Chapter XV. How the Soul, without loss of Time, should recover Calmness, and make Progress

TAKE this rule, whenever you fall into a fault, be it great or small, though you may have committed the same four thousand times in a day, and always voluntarily and with advertency; never allow yourself to fall into a state of morose bitterness, and do not be disquieted, nor waste your time by scrutinising yourself, but at once acknowledge what you have done, and, humbly regarding your own weakness, turn lovingly to your God, and say to Him with your lips, or with your mind only: “Lord, I have done this, being what I am, and nothing else could be expected from me save only these and similar faults; and I should not have stopped where I did, had not Thy Goodness lifted me up, and continued with me. I give Thee thanks for that from which Thou hast preserved me, and I grieve over that which I have done through not corresponding with Thy grace. Pardon me, and give me grace that I may never offend Thee any more; and may nothing ever separate me from Thee, Whom I desire ever to serve and to obey." Having done this, do not waste time in anxious thoughts, imagining that the Lord has not forgiven you, but in a spirit of faith and repose continue your exercises, as if you had not fallen at all; and this you must do not only once, but a hundred times, if it is needed, and at every moment, and with the same confidence and repose the last time as the first; for in this way you will do great honour to the Goodness of God, Whom you are bound to conceive of as All-Gracious, and Infinite in Pitifulness beyond all that you can imagine.

Thus, nothing will come to disturb your progress, your perseverance and your onward course; nor will you let time pass away vainly and fruitlessly. And, moreover, you may, by thus acting, even turn your sin and failing to account, rising from it with an intense act of acknowledgment of your misery, and of self-abasement before God; accompanying it with an act of acknowledgment of His Mercy—loving and exalting it. And this very fall will enable you to rise higher than you were before you fell, through the help which God gives you, provided you make good use of it. If those who are of an anxious and restless temperament, would give heed to what has been here said, they would discover how great is their blindness in thus, to their own great hurt, losing time. And this warning should be carefully noted, for it is one of the keys which the soul has for unlocking great spiritual treasures, and thereby for becoming in a short time rich.