The Way of the Seven Fold Secret by Lilias Trotter

- 25 -
the million sins of his race. The foundation of our
sinfulness lies buried so to speak, in the sinful nature
that is our heritage, but since our childhood the wall has
been built up by stone after stone of personal sins,. great
and small, that are -uncounted by us, but counted by God.
For· He says. "I know your manifold transgressions and
your mighty sins",• And time in its lapse, instead of
crumbling the wall, is but as the cement that binds and
hardens it.
If indeed any ray of light has come to thee, my
brother, from Him who is the Light of the world, then
thou wilt see this wall of thy sins to be great and high.
What then is to be done to find the way of access? Man
may go round and round the wall that he has built, seeking
entrance, but he finds none. He may seek, so to
speak, to loosen the stones, that is to say, he may think
that he throws down a stone from the wall of his sin
when he performs a good action, but in truth he only
replaces one stone by another, for even our good deeds
are full of sin before God, and our very repentance
needs to be repented of.t He says in the Holy Book~
" In all your doings your sins do appear.''+
Man's repentance cannot undo his sin, and even the
intercession of the saints and prophets is unavailing in
this, for they shared our sinful estate. Neither our own
repentance nor the intercession of others will move the
wall, and the sin that has built it must be taken away if
we are to find entrance.
You cannot get to God till you have found someone
who can take away those sins, just as you cannot get
through a wall except by finding some means of taking
away that with which it was huilt,
* Amos 5, 12. t A saying of the-woman Sufi, Rabia. + Ezek. 21 24: