y and great solitude. We are aware
of nothing but Self, are tormented by Self with its forever
unsatisfied longings, and by the _impossibility of achieving any
other Self._ In this intensity of self-tormenting loneliness the soul
feels to gyrate, and all that she knows of that which is outside of this
Self is the sound of the rushing of invisible things, for she is blind.
Without the light of this world and without the light of Christ. The
joys of space are not open to her, only the dark and lonely horrors of
it: she is in an incalculably greater state of isolation from God than
here in this world! The remedy for all this lies here; let no one think
he can afford to wait to find this remedy until after he leaves this
world, for then his chance is gone, and who is able to foretell when
it will return? What can be more beautiful, more happy, than to find
this remedy, to find the only Being who loves us as much as we love
ourselves! the gentle, tender, gracious, all-sufficing Christ; that
all-mighty ever-giving Christ who yearns over and longs for us--what
madness is it that prevents us seeking Him?

All of us would seem to have two personalities: we are the repentant
and the unrepentant Magdalene and daily change from one to the
other. But true repentance cannot come before love: if we think we
repent before we love, then it is no more than a repentance of the
mind, which says to itself, "I must stand well with God because of
my future well-being." Where love comes first we get the repentance
of the heart, which works this way in us--we love Jesus a little, we
love Him more and more, and because of this love increasing to real
warmth we suddenly perceive the frightful offences we have
committed against this sweet love, and instantly the heart melts and
breaks and we are shaken to our depths that we have ever grieved
our Holy Lover. This is true repentance--no anxious fears for our
own future, but love grieving and agonised for its offences. Such
repentance as this pierces to the deepest recesses of the heart and
mind, and leaves upon them a deep indelible mark, changing all the
aims of our life, and is the beginning of all joys in Christ Jesus. Let
us aim therefore not first at repentance, but first at love. A little love
to Jesus given many times a day as we walk or wait or work, if only
at first said by the lips with desire for more warmth, after a while we
shall find ourselves giving it from the heart; then the Divine