Beloved friend in the heart of Jesus Christ. The left hand of the Bridegroom be under your head and his right hand embrace you! I am compelled, dearly beloved, by the urgency of your love for me to write something about charity for you, and to presume beyond my powers and far beyond my low station; indeed I seem to be pouring out from my emptiness and to be giving what I do not possess. It is only with difficulty I tell you that my mind consents to say something about it, for I feel that neither my heart nor my tongue can speak of this subject worthily. How can a man speak of love who does not love or feel the power of love? There is abundant matter on other subjects in books, but this is altogether an inward thing or it is nowhere, for it does not translate the secrets of its delights from outside to Within, but transmits them from within outwards.

Beloved friend in the heart of Jesus Christ. The left hand of the Bridegroom be under your head and his right hand embrace you! I am compelled, dearly beloved, by the urgency of your love for me to write something about charity for you, and to presume beyond my powers and far beyond my low station; indeed I seem to be pouring out from my emptiness and to be giving what I do not possess. It is only with difficulty I tell you that my mind consents to say something about it, for I feel that neither my heart nor my tongue can speak of this subject worthily. How can a man speak of love who does not love or feel the power of love? There is abundant matter on other subjects in books, but this is altogether an inward thing or it is nowhere, for it does not translate the secrets of its delights from outside to Within, but transmits them from within outwards.