Another illustration he uses is that of the heart as a goodly garment which has been dragged through filth and needs to be washed again with soap and water. “Using the heart in the exercise of our passions makes it filthy. We must therefore wash it in the water of tears and by the rubbing of repentance. It is for you to rub it clean and then God will accept it.” How near and yet how far from the teaching of David and Isaiah and St. Paul! Did Al-Ghazali ever hear some pious Jew quote Isaiah’s statement that “all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags”? True repentance has a twofold result according to this Moslem theologian. Although he does not touch the deeper problem of how God can be just and justify the sinner, he teaches that the result of the forgiveness of our sins is that “we stand before God as though we had none,” and that “we attain a higher degree of righteousness.” The cross of Christ is the missing link in Al-Ghazali’s creed. He comes very close to Christianity and yet always misses the heart of its teaching. He is groping towards the light but does not grasp the hand of a friend or find a Redeemer. It is all a righteousness by works and an attainment of the knowledge of God by meditation without justification through an atonement. Yet Al-Ghazali’s teaching on “the Practice of the Presence of God” is very much like that of Brother Lawrence in his celebrated Essay. In his “Beginner’s Guide to Religion and Morals” (Al Badayet) he writes: “Know, therefore, that your companion who never deserts you at home or abroad, when you are asleep or when you are awake, whether you are dead or alive, is your Lord and Master, your Creator and Preserver, and whensoever you remember Him He is sitting beside you. For God Himself hath said, ‘I am the close companion of those who remember me.’ And whenever your heart is contrite with sorrow because of your neglect of religion He is your companion who keeps close to you, for God hath said, ‘I am with those who are broken-hearted on my account.’ And if you only knew Him as you ought to know Him you would take Him as a companion and forsake all men for His sake. But as you are unable to do this at all times, I warn you that you set aside a certain time by night and by day for communion with your Creator that you may delight yourself in Him and that He may deliver you from evil.”[82] At times, especially when he speaks of the _veils_ that hide reality and God, we are reminded of the lines of Whitehead on “the Second Day of Creation”: