54 MINISTRY AT STAND. [Chap. III. 



of the power is in Him, who maketh even the sins of man to 

 praise Him. And I earnestly pray that I may be enabled to 

 ascribe to Him all the glory. But it is hard striving against 

 self; one would have thought that sin had at least taught 

 me the lesson of humility. What shall I say to you, dearest 

 brother ? That I have the same feelings and hopes for you ? 

 No ; for it might grieve you, as it did me. But let us each 

 labour ourselves, and pray for a blessing on the labours of the 

 other. This do I most fervently for thee." 



In Dr. Martineau's " Hours of Thought," * he shows how it 

 is that, " strange as it may seem, it is not the guilty that know 

 the most of guilt : it is the pure, the lofty, the faithful, that 

 are for ever haunted by the sense of sin, and are compelled by 

 it to throw themselves upon a love they never doubt, yet cannot 

 claim. . . . Why are the prayers of prophets and the hymns of 

 saintly souls so pathetic in their penitence, so full of the plain- 

 tive music of baffled aspiration, like the cry of some bird with 

 broken wing? It is because to them the truly infinite nature 

 of holiness has revealed itself, and reveals itself the more, 

 the higher they rise." Whilst the service of the Church com- 

 mences with the general confession of the worshippers as 

 " miserable offenders," those who are about to partake of 

 the Communion speak in stronger condemnation of their sins 

 — "the burden of them is intolerable." The repetition of a 

 form of contrition may be formal; but the letter we have 

 quoted contains the outpourings of Philip's heart, and his 

 private papers show that, while he spoke sternly of the sins 

 of others, he was a still sterner judge of himself. Sometimes 

 the sense of sin is wakened by chastisement, but often it is 

 the light of heaven that reveals to us stains of earth. The 

 next day he wrote to his sister: "I was picking up jewels on 

 the Delectable Mountains yesterday, but now I am down in the 

 dirt washing them." 



He has referred to the Methodists. He afterwards said, 

 "I attended a Wesleyan Mission meeting last Monday, and was, 

 as usual, greatly edified. It quickens me up to home exertions. 



* "The Finite and the Infinite in Human Nature," pp. 198, 199. 



