The difficulty we experience in repelling Satan points directly to the duty of practising those things which will give us an increase of love and loyalty to God. This is to be accomplished by the execution of some practical resolution which might be framed in this fashion: "I found it hard to refrain from wounding Him; I know, therefore, that my love for God is weaker than I thought. I will therefore this day seek to increase my love in two ways: (1), I will watch for the evidence of His love for me, and will meditate upon it, and upon my unworthiness of it; (2), I will, by His help, force opportunity of doing a definite number of loving acts toward Him and others, that by the practice of love I may increase my love." Then if we would secure a sure increase of love, {171} we must permit no sort of indefiniteness to enter into the fulfilment of our resolution. It must be carried out with precision. For our meditation, nothing could be more profitable than to write out with fulness and care the account of some blessing that has come to us through God's love; and by the side of it write a like definite account of some infidelity of ours toward Him. The shame of the contrast, if our hearts be not wholly bad, cannot but drive us to Him with a fuller desire, which will win from Him the gift of a renewed and strengthened love. The acts, too, must be of the most definite kind. Go out of your way to speak or do some loving thing, offering it, at the time, to God as your work of love to Him. Or it may be some simple act of prayer, such as kneeling with great recollection and deliberation, folding the hands, and lifting the heart in silence for a moment to God, then repeating, very reverently and devoutly, the Lord's Prayer, or some other short devotion. Then, after a pause, add, "Dear Lord, I offer Thee this, to show Thee that I love Thee, and that I want to love Thee more"; or some such little prayer as that of Fenelon's: "Lord, take my heart, for I cannot give it Thee; and when Thou hast it, keep it, for I cannot keep it for Thee; and save me in spite of my sins." {172} Many a sinner has followed some such simple, child-like method, and God's response has come into his heart with a thrill of awakening love that has startled it with its sweetness and power, and filled him with a keen sense of personal dishonour at ever again wounding the heart of Jesus by parleying even for a moment with the tempter. III. _The Lesson of Humility_ The greatest of all lessons the Holy Ghost teaches us is that of humility. Thomas à Kempis shows that one of the special points of profit in temptation lies in the fact that in it "a man is humbled."[9] The most necessary virtue the Christian soul must learn is that of humility. When our Lord would give His disciples the chief reason why they should learn of Him, He said it was because, "I am meek and lowly in heart."[10]