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720. Are voluntary privations, in view of a voluntary expiation, meritorious in the sight of God?
"Do good to others, and you will thereby acquire more merit than is to be acquired by any self-imposed privations."
-- Is any voluntary privation meritorious?
"Yes; the self-privation of useless indulgences, because it loosens man's hold on matter, and elevates his soul. What is meritorious is resistance to the temptation that solicits to excess or to indulgence in what is useless; it is the cutting down even of your necessities, that you may have more to give to those who are in want. If your privations are only a vain pretence, they are a mere mockery."