the name of God, I entreat you to renounce your own
wisdom, your self-leadings, and yield up yourself to God. Let Him
become your wisdom. You Will then find the place of rest, you so much
need.

May you read this letter, with dependence on the Spirit, which has
dictated it, and without regard to the instrument, and your heart will
testify to the truth of what I have written. Take courage, and be
persuaded that if God destroys the natural life, it is only to give you
himself. Endeavor to be nothing, that God may be all. When void, God
himself fills the space.

UNEXPECTED FAULTS.

Yesterday, after I left the parlor, I uttered some words hastily, and
suffered very much in consequence; a suffering not like the pangs of
penitence I formerly experienced, but more subtle and interior; and the
soul was more acquiescent. Whether it was the words I uttered too
precipitately, or the reflections that followed, which caused this
suffering, I could not determine. A part of myself seemed to be thrown
out of God, as we see the ocean reject certain things, which it
receives again more deeply into its bosom. Thus I seemed to myself to
be rejected, and without any power to make the least movement to
return, and without even a regret that I was rejected. I was willing
to remain where God placed me, until the moment he received me again to
himself. If I should afflict myself on account of this experience,
which was new and unexpected, I believe it would be wrong, and sully
still more the soul. The depths of my soul remain unchanged--fixed in
God. He removes the impurity, that has exteriorly sullied it, and
holds the soul still his own.

APOSTOLIC STATE.

I have read your letter, my dear F., with great pleasure. The true
Apostolic state is to become all things to all men; that is, to impart
to each one spiritually, according to his necessities. Only those who
are reduced to littleness and simplicity, have this power of
communicating grace. They have also the ability to sympathise deeply
in the states of others; of bearing in some measure their burdens, and
are sometimes in great heaviness on their account. This communication
of grace and aid, is not necessarily restricted to the personal
presence of the individual. We may be "absent in body, yet present in
spirit," after the manner of God's operations; and as the angelic
powers communicate to us. It is only by the enlightening of God's
Spirit, that we rea