39G MEMOIR OF GEORGE WILSON. CHAP. IX. 



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 think- 

 ing 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 a verse I had been reading 

 the moment before. To me the prayer of the humblest Chris- 

 tian, however defective he may be in other gifts and graces 

 than those which God grants to the weakest brethren, is always 

 comforting and refreshing ; and it brings you and me closer 

 than railways could if we can rejoice together, as having ' one 

 faith, one Lord, one baptism.' You please me much with what 

 you say of the hymn. It is not the expression of unfelt or put 

 on emotion, nor does it pretend to be poetry. Before I die I 

 hope to gather together a set of hymns for the sick-room, and 

 if I don't live long enough to accomplish this, I can comfort 

 myself with the thought that there is abundance already. 



" And now I will trouble you no further. Your namesake, 

 the prophet, was in a den of lions, and God shut their mouths. 

 Yours is a trial of an opposite kind, for the den and the lions 

 are in you. Their mouths can be shut by God also, and I pray 

 that they may. I never can cease admiring that beautiful re- 

 quest of the Prayer-book, ' A happy issue out of all their afflic- 

 tion.' It is so humble, so undictating to God, so moderate, yet 

 so ample. God give that to us both. Amen. In His way and 

 time, and in this world and in the next. . . . 



" To be well enough to work is the wish of my natural heart ; 

 but if that may not be, I know that ' they also serve who only 

 stand and wait.' God will not require healthy men's labour 

 from you or me ; and if we are poor in power and opportunity 

 to serve Him, our widow's mite will weigh against the gold 

 ingots of His chosen apostles. 



