i860.] THE CHRISTIAN LIFE, 249 



would not be satisfied without my seeing her in her own home. 

 This we found ornamented with a number of choice flowers, 

 which Sir John Bowring, with his usual thoughtful kindness, had 

 brought her up from the old family house at Exeter. He was 

 stopping with my second sister, Mrs. Herbert Thomas, where 

 we went to breakfast next morning, to meet him. He was full 

 of life and anecdote : told horrible things of some of the under- 

 functionaries from the Slave States at Hong Kong. ... It 

 does one good to see so many superior people; but is not a 

 little fatiguing." 



Though he expressed himself with vivacity, his heart was 

 heavy, from not knowing the fate of his boy ; and at one time 

 he thought he must return to the United States. He wrote to 

 his sister : " The effort to control myself and keep calm since 

 I left America has made me weak physically." In the middle 

 of July, he visited his beloved fellow-labourer, the Rev. F. 

 Howorth, at Bury, preached for him, and was baptised by him 

 (as our father regarded infant baptism as unscriptural, none of 

 us had been christened). To this valued friend he wrote as 

 follows, respecting the Christian life : — 



"Our sinful natures are the same, and our redemption and 

 salvation are the same, and the means by which the Lord 

 works are the same — so far as the paths of self-denial and 

 sorrow are concerned. Only the measure and degree, and the 

 instruments by which the Lord works, are different ; but in each 

 case no doubt wisely adapted to the end, and, we may rest 

 assured, not one grain heavier than the need of our souls 

 demands. I suppose that in proportion to the positive nature, 

 the resolute self-will of each one, must be the force proportioned 

 to break in pieces the hard heart. A plastic will may be easily 

 regenerated : a strong will, while it must be reduced into the 

 same receptive condition, has to pass through the furnace of 

 affliction — but in proportion to the hardness of the metal to be 

 melted and moulded. And then the Lord never breaks, he 

 only bends, and in this way forms anew the character of 

 his children. I have had to learn this lesson ; to have no will 

 of my own ; and where the self-will shows itself, at once to 



