2. Make no resolutions butforgood reasons, eitherfrom
Stepping Heavenward / 347 thoughts that one seeks in intercourse with afriend, as a certain repose and correspondence of heart. It is thus we are with God, who does not despise being our most tender, most cordial, mostfamiliar, most intimatefriend. A word, a sigh, a sentiment, says all to God; it is not always necessary to have transports of conscious tenderness; a will all naked and dry, without life, without vivacity, withoutpleasure, is often purest in the sight of God. In closing, it is necessary to content ones selfwith giving to Him whatHe gives it to give, afervent heart when it isfervent, a heartfirm andfaithful in its barrenness, when He deprives it of conscious fervor. It does not always depend onyou tofeel; but it is necessary to wish to feel. Leave it to God to choose to make you feel sometimes, in order to sustain your weakness and infancy in Christian life; sometimes weaningyoufrom that sweet and consoling sentiment which is the milk of babes, in order to humble you, to make you grow, and to make you robust in the violent exercise of faith, by causing you to eat the bread of the strong in the sweat ofyour brow. Wouldyou only love God according as He will make you take pleasure in loving Him? You would be loving your own tenderness and feeling, fancying that you were loving God. Even while receiving sensible gifts, prepare yourself by pure faith for the time when you might be deprived of them; and you will suddenly succumb ifyou had only relied on such support.
I forgot to speak of some practices which may, at the beginning, promote the remembrance ofthe offering one ought to make to God, of all the ordinary acts of the day.
1. Form the resolution to do so, every morning and call yourselfto account in your self-examination at night.
2. Make no resolutions butforgood reasons, eitherfrom propriety or the necessity of relaxing the mind, etc. Thus, in accustoming one's self to retrench the useless little by little, one accustoms one's self to offer what is not proper to curtail.