One sometimes wonders that a good part of the life of a devoted and spiritual person should be spent in mistakes and wanderings; one asks oneself how the presence of the Spirit of God, necessary to produce this life, comports with these mistakes. I say, on the contrary, that as regards the government of God, it is a necessary consequence. Can God place His stamp of approval upon that which is contrary to His thoughts? Will He refuse blessing in answer to real devotedness, because there is error? He cannot sanction the former, nor refuse Himself to the latter. What is the consequence? Blessing is found, as well as His tender care. He maintains the foundation, even through all the wanderings; but He abandons to their natural consequences the evil, and the false confidence which accompany it; otherwise He would be justifying evil. 188