Letters 134–138

Letter 134. Ox Conformity to the Will of God

You will find several chapters in the Imitation on Conformity to God's Will, which are marvellous, and also a great deal most helpful in S. Francis de Sales. The whole gist of the matter lies in the will, and this is what our Dear Lord meant by saying, " the Kingdom of God is within you." ' It is not a question of how much we know, how clever we are, nor even how good; it all depends upon the heart's love. External actions are the results of love, the fruit it bears; but the source, the root, is in the deep of the heart. Some virtues are suitable to one condition in life, some to another; some to one season, some to another; but a hearty will we need at all seasons and in all places.

That Kingdom of God within us consists in always willing whatever God wills, wholly, unreservedly. It is 1 Luke xvii. 21.

thus that our prayer "Thy Kingdom come" is fulfilled; thus that " His Will is done in earth as in Heaven;" thus that we become, so to say, identified with Him. Blessed are the poor in spirit! Blessed are they who strip themselves of all they can call their own, even their will; for this it is to be truly poor in spirit.

But how, you ask, are you to acquire this saintly will? By absolute conformity to that of God; by willing what He wills and desiring nothing which He does not will; by nailing, so to say, your feeble will to His All-powerful Will. If you do this, nothing can happen which you do not will, for nothing can happen save that which God orders; and you will find unfailing comfort and rest in submitting to His Will and Pleasure. Such a life within is indeed a foretaste of the blessedness of the saints, and their everlasting song, Amen, Alleluia!

As you learn to worship, praise, and bless God for all things, — to see His Hand everywhere, — you will feel nothing to be an unbearable evil; for everything, even the most cruel sufferings, will " turn to good" for you. Who would call evil the sorrows which God lays on him with a view to purify and make him meet for Himself? Surely what works out such exceeding good cannot be an evil? Cast all your cares into the Bosom of your Loving Father. Let Him do as He sees fit with you. Be content to obey His Will in all things, and to merge

Conformity to Soli's £Hill 281 your will concerning everything in His. What right have you, who are not your own, to any intrinsic possession? A slave has no proprietary rights, how much less the creature which in itself is mere sin and nothingness, and which can possess nought save by the gift of God? God has endowed it with freewill in order that it may have somewhat real to offer Him. We have nothing to call our own save our will,— nothing else is ours. Sickness takes away health and life; riches melt away; mental powers depend upon a man's bodily strength; — the one only thing really ours is our will; and consequently, it is of this that God is jealous, for He gave it, not that we should use it as our own, but that we might restore it to Him, wholly and undividedly. Whoever holds back any particle of reluctance or desire as his right defrauds His Maker, to Whom all is due.

Alas! how many self-asserting souls we meet, — people who would fain do right and love God, but only after their own fashion and choice, — who practically lay down the law to God as to His dealings with them! They wish to serve Him and possess Him, but they will not give themselves up to Him and let Him possess them; and as a natural result, how much resistance God meets with from such people, even when they seem full of zeal and ardour for His service! To a certain degree, indeed, their spiritual abundance becomes a hindrance, because they look upon it as their own, and self-assertion mingles in their best works. Verily, the soul which is utterly impoverished, utterly devoid of self-existence, incapable of willing aught from hour to hour save that which God sets before it in the precepts of His Gospel and the ordering of His Providence, is far ahead of all those fervid enlightened people who persist in travelling to Heaven by their own self-chosen path.

This is the real meaning of those words of Jesus Christ: " If any man will come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me." ' We must follow Him step by step, not strike out a new road of our own by which to teach Him. He can only be followed by " denying " self. And what is it to deny self but to renounce all rights over self? Even as S. Paul says: " Ye are not your own." 2 Woe to those who take back the gift when once it is made.

Pray to the Father of Mercies, the God of Consolation, that He would tear out all that is of self in you, leaving no remnant behind. So painful an operation must be hard to bear; it is very difficult to lie still under God's Hand while He cuts to the quick; but this is the patience of Saints, the offering of pure faith. Let God do as He will with you. Never resist Him voluntarily even for a moment. The instant you become conscious Matt. xvi. 24. * I Cor. vi. 19.

Conformity to (Sob's Saill 283 of the revulsion of nature and inclination, turn trustfully to Him, take His side against your own rebellious nature, give it up to God's Holy Spirit, and ask Him to put it by degrees to death. Watch, as in His Sight, over your most trifling faults; strive never to grieve the Holy Spirit, Who is so jealous over your hidden life. Make use of past faults to attain a humble consciousness of your own weakness, only without weariness or discouragement.

