Romans 12 : 2 proof is related to Romans 12.1

Here's a mystery but you will see how big it's meaning is any second.
Romans 12 : 2 proof is related to Romans 12.1
Here are the verses again
Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, [a]acceptable to God, which is your [b]spiritual service of worship. 2 And do not be conformed to this [c]world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may [d]prove what the will of God is, that which is good and [e]acceptable and perfect.
We are not given a lot of help when we are born...
but the Bible if it comes into our environment...
or perhaps a Christian...
or maybe a person of general faith....
basically we MAY start to get a general idea.
If we do hear of Jesus .He says...
OK start this way...from cold....and do these types of things...
Do not heap up mantras and prayers and liturgies...this is the pagan way to somehow "prove " to a god or God that they are OK...no don't do that....
connect in secret....right inside your house, away from noise and interruption, in your secret place inside you and see if you can find the Father, connect with the Fathe and His voice inside your very being....
So already we are connecting with a strange idea that is going to repeat and repeat....
That is of giving space to God to work, to show Himself, to be proof to you, bearing in mind He is not material, He is Spirit, so this is His way of doing it.
Then when you have tried that one, says Jesus....
Give.
That is, "clear a space" in your own legitimately earned finance for God to move....
and not only return...but give to you from all angles pressed down and running over....in the sort of measure and commitment which you have first given.
Give space to God and He will fill it again....same kind of thing as before
Then Jesus says, when you gather together....instead of just gathering in your own name and being glad to see each other...
give all of that over to me....
Together, gather in My Name and God's Name, but this time together as a bunch of people....
And SEE if I don't fill it with My own Presence among you.
Suck it and see.
Then Jesus says things like....instead of just receiving each other in your own names....receive them INSIDE ME.
Blessed is He who comes in the Name of the Lord.
Now do the same with GO.
Dont just GO as you are used to doing....
Go in My Name and I guarantee things will start happening, signs will follow after. Here, let's try it...
Don't take any money, or spare clothing....just go as you are and declare God is Here, the Kingdom is here...you try it....
then when you see, we will send 70 out.....says Jesus to His disciples
Do you start to see the build up?
We start in the absolute cold, only knowing life according to our 5 sense evaluations, and here is Jesus saying...
Go risk something....
Go make some space....
See if God doesn't show up
In other words PROVE TO your self and your own inner knowing that God is true to every Word He speaks.
Then comes Romans 12.1
This is like the third level entry point in 1 John 2....
You have dipped your toe in.
You have baptised your knees and middle.
And you have proved what God says He keeps to.
So if Igive my whole body, my agenda my brain, my heart, my future and past, my present, my emotions my skills....
Everything as a living sacrifice 24/7......wow....do you think God will actually show up???
That is the relevance of Romans 12.2.......the PROOF
That you may PROVE....
Prove what?
Prove what it is like when God's Will is actually on test, or on a testbed in a laboratory.....
Prove that He the SOLE SOURCE OF LIFE IN THE UNIVERSE.....if allowed to BE HIS LIFE IN YOU....
is going to be
PRESSED DOWN,RUNNING OVER
RIVERS OF LIVING waters
and if all that God does through you could be written in books....then the world could not fit it all in again.
Acceptable has completely the wrong sound in modern parlance....like it's barely acceptable...it's OK but not great.
That isnt what it means at all....
One of the things it means is that you will be acceptable to all types of people who will respond to God in you.
it means much more than being loved in Christian bookshops, but its the only thing I can think of off the top of ,my head.
40 years on hardly anybody is reading the Ascent of Man by Bronowski. After all the TV acclaim in his lifetime.
Who has heard of him today among the young?
but those finding Christ are already reading Watchman Nee and the great books from the past that still hold true.
Catholics may not recognise God filling ladies, and may burn them but 400 years on Madame Guyon is still being read by us along with Jacob Boehme, who actually stated that God had shown him he was writing for people hundreds of years from his time. Same was true of St Paul and the apostles.
Acceptable means.....this thing really works...it's a go-er !!!!
Christ in us the hope , the sure definite hope, of glory.
How so sure?
Well we have some now burning inside us like oil.

