that such souls ever attain to and perform, all these things only make them more humble, and therefore more strong; more able to despise the things of this world, and to lay up their

treasure in those things which God hath prepared for them that love Him.  May it please His Majesty that the great munificence with which He has dealt with my soul, miserable sinner that I am, may have some weight with some of those who read this, so that they may be strong and courageous to give up everything at once and most willingly for such a God!

ON GOD IN THE SOUL

This has done me a great deal of good, and it has affected me much and opened my eyes in many ways.  It is an ennobling thing to think that God is more in the soul of man than He is in aught else outside of Himself.  They are happy people who have once got a hold of this glorious truth.  In particular, the Blessed Augustine testifies that neither in the house, nor in the church, nor anywhere else, did he find God, till once he had found Him in himself.  Nor had he need to go up to heaven, but only down into himself to find God.  Nay, he took God to heaven with him when at last he went there.

Now consider what our Master teaches us to say: ‘Our Father which art in heaven.’  Think you it concerns you little to know where and what that heaven is, and where your Heavenly Father is to be sought and found?  I tell you that for vagrant minds it matters much not only to believe aright about heaven, but to procure to understand this matter by experience.  It is one of those things that strongly bind the understanding and recollect the soul.  You already

know that God is in all places: in fine, that where God is there heaven is, and where His Majesty most reveals Himself there glory is.  Consider again what Saint Augustine said, that he sought God in many places, till at last he came to find Him within himself.  You need not go to heaven to see God, or to regale yourself with God.  Nor need you speak loud as if He were far away.  Nor need you cry for wings like a dove so as to fly to Him.  Settle yourself in solitude, and you will come upon God in yourself.  And then entreat Him as your Father, and relate to Him your troubles.  Those who can in this manner shut themselves up in the little heaven of their own hearts, where He dwells who made heaven and earth, let them be sure that they walk in the most excellent way: they lay their pipe right up to the fountain.  To keep the eyes shut is an excellent practice in prayer, because it is a summons and an assistance to turn the eyes of the soul within, where God dwells and waits in Christ to be gracious.  Account thus, that there is a great and beautiful palace in your soul; that its structure is all of gold and precious stones; that your gifts and graces are those shining stones, and that the greater your virtues are the more those precious stones sparkle.  And, also, that in this palace the Great King is your guest.  He sits on the innermost seat of your heart, and holds it to be His best and bravest throne.  This will seem to some a silly fiction.  And yet, if you will believe it, fiction as it is, it will help you much; you especially who are women.  For we women sorely want such assistance to our

thoughts.  And, God grant that it be only women who need such assistance to show them how base is the use they make of themselves.  There should be some difference between us, both men and women, and the brute beasts.  The brute beasts are nowhere said to be temples of God, and they are nowhere called to account because their god is their belly.  O great God, I tremble to see that I have written such a page as the above, being such a wretch as I am.  My daughters, in their own goodness, will be tempted to think that all this is true of myself, and that is a terrible thought to me.  On the other hand, it is true of God and their own souls.  Now let men pass a thousand censures on me, and on my way of teaching the truth.  What of that, if only God and His ways be a little better known and loved!  My sisters, the King is in His palace all this time.  There are hostile invasions of His borders, and inroads made into His territories, but He abides all the time on His throne.  I smile at the weakness and unworthiness of all those comparisons of palaces, and thrones, and shining stones, and enemies on the border.  They in no way satisfy me.  But I am a woman, and I can find out no better words for you women.  Think and say of my words what you please.  The thing that I have spoken to you is the truth.

ON THE LOVE OF GOD

The true proficiency of the soul consists not so much in deep thinking or eloquent speaking or beautiful writing as in much and warm loving. 

Now if you ask me in what way this much and warm love may be acquired, I answer,—By resolving to do the will of God, and by watching to do His will as often as occasion offers.  Those who truly love God love all good wherever they find it.  They seek all good to all men.  They encourage all good in all men.  They commend all good, they always unite themselves with all good, they always acknowledge and defend all good.  They have no quarrels.  They bear no envy.  O Lord, give me more and more of this blessed love.  Grant me grace not to quit this underworld life till I no longer desire anything, nor am capable of loving anything, save Thee alone.  Grant that I may use this word ‘love’ with regard to Thee alone, since there is no solidity for my love to rest on save in Thee.  The soul has her own ways of understanding, and of finding in herself, by certain signs and great conjectures, whether she really loves His Divine Majesty or no.  Her love is full of high impulses, and longings to see and to be with and to be like God.  All else tires and wearies out the soul.  The best of created things disappoint and torment the soul.  God alone satisfies the soul, till it is impossible to dissemble or mistake such a love.  When once I came to see the great beauty of our Lord, it turned all other comeliness to corruption to me.  My heart could rest on nothing and on no one but Himself.  When anything else would enter my heart I had only to turn my eyes for a moment in upon that Supreme Beauty that was engraven within me.  So that

it is now impossible that any created thing can so possess my soul as not to be instantly expelled, and my mind and heart set free by a little effort to recover the remembrance of the goodness and the beauty of our Lord.  Good God!  What a difference there is between the love of the Creator and the love of the creature!  May His Divine Majesty vouchsafe to let us see and taste and understand something of this before He takes us out of this prison-house life, for it will be a magnificent comfort in the hour of death to know that we are on our way to be judged by Him whom we have loved above all things.  We are not going to a strange country, since it is His country whom we love and who loves us.  These things being so, I have this very day solaced my soul with our Lord, and have made my moan to Him in this manner.  O my Lord, why keepest Thou Thy servant in this miserable life so long, where all is such vexation, and disappointment, and manifold trouble?  And not only keepest me so long in this banishment, but so hidest Thyself from me.  Is this worthy of Thee and of Thy great goodness?  Were I what Thou art, and wert Thou what I am, Thou wouldest not have to endure it at my hands.  I beseech Thee, O my Lord, to consider that this is a kind of injury and wrong to proceed