I assure you, my dear M., I sympathize deeply in your sufferings; but I
entreat you, give no place to despondency. This is a dangerous
temptation,--a refined, not a gross temptation of the adversary.
Melancholy contracts and withers the heart, and renders it unfit to
receive the impressions of grace. It magnifies and gives a false
coloring to objects, and thus renders your burdens too heavy to bear.
Your ill-health and the little consolation you have from friends, help
to nourish this state. God's designs, regarding you, and his methods
of bringing about these designs, are infinitely wise.
There are two methods of serving little children. One is, to give them
all they want for present pleasure. Another is, to deny them present
pleasure for greater good. God is a wise Father, and chooses the best
way to conduct his children.
A sad exterior is more sure to repel than attract to piety. It is
necessary to serve God, with a certain joyousness of spirit, with a
freedom and openness, which renders it manifest that his yoke is easy;
that it is neither a burden nor inconvenience.
If you would please God, be useful to others, and happy yourself, you
must renounce this melancholy disposition. It is better to divert your
mind with innocent recreations, than to nourish melancholy. When I was
a little child, a nephew of my father's, a very godly man, who ended
his days by martyrdom, said to me, "It is better to cherish a desire to
please God, than a fear of displeasing him." Let the desire to please
God, and honor him, by an exterior all sweet, all humble, all cordial
and cheerful, arouse and animate your spirit: For this I pray. Ever
yours.