_Particular questions relating to humility._
1. Have I laboured to conform all my thoughts, words and actions to these fundamental maxims; _I am nothing, I have nothing, I can do nothing_?
2. Have I set apart some time this day, to think upon my infirmities, follies and sins?
3. Have I ascribed to myself any part of any good which God did by my hand?
4. Have I said or done any thing, with a view to the praise of men?
5. Have I desired the praise of men?
6. Have I taken pleasure in it?
7. Have I commended myself, or others, to their faces, unless for God’s sake, and then with fear and trembling?
8. Have I despised any one’s advice?
9. Have I, when I thought so, said, _I am in the wrong_?
10. Have I received contempt for things indifferent, with meekness: For doing my duty, with joy?
11. Have I omitted justifying myself where the glory of God was not concerned? Have I submitted to be thought in the wrong?
12. Have I, when contemned, _first_ prayed God it might not discourage, or puff me up: _secondly_ that it might not be imputed to the contemner: _thirdly_ that it might heal my pride?
13. Have I, without some particular good in view, mentioned the contempt I had met with?
I DESIRE to offer unto thee, O Lord, my evening sacrifice, the sacrifice of a contrite spirit. _Have mercy upon me, O God, after thy great goodness, and after the multitude of thy mercies do away mine offences._ Let thy unspeakable mercy free me from the sins I have committed, and deliver me from the punishment I have deserved (――――)¹. O save me from every work of darkness, and cleanse me _from all filthiness of flesh and spirit_, that, for the time to come, I may with a pure heart and mind follow thee the only true God.
¹ Here mention the particulars you would pray for.
O Lamb of God, who both by thy example and precept didst instruct us to be meek and humble, give me grace throughout my whole life, in every thought, and word and work, to imitate thy meekness and humility. O mortify in me the whole body of pride: grant me to feel that I am nothing and have nothing, and that I deserve nothing but shame and contempt, but misery and punishment. Grant, O Lord, that I may look for nothing, claim nothing, and that I may go through all the scenes of life, not seeking my own glory, but looking wholly unto thee, and acting wholly for thee. Let me never speak any word that may tend to my own praise, unless the good of my neighbour require it. And even then let me beware, lest to heal another, I wound my own soul. Let my ears and my heart be ever shut to the praise that cometh of men, and let me _refuse to hear the voice of the charmer, charm he never so sweetly_. Give me a dread of applause, in whatsoever form, and from whatsoever tongue it cometh. I know that _many stronger men have been slain by it_, and that it _leadeth to the chambers of death_. O deliver my soul from this snare of hell; neither let me spread it for the feet of others. Whosoever perish thereby, be their blood upon their own head, and let not my hand be upon them.
O thou giver of every good and perfect gift, if at any time thou pleasest to work by my hand, teach me to discern what is my own from what is another’s, and to render unto thee the things that are thine. As, all the good that is done on earth, thou dost it thyself, let me ever return to thee all the glory. Let me, as a pure chrystal, transmit all the light thou pourest upon me; but never claim as my own what is thy sole property.
O thou who wert despised and rejected of men, when I am slighted by my friends, disdained by my superiors, overborn, or ridiculed by my equals, or contemptuously treated by my inferiors, let me cry out with thy holy martyr¹, “It is now that I begin to be a disciple of _Christ_.” Then let me thankfully accept, and faithfully use the happy occasion of improving in thy meek and lowly Spirit. If for thy sake _men cast out my name as evil, let me rejoice, and be exceeding glad_. If for my own infirmities, yet let me acknowledge thy goodness, in giving me this medicine to heal my pride and vanity, and beg thy mercy for those physicians of my soul, by whose hands it is administered to me.
¹ Ignatius.
_Make me to remember thee on my bed, and think upon thee when I am waking_: thou hast preserved me from all the dangers of the day past: thou hast been my support from my youth up until now: _under the shadow of thy wings_ let me pass this night in comfort and peace.