for it as a child would ask it of his father. Ah, My daughter, how few in number are those who act in this wise!

"It is the Holy Spirit who bestows this filial fear upon a soul. They who have this fear are led by the Holy Spirit, and all their actions are the actions of the true children of God.

"What I have now said to you, My daughter, of the different gifts of the Holy Spirit will make you sufficiently understand their importance, necessity, and immense advantages. The Holy Spirit gave them to you in all their plenitude on the day of your Confirmation. Put no obstacle, My daughter, to the efficacious action of these gifts. Allow yourself to be led by the Holy Spirit; He is the Spirit of Truth, He will sustain you in truth, He will attach you to truth, and by Him you will be united to God, and in God will find felicity."

Everlasting love and thanksgiving be to Jesus in the Holy Sacrament of the Altar. Amen.

BOOK X.

OF SIN.

Glory and praise, love and thanksgiving, be rendered unceasingly to Jesus in the Holy Sacrament of the Altar, to the Father, and to the Holy Ghost, for ever and ever. Amen.

1. Of the sinful soul, the tepid soul, and the virtuous soul.

THE Saviour Jesus spoke to me of three kinds of persons living in the world, and of what awaits them in the other life. He spoke to me first of those who live and die in mortal sin; next of those who, although in the state of grace, live in imperfection, doing little or nothing to reform themselves, and die in that state; finally, of those who, having perfection and sanctity always before their eyes, direct all their efforts to acquire it and die full of virtues and merits.

"Look at that man," He said to me; "before him are God and Satan. Satan holds out temptation to him, in order to draw him into sin; God offers him His grace that he may resist temptation and avoid sin. What does that man do? He turns away his eyes from God and from His grace, he gives the preference

to Satan, and commits sin. Nevertheless, God recalls him to Himself, either by the good examples which He puts before him, or by the exhortations of His ministers, or by fresh inspirations of His grace. Nothing has any effect upon that man, who is engrossed with outward things, immersed in blindness and insensibility; he is indifferent about the matter of his salvation. Now comes the hour of death. His soul, freed from its bonds, flies towards God, from whom it came. But God rejects it, and then that soul knows the greatness of the loss it has sustained. So long as man is on earth he does not understand the value of the possession of God, but after death the full light bursts upon him, and the soul clearly sees that, having come forth from God, it was created that it might return to Him, be united to Him, and find in Him its happiness and its end. Nor is there a greater torment, or a separation more fraught with sorrow and despair, than that of a soul rejected by God and separated from Him for all eternity. That guilty soul has heard its judgment of reprobation: behold it at the gates of hell, which it must enter never to come out again. At the sight of that frightful spectacle, that abyss of woe, that multitude of the damned, terrified and despairing, fain would it flee away, but at the voice of God the abyss opens wide its mouth. What is the despair of that soul separated eternally from God! It is then that it understands its folly in having chosen what it has chosen and lost what it has lost. Its memory, like a gnawing worm, torments it eternally, recalling to it the means of salvation which God had given it. Its will, eternally thwarted, will have what it would not have. Listen to the cry of the proud man: “Wretch that I am, I sought only glory and grandeur,

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and lo, I am plunged for ever in shame and confusion on account of my folly!' Listen to the cry of the avaricious man: 'Wretch that I am, I sought only the world's goods, and they have been the cause of my losing all; they have plunged me into most dreadful misery and torments!' Listen to the cries of all these sinners: what reproaches, what lamentations, what groanings, what blasphemies are here! God reigns even in hell, and His presence forms the greatest torment of the damned."

Here is what the Saviour Jesus said to me of the state of a soul in grace, but imperfect, and not striving to diminish its imperfections: "Look," He said, "at that person: he is united to God, but how easily he forgets Him to gratify himself in everything and take his own pleasure. Instead of thinking of God, and referring everything to Him, he loves praise and honour; he delights in being loved, honoured, and esteemed, takes little note of this complacency of his, and does nothing to correct himself of his self-love, on the plea that it does not cause him to lose the friendship of God. True, but God does not favour him with such intimate communications and does not grant him as many graces as He would if he would purify his heart from all its affections to sin even the smallest, and try to uproot entirely from it every passion, however slight.

"Look at that other person: he has received an insult, an outrageous affront. See how excited he is, his impatience is ready to burst forth; but he restrains himself, he succeeds in mastering his passion, however much it may cost him. What agitation !' what conflict in his heart! Every time he sees the man who has insulted him, the agitation is renewed;

he strives to retain his self-possession and to forgive; yet he does not venture to reckon on always having sufficient self-command, and avoids meeting the person who has offended him or speaking to him. Why does he act thus? Because he does not wish to overcome his passion, and prefers pacifying and soothing it to tearing it up by the roots. Yet this would be the only way to attain and secure peace. Thus, continuing in imperfection without endeavouring to get out of that state, he contracts a countless number of little debts to the divine justice, which he need not have incurred had he but adopted those effectual means which he has neglected.

"Now comes the hour of death. His soul appears before God. Released from the bonds of the body, he springs naturally towards Him who is his beginning and his end. But what is his grief at seeing that for a time he must be deprived of the vision of God, because he has neglected those easy means he had of avoiding sin and satisfying for his offences! What causes his greatest suffering is much less the torments of Purgatory than the pain of being separated from God, and being unable to see Him face to face and to praise Him with the Saints. He has at least one consolation, which is that some day he will see God, will possess Him, and glorify Him for ever. This thought gives him the desire of suffering still more, in order to make a more speedy expiation; above all, it gives him perfect patience in the midst of his affliction. This affliction is very great, and he calls aloud on his brethren on earth, who are able to relieve him by their prayers, imploring them to have pity on him and assist him. Bear in mind, My daughter, that you ought to pray for these souls, because God so wills;