Letter 30. To Madame De Chantal

Annecy, SepL 29, 1608.

.. •.. Your wishes as to this life are good, provided they do not become more urgent than their object warrants. It is right, no doubt, to wish for the life of him whom God has sent as your guide. But, my dear daughter, God has a hundred, I would rather say endless, means of guiding you, apart from me. It is He Who leads you like a sheep of His pasture. I intreat you to keep your heart fixed on high; bind it irrevocably to the Sovereign Will of our Loving God and Father. May He, and He only, be ever obeyed by us. Nevertheless, I shall take care of my health as

I promised My dear daughter, so long as God wills that you remain in the world, I would have you remain there willingly and cheerfully. Many people quit the world without forsaking self: they really seek to indulge their taste for rest and quiet, and such persons grow very restless, for the self-love which rules them is ill-regulated, eager, and turbulent Let us not be like these: let us forsake the world in order to serve God, to follow Him, to love Him; and in the same spirit, so long as He wills us to serve Him in the world, let us abide in it heartily and cheerfully. We

Letters. I do nothing save to serve Him, and we are satisfied to be wherever we can do that Then be at rest, my daughter, and do that well for which you are dwelling in the world: do it heartily, and believe that you are more acceptable to God while so doing, than you could be by leaving the world of your own will..... Be at rest, keep the Crucified Saviour in the midst of your heart Not long ago I saw a girl carrying a pail of water on her head, into the midst of which she put a piece of wood. I asked why she did that, and she answered that the wood steadied her pail, and prevented the water from being spilt Even so, I said to myself, we must carry the Cross in the midst of our heart to hinder it from swaying to and firo, and from overflowing with the anxieties and disturbances of this restless life. I like to tell you my stray cogitations.

C159.] XXXII.