“I cannot grasp the idea of an Infinite Being; but, without perplexing myself with questions which I cannot solve, everything around me proclaims the presence and the government of an intelligent, law-abiding Law-giver, and I believe implicitly in his power and his love.  But I must have the Friend of sinners to rest in.”

And again:  “In one sense, as Creator and Benefactor, I feel this Infinite Being to be my Father, but I want a Jesus whom I can approach as a fellow creature, yet who is so nearly allied to God that I can look up to Him with reverence, and love Him and lie in His bosom.”

And later, in a letter to Gerrit Smith, she says:—­

“God is love, and whoso dwelleth in love dwelleth in God and God in him.  O friends, but for this faith, this anchor to the soul both sure and steadfast, I know not what would have become of us in the sweep which there has been of what we called the doctrines of Christianity from our minds.  They have passed away like the shadows of night, but the glorious truth remains that the Lord of love and mercy reigns, and great peace have they who do His will.”

Their increasingly liberal views, and their growing indifference to most of the established forms in religion, drew upon them the severe censure of their Charleston relatives, and finally, when, about 1847, it came to be known that they no longer considered the Sabbath in a sacred light, their sister Eliza wrote to them that all personal intercourse must end between them and her, and that her doors would be forever closed against them.  Angelina’s answer, covering four full pages of foolscap, was most affectionate; but, while she expressed her sorrow at the feeling excited against them, she could not regret that they had been brought from error to truth.  She argued the point fully, patiently giving all the best authorities concerning the substitution of the Christian for the Jewish Sabbath, and against their sister’s assertion that the former was a divine institution.

“When I began to understand,” she says, “what the gift of the Holy Spirit really was, then all outwardisms fell off.  I did not throw them off through force of argument or example of others, but all reverence for them died in my heart.  I could not help it; it was unexpected to me, and I wondered to find even the Sabbath gone.  And now, to give to God alone the ceaseless worship of my life is all my creed, all my desire.  Oh, for this pure, exalted state, how my soul pants after it!  In my nursery and kitchen and parlor, when ministering to the common little wants of my family, and encountering the fretfulness and waywardness of my children, oh, for the pure worship of the soul which can enable me to meet and bear all the little trials of life in quietness and love and patience.  This is the religion of Christ, and I feel that no other can satisfy me or meet the wants of human nature.  I cannot sanction any other, and I dare not teach any other to my precious children.”