Letters 58–67

Letter 58

I CANNOT doubt but that God is treating you as one of His friends; that is to say, by giving you crosses, trials, and humiliations. These ways and means which He uses to draw souls to Him do their work quicker and more effectually than men's own exertions, for they root up the very fibres of self-love, which we could scarcely even discover; but God, Who knows all our coverts, goes straight to the point, and touches the mainspring of evil.

If we were strong enough and faithful enough to trust ourselves entirely to God, following Him simply wheresoever He wills to lead us, we should not need any mighty efforts in seeking after perfection; but because we are so feeble in faith, always wanting to see where we are going, without trusting in God, we lengthen our road and hinder our spiritual progress. Give yourself up as wholly as you can to God, and that to your last breath, and He will not forsake you.

Letter 59

QEr8tcl)fuInesi0 ober Jl^stutal Cemperamrttt.

Follow the path of mortification in which our Lord has led you, and strive to conquer the natural impetuosity which acts upon whatever you do. Be assured that all that is done of ourselves, by which I mean through natural temperament, is useless to

MO our progress in the things of God, because there is nothing supernatural in it; and because His Divine Majesty demands a perpetual reversion to our final cause from the souls He draws to Him, and when we act from natural inclination and predisposition, we stop short in ourselves, God having no share.

You see there the importance of controlling the impetuosity of your temper and passions, and that • it is a very small thing to perceive and search the hidden things of the spiritual life if you neglect the necessary means of attaining your end, a true and real union with God. This does not require any effort of mind or brain, but simply an honest intention in the occasions that arise.

Letter 60

Co 0ne xxi PerpUjcitp.

Solitude is useful to you up to a certain point; it suits you better than the restraint of a Community rule, but you may easily be deluded by your taste for retirement. Be content only to see those with whom you have either inward bonds of grace or external providential bonds; and even then do not make a positive rule only to see such as these, but follow the dictates of your heart without overmuch argument as to seeing or not seeing those whom you would naturally see. Above all, do not shun those who are likely to forward your vocation.

I would have you avoid all active efforts with respect to the person you allude to. Make no rule either to avoid or to seek her; only try to be ready

TO ONE IN PERPLEXITY III to be useful and speak the truth to her whenever she may seek you. Never repulse her; let her always find your heart open to her. When she* seems, estranged, write to her as the occasion may require in all simplicity, recalling her to a straightforward service of God. Warn her of the snares to be feared, but do not be anxious, or expect to correct earthly failings by earthly activity.

You doubt, and you cannot bear up under doubt. I am not surprised, doubt is torture; but do not argue, and you will cease to doubt The shadows of a simple faith are very different from doubt; its troubles bring their own consolation and fruits. After they have reduced a man, they restore him, and leave him in full peace. Doubt is the trouble of a soul left to itself, which wants to see what God hides from it, and out of self-love seeks impossible securities. What have you sacrificed to God save your own judgment and self-interest? Would you lose sight of that which has been your aim from your very first step, namely, to abandon yourself to God? Would you make shipwreck when just in port, recall your gift, and require God to subject Himself to your rules, whereas He requires, and you have promised, to walk Abraham-like in the deepest darkness of faith 1 And what merit would there be in your course, if you had miracles and revelations to make you sure of your path.'* Miracles and revelations would soon lose their force, and you would fall back into your doubts. You are giving way to temptation. Do not hearken to yourself; your real convictions, if you will follow them simply, will put to flight all these phantoms.

112 ■ There is a wide difference between that which your mind strings together in its perplexity and that which your true convictions really maintain. The last is of God, the other is all self-will. On whose account are you troubled — ^^your own, or God's? If it were solely for God, you would see things simply, quietly, clearly, and would loosen your hold on all created things. But, on the contrary, you are troubled for your own sake, and so it is all anxiety, restlessness, dryness of heart, eagerness to seek earthly stays, and reluctance to die to self.

