it must be a religion of _acts_; a life of warfare against the sins that
most easily beset you; a mortification of selfishness and pride, and a
humble acknowledgment, when you have done your _very best_, that you are
only unprofitable servants. Had you heard Emilie communing with her own
heart, you would have heard no self gratulation. She was far from
perfect even in the sight of man; in the sight of God she knew that in
many things she offended.

It is not a perfect character that I would present to you in Emilie
Schomberg; but one who with all the weakness and imperfection of human
nature, made the will of God her rule and delight. This is not natural,
it is the habit of mind of those only who are created anew, new
creatures in Christ Jesus.

This you may be sure Emilie did not fail to teach her pupil; but a great
many such lessons may be received into the head without one finding an
entrance to the heart, and Edith was in the not very uncommon habit of
looking on her faults in the light of misfortunes, just as any one might
regard a deformed limb or a painful disorder. She was, indeed, too much
accustomed to talk of her faults, and was a great deal too easy about
them.

"My dear," Emilie would say after her confessions, "I do not believe you
see how sinful these things are, or surely you would not so very, very,
often commit them." This was the real state of the case; and it may be
said of all those who are in the habit of mere confessions, that they do
not believe things to be so very bad, because they do not understand how
very good and holy is the God against whom they sin. Edith had this to
learn; books could not teach her this. She who taught her all else so
well, could not teach her this; it was to be learned from a higher