Let me urge you, my child, to enlarge your heart; or, rather, suffer it
to become enlarged by grace. This contraction shuts you up in
yourself, and hinders an agreeable openness which we should ever
maintain, even towards those who have no particular affinity with
ourselves. An open, frank exterior wins confidence. Let it not
appear, that you have so much relish for yourself, as not to think of
others. What seems to us a virtue is sometimes regarded by God as a
fault; and which we shall so perceive, when we have clearer light.
You seem to mark out for yourself a certain sphere, and if you go
beyond it, you think you do yourself an injury. Thus, while you have
an apparent movement, you are only describing a circle, whose centre
and circumference is self. I entreat you, pass beyond the narrow
bounds of self;--suffer yourself to be led out of self into the will
and way of God. Thus you will be much more happy and useful. If I
loved you less, I should be less severe.
Let God be the sovereign Master over our hearts, and instruct, and
reprove, and operate in us, by himself, or through others, as pleases
him.
Adieu. God bless you, my child.