I am always thankful to have my heart stirred and warmed by Christian letters or conversation; always glad to see any signs of the presence of the Holy Spirit at work in a human soul.  But never force yourself to write or talk of spiritual things; try rather to get so full of Christ that mention of Him shall be natural and spontaneous.

To the Same, April 15, 1873.

I have just been reading the sermon of Dr. Hopkins on prayer you sent me.  It sounds just like him.  I think his brother and mine (by marriage) would have treated the subject just as logically and far more practically; still, under the circumstances, that was not desirable.  As to myself, I would rather have the simple testimony of some unknown praying woman, who is in the habit of “waiting” on God, than all the theological discussions in the world.  The subject, as you know, is one of deep interest to me.

I have not answered your letter, because I was not quite sure what it was best to say.  During the winter I was not sure what had come between us, and thought it best to let time show; and I have been harassed and perplexed by certain anxieties, with which it did not seem necessary to trouble you, to a degree that may have given me a preoccupied manner.  There have been points where I wanted a divine illumination which I did not get.  I wanted to hear, “This is the way, walk in it”; but that word has not come yet, and almost all my spiritual life has been running in that one line, keeping me, necessarily, out of sympathy with everybody.  As far as this has been a fault, it has reacted upon you, to whom I ought to have been more of a help.  But I can say that it delights me to see you even trying to take a step onward, and to know that while still young, and with the temptations of youth about you, you have set your face heavenward.  Your temptations, like mine, are through the affections.  “Only God can satisfy a woman”; and yet we try, every now and then, to see if we can’t find somebody else worth leaning on. We never shall, and it is a great pity we can not always realise it.  I never deliberately make this attempt now, but am still liable to fall into the temptation.  I am sure that I can never be really happy and at rest out of or far from Christ, nor do I want to be.  Getting new and warm friends is all very well, but I emerge from this snare into a deepening conviction that I must learn to say, “None but Christ."...  Now, dear ——­, it is a dreadful thing to be cold towards our best Friend’; a calamity if it comes upon us through Satan; a sin and folly if it is the result of any fault or omission of our own.  There is but one refuge from it, and that is in just going to Him and telling Him all about it.  We can not force ourselves to love Him, but we can ask Him to give us the love, and sooner or later He will.  He may seem not to hear, the answer may come gradually and imperceptibly, but it will come.  He has given you one friend at