THIRD RESIDENCE AT CAPE TOWN. 135 



the day of his fierce anger." In the sermon, the application 

 was, of course, made to the sufferings of our Lord on the cross ; 

 but it is the language of every heart suffering under a keen 

 bereavement. And is there no source of consolation in turning 

 the mind from the individual sorrow to that far greater — that 

 unspeakably great suffering and affliction which He must have 

 felt as a man on whom was laid what as a mere man He never 

 could have supported ? To me, there is ; and it seems the only 

 satisfying refuge to which the harassed mind can turn and hide 

 its grief in thoughts that insensibly raise it above its own 

 individual sufferings. The hope of meeting hereafter is not of 

 itself sufficient, for there is nothing to dwell on and to rest 

 upon in the interim. It is at best but a dim shadow, scarcely 

 differing from what one feels on looking at a picture. I have 

 not much news; in fact, none. I pass a quieter and more 

 monotonous life than ever. There is no object in walking at 

 this season, for the country is withered. In a month more it 

 will be blooming again, studded with the many-coloured Ozalidete. 

 The child will then have its toys. 



Cape Town, September 11, 1841. 



You make some allusion in your letter to the still unsettled 

 state of your mind on the most important of all subjects. I am 

 equally at sea. That is, I am undecided as to the propriety of 

 joining absolutely with any body of Christians, the propriety 

 only, for in the present state of the Christian church I do not 

 think there is necessity laid upon its members to adhere 

 absolutely to any variety of creed. I am inclined to fix the 

 boundary of the Catholic church where Jeremy Taylor places it, 

 in his " Liberty of Prophesying," namely with a reception oi 

 the Apostles' creed. As far as I am myself concerned, I heartily 

 follow the Nicene formula, but I should hardly feel justified 

 (were I called on to decide) in declaring the reception of every 

 word of that creed an essential to the profession of Christianity. 

 There are many Quakers, I apprehend, who would stumble at 

 it, who yet may be very good Christians, and by no means 

 Socinians. I remember when I felt shocked at the word 

 " substance," without at all doubting the idea intended to be 

 conveyed, and many Quakers, I am sure, from early prejudice, 

 would feel a similar disinclination to receive it. My only 