How could you give more glory to God than by absolutely setting aside self and all its longings, and letting Him send you where He pleases? It is thus that He will be your God, that His Kingdom will come in you, if independently of all outward hindrances and helps you look to nothing, within or without, save God's Hand overruling all things, your one unfailing worship.

If you persist in serving Him in one place or one way rather than another, you are serving Him according to your will, not His; but if you are ready to go anywhere and do anything, if you leave yourself to be entirely moulded by His Providence, putting no limits to your submission, this is indeed taking up your Cross and following Him. Then you would be perfectly happy if He were to lay the heaviest trials on you for His great Glory.

Open your heart wide, unboundedly wide, and let God's Love flow in as a torrent. Fear nothing on your way; God will lead you by the hand, if only you trust Him wholly, and are filled rather with love for Him than fear for yourself.

INWARD PEACE.

THERE can never be peace for those who resist God. Whatever real happiness there is to be found in this world is reserved for the pure conscience; — the whole earth is a place of tribulation and anguish for the evil conscience. What a different thing God's Peace is from that which the world affects to give! It stills the passions, preserves the conscience pure and just, draws us to God, strengthens us against temptation. This purity of conscience is preserved by constantly frequenting the Sacraments: temptation, when it does not prevail, always does its work. The peace of which I speak lies in thorough resignation to God's Will.

" Martha, Martha, thou art troubled about many things: but one thing is needful." The needful to you is a simple heart, that quiet spirit which results from absolute resignation to whatever God appoints, the patience and toleration for your neighbour's faults which a sense of God's Presence teaches; frankness and childlike simplicity in acknowledging your faults, and accepting

Into art "peace 285 reproof and counsel; these are the solid graces which are needful for your sanctification. The anxiety you feel about so many things only comes from your not heartily accepting whatever befalls you, as coming from God's Hand. Leave everything to Him, and forestall whatever may happen by offering it all to Him. The very moment you cease to want things to be according to your own judgment, and accept unconditionally whatever He sends, you will be delivered from all the retrospects and forebodings and hesitations which harass you. There will no longer be anything to hide, or to bring about. But till then, you will be perplexed, changeable in your views and tastes, easily displeased with others, out of harmony with yourself, full of reserve and mistrust; your good sense, until it becomes humble and simple, will only tend to trouble you; your devotion, albeit sincere, will serve less to sustain and comfort you than to fill you with inward self-reproach. But if, on the contrary, you give yourself up heartily to God, you will be at rest, and filled with the holy joy of His gracious Spirit.

Beware of looking to man in what is God's Work alone. In the matter of guidance, reckon all human beings as nought: the slightest tinge of human respect dries up the source of grace, and will add to your irresolution; you will suffer greatly, and offend yet more against God.

How should you not give your whole heart to God,

Who loved you before you loved Him, and that with the tender love of a Father pitying His children, and knowing the frail clay and dust of which they are made? He sought us wandering in self-chosen paths, the paths of sin, He toiled after us as a shepherd wearying himself to find a lost sheep. Nor is He satisfied with seeking, but when He had found us, He took both us and our sorrows upon His own shoulders, — He was obedient unto the death on the Cross. Truly we may say that He loved us unto the death of the Cross, and the measure of His Love and His obedience is the same. When this love thoroughly fills a soul, it enjoys true peace of conscience; it is content and happy, asking neither greatness, nor fame, nor pleasures, — nothing, in short, which the lapse of time will sweep away and leave no trace behind. It seeks nothing save the Will of God, and it watches continually in blessed expectation of the Coming of the Bridegroom.

Letter 136. On Gratitude

FORGETFULNESS of self, of which we often hear as pertaining to those who seek after God in a generous spirit, does not interfere with gratitude for His Gifts. And for this reason: such forgetfulness does not lie in not being conscious of anything we possess, but rather in never

(Uratitube 287 confining ourselves to the contemplation of self, or dwelling upon our own good or evil in an exclusive or personal fashion. All such self-occupation severs us from pure and simple love, narrows the heart, and sets us further from true perfection by dint of seeking it in an excited, anxious, restless spirit, which comes of self-love.

But though we may forget ourselves, that is to say, we may not be studying self-interest alone, we shall not fail often to see ourselves truly. We shall not contemplate self out of egotism, but as we contemplate God there will often be a side light, so to say, thrown upon ourselves; just as a man who stands looking at the reflection of another in a large mirror, while looking for that other man he beholds himself, without seeking to do so. And thus we often see ourselves clearly, in the pure light of God. The Presence of God in purity and simplicity, sought after in very faithfulness, is like that large mirror, wherein we discern the tiniest spot that flecks our soul.

