The One Use of Dejection

So we must see that dejection is useful to us in one case only: when we give way to it either in penitence for sin, or because we are on fire with the desire for perfection, or in the contemplation of the blessedness to come. Of this the blessed apostle says, “The sorrow that is according to God produces a steadfast repentance that leads to salvation, but the sorrow of the world produces death.” [a]