might be able to recognize the truth and reject falsehood—said: “Unto the upright there arose a light in the darkness; the Lord is merciful, full of compassion, and righteous” (Ps. 111:4 [112:4]). God promiseth this light of grace unto the worthy, in saying by the word of the prophet Esay: “Ye that dwell in the world and in the shadow of death, light shall shine upon you”; and: “I will make darkness light before them” (Isa. 9:2; 42:16). With this most desirable light of Divine grace, the prophet Mik‘ia [Micah] gloried, full of hope, in saying: “Though I sit in darkness, the Lord is my light” (7:8). Therefore, we have no power at all ever to obtain the wakefulness of our conscience and to make a choice between good and evil without the light of Divine grace. Here the spiritually ingenious words of our theological doctor Sargis Shnorhali may exhort us unto the acquisition of the supernatural light of Divine grace, who writeth thus: “Wherefore we ought to be constantly watchful, ever to abide in vigilance, and always to pray with the prophet: ‘Lighten mine eyes, O Lord, lest I sleep the sleep of death, and lest mine enemy say, I have prevailed against him.’” Above these [words], Pōghos [Paul] also sealeth [the matter] with his spirit-speaking words, saying: “Awake, thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light” (Eph. 5:14). But the ungrateful and the impious, through obstinate and unrepenting self-will, persist stubbornly in the malignant thoughts of the aberration of the mind; wherefore, by their wicked and impious deeds, they depart from and are deprived of the Divine light of grace, and become in every way unreceptive to its all-luminous and spirit-bright operation. Whence also our Saviour Jesus Christ, passing judgment regarding such evildoers and declaring their condemnation, said: “And this is the judgment: that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than [light]...”