urging you to turn these trials to your spiritual progress.

There is no reward without victory, no victory without war. Take courage, and turn your troubles, which are without remedy, into material for spiritual progress. Often turn to our Lord, Who is watching you, poor frail little being as you are, amid your labours and distractions. He sends you help, and blesses your affliction. This thought should enable you to bear your troubles patiently and gently, for love of Him Who only allows you to be tried for your own good. Raise your heart continually to God, seek His Aid, and let the foundation stone of your consolation be your happiness in being His. All vexations and annoyances will be comparatively unimportant while you know that you have such a Friend, such a Stay, such a Refuge. May God be ever in your heart, my very dear daughter.

TO A LADY LIVING IN THE WORLD.

Sept. 29, 1612. You should proportion the length of your prayers to the quantity of your engagements: and as it has pleased our Lord to place you in a way of life which involves you in perpetual distractions, you must

Letters.

L

accustom yourself to make short devotions, which should become so habitual as never to be given up save under the greatest necessity. In the morning you can always kneel down in adoration, make the sign of the Cross, and ask God's Blessing upon the day just beginning. If you can, you will hear mass devoutly; in the evening, before supper, or thereabouts, you can easily make time for a few fervent prayers, casting yourself before your Lord; you can scarcely be so fettered with engagements as not to be able to ensure such a brief interval of leisure. And at night, when you go to bed, wherever you are, or whatever you may be doing, you can make a general review of what you have done through the day, ending by kneeling down to ask God's forgiveness for the faults you have committed, and asking Him to watch over you and bless you, all of which you may do briefly. But above all, I would have you turn your heart to God on every occasion, all through the day, in ejaculations of faith and love.

As to your mental anxieties, my dear daughter, you will not find it hard to discriminate between such as can be remedied and such as cannot. Where a remedy is possible you should try to use it, gently and calmly; where the evil is irremediable, strive to bear it as a mortification laid on you by our Lord in order to make you more wholly His. Beware of giving way to

complaints; rather train your heart in patient suffering; and if you have been overtaken by any sudden outbreak of impatience, so soon as you become aware of it strive to regain peace and composure. Believe me, dear daughter, God loves those souls who are tossed by the storms and tempests of the world, so long as they accept everything from His Hand, and, like valiant warriors, strive to maintain an unshaken fidelity to their trust amid it all.

I must stop, and go to try and settle a hot dispute which should be hindered. I am, most heartily,

Yours, &c.

[273.]

XLIX.

TO A LADY. ON THE DEATH OF HER CHILD

Jan. 3, 1613.

I ASSURE you, my dear daughter, your affliction has touched me very deeply, for I know how severely you will have felt it; the rather that our earthly minds, unable to see the end and object of trials, receive them less as what they really are, than as what we feel them to be for the moment.

And now, my dear daughter, your little son is safe; he has attained eternal salvation, he has for ever escaped the danger of losing that to which so many are exposed. Might he not have grown up in evil ways? Is it not possible that, like so many other

mothers, you might have had great cause for anxiety in his future life? But now God has taken him out of all peril, giving him victory before the battle, and granting him grace to reap the harvest without bearing the toil and heat of the day.

Will you not grant, my dear daughter, that your prayers and desires are fulfilled? You prayed for your child, asking that he might remain with you in this vale of misery, and our Lord, who knows what we really need, better than we ourselves, has heard and granted your prayers, but at the cost of that earthly happiness for which you longed.

Indeed I approve of the confession you make, that it is by reason of your sins that your child is taken from you, as a proof of humility, but, nevertheless, I do not think that it is true. No, dear daughter, this trial is not sent to chastise you, but out of love to the little one whom God has so early called and saved. You feel all the sorrow and loss, but to the child it is an infinite gain; and for your temporal grief he receives an eternal gladness. When our own end comes, and the veil falls from our eyes, we shall see how worthless this life is, and that it was not well to regret those to whom it closed early. The shortest life is the best, if only it leads to Eternal life.

And now your little one is amid angels and holy innocents in Paradise. He remembers lovingly all that

you did for him while he was here with you, especially your prayers for him, and in return he prays to God for you, and pours out many a petition that your life may become more and more conformed to God's Will, and that through it you may attain to that life in which he now rejoices for ever. Be at rest, my daughter, and fix your heart in Heaven, where your dear little saint is gone before. Persevere in striving to love the Saviour's Holy Will even more and more. May He ever be your True Consolation. I am always, yours, &c.

MY DEAR SISTER,

Jan. 7, 1614. I have just received your letters, explaining the nature of your distress, which I see is very great by reason of the numerous accidental circumstances added to your first trouble. But, my dear sister, these mists are not so thick but that the sun can scatter them, and God, Who has led you so far, will uphold you with His Holy Hand. Only you must cast yourself with perfect confidence into the Arms of His Providence; now is the time for doing that. Almost any one can trust in God amid the peace and comfort of prosperity; but His children only know how to trust absolutely in Him through the storm and