es! Who but a fool would look for
something out of doors which he knows he has within? What is the good
of anything which is always to be sought and never found, and who can
be strengthened with food ever craved but never tasted? Thus passes
away the life of many a good man, always searching and never finding
God, and it is for this reason that his actions are imperfect.'

"A man with such a doctrine must cultivate mainly the interior life.
His answer to the question, What is the relation between the inner
and the outer action of God upon my soul? is that God uses the outer
for the sake of the inner life.

"There seems to be little danger nowadays of our losing sight of the
Divine authority and the Divine action in the government of the
Church, and in the aids of religion conveyed through the external
order of the sacraments. Yet it is only after fully appreciating the
life of God within us that we learn to prize fittingly the action of
God in His external Providence. Such is the plain teaching of St.
Thomas in the extract above given.

"By fully assimilating this doctrine one comes to aim steadily at
securing a more and more direct communion with God. Thus he does not
seek merely for an external life in an external society, or become
totally absorbed in external observances; but he seeks the invisible
God through the visible Church, for she is the body of Christ the Son
of God.

"Once a man's hand is safe on the altar his eye and voice are lifted
to God.

"It is not to keep up a strained outlook for times and moments of the
interior visitations, but to wait calmly for the actual movements of
the Divine Spirit; to rely mainly upon it and not solely upon what
leads to it, or communicates it, or guarantees its genuine presence
by necessary external tests and symbols.

"Not an anxious search, least of all a craving for extraordinary
lights; but a constant readiness to perceive the Divine guidance in
the secret ways of the soul, and then to act with decision and a
noble and generous courage--this is true wisdom.

"The Holy Spirit is thus the inspiration of the inner life of the
regenerate man, and in that life is his Superior and Director. That
His guidance may become more and more immediate in an interior life,
and the soul's obedience more and more instinctive, is the object of
the whole external order of the Church, including the sacramental
system.

"Says Father Lallemant (_Spiritual Doctrine,_ 3d principle,