chariot steps, surrounded with His captains on
the right hand and the left--Dost thou know why I at first did, and do
still, suffer sin to live and dwell and harbour in thy heart? And then,
after an _O yes_! for silence, the Prince began and thus proceeded:

1. Dost thou ask at Me why I and My Father have seen it good to allow
the dregs of thy sinfulness still to corrupt and to rot in thine heart?
Dost thou ask why, amid so much in thee that is regenerate, there is
still so much more that is unregenerate? Why, while thou art, without
controversy, under grace, indwelling sin still so festers and so breaks
out in thee? Dost thou ask that? Then, attend, and before I go away to
come again I will try to tell thee, if, indeed, thou art able and willing
to bear it. Well, then, be silent while I tell thee that I have left all
that of thy original sin in thee to tempt thee, to try thee, to humble
thee, and to thrust, day and night, upon thee, what is still in thine
heart. To humble thee, take knowledge, take warning, and take
forethought. To make thee humble, and to keep thee humble. To hide
pride from thee, and to lay thee all thy days on earth in the dust of
death. I tell thee this day that in all thy past life I have ordered and
administered all My providences toward thee to humble thee and to prove
thee, and to make thee dust and ashes in thine own eyes. And I go away
to carry on from heaven this same intention of My Father's and Mine
toward thee. We shall try thee as silver is tried. We shall sift thee
as wheat is sifted. We shall search thee as Jerusalem is searched with
lighted candles. I tell thee the truth, I shall bend from heaven all My
power which My Father has given Me, and all My wisdom, and all My love,
and all My grace. What to do, dost thou think? What to do but to make
thee to know and to acknowledge the plague of thine own heart. The
deceitfulness, that is, the depth of wickedness, and the abominableness,
past all words, of thine own heart. I do not ascend to My Father, with
all things in My hand, to make thy seat soft, and thy cup sweet, and thy
name great, and thy seed multiplied. I have far other predestinations
before Me for thee. I have loved thee with an everlasting love, and it
is to everlasting life that I am leading thee. And thou must let Me lead
thee through fire and through water if I am to lead thee to heaven at
last. I shall have to utterly kill all self-love out of thy hear