368 MEMOIR OF GEORGE WILSON. CHAP. IX. 



served, and which conscience ever holds open before them ; and 

 with a reference to Christ as the great example, I concluded. 



" I hope you will not think all this a lore ; I thought you and 

 John would be glad to know how things were managed at our 

 medical meetings here. Ask him to tell me by his own pen, or by 

 yours, of his meetings with the students in London." 



A few extracts from letters, according to date, will best illus- 

 trate the deep spirituality and growing holiness of the writer. To 

 one who had just lost a brother, he says, in 1845, " To myself 

 to die and be with Christ, seems so much better than any pos- 

 sible way of serving God here, that I cannot prevent myself 

 thinking of your brother, as Peden did of Eichard Cameron, 

 when he came to his grave to say, 'Oh ! to be wi' Richie !'" To a 

 fellow- chemist, 1 in 1848, "There are none, I am sure, who ought 

 to be more religious than men of science, professing as they do, 

 to love God's works, and to know them better than others. There 

 are none, too, who need religion more, for the isolation of their 

 pursuits narrows their hearts, and the struggle for places and 

 distinctions, in which all are involved who, like you and me, 

 must live l>y science as well as for it, leads to rivalries, heart- 

 burnings, and disappointments ; and sows, with the devil's help, 

 the seeds of envy, hatred, malice, and all uncharitableness. 

 Nothing but the restraining grace of God, and the presence of 

 his Spirit, and the all-prevailing mediation of the Saviour, can 

 keep us from falling. Nothing but the full realization of the 

 manifest and yet ever-forgotten truth, that God is much greater 

 than all his works, and a far nobler object of love, can elevate 

 our affections." 



To Mr. Alexander Macmillan, Cambridge, in 1850, "In 

 what you say of Christ and His example, I cordially join. It 

 is a blessed thing, as a friend said to me, to have a creed ; not 

 that any man will be bettered by adopting one, unless it is his 

 soul's belief. I mourn, however, over many whom I know, who 

 are always learning, and never coming to a knowledge of the 

 truth ; who are bewailing the bigotry, narrowness, and effete- 

 ness of modern churches, and seeking for some new catholicon 

 to heal all. Far be it from me to defend our religious bodies 



1 Professor Voelcker, Cirencester. 



