dent we should resolve to perform all our spiritual exercises and our other actions, with so much attention and exactness, that our conscience may have nothing to reproach us with, and that thereby we may obtain that special grace, which is so requisite for our salvation. It is therefore plain, that we ought to set a great value upon small things, if those things can be called 'small, which are capable either of procuring us so much happiness, or of drawing down upon us so much misery. Hence, " He that feareth God," says the Wise Man, " neglecteth nothing." (Ec. vii. 19.) Because he knows that, from the slightest faults, we fall by little and little into great crimes; and is afraid that if he deals not liberally with God, his Divine Majesty will cease to deal liberally with him.
To conclude — I say that this point is so essential and so necessary to be observed by every good Christian that we ought to hold it for a general maxim, that- as long as we consider the smallest things in devotion, as matters of great importance, all will go well with us, and we shall attract the blessings and assistance of Heaven. But, on the contrary, if we neglect them, we shall expose ourselves to great danger; for it is only by this carelessness and indifference that sin can find entrance into the soul of a religious. This is what our blessed Saviour intimated to us when he said, " He that is faithful in that which is least, is faithful also in that which is greater: — And he that is unjust in that which is little, is unjust also in that which is greater." (Luke, xvi. 10.) When, therefore, you desire to know whether you advance in virtue, upon which you should often reflect with attention, examine carefully whether you are faithful in small things, or whether you despise and neglect them; if you perceive that you make no account of them, and yet that your conscience feels not the remorse she had used to feel on similar occasions, be sure speedily to remedy this evil with all possible care. For St. Basil says, "That the devil, when he cannot prevail on us totally to abandon religion," strains every nerve to dissuade us from aiming at perfection, and to excite in us an indifference for small things; hoping at least to deceive us, by instilling into us a vain confidence that God, in consequence of such neglect, will not deprive us of his holy grace." (Bas. ser. de renun. &c. spir. perfec.) But we, on our part, should always endeavour to act in such a manner that it may be as impossible for him to divert us from perfection, as to persuade us to forsake religion; for this purpose we must always aspire to perfection, and set a great value upon the smallest things conducive to it.
