To Miss March Date: BRISTOL, September 15, 1770. To use the grace given is the certain way to obtain more grace. To use all the faith you have will bring an increase of faith. But this word is of very wide extent: it takes in the full exercise of every talent wherewith we are entrusted. This comprises the whole compass both of inward and outward religion. That you may be able steadily and effectually to attend to this you have need of that prayer, 'Give me understanding, that I may keep Thy law; yea, that I may keep it with my whole heart.' This is to 'make the best of life,' which cannot be done without growing in grace. I believe it would help you to read and consider the sermon on Self-Denial in the fourth volume, See Works, vi. 103 14. and that on Universal Conscientiousness in the Christian Library. A sense of wants and weaknesses, with various trials and temptations, will do you no real hurt, though they occasion heaviness for a time and abate your joy in the Lord. It is wrong so to attend to this as to weaken your faith; and yet in the general it is not wrong 'to form your estimate of the state of your soul from your sensations' not, indeed, from these alone, but from these in conjunction with your words and actions. It is true we cannot judge of ourselves by the measure of our joy, the most variable of all our sensations, and frequently depending in a great degree on the state of our blood and spirits. But if you take love, joy, peace, meekness, gentleness, and resignation together, I know no surer rule whereby to judge of your state to Godward.

What is the difference between 'the frame of my mind and the state of my soul'? Is there the difference of an hair's breadth? I will not affirm it. If there be any at all, perhaps it is this: the frame may mean a single, transient sensation; the state, a more complicated and lasting sensation, something which we habitually feel. By frame some may mean fleeting passions; by state, rooted tempers. But I do not know that we have any authority to use the terms thus or to distinguish one from the other. He whose mind is in a good frame is certainly a good man as long as it so continues. I would therefore no more require you to cease from judging of your state by your frame of mind than I would require you to cease from breathing. Unless you deal very closely with those committed to your care, you will not give an account of them with joy. Advices and admonitions at a distance will do little harm or good. To those who give in to dress you might read or recommend the Advice to the Methodists on that head. It would be proper to go to the root of the matter once or twice; then to let it sleep, and after a few weeks try again. A Methodist using fine or gay apparel must suffer loss in her soul, although she may retain a little life; but she never will attain an high degree either of holiness or happiness. See Works, xi. 466-77; and letter of Feb. 26, 1776.