tten that it is as filthy rags? All that God will give thee is not for
any merits or works of thine, but for Love's sake. He desires both to
give thee love and to receive thy love, therefore rise and worship
Him, give Him all the love that thou hast; keep none back either for
thyself, or anything or any creature, but give all that thou hast to
Him with tears and songs and gladness." Timidly the creature obeys,
and with all its powers and strength it blesses God, and
instantanteously God blesses the creature, sending His sweetness
and His glamour about it: and the more the soul and the creature
bless God the more does He bless them, and they bless Him from
the bed of sickness and pain as fully as they bless Him in health.
They bless Him in the night-time and in the noonday, they bless
Him as they walk, they bless Him as they work, and because of this
little bit of blessing and love that the two of them offer to God He
offers them all heaven in Himself.

It is the duty of the soul to constantly lend counsel, courage, help,
advice, and strength to the creature, and we are conscious of the
voice of the soul, which without any sound yet makes itself inwardly
heard, calling to the selfishness, the egoism of the creature, urging
the higher part of it to come higher and the animal in it to become
pure and to subdue itself, saying to it, "Lie down and be quiet, or
thou wilt bring disaster to us both." "I cannot be quiet, for I could
groan with my restless distress." "Cease to think of thyself with thy
roarings and groanings. Lay hold of love which thinks nothing of
itself but always of that which it may give to the Beloved." "I cannot
do this; I am no angel nor even a saint, but a most ordinary creature,
forsaken of God and miserable." "Thou art never forsaken, but thy
door is closed: it opens from thy side, and thou art thyself standing
across it and blocking the opening of it--I will show thee how to
open it, cry and moan no more for favours and gifts, but do thou
thyself do the giving. Since thou dost not know at all how to begin--do
it with these set words: 'I love and praise Thee, I love and bless
and thank Thee, I love and bless and worship Thee'; and see thou do
it with all thy heart and mind and strength and with no thought of
thyself and future benefits, but entirely that thou mayest give Him
pleasure." Then the creature tries, but fails lamentably, for most of
its heart and mind is on itself and a fraction only on God.