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but seek with all your heart and you will receive a pearl or a drop or like a mustard seed, like a spark, a divine seed. (253) How will you seek what I tell you? Listen, and act with zeal, and you will find it quickly. Take for me a clear image, that of the stone and iron. For in these the nature of fire is certainly present, but it is not seen at all. But when struck together continuously, however, they send forth sparks of fire and at first they are seen by all, but they are not ignited, however, unless they also catch hold of matter. But one small spark from these, having been united with this, little by little ignites everything and raises a flame on high and illuminates the house and drives out the darkness and makes all who are in the house to see. Have you seen a wonder? Tell me then: Before they are struck continuously, how will they send forth sparks? And without a spark, how will matter ignite by itself? Before it is ignited, how will it give light, how will it drive out the darkness, how will it grant you to see? “In no way,” you would surely say to me, “is it ever possible for this to happen.” (254) So therefore you too be eager to do and you will receive— What am I telling you that you will receive? a spark of the divine nature, which the creator likened

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ἀλλά ζήτησον ἐξ ὅλης τῆς καρδίας σου καί λήψῃ μαργαρίτην ἤ σταγόνα ἤ σινάπεως ὡς κόκκον, ὡς σπινθῆρα θεῖον σπόρον. (253) Πῶς ζητήσεις, ὅ σοι λέγω; Ἄκουσον, σπουδῇ τε πρᾶξον, καί εὑρήσεις ἐν συντόμῳ˙ λάβε μοι σαφῆ εἰκόνα, τήν τοῦ λίθου καί σιδήρου˙ ἔνεστι καί γάρ ἐν τούτοις τοῦ πυρός ἡ φύσις πάντως, οὐχ ὁρᾶται δέ κἄν ὅλως. Συγκρουόμενα δέ ὅμως συνεχῶς πυρός σπινθῆρας ἀποπέμπουσι καί πᾶσι καθορῶνται μέν ἐν πρώτοις, οὐκ ἀνάπτονται δέ ὅμως, εἰ μή δράξωνται καί ὕλης. Ταύτῃ δ᾿ ἑνωθείς ἐκ τούτων εἷς σπινθήρ μικρός εἰς ἅπαν ἐξανάπτει κατ᾿ ὀλίγον καί εἰς ὕψος αἴρει φλόγοα καί φωτίζει τήν οἰκίαν καί τό σκότος ἐκδιώκει καί ποιεῖ τοῦ βλέπειν πάντας, τούς ἐν τῇ οἰκίᾳ ὄντας. Εἶδες θαῦμα; Λέγε οὖν μοι˙ Πρό τοῦ συνεχῶς κρουσθῆναι πῶς ἐκπέμψουσι σπινθῆρας; Ἄνευ δέ σπινθῆρος ὕλη αὐτομάτως πῶς ἀνάψει; Πρίν ἀνάψει, πῶς φωτίσει, πῶς τό σκότος ἐκδιώξει, πῶς τοῦ βλέπειν σοι παράσχει; Οὐδαμῶς, μοί πάντως εἴπῃς, δυνατόν ποτε γενέσθαι. (254) Οὕτως οὖν καί σύ ποιῆσαι προθυμήθητι καί λήψῃς Τί σοι λέγω, ὅτι λήψῃ; θείας φύσεως σπινθῆρα, ὅν ὡμοίωσεν ὁ κτίστης