Synopses & Reviews
ON PIETY - PREFACE - THE author is well aware of the perils of writing on Piety, such is the discredit attaching to works of the kind. He undertakes it, nevertheless, being persuaded that he is doing a useful and perhaps necessary work. His aim is to encourage esteem for piety, not only among those who are given to pious practices, but also among those who treat it with disdain, as something paltry, or speak evil of it, as if the practice of it were degrading. It is with this end in view that he makes a study of its nature, explains its effects, and lays down rules for the use of it. There is nothing nobler than piety, since it awakens and applies the activity of the soul to the highest, purest, and most fruitful of lives, the very life of God. 5 Preface Nothing is more advantageous than piety, since, by the close contact which it establishes with God, and by the constant effort which it obliges a man to make with regard to himself, it purifies the feelings, enlightens the mind, strengthens the will, gladdens the heart, and stirs up an apostolic fire in the soul. But piety only preserves its worth and yields all its fruits when it is led by the spirit of wisdom. It would cease to be itself, it would disfigure the soul and become repellent, if it degenerated into a superstitious and sterile formalism. Piety has to repel the attacks of which it is the object by uplifting character and by enriching with a wealth of virtues those who live by it. Whenever-as should be the case - pious people show most common sense, most dignity of demeanour, most sympathy, most disinterestedness and most self-sacrifice, piety and religion itself will need no more apologists the lives of those who pray willbe its most unanswerable defence. If-those who are pious will try to enter into the spirit of this little book, 6 Preface tllc author hope- 110th that tlleir religio is life will he full of s veetc onsolatiorl to tliernse. es, ancl tlmt their L l win over to pictjr I I of tl ost., vllo, t1 1ol1 11 f i d a - 111ciltallv r-c li ious tl, o not clarc to rlsli I l I l t11ey feat. 1 1 1 1 ill ol-c tllcnl in bitter tlisnppointi cnt. 7 i s h o l i g i-c inany souls L t stc or-Gocl l - u i th i t11zy -ill li l r l sponta ieou. y arise a taste for the rood. CONTENTS PAGE PREFAC - E - - - - 5 PART I I. How piety is misunderstood - 11. Piety is an impulse of devoted love - m - 111. Piety is a form of life - IV. Piety is the life of God in man - V. Piety is the life of Jesus Christ in the Christian - m VI. Piety is an interior life - VII. Piety has its source in faith - VIII. Piety is maintained by external exercises - - - IX. Piety requires mortification - X. Piety is sustained by its own progress - - - XI. The deterioration of piety m Contents PART II THE F RUIT O S F PIETY 1 A I. 7 XII. Piety aims at making us better - - - 96 XTII. Piety gives strength to the will - - - 105 XIV. Piety expands and rules the heart - - 112 XV. Piety calms the senses - 120 XVI. Piety enlightens the mind - 128 XV1I. Piety makes men apostles - 136 XVIII. Piety floods the soul with joy 144 ON PIETY PART I THE NATURE OF PIETY HOW PIETY IS MISUNDERSTOOD Godliness piety is profitable to all things, having promise of the life that now is, and of that which is to come I Tim. iv. 8. T HIS praise of piety by St. Paul must seem strange to worldly folk, for the world does not esteem piety and has nothing but disdain for thosewho practise it...