29.

It is to the Church also that the answer is given immediately after in the passage quoted above: "If thou know not thyself, ¹ O thou fairest among women, go thy way forth by the footsteps of the flocks, ² and feed thy kids beside the shepherds' tents." ³ Oh, matchless sweetness of the Bridegroom, who thus replied to her question: "If thou knowest not thyself," He says; as if He said, "Surely the city which is set upon a mountain cannot be hid; ⁴ and therefore, Thou art not as one veiled, that thou shouldst run to the flocks of my companions.' For I am the mountain established upon the top of the mountains, unto which all nations shall come. ⁵ If thou knowest not thyself,' by the knowledge which thou mayest gain, not in the words of false witnesses, but in the testimonies of My book; if thou knowest not thyself,' from such testimony as this concerning thee: Lengthen thy cords, and strengthen thy stakes: for thou shalt break forth on the right hand and on the left; and thy seed shall inherit the Gentiles, and make the desolate cities to be inhabited. Fear not, for thou shall not be ashamed; neither be thou confounded, for thou shall not be put to shame: for thou shalt forget the shame of thy youth, and shall not remember the reproach of thy widowhood any more: for thy Maker is thine husband, the Lord of hosts is His name, and thy Redeemer the Holy One of Israel; the God of the whole earth shall He be called.' If thou knowest not thyself,' O thou fairest among women, from this which hath been said of thee, The King hath greatly desired thy beauty,' and instead of thy fathers shall be thy children, whom thou mayest make princes upon the earth:' ⁶ if, therefore, thou know not thyself,' go thy way forth: I do not cast thee forth, but go thy way forth,' that of thee it may be said, They went out from us, but they were not of us.' ⁷ Go thy way forth' by the footsteps of the flocks, not in My footsteps, but in the footsteps of the flocks; and not of the one flock, but of flocks divided and going astray. And feed thy kids,' not as Peter, to whom it is said, Feed My sheep;' ⁸ but, Feed thy kids beside the shepherds' tents,' not beside the tent of the Shepherd, where there is one fold and one Shepherd.'" ⁹ But the church knows herself, and thereby escapes from that lot which has befallen those who did not know themselves to be in her.