The earth is flat I tell you

So we have got universalists that claim we can just march into God's Presence.We can.
And they claim that God is not angry with us. He's not.
The key is Jesus Christ.
So what's the problem?
The problem is Genesis 3. Until you "see" what happened in Genesis 3, you can "universal"

all you like. You can claim God's Love. Which, it is true, is unconditional for all of us. But sooner or later you are going to have to lose the double vision you have.....the one that you and I inherited from our parents and settled into our race about the time that" our eyes were supposed to be opened.". A bit like a permanent bad LSD trip our eyes were opened all right....but we have been seeing bogus vision ever since.
You can shout. You can scream at what some of us are saying here on Facebook, but nothing you can do or say will ever change the lessons you are going to have to learn. This is it. It's unpopular. Somebody wrote today that the stuff I write is hardly read in comparison to their own writings. Well I could freak out I suppose. But no amount of Catholic writings, or Catholic insistence via Kings and any number of armies made anything Galileo discovered any less true. He possibly only wrote it down on one fragment of paper. But from the moment he discovered it, Catholics could read book upon book, vellum upon vellum, declaring their writings far more important and in keeping with tradition.....
BUT THE FACT REMAINS the earth is NOT FLAT.
Hal Williamson and Ken Dahl can cut me off, they can claim popularity, they can go on talking for every last breath of their life....but that which Madame Guyon, Jacob Boehme, Norman Grubb, to a certain extent Watchman Nee, Mother Basilea Schlink, Mikkel Thomsen, any numbers of others here, myself....the Bible....that which we patiently reiterate is 100% accurate concerning vesselhood, seeing with a single eye, and all the types of processes in the Bible that we have to pass through to catch this stuff. That just IS THE WAY THINGS ARE. God's wisdom is once again far higher than ours...and reproduces His very Self inside us en route....thus killing about 6 billion birdies with one stone. When we understand what God is laying in us, we begin to understand what we are going through is pretty trifling by comparison.

Quality Reads 1 : Annalize Mouton's Library

Annalize Mouton has prepared an incredible library of PDFs for downloading.
So far there are two pages:
Reading 1
Reading 2
Here are some excerpts

Ern Baxter on Priestly Clothing
Divinely Elected.

I want to start at rather a strange point and begin by talking to you about election.  Election is a very puzzling subject.  People don’t like to talk about it – predestination.  They want you to get off that right away.  But election is a very necessary part of your theological equipment.  Don’t think of theology as some profound science that is confined to a few experts.  All of you have your theology.  Theology consists of your views of God – so you all have some theology.  And if you don’t start at election then you put the first button in the 2^nd button hole and the whole vest is improperly buttoned.  When you think of election let me help you think of election; “In the beginning God …”.  There was a time in the history of the cosmos when there was no-one but God.  Isaiah, speaking the words of God channelled through him has Jehovah saying; “I am God – before Me there was no God and after Me there shall be no God”.  He is God alone.  If you can think in the time frame, there was a “time” when there was no-one and nothing but God.  There weren’t any angels, there was no universe, there was no sun, no moon, there was no earth, and there was no planets.  There was no material existence – there was God.  Therefore everything that has come to pass has been from God.  “Before Me” He said, “there was no other”.  Nobody begat God.  God doesn’t have a Father.  He doesn’t have anybody before Him or after Him.  He stands in infinite singularity.  Therefore everything that is, comes from God.  The earth is elected.  The sun is elected.  Everything is elected because when you start from God – God must have elected to do whatever has been done. 

Therefore the important thing for us tonight is to find out why God elected us and why God chose us and why God did the things He did so there can be meaning in our lives.  “In the beginning” God elected the heavens and the earth.  Now I know it says He ‘created’ but He elected to create.  So the heavens and the earth are an evidence of God’s sovereign, infinite, independent, singular, unilateral decision to do something.  How many don’t understand what I’m saying?  How many do understand what I’m saying?  What I’m trying to do is to get you to see tonight … Howard touched on it so excellently when he spoke of humanism.  Humanism is a consensus of unregenerate philosophical conjectures.  Its man sitting down and trying to figure out what things are – having a vote on what you think is the best idea. 

Revelation is what comes from the God before whom there was no-one and from whom all things have come, who tells us what things are – why they have come and what His intention is for them[1].  So it’s extremely important that we find out what God has in mind for all of these things.  We can’t give you a rundown on history from the beginning – that’s not our purpose tonight.  Let’s look at it redemptively.  In the process of time, given the Fall and the Flood, there came a time when God elected Abraham.

