256 MEMOIR OF GEORGE WILSON. CHAP. IX 



suitable for one mind Mill not serve another, and that what 

 profited me may not benefit you. I have nothing but my 

 own experience to speak certainly from ; but, after all, we 

 are of like passions and infirmities, and will be more or less 

 affected in the same way by the same causes. 



" Neither do I forget that a mind unstrung for secular 

 study is enfeebled for religious work also. How often have 

 I this summer felt a mean, childish gladness, that the chapter 

 to be read was a short one ; and been as apathetic as if there 

 were neither God nor devil in the universe. 



"Nevertheless, we have a promise of the Holy Spirit's 

 help in our religious work, which, as it is supernatural in 

 nature and source, is not at the mercy of sickness. It does 

 not, in reference to this, at all matter what theological 

 theory we hold as to inspiration. We both believe that 

 one of the good gifts which Christ's death procured for us 

 is the sanctifying presence of the Holy Ghost in our hearts. 

 We cannot distinguish His workings from those of our own 

 spirits, yet we can believe that where it may please God to 

 cut us off from relish and capacity for the ordinary affairs of 

 life, He may yet increase our spiritual powers, and teach us 

 more of His ' deep things,' and make us liker Himself. 

 The incapacity, indeed, in the one direction may be a 

 provision for greater endowment in the other, and the 

 shadow which ill health casts over the soul is often the 

 most befitting background, and lets us realize best, by the 

 contrast, the presence and the brightness of the ' Light of 

 Life.' 



"I have been preaching to myself all this while, and 

 thinking through my pen. I have said nothing that you 

 do not know. It would be a sad thing for us if we had to 

 indulge in novelties. But I know how thankful I am to get 

 a hint from a religious friend, though he should but repeat 