What can I say to you? You want to be clothed upon, and. I can only wish to see you stripped. You want sureties, and God in His jealousy refuses them. You want to live, whereas the thing is to die consciously and willingly. You ask me for means; there are none, — the work of death to self is achieved by letting go of them all. What is there left to do for a man on the rack? Should we give him food or medicine, or the cordials for which he intreats 1 No, that would be to prolong his sufferings by a cruel kindness, eluding the judge's sentence. . What then 1 Nothing save to be passive, and let him die as soon as possible.

Letter 61

No one can feel more than I do for your present state. Your troubles are involuntary, and will be turne.d into merits as soon as you can bear them with patience and humility. But you will turn these

TO ONE IN MENTAL DISTRESS II3 acceptable sufferings into a dangerous faithlessness if you give way overmuch to them. It matters nothing that we feel the most evil passions, so long as the will gives no consent; so do not be disturbed God allows your imagination to exaggerate things in order to try and humble you. Throw yourself into His searching views. Let yourself be bound to the cross He sets before you, but do not add any of your own invention. It is in the beginning of a temptation that one can stem its progress by simple faithfulness. What peace you might enjoy amid your most trying moments if you would accept them without any tenderness over yourself! Despairing self-love cries out. I am not surprised; it is all the better that it has cause to cry out. But do you go on your way without heeding it. Such simple faithfulness would at once do away with threequarters of your trials. There would be no more anxiety, and it is that which makes them unbearable. Lie still in God's Bosom, and He will give you ease.

Letter 62

I HOPE that God will quiet your soul. I do not want to remove the keenly painful feelings, or even the involuntary reflections which torment you; I would only have you not add to them deliberately. You often give way to your own thoughts. I have noticed that after an interval you resume your reflections. Now this is the real source of your worst trouble?. Moreover, you say that you cannot

Pen. S/ L—I ' H help heeding your own reasoning, because it seems so plain. But beware, for all suspicious, indocile people say the same. You must silence yourself, not forcibly, but by a simple, quiet resolution to leave all to God, and to give yourself up to His 0;-ace.

A mere nothing besets you for hours or ^avs because you fan the flame, and so it spreads in your heart Do not make to yourself more crosses than those which God's Own Hand lays upon you. You f^el what He wills, attend to nothing else; all besides is mere temptation. Obey without consulting either your reason or your power. God will do all if you leave it to Him. I intreatyou to listen to Him with a really silent heart. I repeat it: temptation, however humiliating it may seem, turns to gbbd when borne patiently without consenting to it. The very humiliation is the profitable part; what we specially need is the very thing which horrifies our self-esteem. I am never alarmed at any wrong feelings which people confess simply, and do not cleave to with the will. Offer your trouble to Him Who only permits it in order that you may bring it to Him as a sacrifice." Seek that rest in Jesus Christ which you will never find in yourself.

LXiri.

3ae0oltttiott0 not to te maue Butitig ^jicitement.

The vehemence of your trouble is like a torrent, which must be permitted to flow past. Nothing that is said reaches you, and you imagine yourself

ON RESOLUTIONS tiS perfectly certain of the most unreal things; but this is a common effect of great trial. God permits you to be blind to what is before your very eyes in spite of all your cleverness, while you fancy that you distinctly see what does not exist. God will turu all this to His Own Glory, provided you leave all trustfully in His Hands. But nothing could be more inexcusable than to make resolutions pending a state of disturbance, the very existence of which involves an impossibility of doing so rightly.

