May 7th.  It is a peculiarity of the sinful state, that as a general rule men are linked to evil mainly by a single correspondence.  Few men break the whole law.  Our natures, fortunately, are not large enough to make us guilty of all, and the restraints of circumstances are usually such as to leave a loophole in the life of each individual for only a single habitual sin.  But it is very easy to see how this reduction of our intercourse with evil to a single correspondence blinds us to our true position.  Natural Law, Mortification, p. 186.

May 8th.  One little weakness, we are apt to fancy, all men must be allowed, and we even claim a certain indulgence for that apparent necessity of nature which we call our besetting sin.  Yet to break with the lower environment at all, to many, is to break at this single point.  Natural Law, p. 186.

May 9th.  There may be only one avenue between the new life and the old, it may be but a small and subterranean passage, but this is sufficient to keep the old life in.  So long as that remains the victim is not “dead unto sin,” and therefore he cannot “live unto God.”  Natural Law, p. 187.

May 10th.  Do not grudge the hand that is moulding the still too shapeless image within you.  It is growing more beautiful, though you see it not, and every touch of temptation may add to its perfection.  Therefore keep in the midst of life.  Do not isolate yourself.  Be among men, and among things, and among troubles, and difficulties, and obstacles.  The Greatest Thing in the World.

May 11th.  Contemplate the love of Christ, and you will love.  Stand before that mirror, reflect Christ’s character, and you will be changed into the same image from tenderness to tenderness.  There is no other way.  You cannot love to order.  You can only look at the lovely object, and fall in love with it, and grow into likeness to it.  The Greatest Thing in the World.

May 12th.  In the natural world it only requires a single vital correspondence of the body to be out of order to ensure Death.  It is not necessary to have consumption, diabetes, and an aneurism to bring the body to the grave, if it have heart disease.  He who is fatally diseased in one organ necessarily pays the penalty with his life, though all the others be in perfect health.  And such, likewise, are the mysterious unity and correlation of functions in the spiritual organism that the disease of one member may involve the ruin of the whole.  Natural Law, Mortification, p. 187.

May 13th.  To break altogether, and at every point, with the old environment, is a simple impossibility.  So long as the regenerate man is kept in this world he must find the old environment at many points a severe temptation.  Natural Law, Mortification, p. 190.

May 14th.  Power over very many of the commonest temptations is only to be won by degrees, and however anxious one might be to apply the summary method to every case, he soon finds it impossible in practice.  Natural Law, Mortification, p. 190.