God Cannot Be Seen, But He Can

You Do Not Attain To Knowledge By Remaining On The Shore And Watching The Foaming Waves, You Must Make The Venture And Cast Yourself In, You Must Swim, Alert And With All Your Force, Even If A Moment Comes When You Think You Are Losing Consciousness; In This Way, And In No Other, Do You Reach Anthropological Insight.

But When A Man Draws A Lifeless Thing Into His Passionate Longing For Dialogue, Lending It Independence And As It Were A Soul, Then There May Dawn In Him The Presentiment Of A World-wide Dialogue With The World-happening That Steps Up To Him Even In His Environment, Which Consists Partially Of Things. Or Do You Seriously Think That The Giving And Taking Of Signs Halts On The Threshold Of That Business Where An Honest And Open Spirit Is Found?

What Has To Be Given Up Is Not The I, As Most Mystics Suppose: This I Is Indispensable For Any Relationship, Including The Highest, Which Always Presupposes An I And You.

Here Is The Infallible Test. Imagine Yourself In A Situation Where You Are Alone, Wholly Alone On Earth, And You Are Offered One Of The Two, Books Or Men. I Often Hear Men Prizing Their Solitude But That Is Only Because There Are Still Men Somewhere On Earth Even Though In The Far Distance. I Knew Nothing Of Books When I Came Forth From The Womb Of My Mother, And I Shall Die Without Books, With Another Human Hand In My Own. I Do, Indeed, Close My Door At Times And Surrender Myself To A Book, But Only Because I Can Open The Door Again And See A Human Being Looking At Me.

All Names Of God Remain Hallowed Because They Have Been Used Not Only To Speak Of God But Also To Speak To Him.