Even as each man in his baptism is placed under the charge of a
special angel, who is with him always and never leaves him, and
protects him waking and sleeping in all his ways and in all his
works, so every man has a special devil, who continually opposes him
and exercises him without ceasing. But if the man were wise and
diligent, the opposition of the devil and his exercises would be
much more profitable to him than the aid of the good angel; for if
there were no struggle, there could be no victory. (139)

SIN

WHEN a man has had the fair net of his soul torn by sin, he must
patch and mend it by a humble, repentant return to the grace and
mercy of God. He must act like one who wishes to make a crooked
stick straight: he bends the stick further back than it ought to go,
and by being thus bent back it becomes straight again. So must a man
do to his own nature. He must bend himself under all things which
belong to God, and break himself right off, inwardly and outwardly,
from all things which are not God.

Every deadly sin causes the precious blood of Christ to be shed
afresh. Jesus Christ is spiritually crucified many times every day.
(75)

FISHING FOR SOULS

THE fisherman throws his hook, that he may catch the fish; but the
fish itself takes the hook. When the fish takes the hook, the
fisherman is sure of the fish, and draws it to him. Even so, God has