s and passions of the
past, the fixed associations and habits of the earlier life, now
complicate the new relation. The complex and bewildered soul, in fact,
finds itself in correspondence with two environments, each with urgent
but yet incompatible claims. It is a dual soul living in a double world,
a world whose inhabitants are deadly enemies, and engaged in perpetual
civil war. Natural Law, Mortification, p. 179.

May 2d. How can the New Life deliver itself from the still-persistent
past? A ready solution of the difficulty would be TO DIE. . . . If we
cannot die altogether, . . . the most we can do is to die as much as we
can. . . . To die to any environment is to withdraw correspondence with
it, to cut ourselves off, so far as possible, from all communication with
it. So that the solution of the problem will simply be this, for the
spiritual life to reverse continuously the processes of the natural life.
Natural Law, Mortification, p. 180.

May 3d. The spiritual man having passed from Death unto Life, the natural
man must next proceed to pass from Life unto Death. Having opened the new
set of correspondences, he must deliberately close up the old.
Regeneration in short must be accompanied by Degeneration. Natural Law,
Mortification, p. 181.

May 4th. The peculiar feature of Death by Suicide is that it is not only
self-inflicted but sudden. And there are many sins which must either be
dealt with suddenly or not at all. Natural Law, Mortification, p. 183.

May 5th. If the Christian is to "live unto God," he must "die unto sin."
If he does not kill sin, sin will inevitably kill him. Recognizing this,
he must set himself to reduce the number of his correspondences--
retaining and developing those which lead to a fuller life,
unconditionally withdrawing those which in any way tend in an opposite
direction. This stoppage of correspondences is a voluntary act, a
crucifixion of the flesh, a suicide. Natural Law, Mortification, p. 182.

May 6th. Do not resent temptation; do not be perplexed because it seems
to thicken round you more and more, and ceases neither for effort nor for
agony nor prayer. That is your practice. That is the practice which God
appoints you; and it is having its work in making you patient, and
humble, and generous, and unselfish, and kind, and courteous. The
Greatest Thing in the World.

May 7th. It is a peculiarity of the sinful state, that as a general rule
men are linked to evil mainly by a si