Now let me say something to you about this matter of election in terms of God’s right to make a choice.  Many times we’ve said why did God choose Abraham?  Why?  I don’t know why – the answer to that is that it’s really none of your business.  I have some real problems with the men God chose.  Peter for instance gives me some real problems.  There are others.  In fact I give myself some problems!  And you might think about it for a moment – why did God choose you?........................






A Compendium Of Repentance -  Jacob Boehme 1575-1624
Extract

13.  Yet let him not despair of the Divine Grace, but of himself only, and of his own Abilities; and let him, with his whole Strength and with all his Powers, bow down himself in his Soul, in the Presence of God.  And though his own Heart be utterly against it, and say to him, Do it not, stay awhile, it will not be convenient Today: Or if it say, Thy Sins are too great, it cannot be that thou shouldst attain the Grace of God; and so he comes into such Anguish that he cannot pray, nor receive any Comfort or Strength in his Heart, but is as if his Soul was quite blind and dead to God, yet he must be still resolute, as considering that the Promise of God is a certain infallible Truth; and with a submissive Heart sigh to the Divine Mercy, and in his great Unworthiness wholly resign himself thereto.

14.  And though indeed he esteem himself quite unworthy, as being a Stranger and an Alien, to whom the Inheritance of Christ does not any more belong, as being one that has forfeited and lost his Right to it, yet he should stedfastly rest upon Christ's Word, as knowing it to be certainly true, viz. that he came to seek and save that which was lost, that is to say, the poor Sinner who is blind, dead, and lost to God.  He must firmly imprint this Promise in himself, and take up a strong Purpose and Resolution, that he will not go forth from the promised Grace of God in Christ, though Body and Soul should perish, and though he should get no Comfort in his Heart all the Days of his Life, or the least Assurance of the Remission of his Sins; as considering and knowing that the Promises of God are more sure and firm than all Comfort whatsoever.

15.  Also let him purpose to himself, and bind his Will most firmly in this Resolution, that he will never again enter into the former beastial Images and Vices.  Yea, though all the Swine and evil Beasts in him should lament to the Death the Loss of their Food and Pastime, and he himself should be a fool in the Account of all the World for so doing, yet that he would still be faithful to his Resolution of cleaving to the promised Grace of God; and if he must come to be a Child of Death, he would desire to be so in the Death of Christ, to die and live to him at his Pleasure.  And let him act and execute this his purpose by continually praying and sighing to God, and commit all his Endeavours, Undertakings, and Labours unto him, and cease from the Imagination or Inclination of Pride, Covetousness, and Envy.  Let him but deliver up these three Beasts, and the rest will soon become weak, faint, and ready to die.  For Christ will soon get a form in the Words of his Promise, which that man imprints in himself and wraps himself in, and so come to Life and begin to work in him; whereby his Prayers will become powerful, and he will be more and more strengthened and confirmed in the Spirit of Grace.

16.  And as the Seed in the Mother's Womb undergoes the Casualties of Nature and many outward Accidents in growing to be a Child, and before it gets Life; so here, the more resolutely, and through the more Opposition, a Man goes forth from himself, and out of these Images, the more speedily and thoroughly he enters into God, till at length Christ comes to be living in the incorporated Grace; which is effected in and through the great Earnestness of the Purpose and Strife.  Upon which there presently follows the betrothing or espousal with Virgin Sophia, viz. the precious Humanity of Christ, wherein the two Lovers, the Soul and the Humanity of Christ, receive and embrace one another with Joy, and together with most inward Desire, penetrate into the sweet Love of God.  And forthwith the Marriage of the Lamb is solemnized, where Virgin Sophia, the precious Humanity of Christ is vitally united to the Soul.  Now what is done at that Marriage, and with what Joy it is celebrated, Christ himself signifies, by saying, There is greater Joy in the Heaven (which is in Man) and among the Angels in the Presence of God, for one Sinner that repenteth, than for ninety-nine just Persons that need no Repentance.

17.  But we have neither Pen that can write, nor Words that can express what that exceeding sweet Grace of God in the Humanity of Christ is, and what they enjoy, who come worthily to the Marriage of the Lamb.  We ourselves indeed have found it by Experience in this our Way and Course, and therefore certainly know that we have a sure Ground from which we write; and we would from the Bottom of our Heart most willingly impart the same to our Brethren in the Love of Christ; who, if they would believe and follow our faithful child-like Counsels, would find by Experience also in themselves, from whence it is that this simple Hand knows and understands these great Mysteries.

