If you would please God, be useful to others, and happy yourself, you must renounce this melancholy disposition. It is better to divert your mind with innocent recreations, than to nourish melancholy. When I was a little child, a nephew of my father's, a very godly man, who ended his days by martyrdom, said to me, "It is better to cherish a desire to please God, than a fear of displeasing him." Let the desire to please God, and honor him, by an exterior all sweet, all humble, all cordial and cheerful, arouse and animate your spirit: For this I pray. Ever yours. GOD'S CARE OF THE SOUL COMMITTED TO HIM. O, that you could realize, my dear friend, how much God loves you. As a painter draws upon his canvas what image pleases him, so God is now preparing your soul, by these inward crucifixions, to draw upon it his own likeness, He cherishes you as the mother her only son. He would have you yield readily to his will, even as the branches of the tree are moved by the light breath of the wind. In proportion to your abandonment to God, he will take care of you. When you yield readily to his will, you will be less embarrassed to discern the movements of God. You will follow them naturally, and be led, as it were, by the providencies of God. God will gently arrest you if you mistake. God has the same right to incline and move the heart as to possess it. When the soul is perfectly yielding, it loses all its own consistency, so to speak, in order to take any moment the shape that God gives it; as water takes all the form of the vases in which it is put, and also all the colors. Let there be no longer any resistance in your mind, and your heart will soon mingle in the ocean of love; you will float easily, and be at rest. POWER OF THE ADVERSARY. I am deeply afflicted that so many, at the present day, and even some good persons, allow themselves to be openly seduced by the Evil One. Has not our Lord warned us against "false prophets, and the lying wonders of the _last days_?" All true prophets have spoken in the name of the Lord--"_Thus saith the Lord._" Nothing gives the enemy greater advantage than the love of extraordinary manifestations. I believe these external movements are a device of the evil one, to draw away souls from the Word of God, and from the interior tranquil way of faith. The tendency of all communications from God, is to make the soul die to self. An eminent saint remarks, that she had often experienced illuminations from the angel of darkness, more pleasing, more enticing, than those that came from God. Those delusory manifestations, however, leave the soul in a disturbed state, while those that come from God humble, tranquilise and establish the soul in Him. The most dangerous seductions are those, which assume the garb of religion and have the semblance of truth. Elias appeared alone among four hundred prophets of Baal. These prophets were much agitated, attracting great attention, "crying aloud," etc.