When you have calmed down, strive in a recollected spirit to do whatever you believe most conformable to God's intentions for you. Resume your meditations gradually, as also a simple tone, and forgetfulness of self. Go to Communion. Hearken to God rather than to yourself, then do whatever your heart dictates; I am not afraid that in such a mind you will take a wrong line. But to affect to trust yourself in the height of excitement, and while subject to a violent temptation from self-will, is wilful error. Ask any sensible confessor you please, and he will tell you that it is only allowable to make resolutions when you have regained quietude and recollection. He will tell you that it is wilful selfdeceit not to mistrust yourself during a time when your natural disposition is so disturbed and irritated. You will answer that I want to hinder your change by stopping you from making it at the only time you are capable of doing so. God knows it is not so; I have no desire to hinder or allow it, L only want to enable you not to fail towards God. And it is clear as daylight that you will fail if you act upon the movements of a self-love wounded to the

Il6 quick, and a vexation little short of despair. Do you want to act in order to satisfy your self-will, even if God would not have it so? God forbid! Wait, then, till you are in a condition to consult Hioi. To deserve to be enlightened by Him you must be prepared for all, and have nothing you would keep from sacrificing to Hira.

Letter 64

Your letter is a real consolation to me, for I see that God is not weary of pursuing you in love, even when you make so many attempts to escape. What trouble you take to fly from Him! If you would but take as much to let Him do His Will! Why are you so afraid of death, that you put yourself to such torture in order to retain the mere particle of a painful existence? Let yourself be dealt with; you cling to the mere relics of self-will. You need only simplicity and forgetfulness of self. You want me to give you remedies in order to live, when all you have got to do is to die. Go to the other end of the world, and you will still find your fastidious, irritable, self -consuming mind, and you will still find God jealously and inexorably requiring its entire destruction. You carry these two jealousies about with you, and they tear you to pieces. Die, for the smallest spark of life is mere pain; death alone will take away sensitiveness. Give yourself up wholly into God's Hand.

TO A GENTLEMAN II7

Letter 65

tSlo a Gentleman.

I HAVE often thought since yesterday, sir, of what you told me, and 1 hope more and more that God will sustain you. Although you may not feel any great taste for religious exercises, you should nevertheless be as steady to them as your health will allow. A convalescent is without appetite, but notwithstanding he must eat in order to get strong. It would be helpful if you could sometimes have some Christian conversation with those members of your family to whom you can open your heart; but act quite freely in this, according to your feelings. God is not leading you by means of keen sensibility, and I am glad of it, so long as you are stedfast in well-doing; for stedfastness without the support of inclination is far purer and less liable to danger than great sensitiveness of the imagination. Some daily reading and recollection will insensibly give you light and strength for all the sacrifices you owe to God. Love Him, and I will ask for no more; all else will come through love. Neither do I ask for an eager, emotional love; suffice it if your will is to love, and if, in spite of lingering inclinations to evil, your heart prefers God to the whole world, yourself included. You were the most ungrateful of men not to love God Who has so loved you, and Who is not weary of knocking at the door of your heart, that His Love may enter in. If you have not that love within you, at least ask it, wish for it, and await it confidently.

tS!o iSDne buffering from 3l0oTation.

I HOPE, sir, that in this state of painful isolation you will find the best of consolations apart from all human help. God will make known to you what He alone can be when all else fails. The length of this trial will serve to strengthen you against yourself, and to render your self-abnegation unbounded. In givmg one's self up to God while all is quiet and peaceful, one does not know what one means or promises, and however sincere, the renunciation is at best superficial. But when the cup which overflows with bitterness is offered us, nature shudders; we become " sorrowful unto death," even as our Lord in the Garden of Olives; we sweat blood and water, and cry out, " Let thi$ cup pass from me! '' Happy he who can conquer this revulsion and natural repugnance, and add, like the Son of God, "Nevertheless not my will, but Thine be done " !

Of a truth, sir, I should greatly regret were you to lose the least drop of the cup God gives you to drink. Now is the time to exercise your faith and love. How well God must love you, since He deals you such heavy blows! Whatever sacrifice He may require, never hesitate to give it.