18.  But having heretofore written a Treatise at large expressly concerning Repentance and Regeneration, we here forbear to write more in this short Direction, and refer the Reader to * that Treatise; as also that great Work upon Genesis, called the Mysterium Magnum, in which he may find the Ground of whatsoever he will or can ask, sufficiently laid down.  And we admonish him in true Christian Love, to follow us in our Process and Way, and then he shall attain the Divine Vision in himself, and hear what the Lord through Christ speaks in him; and herewith we commend him to the Love of Christ...............................

Melchisedek by EE Brooks

Very little is said about Melchizedek in the Bible. There is even less said about him in the church realm. I was

raised in a major denomination for 20 years. I also attended their Bible College for 2 years. Never in all those

years did I hear any sermon or teaching on Melchizedek. I would often ask, "Who is Melchizedek?"

Hebrews 7:1

For this Melchizedek

, King of Salem, Priest of the Most High God, Who Met Abraham

returning

from the slaughter of the kings, and blessed him;

When ever I would ask someone about Melchizedek the reply was usually "

Who?

" I would say, "

Melchizedek

."

One person replied, "Do you mean

Methuselah

, the guy who lived 969 years?" I said, "No Melchizedek, theguy who met Abraham and is

STILL ALIVE

as reported in Hebrews!" He looked at me funny and said, "What?You mean Melchizedek was still alive when Hebrews was written?" I then started to turn my Bible to Hebrews

7:8 where it says that

someone

WITNESSED meeting Melchizedek and reported that HE LIVETH!

Hebrews 7:8

And here men that die

receive tithes; but there he

receiveth them , of whom

IT IS WITNESSED

that HE (Melchizedek!) LIVETH

.

The author of the book of Hebrews knew someone who saw Melchizedek! An unnamed person in Hebrewsbares witness that Melchizedek was Still Alive. The same Melchizedek that received tithes from Abraham inGenesis was still walking this earth. I believe with all my heart that Melchizedek is still on earth today and isAlive & Well! It is no coincidence that there are multiple references to the "

Order of Melchizedek" as havingthe power of an

Endless Life

. There is relatively little written about Melchizedek in Hebrews. There are only 2

references to Melchizedek in the Old Testament. The Old Testament spelling is a little different,

Melchizedek

.

The New Testament spelling is

Melchisedec

but both are referring to the same person. Melchizedek is a

Priest and Jesus is a Priest. There is a traditional teaching that says Melchizedek is Jesus. There are severalreasons why Jesus can NOT be Melchizedek and we will look at those scriptures which prove it.

Hebrews 7:15

And it is yet far more evident: for that after the

Similitude of Melchizedek

there ariseth

ANOTHER

PRIEST (Jesus!)

This verse clearly states that Jesus is

similar to but different thanMelchizedek! Jesus is Not Melchizedek.

He is ANOTHER PRIEST made Like Melchizedek. Contrary to tradition, Jesus is very much

likeMelchizedek

but they are not the same. They’re TWO different people. Jesus is the

Son of God.

Jesus has a Father

.

Jesus is the Son of the Highest. He also was born of a virgin and has a Mother. It is safe to say that Jesus hasa Father and a Mother

unlike Melchizedek!

Hebrews 7:3

Without Father

,

Without Mother

, without descent, having

Neither Beginning of days

,

Nor

End of Life

; but made

Like unto the Son

of God; abideth a priest

continually

.

OK there it is. Melchizedek was without Mother and without Father. Jesus has

a Mother and a Father,so

therefore Jesus is Not Melchizedek. This verse also tells us that Melchizedek is LIKE the SON. They

resemble each other! Here is the same verse in another translation; Hebrews 7:3

Without Father, without Mother, without genealogy, having Neither Beginning of days nor End of

Life, butResembling the Son of God, He (Melchisedec)

remains a Priest Forever.

(NRSV)

Melchizedek and Jesus are alike in many ways but it is obvious that they are two separate individuals. One way they are alike is that they both will be a Priest, Forever and both have the power of an Endless Life.


