ife of the
soul.

"Nor is this to the detriment of man's liberty, but rather to its
increase. The infinite independence of God and his divine liberty are
shared by man exactly in proportion as he partakes of God's life in
the communication of the Holy Spirit.

"If it be asked how the Holy Spirit is received, the answer is,
Sacramentally. 'Unless a man be born again of water and the Holy
Ghost, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.' As man by nature is
a being of both outer and inner life, so, when made a new man by the
Spirit of God and elevated into a supernatural state, God deals with
him by both outer and inner methods. The Holy Spirit is received by
the sacramental grace of baptism and renewed by the other sacraments;
also in prayer, vocal or mental, hearing sermons, reading the
Scriptures or devout books, and on occasions, extraordinary or
ordinary, in the course of daily life; and when once received every
act of the soul that merits heaven is done by the inspiration of that
Divine Guide dwelling within us. Even though unperceived, though
indistinguishable from impulses of natural virtue, though
imperceptibly multiplied as often as the instants are, yet each
movement of heaven-winning virtue, and especially love, hope, faith,
and repentance, is made because the Holy Spirit has acted upon the
soul in an efficacious manner.

"It is not to induce a strained outlook for the particular cases of
the action of the Spirit of God on us, or the signs of it, that these
words are written. The sacraments, prayer and holy reading, and
hearing sermons and instructions, are the plain, external instruments
and accompaniments of the visitations of God, and are sufficient
landmarks for the journey of the soul, unless it be led in a way
altogether extraordinary. And apart from these external marks, no
matter how you watch for God, his visitations are best known by their
effects; it is after the cause has been placed, perhaps some
considerable time after, that the faith, hope, love, or sorrow
becomes perceptibly increased--always excepting extraordinary cases.
Not to 'resist the Spirit' is the first duty. Fidelity to the divine
guidance, yielding one's self up lovingly to the impulses of virtue
as they gently claim control of our thoughts--this is the simple duty.

"Having laid down in broad terms the fundamental doctrine of the
supernatural life, it is proper to say a word of the natural virtues
and of their relation to the s