unrestrained dependence, and knows that he has—in an
incomprehensible way—an effect upon God, even though
he obtains nothing from God; for when he no longer
desires anything for himself he sees the flame of his
effect burning at its highest. —And the man who makes
sacrifice ? I cannot despise him, this upright servant of
former times, who believed that God yearned for the
scent of his burnt-offering. In a foolish but powerful
way he knew that we can and ought to give to God.
This is known by T"'™3 too, who offers up his little will
to God and meets Him in the grand will. " Thy will be
done," he says, and says no more; but truth adds for
him " through me whom Thou needest ".

What distinguishes sacrifice and prayer from all
magic ? —Magic desires to obtain its effects without
entering into relation, and practises its tricks in the
void. But sacrifice and prayer are set" before the Face",
in the consummation of the holy primary word that
means mutual, action: they speak the Thou, and
then they hear.

To wish to understand pure relation as dependence
is to wish to empty one of the bearers of the relation,
and hence the relation itself, of reality.

The same thing happens if we begin from the opposite
side and look on absorption, or entering, into the Self
(whether by means of the Self's deliverance from all being
that is conditioned by 7, or by its being understood as
the One thinking Essence) as the essential .element in
the religious act. By the first way of looking on the
act it is imagined that God enters the being that is freed
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