d to remain in it for long. When so unfastened, the whole
savour of life is completely gone, and a smallness of mind and
outlook is fallen back into from which the soul recoils in horror and
struggles quickly to free herself.

Is this the remnant of the unruly creature rising up and grappling
with the soul again? Is this some deliberate trial of us by the Master?
or some natural spiritual sickness? Whilst in this condition we must
disappoint the Beloved. On the other hand, we find ourselves kept
to the knowledge of our own impotence and nothingness and
dependence, and the spirit is strengthened by the efforts made
quickly to recover the lost beautiful estate.

Also we become more able to feel true patience and compassion for
such others as do not know the way of escape. So we gain, maybe,
more than we lose.

* * *

We may wonder how it is that the Mighty Maker of the Universe
should choose to condescend to the mere individual piece of clay. It
is incomprehensible. It is so incomprehensible that there is but one
way of looking at it. This is no favouritism to the individual, but the
evidence of a Mind with a vast plan pursuing a way and using a
likely individual. These individuals or willing souls He takes and,
setting them apart, fashions them to His own ends and liking. Of one
He will make a worker, and of another He fashions to Himself a
lover. It would seem to be His will to use the human implement to
help the human. As water, for usefulness to the many, must be
collected and put through channels, so it would seem must the
beneficence of God be collected into human vessels and channels
that it may be distributed for the use of the many and the more
feeble.

* * *

The more any man will consider humanity, the more he will see that
the education of the heart and will is of more importance than the
education of the brain. For in the perfectly trained and educated
heart and will we find the evidence of highest wisdom.

* * *

Why mortify the body with harsh austerities? When we over-mortify
the body with fastings, pains, and penances we are _remembering
the flesh._ Let us aim at the forgetting and not the despising of the
flesh. A sick body can be a great hindrance to the soul. By keeping
the body in a state of perfect wholesomeness we can more easily
pass away from the recollection of it. Chastise the mind rather than
the body. Christ taught, not the contempt or wilful neglect of the
body, but the humble su