1S53-1S59] My Af. L* :rs on R , ^n 175 



and affectionate looks you have given me when I know you 

 have been miserablv uncomfortable. 



. 



My heart has often been too full -peak or take any 

 notice. I am sure you know I love you well enough to 

 believe that I mind your sufferings, n. as much as I 

 should my own, and I find the only relief to my own mind 

 is to take it as from God's hand, and to try to believe 

 that all suffering and illness is meant to help us to exalt 

 our minds and to look forward with hope to a future stare. 

 When I see your patience, deep compassion for otht - 

 self-command, and above all gratitude for the smallest 

 thing done to help you, I cannot help longing that these 

 precious feelings should be offered to Heaven for the sake 

 of your daily happiness. But I find it difficult enough in 

 my own case. I often think of the words, w Thou shalt keep 

 him in perfect peace whose mind is -: ~ed on thee/' It 

 is feeling and not reasoning that drives one to prayer. I feel 

 presumptuous in writing this to you. 



I feel in my inmost heart your admirable qualities and 

 feelings, and all I would hope is that you might direct 

 them upwards, as well as to one who values them above 

 everything in the world. I shall keep this by me till I 

 feel cheerful and comfortable again about you, but it has 

 passed through my mind often lately so I thought I would 

 write it, partly to relieve my own mind. 



Below are the words : 



" God bless you. C. D. June, 1S61." 



She spoke little to us about her religious feelings. I 

 remember once, when I was a girl, her telling me that she 

 had often felt she could only bear her anxiety by saying a 

 prayer for help. As years went on her beliefs must have 

 greatly changed, but she kept a sorrowful wish to believe 

 more, and I know that it was an abiding sadness to her that 

 her faith was less vivid than it had been in her vouth. It 



* 



would however give a wrong impression, if it was thought 

 that this overclouded her life. Her perfect unselfishness 

 and active goodness gave her rest, peace and happiness. 



