THE DIVINE OBJECT

THE DIVINE OBJECT

It is in one sense a mercy that your means are not adequate to your desires, yet be assured this will never restrain your heart from desiring what is within your reach, on the contrary it will make you chafe the more, like a mettled steed in a plough, unless you are compensated for the surrender. When you are not, there is not only restlessness but also the double action of always parading your surrender to obtain a name, and also of plunging into the thing surrendered whenever opportunity ^[p. 460] occurs. Prospects are much more difficult to give up than possessions. I have felt deeply in myself that with capacity to comprehend and enjoy the beautiful in nature I must turn away from it. Now mere assurance of salvation never diverts one thus, though conscience may upbraid when one has indulged largely, but one thing alone really diverts one in heart and desire from that which makes the man of the earth of consequence here, and that is, seeing the only one divinely perfect Man in heaven.