compensation which, though sometimes difficult to see,
is always real and always proportionate. No truth, perhaps, in practical
religion is more lost sight of. We cherish somehow a lingering rebellion
against the doctrine of self-denial--as if our nature, or our
circumstances, or our conscience, dealt with us severely in loading us
with the daily cross. But is it not plain after all that the life of
self-denial is the more abundant life--more abundant just in proportion
to the ampler crucifixion of the narrower life? Is it not a clear case of
exchange--an exchange, however, where the advantage is entirely on our
side? We give up a correspondence in which there is a little life to
enjoy a correspondence in which there is an abundant life. What though we
sacrifice a hundred such correspondences? We make but the more room for
the great one that is left. Natural Law, Mortification, p. 195.

May 21st. Do not spoil your life at the outset with unworthy and
impoverishing correspondences; and if it is growing truly rich and
abundant, be very jealous of ever diluting its high eternal quality with
anything of earth. Natural Law, Mortification, p. 196.

May 22d. To concentrate upon a few great correspondences, to oppose to
the death the perpetual petty larceny of our life by trifles--these are
the conditions for the highest and happiest life. . . . The penalty of
evading self-denial also is just that we get the lesser instead of the
larger good. The punishment of sin is inseparably bound up with itself.
Natural Law, Mortification, p. 196.

May 23d. Each man has only a certain amount of life, of time, of
attention--a definite measurable quantity. If he gives any of it to this
life solely it is wasted. Therefore Christ says, Hate life, limit life,
lest you steal your love for it from something that deserves it more.
Natural Law, Mortification, p. 197.

May 24th. To refuse to deny one's self is just to be left with the self
undented. When the balance of life is struck, the self will be found
still there. The discipline of life was meant to destroy this self, but
that discipline having been evaded--and we all to some extent have
opportunities, and too often exercise them, of taking the narrow path by
the shortest cuts--its purpose is baulked. But the soul is the loser. In
seeking to gain its life it has really lost it. Natural Law,
Mortification, p. 196.

May 25th. Suppose we deliberately made up our minds as to what things we
w