All our action ... must be peaceful, gentle, and strong. That suggests ... an immense depth, and an invulnerable steadiness which come from the fact that our small action is now part of the total action of God, whose Spirit, as another saint has said, "Works always in tranquility."

Fuss and feverishness, anxiety, intensity, intolerance, instability, pessimism and wobble, and every kind of hurry and worry--these, even on the highest levels, are signs of the self-made and self-acting soul; the spiritual parvenu.

The saints are never like that. They share the quiet and noble qualities of the great family to which they belong: the family of the sons of God.

If we desire a simple test of the quality of our spiritual life, a consideration of the tranquility, gentleness, and strength with which we deal with the circumstances of our outward life will serve us better than anything that is based on the loftiness of our religious notions, or fervor of our religious feelings.