The Dialogue

How if the three aforesaid powers are not united, there cannot be perseverance, without which no man arrives at his end.

" I HAVE explained to thee the figure of the three steps, in general, as the three powers of the soul, and no one who wishes to pass by the Bridge and doctrine of My Truth can mount one without the other, and the soul cannot persevere except by the union of her three powers. Of which I told thee above, when thou askedst Me, how the voyagers could come out of the river. There are two goals, and, for the attainment of either, perseverance is needful — they are vice and virtue. If thou desire to arrive at life, thou must persevere in virtue, and if thou would have eternal death, thou must persevere in vice. Thus it is with perseverance that they who want life arrive at Me Who am Life, and with perseverance that they who taste the water of death arrive at the Devil."