ng illustration of how
God's will reveals itself through the most common things. "O Divine
Action," Pere De Caussade exclaims, "I will cease to prescribe to Thee
hours or methods; Thou shalt be ever welcome. O Divine Action, Thou
seemest to have revealed to me Thy immensity. I will walk henceforth in
Thy infinity. No longer will I seek Thee within the narrow limits of a
book, or the life of a saint, or a sublime thought. No longer will I
seek Thy action alone in spiritual intercourse. For since the divine
life labors incessantly and by means of all things for our advancement,
I would draw my life from this boundless reservoir. The will of God
imparts to its every instrument an original and incomparable action. We
do not sufficiently regard things in the supernatural light which the
divine action gives them. We must always receive and worthily meet the
divine action with an open heart, full confidence and generosity: for to
those who thus receive it, it can work no ill. The divine action killeth
while it quickeneth; the more we feel death, the firmer our faith that
it will give life."

These words invest the truth of the constant revelation of God's will
through ordinary events, with a burning intensity and vividness that
can hardly fail to leave a permanent impress upon the reader.

There is probably no thoughtful observer of the phenomena of life with
whom spiritual aspiration is ever present, who is not often honestly
puzzled as to what extent the ordinary tide of events that attend him
must be accepted as the will of God, and to what degree he should modify
these by his own power of will in selection and grouping. He is engaged,
for instance, in important work. To what extent should he yield to the
"devastator of the day"? To what extent should he allow his general
onward course of pursuits and interests to be deflected or changed by
the unforeseen events that attend his pathway?

It may be accepted as a fundamental truth that good sense, good
judgment, discretion, poise, are not unworthy to be ranked among the
Christian virtues. Jesus was eminently sane. He was no fanatic. He gave
both by precept and example the ideal of a rational and reasonable life.
The individual has no right to rush off and kill himself because his
dearest hope is denied or his most cherished purpose defeated. Nor has
he any more right to commit what may be called intellectual suicide, by
relinquishing his aspirations and endeavors, merely be