The Servant.--Alas!dear Lord,what a lamentable thing it is,that so many a noble soul,so many a languishing heart,so many an image formed after God in such beauty and sweetness,that in Thy espousals ought to be queens and empresses,powerful in heaven and on earth,should so foolishly go astray and degrade themselves!Oh,wonder of wonders!to think that of their own accord they should be lost!since,according to Thy words of truth,the fell separation of the soul from the body were better for them than that Thou,the Life Eternal,shouldest have to separate from their souls where Thou findest no dwelling-place.Oh,ye dull fools,behold how your great ruin prospers,how your great loss increases,how you allow the precious,the fair,the delightsome moments to pass away,which ye may hardly or indeed never again possess,and how gaily you carry yourselves the while,as though it concerned you not!Alas!Thou gentle Wisdom,did they but know it and feel it surely they would desist.
Eternal Wisdom.--Listen to a wonderful and lamentable thing.They know it and feel it at all hours,and yet do not desist;they know it and yet will not know it;they beautify it,like unsound argument,with dazzling brightness,which yet is unlike the naked truth,as so many of them at last,when it is too late,will have to feel.
The Servant.--Alas!tender Wisdom,how senseless they are,or what does it mean?
Eternal Wisdom.--Here will they needs escape calamity and suffering,and yet fall into the midst of it;and as they will not endure the eternal good and My sweet yoke,they will be overwhelmed by the inevitable doom of My severe justice with many a heavy burthen.They fear the frost,and fall into the snow.
The Servant.--Alas!tender and merciful Wisdom,remember that,without being strengthened by Thee,no one can accomplish anything.I see no other help for them than to raise their eyes to Thee,and to fall at Thy feet with bitter,heart-felt tears,entreating that Thou wouldst vouchsafe to enlighten them,and free them from the bonds with which they are made fast.
Eternal Wisdom.--I am at all times ready to help them,if only they be ready.I do not turn away from them.
The Servant.--Lord,it is painful for love to separate from love.
Eternal Wisdom.--Very true,if I could not and would not lovingly make good all love in hearts of love.
The Servant.--O Lord,it is impossible to leave off old custom.
Eternal Wisdom.--But it will be yet more impossible to endure future torments.
The Servant.--They are perhaps so well regulated in themselves that it does them no injury.
Eternal Wisdom.--I was the best regulated of men,and yet the most self-mortified.How may that be regulated which,from its very nature,corrupts the heart,confuses the mind,perverts discipline,draws off the heart from all fervour,and robs it of its peace?It breaks open the gates,behind which godly living lies hidden,that is,the five senses.It casts forth sobriety and introduces audaciousness,the loss of grace,estrangement from God,interior tepidity,and exterior sloth.
The Servant.--Lord,they do not think they are hindered so much,if only what they love have the appearance of a spiritual life.
Eternal Wisdom.--A clear-seeing eye may just as easily be blinded by while meal as by pale ashes.Behold,was ever any person's presence so harmless as Mine among My disciples?No unprofitable words fell from us,among us there was no extravagant demeanour,no beginning loftily in the spirit,and sinking down in the depth of endless words;there was nothing but real earnestness and entire truth without any deceit.And yet,My bodily presence had to be withdrawn from them before they became susceptible of My spirit.What a hindrance,then,must not a merely human presence prove!
Before they are influenced to good by one person,they are seduced by a thousand;before they are reformed in one point by good precept,they are often led astray by bad example;and,to speak briefly,as the sharp frost in May nips the blossoms and scatters them abroad,so the love of perishable things blights godly seriousness and religious discipline.If thou hast still a doubt respecting it,look around thee into the beautiful,fruitful vineyards which formerly were so delightful in their first bloom,how utterly withered and ruined they are,so that they contain few traces more of fervent seriousness and great devotion.Now,this produces an irreparable injury,for it has become a thing of habit,a spiritual decorum,which,secretly,is so destructive of all spiritual salvation.It is all the more pernicious as it appears innocent.How many a precious spice-garden is there,which,adorned with delightful gifts,was a heavenly paradise,where God was well pleased to dwell,which,now,by reason of perishable love,has become a garden of wild weeds;where lilies and roses formerly grew,now stands thorns,nettles,and briars,and where angels were used to dwell,swine now root up the soil.Woe betide the hour,when all lost time,when all good works neglected,shall be reckoned up,when every idle word spoken,thought,written,whether in secret or in public,shall be read out before God and the whole world,and its meaning,without disguise,be understood!
The Servant.--Alas!my Lord,some hearts there are,of so tender a nature,that they are much sooner attracted by love than fear,and as Thou,the Lord of nature,art not a destroyer but a fulfiller of nature,O,therefore,most kind and gracious Lord,put an end to this sad discourse,and tell me how Thou art a Mother of beautiful love,and how sweet Thy love is.
CHAPTER VII.How Lovely God Is The Servant.
--Lord,let me reflect on that divine passage,where Thou speakest of Thyself in the Book of Wisdom:"Come over to Me,all ye that desire Me,and be filled with My fruits.I am the Mother of fair love;My Spirit is sweet above honey and the honeycomb.Wine and music rejoice the heart,but the love of wisdom is above them both.[3]
