Page:TheParadiseOfTheChristianSoul.djvu/50



''Litanies, Prayers,  Thanksgivings,  various  Meditations  on,  and  Expositions of,  the  Lord’s  Prayer,  with  other  Pious  Exercises  addressed to  the  most  Holy  Trinity,  beginning  with  a Colloquy  between  Christ and  Man, in  which  we  an  taught  to  pray  with  earnestness,  devotion , and  advantage,  and  the  mind  is  awakened to  pious  affections  towards God. ''

§ I. The  necessity  and  profit  of prayer

HRIST. Man that  is  born of woman  lives  but  for  a short  time,  and  is  filled many miseries. But he  is  more  miserable  still,  if,  amidst those very  miseries,  he  knows not that  he  is  wretched,  and poor, and  naked,  and  weak; so that  he  neither  searches for the  remedies  that  would cure him,  nor  places  his  help in God. If thou  art  thus ignorant, my  son,  withdraw with me  a little  space  from the crowd  of  men. I will lead thee  in  to  a lonely  place, and there  speak  to  thee  in  thy  heart. Thou wilt  then, perchance, acknowledge  thy misery and  thy  nakedness.

Remember then,  O man, with that  it  is  I who  made  thee, and not  thou  thyself;  and that I created  thee  to  my own  image  when  thou  wert not. When thou  wert  lost, I redeemed thee  myself,  not with the  gold,  or  the  silver, or the  precious  stones,  that perish, but  with  my  own blood, which  I shed  for  thee, And why? That thou  mightest  praise  my  name,  and  serve me in  this  life,  and  reign  with me hereafter  for  ever.

See, then,  to  what  dangers