And after we have eaten our food, how many agents we need to digest it, and to convert it into fat, milk and blood. We have before remarked upon the number of servants there are within your body, of which you have no knowledge.
And now, student of the celestial way, and seeker after the love of God, come and consider a little with the eye of reverence and the mind of thoughtfulness. If a person should give you a drachm of silver, or a suit of clothes, or serve you for a single day and conclude some business which concerned you, you would love him as long as you lived, and you would always speak well of him wherever his name was mentioned, although the service he had performed for you, and his act of beneficence was only effected through the will of God and by his power. Be sincere now and say, why should you not love and sacrifice every thing for the sake of God, who created the heavens and the earth, who has taken care of all your affairs long before you desired it of him, who has provided for all your necessities before you bad any notion of them, who gives you so many thousand mercies at every breath, who has not ceased to sustain you, even when you were disobedient to his commandments and rebellious, and who has covered your shame, for the sake of the Friend of God? Ought you not to praise him with your tongue, and love him with your heart? Is it right, overwhelmed as you are with his unfailing mercies and infinite bounties, that you should regard these mercies as coming from other source than God, and that you should thank some other one than Him for these services and favors, and that you should love some other one instead of him?
It is in vain that the eyes watch for any other love than thee.
It is a loss for the eyes to weep for any other friend.
Thou art the true friend! If thou deign to look upon me,
It will be well with me, as if my eyes had never wept.
