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CHAPTER I.

What is the Nature of Christian Perfection.

THAT you may not weary yourself in vain, O devout soul, in spiritual exercises, as many have done, and not run without knowing whither you are tending, you must first learn in what Christian perfection consists.

Christian perfection is nothing else but the entire observance of the precepts of God and of His Law with the view of pleasing Him, without swerving to the right hand or to the left, or turning back. "For this is the whole duty of man."

So that the scope of a Christian's whole life, if he would become perfect, must be to strive to form the habit day by day of putting self more and more aside, and of giving up his own will, that he may do all things according to the guidance of the Will of God Alone, and in order to please and honour Him.