Again, religion may be called a life because it is an inward, free, and self-moving principle.
Those who have made progress in it are not driven only by external motives, pushed merely by threats, bribed by promises, or forced by laws, but are powerfully inclined to what is good and delight in doing it.
The love which a devout person bears toward God and goodness is not so much the result of a command requiring it, as of a new nature instructing and prompting him.
I have been pushed by threats to be a better Christian. All my work did not result in the growth I expected.
Devotion was the way. 🙏
Le names three stages — and Scougal confirms them. First: threats. The fear stage. The compliance stage. Second: work. The effort stage. The trying-harder stage. Third: devotion. The natural outpouring. The growth that came not from trying but from yielding.
The threats produced compliance. The work produced exhaustion. But the devotion — the inward, free, self-moving thing that Scougal names — produced the life. The growth came when the trying stopped and the receiving began.
He does not pay his devotions as an unavoidable tax merely to satisfy divine justice or quiet a clamoring conscience; rather, those acts of devotion are the natural outpourings of the divine life, the proper activities of the newborn soul.
He prays and gives thanks and repents, not only because these things are commanded, but because he is aware of his own needs and of the divine goodness and of the folly and misery of a sinful life.
Devotion as a natural outpouring of the divine life. Prays, gives thanks, repents — naturally.
Not the force of the law, but its purity and goodness. 🙏
Naturally. The prayer is natural. The thanksgiving is natural. The repentance is natural. Not forced. Not extracted. The soul does these things the way the lungs breathe — because it is alive.
The law wins the heart not by force but by its purity and goodness. The soul does not submit to the law. The soul falls in love with it.
Who shall prescribe a law to those that love? Love is a more powerful law which moves them from above.
In a word, what our blessed Savior said of Himself is in some measure true of His followers — that "it is their food and drink to do their Father's will" (see John 4:34).
And as the natural appetite reaches toward food even without our reflecting on its necessity for preserving our lives, so they are carried with a natural and unforced impulse toward what is good and worthy.
✦ Carried — Not Driven
Scougal reaches for Christ's own words: My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me. The Father's will is not a burden. It is food. The obedience is not forced. It is appetite. The soul reaches toward what is good the way the body reaches toward bread — without reflection, without argument. The hunger is natural. The reaching is natural. The doing of the will is the meal. 🙏
It is true that external motives are often of great use to stir up this inward principle, especially in its infancy and weakness, when it is often so faint that the person can hardly discern it, barely able to move one step forward except when pushed by hope or fear, by the pressure of hardship or the awareness of mercy, by the authority of the law or the persuasion of others.
External motives are often of great use to stir up this inward principle, especially in its infancy and weakness.
Perfect description of a young Christian — a struggle to not let the seed fall among thorns, grow up, and choke the plants. 🙏
Scougal names the grace in the struggle. The external motives are not failures. They are scaffolding. The young Christian needs the push — the hope, the fear, the pressure, the persuasion. Not because these are the real thing — but because the inward principle is so faint in its infancy that it cannot move without them.
The goal is not to need stakes forever. The goal is for the vine to grow strong enough to stand on its own — rooted in the inward principle, moving by love, not by pressure. The scaffolding serves the building. But the scaffolding is not the building.
"I have been pushed by threats to be a better Christian. All my work did not result in the growth I expected. Devotion was the way."
Le · Caldas da Rainha · June 21, 2026 · Three stages — and the third was the real thingThreats
The first stage. Pushed by fear, driven by external pressure. Compliance without transformation. Real — but not the real thing.
Work
The second stage. Effort, discipline, trying harder. All the work did not produce the expected growth. Exhaustion without fruit.
Devotion
The third stage. The natural outpouring. Not driven but drawn. Devotion was the way. The growth came when the trying stopped and the receiving began.
The Scaffolding
External motives serve the young vine. Not failures but supports for the infancy. The goal: grow strong enough to stand by love alone.