From Reading Page 2

Kenneth Copeland - A Covenant of Blood

....................Hebrews 11:17-19 says that Abraham, by
faith, had already received Isaac raised from
the dead. God had promised him Isaac would
make him the father of many nations, and he
13
knew God could not possibly break that
promise. Even though he'd never seen or
heard of such a thing, Abraham reasoned that
God would just raise Isaac back up from the
dead if he had to. He knew that God would
do whatever it took to keep their covenant.
And when Abraham laid his son down on
the altar of sacrifice, he opened the way for
God—his covenant partner—to do the same
thing with His only Son, Jesus, on the cross
years later. But here's an important point for
you to realize. Jesus didn't just appear on the
scene at that time. He'd been involved in that
covenant from the beginning. According to
Galatians 3:16, while God was binding
Himself in covenant to Abraham on earth, He
was also making covenant with Jesus in
heaven.
Now to Abraham and his seed were the
promises made. He saith not, And to seeds, as of
many; but as of one, And to thy seed, which is
Christ.
Abraham was the earthly
representative. Jesus was the heavenly
14
representative. The covenant was not only
between God and Abraham, but between God
the Father and God the Son. By making
covenant with Jesus, He was making covenant
with someone He knew would never break it
and thereby removing the need for a curse.
How does all this apply to you and me?
Galatians 3:29 is the binding tie.
And if ye be
Christ's, then are ye Abraham's seed, and heirs
according to the promise.
We are the unborn
generations which looked on as God cut the
covenant with Abram as the father of our
covenant faith. Romans 8:17 calls us joint-
heirs with Jesus Christ. Through the New
Covenant, God has promised to care for us the
same way He would love and care for Jesus.
This New Covenant is better than the old.
If you'll read Deuteronomy the twenty-eighth
chapter, you'll find the blessings that are
promised to those who keep the terms of the
agreement. They're wonderful promises—it's...........................

Ruth Heflin : Glory

...............struggle with this than when the Lord called me to the

Chinese people at the age of fifteen. Leaving home and

family to go to Hong Kong when I was eighteen was

easy in comparison to what God was now asking me to

do.

The Lord kept dangling that spiritual plum before me:

“If you want to feed a nation, you must dance.” He

spoke that to me toward the beginning of campmeet-

ing that year. I made up my mind that every day during

that meeting I was going to dance. Campmeeting lasted

about a month then. Now it continues for ten and a half

weeks. The first day I was so self-conscious, so sure that

everybody was watching me, that everybody could see

me. At our campmeeting everyone is so caught up in

the Spirit that they hardly know what others are doing.

When the power of God comes, when the anointing

falls, you may think that every eye is on you. But you

can get lost in the crowd easily, even if there isn’t a

crowd. There is a crowd of angels and of the anointing.

And many things are happening round about you.

That first day I don’t think I did much more than

wiggle my toes inside my shoes. I understand the prob-

lems others have in this area. I often say when teaching

people, “If you do nothing more than shift your weight

from one foot to the other, that’s a start.” But every day

I made myself available to dance before the Lord. Daily

I became more and more free. At the end of the month

the Lord spoke to me through my mother prophetically.

She didn’t know what God was saying to me. Nobody

Praise — As An Instrument of Harvest

27

had even noticed that I was trying to dance a little. The

Lord said to me, “I am going to change your ministry. I

am going to send you to kings, queens, potentates,

people of position, and you will speak to them of Me.”

I believe that dancing brings an anointing for the na-

tions. I never let a day go by without dancing. I have

danced in the toilets of 707’s, 747’s and DC10’s. How

do I do it? Straight up and down.

You need that anointing to flow through you every

day. Dancing brings that anointing. If you are minis-

tering in some place where you don’t have that liberty,

get in your closet and dance a little before the Lord. If

you have that dance in your feet, you will have an

anointing to feed the bread, the meat, and the wine unto

nations.

During that same prophetic word, Mother saw in vi-

sion the word “Katmandu.” Not long after that the Lord

sent me to Katmandu, Nepal, to speak to the royal fam-

ily about Jesus. (That story and others like it are for

another writing.) The Lord said He would send us to

feed nations, and He has been faithful to that promise;

but it has come through an anointing to dance. Prais-

ing in the dance is powerful!

There are certain Middle-eastern concepts that are for-

eign to us that help us to understand God. How was it

that Salome was able to get the head of John the Bap-

tist? Her dance pleased the king so that he was ready to

give her anything. Coaxed by her mother, she asked for

28

John’s head. In this case the dance was used in a nega-

tive sense.