A peasant who has never passed beyond his own poor village realises its poverty but faintly. But set him amid splendid palaces and courts, and he will perceive how squalid his own home is, and how vile his rags compared with such magnificence. Even so we realise our own loathsomeness and unworthiness when brought face to face with the beauty and greatness of God.

Talk as much as you will of the vanity and emptiness of the creature, the shortness and uncertainty of life, the inconstancy of fortune and friends, the delusions of grandeur, its inevitable and bitter disappointments, the failure of bright hopes, the void of all we attain, and the poignancy of the evils we endure; all these things, true and just as they are, do not touch the heart, they do not reach far, or alter a man's life. He sighs over the bondage of vanity, yet does not seek to break his bonds. But let one ray of heavenly light penetrate within, and forthwith beholding the depth of goodness, which is God, he likewise beholds the depth of evil, His fallen creature. Then he despises himself, hates, shuns, fears, renounces self; he throws himself upon God and is lost in Him. Thus it is that "one deep telleth another." Verily that man's loss is a blessed one, for he finds himself without seeking. He has no more selfish interests, but all turns to his profit, for everything turns to good for those who love God. He sees the mercies which issue forth from that abyss of weakness, sin, and nothingness; he sees and rejoices. And here observe that those who have not as yet made any great progress in self-renunciation still see all these mercies very much from the side which bears personal reference to themselves. For thorough setting aside of self-will is so rare in this life, that very few souls are able to look at the mercies they have received from anything but their own point of

(Sratitutic 289 view; they rejoice in the All-powerful Hand which has saved them, so to say, in spite of themselves. But a really pure, wholly self-detached soul, such as are the Saints in Heaven, would feel the same joy and love over the mercies poured forth on others as on themselves; for, wholly forgetting self, they would love the Good Pleasure of God, the riches of His Grace, and His Glory, as set forth in the sanctification of others, as much as in their own. All would be the same, because " I " ceased to be: it would be no more " I " than another, but God Alone in all, to be loved, adored, and the sole joy of true, disinterested love. Such a soul is wrapt in wonder at His Mercies, not for its own sake, but for love of Him. It thanks Him that He has done His Will and glorified Himself, even as in the Lord's Prayer we ask Him that it may be done, and that His Kingdom may come. . . . But short of this blessed state, the soul is touched with gratitude for the benefits of which it is conscious; and as nothing is more dangerous than any attempt to soar beyond our vocation, so nothing is more harmful to the spiritual life than to lose sight of such sustenance as is suitable to its actual needs, by aiming at a higher standard of perfection than is fitted to us. When the soul feels deeply moved with gratitude for all God has done for it, such gratitude should be cherished carefully, waiting till the time when God may see fit to purify it

29° £pirituat still more from all elements of self. The child who attempts to walk alone before its time is sure to fall; he must not tear off the leading-strings with which his nurse upholds him. Let us be content to live on gratitude, and be sure that though there may be a mingling of selfinterest in it, it will strengthen our heart. Let us love God's Mercies, not merely for Himself and His Glory, but for ourselves and our eternal happiness; if eventually God should enlarge our hearts to contain a purer, more generous love, a love more unreservedly His, then we may safely and unhesitatingly yield to that more perfect love. While, then, you adore God's Mercy, and are filled with wondering admiration at it; while you long above all things to fulfil His Will; while you marvel at the goodness with which He has made what seemed a " vessel of dishonour" to be unto honour,1 pour out the most abundant thanksgiving of which you are capable; and remember that the purest of all God's Gifts is the power of loving them all for His Sake, not for your own.

Letter 137. To One in Spiritual Distress

You see by God's Light in the depth of your conscience what grace requires of you; but you are resisting Rom. ix. 21.

God, and hence comes your trouble. You start by saying, " It is impossible that I can do what is required of me;" but this is a temptation of despair. Despair of yourself as much as you please, but not of God. He is both loving and powerful, and He will deal with you according to the measure of your faith. If you believe all you will attain all — you will move mountains; but if you believe nothing you will receive nothing, only it will be your own fault. Remember Abraham, who hoped against hope; and imitate the Blessed Virgin, who, when what seemed wholly impossible was set before her, answered unhesitatingly, "Be it unto me according to Thy Word."

