other than always to unite the soul on all opportunities more and more closely with God, enkindling and inflaming it with His sweet love, and with fresh confidence in Him; whilst the work of the devil ever points in the opposite direction, and consists in the employment of all means in his power, such as, inordinate fear, exaggeration of our natural weakness; scruples as to the dispositions for Confession, Communion, or prayer, so that by these suggestions he may render us distrustful, fearful, and restless. The absence of warm feelings in our devotions, of delight in our prayers and other exercises, he uses as an opportunity for producing impatient sadness, construing it into a sign that all is lost, and into a reason for discontinuing our spiritual exercises; and finally into a ground for despair, so that, do what we will, we think it will be in vain and fruitless. Thus sadness and fear go on increasing, till we imagine that we are forgotten by God. But this is not the truth; for innumerable benefits are derived from dryness and the absence of devotional feelings, if only we understood what God by these means would work in us, provided we on our part would exercise patience and persevere in well-doing to the best of our power. And that I may make this more clear to you, and that the great advantages which God wills to bestow upon you may not, through your want of