In a positive sense, when our dance and our praise

pleases the King, we can have whatever we want. Praise

creates an atmosphere in which miracles happen.

When I dance, I always feel the anointing on my feet,

and I know the promise is that wherever the soles of

our feet tread, the land is ours.

Every place whereon the soles of your feet shall tread

shall be yours ... .

Deuteronomy 11:24.............................................
*********************************

See Also MY Own Resources List
Books and Messages which have helped me

N3 - An Introduction to Jacob Boehme

Jacob Boehme  1575 - 1624   (excerpt from a wonderful online website) via Nancy Gilmore

Part of the series on Great Believers that we are calling Normal in the vein of the Normal Christian Life by Watchman Nee

When we learn to read Boehme, we learn to read the Bible in a new and living way. Difficulties and seeming contradictions are resolved in the Three Principles. Theological enigmas like predestination, the fall of man and the wrath of God become easily discernible. His unearthly and strangely beautiful prose is like a silent music, an inscrutable language that bypasses the cognitive centers of the brain and illuminates the heart.

But Boehme's doctrine is more than just mystical speculation. Isaac Newton sequestered himself with Boehme's books for several weeks, believing that they contained all the mysteries of Creation. He emerged from his study with the Theory of Gravity. Though he did not credit Boehme with the discovery, one reviewer stated, "Newton hath ploughed with Behmen's Heifer." For Boehme had written long before, "The three first Properties of Nature are Attraction, Resistance and Whirling."

It was this anecdote that first kindled my interest in Boehme, but I found his books more or less impenetrable, until I read The Way to Christ, and found myself standing on new ground, reading a new Bible and beginning to understand in a new way.

For years I wracked my brains over learned theological grimoires in an effort to understand the mysteries of the Gospel. Why did Jesus have to die for our salvation?  The priestly explanation that he had to die to satiate the wrath of an angry Father, or to satisfy some bizzare requirement of divine justice, struck me as absurd. And what does Paul mean when he says we died with Christ? that our old man is crucified with Him? Academic theology offers only academic answers.

But when we set aside theological reasoning and submit to the dominion and illumination of the Holy Spirit, the scales fall from our eyes and the mystery of "the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world" can be seen. Rev. 13:8  God is known by revelation, and revelation is given to the inward imaginal nature. Intellect belongs to the outward personality, the fallen Adamic ego, and has no light in itself. The renewed mind is illuminated from within.

It is not that intelligence and learning have no value; they enhance our ability to communicate the mystery of salvation to our fellow-creatures, but this mystery is revealed to the inner man, the spirit.

"The rational Man understands nothing in reference to God; for it is without and not in God....The true Understanding must flow from the inward Ground, out of the living Word of God. In which inward Ground, all my Knowledge concerning the Divine and natural Ground, hath taken its Rise, Beginning, and Understanding. I am not born of the School of this World, and am a plain simple Man; but by God's Spirit and Will am brought, without my own Purpose and Desire, into Divine Knowledge in high natural Searchings." {Epistles, page 121.}

"He that will learn to understand the true Way, let him depart from and forsake his own Reason." {Epistles, page 138.}

"Reason must be blinded, kept under, and not allowed to stir." {page .68.}

"Reason must yield up its own Hearing and Life, and give itself up to God, that God may live in the Understanding of Man, else there is no Finding in the Divine Wisdom. All that is taught and spoken concerning God, without the Spirit of God, is but Babel." {Epistle. page 9.}

"We must wholly reject our own Reason; it is not available to help us to the Light, but is a mere leading astray, and keeping us back. This we intimate to the Reader, that he may know what he readeth. Let none account it for a Work of outward Reason."  {Three-fold Life. pages 68,88.}

"Much disputing is not at all profitable, it maketh only confusion; go with me in my writings unto the centre of all beings, and you shall see the original (or understanding) in good and evil, and be freed from all this error, for you shall find so much in my writings that will give real satisfaction to the mind; so far as the centre of all beings is apprehended, there ariseth such joy in the mind, which surpasseth all the joy of this world, for the Philosopher's Stone of the wise men lieth therein, and he that finds it, accounts it of higher excellency than the outward world with all its glory." {Epistles 7:7}