This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1877 edition. Excerpt: ...humility without confidence. CHAPTER V. ON DESPISING THE SUGGESTIONS OF THE DEVIL. The devil cares very little to make us commit faults, or to fill us with vain fears, as long as he can turn us away from good. Use his own weapons in order to conquer him. It is by lassitude he often wishes to ruin us: ...
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This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1877 edition. Excerpt: ...humility without confidence. CHAPTER V. ON DESPISING THE SUGGESTIONS OF THE DEVIL. The devil cares very little to make us commit faults, or to fill us with vain fears, as long as he can turn us away from good. Use his own weapons in order to conquer him. It is by lassitude he often wishes to ruin us: then do not fight him, but despise him; not by giving yourself to his suggestions, but by detaching yourself from them, and by not disquieting yourself about what is involuntary; throwing yourself upon the Heart of your God, as a child runs into his mother's arms at sight of a hideous serpent. Let us keep very close to God: He should be our only object, and we must be careful not to stop short of Him by attachment to creatures. When some black cat of the imagination passes before your eyes, say on the spur of the moment: Behold the handmaid of the Lord. This word answers everything. If it opens the heart to suffering, it opens it far more to the grace of God. It is evident that there are in you many things that you would wish to be different. The trials you speak of are a solid good: they have brought to light what you call the poverty of your goodness. S. Francois de Sales says somewhere, We are fortunate when we feel how miserable we are. Humble yourself much, and from the bottom of your heart, for those miseries which are far greater than you can see. It is of His great goodness, and entirely put of consideration for your weakness, that God only allows you to see a small part. You would never be able to bear the entire knowledge of them; but it is to an infinite mercy that we may confide infinite misery and infinite needs. This thought of S. Francois de Sales is true. Our very miseries, he says, bring answers...
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