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And I said, "Speak on, my God." Then said he unto me, "The sea is set in a wide place, that it might be deep and great;
4
but suppose the entrance were narrow and like a river.
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Who then could go into the sea to look upon it and to rule it? If he went not through the narrow, how could he come into the broad?
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There is also another thing: A city is built and set upon a broad field, and is full of all good things.
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The entrance thereof is narrow and is set in a dangerous place to fall, as if there were a fire on the right hand and on the left a deep water,
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and only one path between them both, even between the fire and the water, so small that there could but one man go there at once.
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If this city now were given unto a man for an inherit-ance, if he never shall pass the danger set before it, how shall he receive this inheritance?"
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And I said, "It is so, Lord." Then said He unto me, "Even so also is Israel's portion.
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Because for their sakes I made the world; and when Adam transgressed My statutes, then was decreed what now is done.
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Then were the entrances of this world made narrow, full of sorrow and travail; they are but few and evil, full of perils and very painful.
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For the entrances of the elder world were wide and sure, and brought immortal fruit.