domestic trials seemed great to her no longer; her inward joy consumed
like a fire the reluctance, the murmur, and the sorrow, which all had
their birth in herself. A spirit of comforting peace, a sense of
rejoicing possession, pervaded all her days. God was continually with
her, and she seemed continually yielded up to God. 'Madame,' said the
solitary, 'you seek without for what you have within.' Where do you seek
for God when you pray, my brethren? To what place do you direct your
eyes? Is it to the roof of your closet? Is it to the east end of your
consecrated chapel? Is it to that wooden table in the east end of your
chapel? Or, passing out of all houses made with hands and consecrated
with holy oil, do you lift up your eyes to the skies where the sun and
the moon and the stars dwell alone? 'What a folly!' exclaims Theophilus,
in the golden dialogue, 'for no way is the true way to God but by the way
of our own heart. God is nowhere else to be found. And the heart itself
cannot find Him but by its own love of Him, faith in Him, dependence upon
Him, resignation to Him, and expectation of all from Him.' 'You have
quite carried your point with me,' answered Theogenes after he had heard
all that Theophilus had to say. 'The God of meekness, of patience, and
of love is henceforth the one God of my heart. It is now the one bent
and desire of my soul to seek for all my salvation in and through the
merits and mediation of the meek, humble, patient, resigned, suffering
Lamb of God, who alone has power to bring forth the blessed birth of
those heavenly virtues in my soul. What a comfort it is to think that
this Lamb of God, Son of the Father, Light of the World; this Glory of
heaven and this Joy of angels is as near to us, is as truly in the midst
of us, as He is in the midst of heaven. And that not a thought, look, or
desire of our heart that presses toward Him, longing to catch one small
spark of His heavenly nature, but is as sure a way of finding Him, as the
woman's way was who was healed of her deadly disease by longing to touch
but the border of His garment.'