when you last wrote to me; I presume that you
are, and I answer with this passage of the Canticle of Canticles,
which explains so well the state of a soul in utter dryness, a
soul which cannot find joy or consolation in anything: "I went
down into the garden of nut-trees to see the fruits of the
valleys, and to look if the vineyard had flourished, and the
pomegranates were in bud. I no longer knew where I was: my soul
was troubled because of the chariots of Aminadab."[42]

There is the true picture of our souls. Often we go down in the
fertile valleys where our heart loves to find its nourishment; and
the vast fields of Holy Scripture, which have so often opened to
yield us richest treasures, now seem but an arid and waterless
waste. We no longer even know where we stand. In place of peace
and light, all is sorrow and darkness. But, like the Spouse in the
Canticles, we know the cause of this trial: "My soul was troubled
because of the chariots of Aminadab." We are not as yet in our
true country, and as gold is tired in the fire so must our souls
be purified by temptation. We sometimes think we are abandoned.
Alas! _the chariots_--that is to say, the idle clamours which
beset and disturb us--are they within the soul or without? We
cannot tell, but Jesus knows; He sees all our grief, and in the
night, on a sudden, His Voice is heard: "Return, return, O
Sulamitess: return, return, that we may behold thee."[43]

O gracious call! We dared no longer even look upon ourselves, the
sight filled us with horror, and Jesus calls us that He may look
upon us at leisure. He wills to see us; He comes, and with Him
come the other two Persons of the Adorable Trinity to take
possession of our soul.

Our Lord had promised this, when, with unspeakable tenderness, He
had said of old: "If anyone love Me he will keep My word, and My
Father will love him, and We will come to him, and will make Our
abode with him."[44] To keep the word of Jesus, then, is one
condition of our happiness, the proof of our love for Him; and
this word seems to me to be His very Self, for He calls Himself
the Uncreated _Word_ of the Father.

In the same Gospel of St. John He makes the sublime prayer:
"Sanctify them by Thy word, Thy word is truth."[45] And in another
passage Jesus teaches us that He is "the Way and the Truth and the
Life."[46] We know, then, what is this word which must be kept; we
cannot say, like Pilate: "What is truth?"[47] We possess the
Tr