Letter 67

Dangtrij/

Your mind is too much absorbed by outward things, and yet more by reasoning, to be able to maintain a frequent thought of God. I am always very much afraid of your excessive tendency to rationalise; it is an impediment to that recollection and. silence in which God imparts Himself to ui We should be simple, humble, and honestly detached with men; recollected, calm, and not argu^ mentative with God. The people to whom, you formerly gave most heed were unboundedly dry, rationalistic, critical, and opposed to the interior life. If you were now to listen to them ever so little, you would be entangled in endless arguments, and by a perilous curiosity which would draw you back from grace to the depths of your natural weakness. Long-formed habits are easily renewed, and the falling back into our original failings is so easy that we notice it less than most other changes. Be on your guard against this; keep watch over th^ first beginnings, which lead to all the rest.

For the last four months I have had po leisure for study; but I am very glad to dispense with it, and cleave to nought from which God's Providence detaches me. Perhaps this winter I maybe able to return to my library; but even then I shall only enter it on one foot, ready' to depart at the first signal. One's mind has to fast as well as one's body. I have no desire to wwte, or speak, or to be

I20 SPIRITUAL BETTERS talked of, or to argue, or to persuade anybody. I live from day to day, dryly enough, and hampered by sundry external difficulties; but I stand in need of change, and take what recreation I can. They who foretell marvels, and are in terror of me, are mere dupes! Poor people, I have so little to do with them that I should be mad were I to put myself out in order to Inirt them! . I would gladly say, like Abraham to Lot, "Is not the whole land before us? If you will take the left hand, then I will go to the right."

Blessed are they who are truly set free! None save the Son of God can deliver us, but He does it only by breaking every bond. And how does He break these? By the sword, dividing husband and wife, father and son, brother and sister. Then the world counts for nothing, but so long as it holds us, liberty is a mere word, and we are like a bird whose feet a^-e held by a string — it seems free, but it cannot fly beyond the length of its cord, and so it is a prisoner. You understand the parable.^ What I wish for you is better than anything you can fear to lose. Be faithful in what you know, so as to deserve further knowledge. Mistrust your intellect, which has so often deceived you. Mine has so deceived me that I cannot reckon on it. Be simple, and firm in your simplicity. " The fashion of this world passeth away," ' and we shall pass away with it if we conform to its vanities; but the truth of God abideth for ever, and we shall be stable as it if we hold stedfastly to it.

Once more, be on your guard against savants and

' I Cor. vii. 31.

TO THE DUC DE CHEVREUSE 121 rationalists. They will always be a snare to you, and will do you more harm than you will do them good. They hover about weighty questions, but never attain the knowledge of the truth. Their curiosity is as an insatiable spiritual avarice; they are like those conquerors who ravage the world without taking possession. Solomon speaks with profound experience of the vanity of their researches.

Those who study should treat it as a real calling of Providence, and work as men go to market for their necessary provisions day by day; and meantime all study should be carried on in a spirit of prayer. God is at once Truth and Love. We cannot really know the Truth unless we love it. They who love well will know well: not to love Love itself is not to know it. He who loves much, and abides humbly and lowly in his ignorance, is the beloved of Truth; he knows that which wise men are ignorant of, and do not even care to know. This is the learning I desire for you, a science revealed to babes and sucklings, and hidden from the prudent and wise.

Lxvin;

flDn tl&e Difficiirtlejs of a 15110? Elfe.

I CAN see much more plainly what God is doing for you than what you are doing for Him. As a gsneral matter, you wish to cleave to Him with your heart, but your practical results are not alto- gether in conformity with your theories and wishes. Bear with me, if I say that you very often unconsciously follow your natural tendency to speculative research. It is a lifelong habit, which tells upon you insensibly and unintentionally at almost ever)'^ turn. Your position still further increases this subtle temptation; the whirl of business draws you on continually and rapidly. I have often noticed that you are always in a hurry to go from one occupation to another, while at the same time each particular thing carries you too far. This is because you give way overmuch to your tendency to dissect and preconise everything. You are not slow, but you are lengthy. You spend a great deal of time upon each thing; not from slowness of action — on the contrary, your work is often hurried — but owing to the quantity of detail you take in. You want to say everything that has the smallest connection with what is in hand, you are always afraid of not saying enough; and this makes every proceeding too long, and obliges you constantly to hurry from one thing to another without interval. If you could be briefer, each matter would find room, and drop into its place without hindrance; but to attain brevity you must learn to retrench whatever is not essential, and to avoid a precision of detail which encumbers that which is really necessary with superfluities. In order to be sober in word you must be sober in thought; you must not follow your natural impulse to convince others. You will only reach the source of evil by frequently withdrawing yourself into an interior silence. Such a silence of simple prayer would, soon calm that

