The Practice of the Presence of God and The Spiritual Maxims

THE PRACTICE OF

THE PRESENCE OF GOD

AND

THE SPIRITUAL MAXIMS

By BROTHER LAWRENCE

The Practice of the Presence of God and The Spiritual Maxims

By Brother Lawrence

Print ISBN 13: 978-1-4209-5366-4

eBook ISBN 13: 978-1-4209-5367-1

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Cover Image: The Refectory by Theophile Gide (1822-90), c. 19th century / Musee des Beaux-Arts, Nimes, France / Bridgeman Images.

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CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION

THE PRACTICE OF THE PRESENCE OF GOD

Preface

Conversations

First Conversation

Second Conversation

Third Conversation

Fourth Conversation

Letters

First Letter

Second Letter

Third Letter

Fourth Letter

Fifth Letter

Sixth Letter

Seventh Letter

Eighth Letter

Ninth Letter

Tenth Letter

Eleventh Letter

Twelfth Letter

Thirteenth Letter

Fourteenth Letter

Fifteenth Letter

THE SPIRITUAL MAXIMS

Preface

Of Necessary Practices for Attaining to the Spiritual Life

Of How It is Required of Us to Worship God in Spirit and in Truth

Of Union of the Soul with God

Of the Presence of God

Of Means for Attaining unto the Presence of God

Of the Benefits of the Presence of God

The Character of Brother Lawrence

Gathered Thoughts

Introduction

But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtlety, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ.—2 Cor. xi. 3.

The value of this little book is its extreme simplicity. The trouble with most of the religion of the day is its extreme complexity. Brother Lawrence was not troubled with any theological difficulties or doctrinal dilemmas. For him these did not exist. His one single aim was to bring about a conscious personal union between himself and God, and he took the shortest cut he could find to accomplish it. The result can best be described in his own words: If I dare use the expression, I should choose to call this state the bosom of God, for the inexpressible sweetness which I taste and experience there.

What Brother Lawrence did all can do. No theological training nor any especial theological views are needed for the blessed practice he recommends. No gorgeous churches, nor stately cathedral, nor elaborate ritual, could either make or mar it. A kitchen and an altar were as one to him; and to pick up a straw from the ground was as grand a service as to preach to multitudes. The time of business, said he, does not with me differ from the time of prayer; and in the noise and clutter of my kitchen, while several persons are at the same time calling for different things, I possess God in as great tranquility as if I were upon my knees at the blessed sacrament.

This little book, therefore, seems to me one of the most helpful I know. It fits into the lives of all human beings, let them be rich or poor, learned or unlearned, wise or simple. The woman at her wash-tub, or the stone-breaker on the road, can carry on the practice here taught with as much ease and as much assurance of success as the priest at his altar or the missionary in his field of work. All must feel that anything that brings the religion of Christ within reach of overworked and poverty-stricken humanity, in the midst of its ignorance and its helplessness, is a priceless boon, and this is what Brother Lawrence does. His practice requires neither time, nor talents, nor training. At any moment, in the midst of any occupation, under any circumstances, the soul that wants to know God can practice the presence and can come to the knowledge. The Lord of hosts is with us, the God of Jacob is our refuge, let the seemings be what they may; and we need but to recognize this as a continual, ever-present fact, and the inexpressible sweetness to which Brother Lawrence attained will become ours.

HANNAH WHITALL SMITH.

London, 1897.

The Practice of the Presence of God

THE BEST RULE OF A HOLY LIFE.

Being Conversations and Letters of Nicholas Herman, of Lorraine (Brother Lawrence).

Translated from the French.

Preface

This book consists of notes of several conversations had with, and letters written by Nicholas Herman, of Lorraine, a lowly and unlearned man, who, after having been a footman and soldier, was admitted a Lay Brother among the barefooted Carmelites at Paris in 1666, and was afterwards known as Brother Lawrence.

His conversion, which took place when he was about eighteen years old, was the result, under God, of the mere sight in midwinter, of a dry and leafless tree, and of the reflections it stirred respecting the change the coming spring would bring. From that time he grew eminently in the knowledge and love of God, endeavoring constantly to walk as in His presence. No wilderness wanderings seem to have intervened between the Red Sea and the Jordan of his experience. A wholly consecrated man, he lived his Christian life through as a pilgrim—as a steward and not as an owner, and died at the age of eighty, leaving a name which has been as ointment poured forth.

The Conversations are supposed to have been written by M. Beaufort, Grand Vicar to M. de Chalons, formerly Cardinal de Noailles, by whose recommendation the letters were first published.

The book has, within a short time, gone through repeated English and American editions, and has been a means of blessing to many souls. It contains very much of that wisdom which only lips the Lord has touched can express, and which only hearts He has made teachable can receive.

May this edition also be blessed by God, and redound to the praise of the glory of His grace.

Conversations

First Conversation

The first time I saw Brother Lawrence, was upon the 3d of August, 1666. He told me that God had done him a singular favor, in his conversion at the age of eighteen.

That in the winter, seeing a tree stripped of its leaves, and considering that within a little time the leaves would be renewed and after that the flowers and fruit appear, he received a high view of the Providence and Power of God, which has never since been effaced from his soul. That this view had perfectly set him loose from the world, and kindled in him such a love for God, that