So do not shut up your heart. It is not merely that you cannot do what is required of you, so straitened is your heart; but yet more, you do not want to be able to do it; you do not wish to have your heart enlarged; you are afraid lest it should be done. How can you expect grace to win entrance into a heart so resolutely closed to it? All that I would ask of you is to acquiesce calmly and in a spirit of faith, and not give ear to your own suggestions. Provided you will yield meekly, and gradually regain peace through recollection, everything will be achieved by degrees, and what in your present state of temptation seems impossible will become easy. Then we shall have you saying, "What, is this all!" Why so

292 ^spiritual ILetterjs much despair and outcry for so simple a matter which God is bringing about and preparing so lovingly? Have a care lest in resisting Him you should estrange yourself from Him. All your religion would prove hollow if you should fail in this essential point, — all would lapse into mere indulgence of tastes and tendencies. I pray God that He will not suffer you so to fall away. I think much about your troubles, and I care far more for what involves a risk of resisting God than for the heaviest of other sorrows. Crosses borne with quiet endurance, lowliness, simplicity, and abnegation of self, unite us to Jesus Christ Crucified, and work untold good; but crosses which we reject through self-estimation and self-will separate us from Him, contract the heart, and by degrees dry up the fountains of grace. In God's Name I intreat you yield humbly, and without trusting to yourself, mere broken reed that you are, say, " To Him nothing is impossible." He only asks one "Yes," spoken in pure faith. Give me the comfort of hearing that you have uttered that " Yes " from the bottom of your heart. You will fill me with real joy amid my own sadness.

JEhe life of Peace 293

Letter 138. The Life of Peace

I HAVE just returned from a long visitation tour and find your letter, to which I reply, ist. Go on amid the shadows in evangelic simplicity, not stopping short either in feelings, or tastes, or the light of reason, or any unwonted gifts. Be content to believe, to obey, to die unto self, according to that state of life in which God has placed you.

2nd. You must not be discouraged by your involuntary distractions, which arise from your lively imagination and your active habits of business. Enough if you do not encourage such distractions in times of prayer by yielding overmuch to a voluntary dissipation of mind all through the day. People pour themselves out too much; they perform even good works with too much eagerness and excitement; they indulge their tastes and fancies, and then God punishes all this in their times of prayer. You must learn to act calmly and in continual dependence on the Spirit of Grace, which means mortification of all the hidden works of self-love.

yd. Habitual intention, which is a reaching forth of the inmost soul to God, will suffice. This is to live in the Presence of God. Passing events would not find you thus minded, were it otherwise. Be still, and do not forfeit what you have at home by turning to seek abroad what you will not find. Never neglect out of mere carelessness to try and make your intentions more definite, but meanwhile your undefined, undeveloped intentions are good.

4//z. A peaceful heart is a good sign, provided further that you heartily and lovingly obey God, and are watchful against self-love.

$t/i. Make use of your imperfections to learn selfdetachment, and cleave to God only. Try to grow in all goodness, not that you may find a dangerous selfsatisfaction therein, but that you may do the Will of your Beloved.

6//z. Try to be simple, putting aside anxious retrospection, which self-love encourages under various pretexts: it will only disturb you and prove a snare. Those who lead a recollected, mortified, dependent life, through real desire to love God, will be quickly warned by that love whenever they sin against it; and directly you feel such warnings, pause. I repeat my injunction, be at rest. I daily pray before God's Holy Altar that He would keep you in His Own Unity and in the Grace of His Holy Spirit.

MUIR AND PATKRSON, 1'RINTERS, EDINBURGH.

CHRISTIAN BIOGRAPHIES

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MADAME LOUISE DE FRANCE, Daughter of Louis

XV., known also as the MOTHER TERESE DE S. AUGUSTIN.

A DOMINICAN ARTIST; a Sketch of the Life of the Rev. PERE BESSON, of the Order of 3. Dominic.

HENRI PERREYVE. By A. GRATRY, Pretre de 1'Oratoire, Professeur de Morale, Evangelique a la Sorbonne, et Membre de 1' Academic, Franjaise. Translated by special permission. With Portrait.

S. FRANCIS DE SALES, Bishop and Prince of Geneva, THE REVIVAL OF PRIESTLY LIFE IN THE

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Madame Louise de France.

"A specimen of as calm and unworldly devotion — of a devotion, too, full of shrewd sense and practical administrative talent — as any we have ever met with." — Literary Churchman,

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A Dominican Artist.

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Henri Perreyve.

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S. Francis de Sales.

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Revival of Priestly Life in France.

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" It merits to be read by every priest, and by all who have the care of training souls for the priesthood; while its attractive style will win for it a much wider class of readers." — Church Times.

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