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LAST YEARS IN ENGLAND. [Chap. VI. 



deny it and empty it. The spiritual process is difficult ; for 

 this denial of self may, if not guarded against, be only the 

 erection of another plane of the self-will : and while we are 

 thinking that all is going on well, we awake by-and-by to the 

 consciousness that it is only one phase of the self-hood 

 destroyed by another phase of it, which has become all the 

 stronger from the work in which it has been engaged. This 

 death of the self-hood is, after all, really the Lord's work ; and it 

 includes the death of all one's righteousnesses, as well as of all 

 one's sins. We are forms receptive of the divine life, which 

 flows in just as we are emptied of self. But there is no 

 difference here between our natural virtues and our natural 

 {tyvyiKo) vices. We must be emptied of all, if we would 

 become wholly alive in the Lord. And hence we see the 

 necessity of the baptism of sorrow ; but the Lord has passed 

 through it all before, and in his divine and glorified humanity 

 can sympathize with the weakest of his children. Oh, the 

 Lord's love for his people ! It knows no bounds ; it is infinite 

 and boundless as himself, and we are not forsaken or for- 

 gotten." 



His letters had shown us, for some time, that he felt it was 

 " not good that man should be alone : " and after receiving 

 hopeful tidings from Baltimore, he visited his friends Mr. and 

 Mrs. Robson at Barmouth ; and there opened his heart to 

 their guest, Miss Minna Meyer of Hamburg, who had for 

 many years resided in the neighbourhood of Warrington. 

 They had known each other well and long ; she sympathized 

 with those religious feelings which were to him of supreme 

 importance, and she took a deep interest in what he told her 

 of Robbie, to whom she was ready to give a maternal welcome : 

 it was agreed that they should be married soon after his arrival. 

 Philip had now to consider not himself alone in the adorn- 

 ment of his home. To receive a variety of presents was a new 

 and unwelcome experience. He not only felt that it was "more 

 blessed to give than to receive," but was apt to dislike receiving ! 

 " The things the good people are giving me are only wants, 

 because said people choose to consider them so : and it is 



