manifest, that man will be of the number of those who will be rejected and cast out. Thus it is written that the Lord Jesus Christ said: 'Many¹ will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy by thy name, and by thy name cast out devils, and by thy name do many mighty works? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.' So also it is written: 'If I² speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am become sounding brass, or a clanging cymbal. And if I have (the gift of) prophecy, and know all mysteries and all knowledge; and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. And if I bestow all my goods to feed (the poor), and if I give my body to be burned, but have not love, it profiteth me nothing.' Hence it is clear that the really important matter in connexion with every deed is the object and purpose with which it is done; since in God's sight only that act is good and acceptable which is done (not through love of the world and the desire of pleasing oneself but) with the aim of doing according to God's will, and simply through love for Him. If, therefore, a man's purpose and intention be bad and displeasing to God, none of his actions will please Him, even though they are outwardly good and in accordance with the divine commands. And the worse a man's

inward thought and aim are, the worse will his outward actions also really be before God. But, if one is unaware of the state of a man's heart, it is impossible for one to say correctly and with certainty that any special act is a 'great' or a 'little' sin. That is a matter which God alone knows, and perhaps also the doer of the deed himself, if he has carefully observed and thought deeply about the purposes and intentions of his own heart. And since God Most High has not explained what sins are 'little' and what 'great', therefore man cannot possibly decide this and distinguish them from one another correctly. In this matter, according to the Gospel, only this much becomes clear and evident, that the degree of guilt attaching to a sin depends upon whether the sin was committed knowingly or unknowingly, purposely or unintentionally, in a state of comfort or in one of distress, through falling into a sudden temptation or after seeking an opportunity for the deed. Hence the heinousness or comparative slightness of the sin and the severity or lightness of the punishment will be in accordance with these conditions. In short, what we have so far said about sin is in full accordance with the teaching of those passages of holy Scripture to which reference has been made.

Certainly, according to these arguments and proofs which have hitherto been adduced regarding inward and outward sin and the state of man's heart, the condition of yourselves, my honoured readers,