Page:The Praises of Amida, 1907.djvu/89

 to have to call ourselves ignorant persons and sinners, but for the present those are the names that we must take. For, sad to say, there is within us a still worse heart of deceit. We are quite aware that we ought to reckon ourselves in the crowd of sinners, but our great aim and endeavour is to appear to be good men: we are fully alive to the ignorance within us, but we want to make a show of being wise; and so long as we have such a mind in us, how can we cast off Wickedness and Folly, and advance along the road of Honesty and Uprightness? It is this spirit of deceit that makes us dissemblers in learning, in conduct, in virtue, and by so doing troubles our hearts, and robs us, even when asleep, of our pleasant dreams. 15. But carry your thoughts one step further, and you will see that the consciousness that you have arrived at, of your own folly and sinfulness, brings other conclusions in its train. When you can see dust flying about in a room, it means that a ray of light has entered it. We were once ignorant of our sin, we are now