committed against God are thus published abroad.

36. I do not know whether the things I am saying are foolish or
not. If they be so, your reverence will strike them out.
I entreat you to help my simplicity by adding a good deal to
this, because the things that relate to the service of God are so
feebly managed, that it is necessary for those who would serve
Him to join shoulder to shoulder, if they are to advance at all;
for it is considered safe to live amidst the vanities and
pleasures of the world, and few there be who regard them with
unfavourable eyes. But if any one begins to give himself up to
the service of God, there are so many to find fault with him,
that it becomes necessary for him to seek companions, in order
that he may find protection among them till he grows strong
enough not to feel what he may be made to suffer. If he does
not, he will find himself in great straits.

37. This, I believe, must have been the reason why some of the
Saints withdrew into the desert. And it is a kind of humility in
man not to trust to himself, but to believe that God will help
him in his relations with those with whom he converses; and
charity grows by being diffused; and there are a thousand
blessings herein which I would not dare to speak of, if I had not
known by experience the great importance of it. It is very true
that I am the most wicked and the basest of all who are born of
women; but I believe that he who, humbling himself, though
strong, yet trusteth not in himself, and believeth another who in
this matter has had experience, will lose nothing. Of myself I
may say that, if our Lord had not revealed to me this truth, and
given me the opportunity of speaking very frequently to persons