D'Avila labored not only by his discourses, but likewise by his conversations and letters in promoting the kingdom of God in the souls of men. He was benevolence itself. He consoled the afflicted, encouraged the timid, aroused the cowardly, stirred up the lukewarm, fortified the weak, sustained those who were tempted, sought to raise up sinners after their falls, and humbled the proud. His letters are mostly far superior to those of Fénélon. They are at least much more evangelical.[17] 'I tell you this,' he wrote to some friends in affliction, 'only in order to assure you that Jesus Christ loves you. Ought not these words, that _a God loves us_, to fill with joy such poor creatures as we are?'[18] 'Read the sacred writings,' said he in another letter to those who wished for instruction, 'but remember that if he who has the key of knowledge, and who alone can open the book, does not give the power to comprehend, you will never understand it.'[19] [Sidenote: ST. THERESA.] D'Avila possessed the gift of discernment. He did not, indeed, entirely escape the influence of the period and of the country in which he lived; but we find him exposing the pretended revelations of Madeline de la Croix, who deceived so many, and undertaking the defence of the pious Theresa de Cepedre, when persecuted by the Inquisition. Theresa, born at Avila in 1515, of a noble family, had so much zeal even in her childhood that she one day quitted her father's house with her brother to go and seek martyrdom amongst the Moors. A relative met the two children and took them back. She was from that time divided between the love of the world and the love of God, throwing herself alternately into dissipation and into the monastic life. This woman, the famous St. Theresa, was one of those ardent spirits who rush by turns to the two extremes. Happily she met with D'Avila, whose judgment was more mature than her own, received his instructions, and, by his means, became confirmed in spiritual life. Her writings, full of piety, and even attractive in style, were translated by the Jansenists, like those of D'Avila.[20] He was the friend and director to a poor soldier, who, having been discharged in 1536, was converted, and turned his house into an hospital, for which he provided by the work of his own hands, and thus became founder of the Order of Charity. D'Avila gave to this charitable Christian, who was called John de Dieu, the wisest counsels, the sum of which was, 'Die rather than be unfaithful to so good a Master.'