_(Concerning wandering thoughts in Prayer.)_
You tell me nothing new; you are not the only one that is troubled
with wandering thoughts. Our mind is extremely roving; but, as the
will is mistress of all our faculties, she must recall them, and carry
them to GOD as their last end.
When the mind, for want of being sufficiently reduced by recollection
at our first engaging in devotion, has contracted certain bad habits
of wandering and dissipation, they are difficult to overcome, and
commonly draw us, even against our wills, to the things of the earth.
I believe one remedy for this is to confess our faults, and to humble
ourselves before GOD. I do not advise you to use multiplicity of words
in prayer: many words and long discourses being often the occasions of
wandering. Hold yourself in prayer before GOD, like a dumb or
paralytic beggar at a rich man's gate. Let it be _your_ business to
keep your mind in the presence of the LORD. If it sometimes wander and
withdraw itself from Him, do not much disquiet yourself for that:
trouble and disquiet serve rather to distract the mind than to
re-collect it: the will must bring it back in tranquility. If you
persevere in this manner, GOD will have pity on you.
One way to re-collect the mind easily in the time of prayer, and
preserve it more in tranquility, is _not to let it wander too far at
other times_: you should keep it strictly in the presence of GOD; and
being accustomed to think of Him often, you will find it easy to keep
your mind calm in the time of prayer, or at least to recall it from
its wanderings.
I have told you already at large, in my former letters, of the
advantages we may draw from this practice of the presence of GOD: let
us set about it seriously, and pray for one another.
Yours, &c.