If We Believe Not With Faith Divine

Great Winds And Storms Help Fruit-bearing Trees. So Also Do Corruptions And Temptations Help The Fruitfulness Of Grace And Holiness. The Storm Loosens The Earth Round Its Roots So The Tree Is Able To Get Its Roots Deeper Into The Earth, Where It Receives Fresh Supplies Of Nourishment. But Only Much Later Will It Be Seen To Bring Forth Better Fruit. So Corruptions And Temptations Develop The Roots Of Humility, Self-abasement And Mourning In A Deeper Search For That Grace By Which Holiness Grows Strong. But Only Later Will There Be Visible Fruits Of Increased Holiness.

Would A Soul Continually Eye His Everlasting Tenderness And Compassion...[then] It Could Not Bear An Hour's Absence From Him; Whereas Now, Perhaps, It Cannot Watch With Him One Hour.

Temptation Gains Power By Persistent Solicitations That Beget Thoughts That Make Evil Less Serious

The House Built On The Sand May Oftentimes Be Built Higher, Have More Fair Parapets And Battlements, Windows And Ornaments, Than That Which Is Built Upon The Rock; Yet All Gifts And Privileges Equal Not One Grace.

The Pretended Desires Of Many To Behold The Glory Of Christ In Heaven, Who Have No View Of It By Faith While They Are Here In This World, Are Nothing But Self-deceiving Imaginations.