PART III. THE NOURISHMENT OF THE SPIRITUAL LIFE. The counsels of Religion are not to be applied to the distempers of the soul as men used to take hellebore, but they must dwell together with the spirit of a man, and be twisted about his understanding for ever; they must be used like nourishment—that is, by a daily care and meditation-not like a single medicine and in the actual pressure of a present necessity. BISHOP J. TAYLOR. What then remains ?-To seek Those helps, for his occasions ever near, Without access of unexpected strength. WORDSWORTH. Qu'est-ce donc qu'un homme qui, reconnoissant l'Etre Suprême, ne le prie pas? C'est un infortuné qui n'a point de Dieu; qui vit tout seul dans l'univers; qui ne tient à aucun être hors de lui; qui, retombant sur son propre cœur, n'y trouve que lui-même, c'est à dire, ses peines ses dégoûts, ses inquiétudes, ses terreurs, avec quoi il puisse s'entretenir. C'est un infortuné qui vit dans l'univers comme un homme que l'hasard avoit jeté tout seul dans une île reculée et inaccessible, où il seroit sans maître, sans souverain, sans soin, sans discipline, sans attendre de ressource, sans se promettre une meilleure destinée, sans porter ses vœux et ses souhaits au-delà du vaste abîme qui l'enviornnerait, et sans chercher d'autre adoucissement à l'infortuné de sa condition qu'une molle indolence. MASSILLON. PART III. THE NOURISHMENT OF THE SPIRITUAL LIFE. CHAPTER I. THE NECESSITY OF DEVOTIONAL EXERCISES. WE have seen that the Essence of the Spiritual life of Christianity lies in the filial disposition of the heart towards God, and that although the Source of this life is necessarily hidden in the inscrutable depths of the soul, its Development will take place according to the usual laws and workings of the human mind. This development may be neglected, may be hindered, may be limited; or it may be sought, assisted, fostered into full expansion. It may be quick or slow. It may be vigorous or feeble. But without some experience of it we have failed to gain that personal benefit from the truths of Christianity which they are intended to convey, and to make its blessings and its hopes our own. But this benefit, even when gained, must be diligently cherished if we would retain possession of it, still more if we would reach the full enjoyment of its sweetness and power. The stream of holy thought must be continually fed from its original fountains and by tributary rills, or it will dry up and perish. The presence and influence of the Spirit of God are vouchsafed after a moral manner,—that is, not arbitrarily, but according to the laws of mind and heart and will; and therefore they must be maintained and increased by moral means,-that is, by all those exercises of the mind and heart and will, which are comprehended under the term Devotion, in its widest sense. Whatever tends to deepen and make vivid the Sense of God; to strengthen and extend holy thoughts affections and determinations; forms the proper and the indispensable nourishment of the Spiritual Life. O what a wide and fruitful field of meditation is here opened to us! God grant that we may expatiate therein with solemn step! God enable us to treat of Prayer in the spirit of prayer! to meditate devoutly on devotion ! Our first endeavour will be to show the Necessity of Devotional exercises; as the natural Effusion of the spirit of adoption, and as the indispensable Means of its nourishment and growth. As the natural Effusion of the spirit of Adop tion, the Christian cannot do without Prayer. For this spirit is an effluence from the Spirit of God. It comes down from him; and to him therefore it cannot but again ascend. Rather, It is never separated from Him; and in Him therefore it must dwell. The breath of natural life, though issuing from the hidden fountain of Being and diffused throughout the world, is not and cannot be divorced therefrom; and therefore the Apostle says of every creature, that "in God we live and move and have our being." Life is no possession of our own, made over to us, but it depends from hour to hour on the unceasing inspiration of the breath of God. "In his hand is the soul of every living thing and the breath of all mankind." "Thou sendest forth thy spirit and they are created; thou takest away their breath and they die." And just so is it with the Spiritual even as with the natural life. Not only from God does it proceed, but in God it must live. It is a union of the soul to God, and therewith a communion with God. Intercourse is essential to its nature. The individual breath commingles with the universal. And therefore does St. John declare "we have fellowship with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ." And he who has the Spirit of God is said to dwell in God, and God in him. There is affinity with God begotten in the soul; and where there is affinity there must be |