beyond this Repose which He wills her to know of Him,
He shows her that yet more of Him Is which He will share--heights
of Felicity beyond all measure, holding the soul till she must pray
Him to release her, or she will perish--reeling depths of rapture in a
mystery of light; bliss beyond bliss for that lover who shall
venture--all Eternity unfolding in fulfilment.

And yet remains That of Him which wills no reciprocity, but shares
Himself with Himself. So peace Is. And so, even in not giving, He
yet does give that which is most precious, for without He Himself in
His forever hidden depths were Peace, His creatures could neither
know nor have peace.

Looking into herself, what does the soul perceive? Apart from sins
and virtues she perceives two things--caprice and free-will. Neither
are of her own creation, but are essentials of her being. It may be
that in caprice and free-will she may find an answer to those two
questions which stir her to her depths: What is she that God should
so love her? and how comes she to be away from Him? Clothed in
the body of either man or woman, the soul is predominantly
feminine--the Feminine Principle beloved of, and returning to, the
Eternal Masculine of God. Caprice is feminine; Caprice and
Mystery are two enchanting sisters, and in Woman we see them as
being irresistible to Man. Angels, though they are a glory of God's
heaven, cannot alone satisfy all the needs of their Creator: they have
neither sex nor caprice, nor the mystery which joins hands with it.
So He creates the soul, and He gives her an heredity of Himself in
the flash-point of the soul, and He gives her sex and caprice and
free-will to deny herself to Him if she choose; and in her caprice she
goes out and away from Him, and when she would return she cannot,
because in infidelity she has dropped from perfection. Disillusioned
by her unfaithful wanderings and horribly pained, the soul longs for
Him, and He longs for her. He Himself must make her the way of
return, which is the way of redemption, and at a terrible cost to
Himself He shows her His Righteousness and the mode of her
Return in the Face and the Ways of Jesus Christ; and in the
Crucifixion He shows her the measure of His love, and in the Cross
the necessary abandonment of all self-will--total surrender. And all
this suffering to Himself He bears in order to make good the wilful
sinning and the misery of the wayward soul. So He brings home the
soul, not by forc