TO THE DUC DE CHEVREUSE 1 23 actively argumentative mind, and soon God's Spirit would cast out all your speculation and discursiveness. You would learn to look at each matter from a simple, clear point of view; you would speak as you think; you would say what has to be said in two words, instead of taking so many means to convince men. You would be less burthened, less excited, less distracted, freer, more easy, more methodical, though without effort, more decided, both on your own behalf and your neighbour's. Moreover^ this silence, which would greatly tend to expedite external matters of business, would accustom you to do even your business in a spirit of prayer. Everything would be made easier to you; but otherwise you will become more and more pressed, weary, and spent, and the business which overpowers the interior needs of the soul will likewise overpower the health of the "body.

In God's Name cut these things short from morning to night, but deal with yourself in the same way as with others. Silence yourself inwardly; return to frequent earnest prayer, but without effort, rather dropping all thought than struggling against those which arise, and seeking such as do not offer themselves. Such calm and leisure will forward your affairs in a way which eagerness and forced efforts will never do. Listen rather less to your own thoughts, so as to be able to listen more to God. I venture to promise, that if you are thus faithful to your own inward light on every occasion, you will soon feel relief in your work, be more able to satisfy your neighbours, and at the same" timtj walk much more truly in your vocation. It is not enough to care for good books, you must be a good living book yourself. Your inner mind should be the reality of these ideals. The saints had more difficulties and crosses than you. yet amid all these difficulties they preserved and fostered peace, simphcity, purity of life, and almost continual prayer. I beseech you not to give way to ill-timed scruples; be afraid of self-will in altering your course, but do not be afraid of your course itself, which is simple and straightforward enough. I can easily believe that the multitude of your affairs distracts you and withers you up. The real remedyis to cut each thing short, and not give way to your tendency to detail, lest by degrees your inward grace should run dry. " Be renewed in the spirit of your mind." * Be like wise men who find that they are spending too much, and retrench vigorously for fear of ruin. Reserve seasons for interior refreshment, which will be the source of grace for all occasions; and even in the press of external occupation strive to act quietly, and with a brevity which will be a constant self-discipline. Further, you should cultivate your taste for good books. Read these, unless you substitute meditation; or indeed, you might do both, reading whenever you do not feel drawn to meditation, and giving up books for meditation when they lead you to it. Finally, you need intercourse with some one gifted with true interior grace — not necessarily any very advanced person, or in the position of a director. Perfectly simple intercourse with some one utterly free from rationalistic speculation will do if you

TO THE DUC DE CHEV REUSE I 25 open your heart and expand it freely. Such an one would comfort you, $trengthen you, show you to yourself, and tell you home truths. Such intercourse makes us less proud, dry, narrow; more pliable in God's Hand, more accessible to reproof. A truth told us is hhrder to bear than a hundred which we tell ourselves. We are apt to be less humiliated by the latter than self-satisfied at our own wisdom in discovering them. But the blow from another always makes itself felt. Of course you must be careful who you choose for such intercourse. Most men would bore you, shut you up, and close your heart to a real self-knowledge. I can only think of M... as suitable. He has his faults, he is not perfect; but nobody is. Do you expect God will send you an angel 1 Do not be repulsed by his failings; the Apostles were not free. S. Paul says that his " bodily presence was weak and his speech contemptible," * yet his epistles were not the less to be heeded. There is always something to lower the mere man and exercise the faiih of those around.