30 Instances from Biography. CHAP. 



moreover, loss of power to serve God and man. We 



need 



A heart at leisure from itself, 

 To soothe and sympathise. 



If biography tells little of the injury due by such 

 causes, this is because those who suffer from them 

 longest and most deeply are the least inclined to 

 make their injuries and sufferings known : it is in- 

 evitable, and not on the whole to be regretted, that 

 in general the successes of every system of religious 

 education should be recorded, and its failures for- 

 gotten. Evidence on this subject is, however, to be 

 found. One instance is afforded in the life of that 

 sweet singer and noble - minded woman Frances 

 Ridley Havergal. 1 We are told in the autobio- 

 graphical fragment published in her Memoirs, that 

 from the age of six to that of fourteen she suffered 

 from religious fears, and did not venture to call her- 

 self a Christian ; and yet she appears to have been 

 through her whole life one of those who are clean, 

 and need not save to wash their feet. 2 So far as a 

 reader of her life and writings can judge, the suffer- 

 ings of that pure and spiritually aspiring child were 

 totally needless, and due to erroneous teaching 

 respecting the kingdom of Him who desires His 



1 She says in a letter to a friend : " I am unable to fix the 

 date of my conversion." Most probably it was never needed, 

 and never occurred at all. I say this, knowing that she would 

 have regarded it as heresy. 



2 John xiii. 10. 



