A Selection from the Spiritual Letters of S. Francis de Sales, Tr. by the Author of 'Life of S. Francis de Sales'. (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1871 Excerpt: ... Answer. Do so, and you " shall live."-Amen. XII. I ask you, for the love of God, help in humbling myself. I want to lear n never to say anything which can tend to my own praise or glorification. Answer. No doubt, it is a good thing to speak as little of ourselves as possible, for whether we excuse or accuse ourselves, whether we praise or blame ourselves, such words are apt to foster vanity. So that unless charity requires us to speak of ourselves it is better to be silent. You will find teaching concerning all this in the Traite de VAmour de Dieu. May the Grace of God be with us always. Amen. 8s CLIX. TO A FRIEND. ON THE NEW YEAR. (probably President Favre.) My Dear Brother, I close the year with giving myself the pleasure of wishing you all good for that which is coming. These mortal years pass away, dear brother; their months melt into weeks, weeks into days, days into hours, hours into moments; and after all, these moments are all that we can really call our own Even these we only possess as they pass away, setting forth how swiftly we too are passing away; a fact which might be willingly accepted if we consider how full of sorrow this life is, and how when it is ended it will be merged in that blessed Eternity which God in His Merciful Goodness has prepared for us, and to which our hearts continually tend, not through our own natural instincts, but through His Gracious drawing. Dear brother, I never dwell upon the thought of Eternity without great delight, and this because I cannot do so without feeling that my soul would not be able to reach after so mighty a thought, were there not some true affinity between them. There must be some correspondence between the soul and that to which it tends; and when my longings fix themselves upon Eternity, ...