We have discovered together, you will recall, that the world is offered
to all men that it may be possessed by each with the help of all. You
see, then, that in your modest rôle of apostle there is a means of
making others rich while securing their help for your own undertakings.
Estimate your wealth according to the importance of what you give.
Dispossess yourself boldly. Everything will be returned to you at the
right time and a hundredfold.
If the great apostles were able to bring the good news, it was because
they had faith; but nothing could have exalted their faith more than to
bring the good news.
If you have been interested in something you have read, in a walk, if
you have been astonished at some spectacle, invite all those whom you
know to read what you have read, to take that walk, to contemplate
that spectacle. Show some discernment in your invitations. Distrust
the sceptics a little, the ironical, cruel, or contradictory spirits.
Distrust them, but do not abandon them: they are the strayed sheep
whose return ought to rejoice your heart supremely. When you have made
them admit: “Yes, there’s something really fine! Yes, there’s something
interesting, there’s something worth the pain of living!” you may fall
asleep with a smile; your day will not have been lost.
At times, you will make a discovery so rare, so delicate that, by some
secret warning, you will know it cannot be communicated, that it is
strictly individual, that it ought to remain as a private relation
between the world and your soul. In that case, keep your own counsel.
Perhaps a day will come when your thought will have gained in precision
through being amplified; on that day you will be mysteriously informed
that your treasure has lost its private character, that it has become
suitable for sustaining your communion with others. When that day
comes, speak forth. Until that day, however, be patient; do not
fall into the error of those spirits who are called obscure because
they offer us impressions that have been insufficiently ripened and
experienced, impressions that are not for all humanity.
On the other hand, when someone offers you one of these obscure
impressions, do not reject it, do not laugh with disdain. Force
yourself to feel what has been pictured for you in this faulty fashion.
You will do your partner a service in visualizing his discovery, and
you will perhaps be able to increase your own stock. Perhaps there will
be something worth seizing and understanding at the bottom of it.
Always seek communion. It is the most precious thing men possess. In
this respect, the symbol of the religions is indeed full of majesty.
Where there is communion there is something that is more than human,
there is surely something divine.
When you deem that you have grasped a truth do not forget, in
communicating it to others, that there are two conditions of truth. Any
truth one receives is but a small fortune in comparison with the value
of that which one experiences. Therefore persuade those you love into
the experiencing of truths, into the religious, courageous, persistent
experiencing of the well-beloved truth.