God, Soul, And World.

Who trusts in God,
Fears not His rod.
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This truth may be by all believed:
Whom God deceives, is well deceived.
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How? when? and where? No answer comes from high;
Thou wait'st for the Because, and yet thou ask'st not Why?
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If the whole is ever to gladden thee,
That whole in the smallest thing thou must see.
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Water its living strength first shows,
When obstacles its course oppose.
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Transparent appears the radiant air,
Though steel and stone in its breast it may bear;
At length they'll meet with fiery power,
And metal and stones on the earth will shower.

Whate'er a living flame may surround,
No longer is shapeless, or earthly bound.
'Tis now invisible, flies from earth,
And hastens on high to the place of its birth.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

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