It is true,
the creature, in itself, is only weakness and sin; but when it pleases
God to new-create the soul, and make it one with himself, it is then
transformed into the likeness of Christ.

Who will dare limit the power of God? Who will say that God, whose
love is infinite as it is free, cannot give such proofs of love as he
pleases, to his creatures? Has he not the right to love me as he does?
Yes, he loves me, and his love is _infinite_. I do not doubt it. And
he loves you, too, dear M., in the same manner. This is eternal love
manifested,--the heart of God drawn out,--_expressed_ towards his
creature.

In this state, we understand the mutual secrets of the Lover and the
beloved. Who will so deny the truth of the Lord, as to question this?
When I hold my beloved in my arms, in vain does one assert, "It is not
so,--I am deceived." I smile inwardly and say, "_My beloved is mine
and I am his!_" "If we receive the witness of men, how much greater is
the witness of God?"

HUMILITY THE EFFECT OF LOVE.

I assure you, you are very dear to me. I rejoice very much in the
progress of your soul. When I speak of progress, it is in descending,
not in mounting. As when we charge a vessel, the more ballast we put
in, the lower it sinks, so the more love we have in the soul, the lower
we are abased in self. The side of the scales which is elevated, is
empty; so the soul is elated only when it is void of love. "Love is
our weight," says St. Augustine. Let us so charge ourselves with the
weight of love, as to bring down self to its just level. Let its
depths be manifested by our readiness to bear the cross, the
humiliations, the sufferings, which are necessary to the purification
of the soul. Our humiliation is our exaltation. "Whosoever is least
among you shall be the greatest," says our Lord.

I love you, my dear child, in the love of the Divine Master, who so
abased himself by love! Oh! what a weight is love, since it caused so
astonishing a fall, from heaven to earth,--from God to man! There is a
beautiful passage in the Imitation of Christ, "Love to be unknown."
Let us die to all but God.

DIVINE COMMUNICATIONS.

God communicates himself to pure souls, and blesses, through them,
other souls, who are in a state of receptivity. All these little
rills, which water others, little compared with the fountain from which
they flow, have no determinate choice of their own, but are governed by