The First Direction

The first is this: All the rules and helps in the world will do us little good except we get a good temper within our hearts. You can never make a ship go steady with propping of it without; you know there must be ballast within the ship, that must make it go steady. And so there is nothing without us that can keep our hearts in a steady constant way but that that is within us; grace is within the soul, and that will do it.

The first direction is this: all the rules and helps in the world will do little good unless we first get the right disposition within our hearts. You cannot keep a ship steady by propping it up from the outside — there must be ballast inside the ship to make it sail steadily. In the same way, nothing outside us can keep our hearts in a steady, constant condition — only what is within us can do that. Grace within the soul is what produces contentment.