s, and beaten about by tempests
from every quarter of the heavens; and so it gets gnarled and knotted
and very unlike the symmetrical beauty that we dreamed would adorn it.
We begin with saying: 'Come! Let us build a tower whose top shall reach
to heaven'; and we are contented at last, if we have put up some little
tumble-down shed where we can get shelter for our heads from the blast.

And the difficulty in bringing into action our best selves besets us in
the matter of translating our resolutions into practice. What are
arrayed against it? A feeble will, enslaved too often by passions and
flesh and habits, and all about us lie obstacles to our carrying into
action our conscientious convictions, our deepest resolutions; obstacles
to our being true to our true selves; to which obstacles, alas, far too
many of us habitually, and all of us occasionally, succumb. That being
the case, do not we all need to ponder in our deepest hearts, and to
pray for grace to make the motto of our lives, 'As there was a readiness
to will, let there be a performance'?

II. Consider the importance of this counsel.

That is borne in upon mind and conscience by looking at the disastrous
effects of letting resolutions remain sterile. Consider how apt we are
to deceive ourselves with unfulfilled purposes. The quick response which
an easily-moved nature may make to some appeal of noble thought or lofty
principle is mistaken for action, and we are tempted to think that
willing is almost as good as if we had done what we half resolved on.
And there is a kind of glow of satisfaction that comes when such a man
thinks, 'I have done well in that I have determined.' The Devil will let
you resolve as much as you like--the more the better; only the more
easily you resolve, the more certainly he will block the realisation.
Let us take care of that seducing temptation which is apt to lead us all
to plume ourselves on good resolutions, and to fancy that they are
almost equivalent to their own fulfilment. Cheques are all very well if
there be bullion in the bank cellars to pay them with when they fall
due, but if that be not so, then the issuing of them is crime and fraud.
Our resolutions, made and forgotten as so many of our good resolutions
are, are very little better.

Note, too, how rapidly the habit of substituting lightly-made
resolutions for seriously-endeavoured acts grows.

And mark, further, how miserable and debilitating it is to carry the
dea