regard to that sin in which, if thou sin, there is no means whereby the rest can be cured.  For this thou oughtest to be ever saying, “Forgive us our debts.”  What debts?  There is no lack of them, for we are but men; I have talked somewhat more than I ought, have said something I ought not, have laughed more than I ought, have eaten more than I ought, have listened with pleasure to what I ought not, have drunk more than I ought, have seen with pleasure what I ought not, have thought with pleasure on what I ought not; “Forgive us our debts, as we also forgive our debtors.”  This if thou hast lost, thou art lost thyself.

Take heed, my brethren, my sons, sons of God, take heed, I beseech you, in that I am saying to you.  Fight to the uttermost of your powers with your own hearts.  And if ye shall see your anger making a stand against you, pray to God against it, that God may make thee conqueror of thyself, that God may make thee conqueror, I say, not of thine enemy without, but of thine own soul within.  For he will give thee his present help, and will do it.  He would rather that we ask this of him, than rain.  For ye see, beloved, how many petitions the Lord Christ hath taught us; and there is scarce found among them one which speaks of daily bread, that all our thoughts may be molded after the life to come.  For what can we fear that he will not give us, who hath promised and said, “Seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you; for your Father knoweth that ye have need of these things before ye ask him.”  “Seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you.”  For many have been tried even with hunger, and have been found gold, and have not been forsaken by God.  They would have perished with hunger, if the daily inward bread were to leave their heart.  After this let us chiefly hunger.  For, “Blessed are they who hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled.”  But he can in mercy look upon our infirmity, and see us, as it is said, “Remember that we are dust.”  He who from the dust made and quickened man, for that his work of clay’s sake, gave his only son to death.  Who can explain, who can worthily so much as conceive, how much he loveth us?

FRANCIS BACON (1561-1626)

Francis Bacon, Baron Verulam and Viscount St. Albans, is called by one of his contemporaries, “the eloquentest man in England.”  Perhaps those who read his legal arguments before the Star Chamber may not see this eloquence so fully exemplified in them as in his incomparable essays; but wherever he speaks, it is Francis Bacon speaking.  It is doubtful if any other man ever lived who has even approached him in the power of controlling his own and subsequent times by purely intellectual means.  Until his time, Aristotle had no rival in the domain of pure intellect Since he lived, the higher mind