sleep, I took my book into my bed, and after I had slept a while, I fell a reading again, and was so wholly taken up with this passion of studying, that I could take no delight in anything else. Since I came to be a religious, I have often reflected and said to myself, " If thou didst heretofore take so much pains, and wert so zealous to acquire eloquence, what great pains and careoughtest thou not to take now, in order to acquire true virtue? And this very thought," says he, " was a great help to me, and gave me fresh courage, and new strength." (Doroth. Doct. 10.)
Let us encourage ourselves by the same consideration, and remember that it is of greater concern to become good religious, than great and learned orators. Let all our endeavours and application, therefore, be, to attain to the knowledge and love of God, which is the greatest, and indeed our only affair in this life. All the time that our blessed Saviour lived amongst us, be had no other intent than to manifest the tender love he had for us, and to procure us the greatest happiness we were capabable of enjoying; and to that end he refused not to shed his most precious blood, and even to lay down his life. And shall we think too much, in return for so great goodness, to make it our chief business to love and serve him, and always to promote his honour and glory? "Wherefore lift up your hands that hang down as if tired, and stretch out your loose knees" (Heb. xii. 12): "Let us make haste to arrive at the place of rest" (Ibid. iv. 11), and let us not stop till we go to " Horeb, the mountain of God" (3 Kings, xix. 8), that is to say, the highest pitch of glory and perfection. And as a traveller that has slept till late in the morning, makes haste to repair the time he has lost, by mending his pace till he overtake his company, that were gone before; so should we make haste, and never stop in our course, till we have repaired the time we have lost by our negligence. It is to this end, that each of us should always have these thoughts in our mind: — My companions and brethren are already far advanced on their journey, and I alone still loiter behind, notwithstanding I began my journey first, and entered into religion before them. How great a happiness and advantage would it prove to us, if we did truly grieve for all the time we have lost? And what an encouragement would it give us for the future, to advance with more diligence, and make haste without remissness?
Denis, the Carthusian, reports a passage which he takes from
