from My Life in Christ - St. John of Kronsadt

"This is life eternal, that they might know Thee the only true God and Jesus Christ whom Thou has sent." St. John 17:3

Thou, O God, has opened wide to me Thy truth and Thy verity. By instructing me in the sciences, Thou has opened to me all the riches of faith, of nature, and of human understanding; I have learned Thy word - the Word of God - "piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit." I have studied the laws regulating the mind of man, its love of wisdom, the formation and the beauty of speech; I have penetrated in part into the mysteries of Nature, into her laws, into the abyss of the areas of world and their revolution; I know the population of the terrestrial globe; I have acquainted myself with its different peoples, with the celebrated persons, and their works, who have passed in turn through this world; I have in part studied the great science of self-knowledge and of how to draw nigh to Thee; in a word, I have become cognizant of many, many things - "for more things are shewed unto thee than men understand," and hereafter I shall yet learn much, I have many books of varied contect; I have read and re-read them, but still I am not yet satisfied. My spirit still thirsts for further knowledge and my heart is unsatisfied; it hungers, and from all the knowledge thus acquired by the intellect, it cannot gain full happiness. When will it be satisfied? It will be satisfied, when "I will behold Thy face in righteousness: I shall be satisfied, when I awake, with Thy likeness. Until then I shall hunger. "Whosoever drinketh of this water (of worldy wisdom) shall thirst again: but whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life,: said the Lord.