e Life and Times of the Rev. John Wesley, i. 274.

In this poor man we have morbid melancholy and fear, and the sacrifices
made are to purge out sin, and to buy safety. The hopelessness of
Christian theology in respect of the flesh and the natural man
generally has, in systematizing fear, made of it one tremendous
incentive to self-mortification. It would be quite unfair, however, in
spite of the fact that this incentive has often been worked in a
mercenary way for hortatory purposes, to call it a mercenary incentive.
The impulse to expiate and do penance is, in its first intention, far
too immediate and spontaneous an expression of self-despair and anxiety
to be obnoxious to any such reproach. In the form of loving sacrifice,
of spending all we have to show our devotion, ascetic discipline of the
severest sort may be the fruit of highly optimistic religious feeling.

M. Vianney, the cure of Ars, was a French country priest, whose
holiness was exemplary. We read in his life the following account of
his inner need of sacrifice:--

"'On this path,' M. Vianney said, "it is only the first step that
costs. There is in mortification a balm and a savor without which one
cannot live when once one has made their acquaintance. There is but
one way in which to give one's self to God-- that is, to give one's
self entirely, and to keep nothing for one's self. The little that one
keeps is only good to trouble one and make one suffer.' Accordingly he
imposed it on himself that he should never smell a flower, never drink
when parched with thirst, never drive away a fly, never show disgust
before a repugnant object, never complain of anything that had to do
with his personal comfort, never sit down, never lean upon his elbows
when he was kneeling. The Cure of Ars was very sensitive to cold, but
he would never take means to protect himself against it. During a very
severe winter, one of his missionaries contrived a false floor to his
confessional and placed a metal case of hot water beneath. The trick
succeeded, and the Saint was deceived: 'God is very good,' he said
with emotion. 'This year, through all the cold, my feet have always
been warm.' "[179]

[179] A. Mounin: Le Cure d'Ars, vie de M. J. B. M. Vianney, 1864, p.
545, abridged.

In this case the spontaneous impulse to make sacrifices for the pure
love of God was probably the uppermost conscious motive. We may class
it, then, under our head 3. Some au