Letter 73. To a Young Lady

My very Dear Child, Sept, 1619.

I say Adieu to you with all my heart; may you be i Dim for ever in this mortal life, serving Him faithfully amid the trials we must meet in carrying our cross after Him; and in the life to come may you worship Him for ever with His Heavenly Host. The great blessing of our souls is to be God's; the greatest of all is to be His only.

He who is God's only is never sorrowful, save when he has displeased God, and then his sorrow turns to a deep, but gentle, calm humility and submission, firom out which he rises up with true loving confidence, free from all vexation and disturbance.

He who is God's only seeks none save God, and, inasmuch as He is God's child as much in tribulation as in prosperity, his grace is never destroyed, come what may. He who is God's only thinks often upon Him, amid all the varying occupations of this life. He who LS God's only would have it known by all that he is the servant of Christ, and strives in every way to live accordingly.

My dear child, be God's only; seek to please Him alone, and His Creatures in Him, through Him, and for Him; what greater blessing can I wish you? So with this I will say adieu, and, bidding you commend me often to His Mercy, I am, &c.