1854] APPEAL TO AN UNCONVERTED FRIEND. 175 tion of another kind; apology is not the word to use in that case. I have done violence to my sense of duty in excluding religious topics from my letters to you. I have even gone further, and omitted them in my letters to Mary because you would see them; though Mary and I have talked freely on these matters. "I fear lest you should suspect me of dictation. But why should you? If I possessed some earthly good which was accessible to you, and I recommended it as a thing that I experimentally knew to be good, you would not deem me impertinent or dictatorial. If religion be a good at all, it is the highest good, and I cannot give you a stronger proof of my regard for you, than by evincing my anxiety that you and my beloved cousin should be its possessors. You have many sources of happiness. They are innocent, lawful, and commendable, but they do not satisfy. The joys of social and domestic life, of intercourse with nature, of association with great and noble minds, are all pure and rich; but even in their highest realization, they proclaim we were created for something nobler still. "I can speak confidently on this subject, for I have drunk of the purest streams of earthly enjoyment, and my spirit still yearned for higher good. I have struggled through many tangled mazes of error-subtle and dangerous because they ministered to my spiritual pride, and I have asked many times with Pilate, 'What is truth?' I have sought it amid the thousand voices that have clamoured to be heard with Babel-like confusion, but I found it only when I threw aside the flimsy systems of men, and the false theories my own brain had created, and came to the Bible with the trusting faith and simple inquiring spirit with which I first spelled out its wondrous tale of love at my mother's knee. 66 Do you ask what religion has done for me? I answer much more than I can ever tell. It has satisfied my soul's yearnings. It has given me peace, and an assurance of safety. It has secured to me all that is really good for me in this life, and it points to the highest bliss which even an Almighty Donor can confer as my inheritance in the life to come. These are only some of the benefits it has con ferred. Ought I not to recommend it? Can you feel annoyed at my doing so? I am sure you cannot. "Could I persuade you to give this subject but one hour's patient, thoughtful, and prayerful consideration-to weigh the claims of religion with as much earnestness and care as you would an important mercantile transaction, and then act upon your convictions, I am sure you would become a Christian. Believe me, it would not adulterate the springs of your present enjoyment. It would ennoble all your intellectual pursuits, and make your life happier, nobler, and more useful. "I should be glad to know your views on this matter. I have introduced it thus because I believe you regard it as a subject for calm, rational investigation. You must excuse me if I have said anything offensive. I did not intend it. I know Mary would rejoice in the knowledge that you had decided to live for God. And she is prepared to join you in the decision." "and "The neighbourhood in which Miss Hessel resided is exceedingly lovely," says one of her literary friends, there is no wonder that a mind sensitively constituted, and appreciating beauty in all its forms and adaptations, should there find much intellectual felicity. Agreeable walks over a fine limestone terrace, dotted all over with a most varied and exquisite flora, the rush of rapid waters between wooded banks and romantic crags, splendid views of outlying pastoral country, with rustic cottages embowered on the slopes of the upland, or half hidden in the rural valley-all these had charms for her which she felt intensely. This love for beauty in nature had increased as her powers became developed-it gave zest to every walk-the summer insect with its ephemeral life-the early spring flower, promise of lovelier blossomings-the glowing, glorious tints of the autumnal trees-the song of birds, the bleat of lambs-the thousand voices, scents, and sights of the country, all became her companions and teachers. She held communion with them, they were 'The consecration and the poet's dream.' Whilst she observed she felt and learned-recognizing a Father's hand in them all. In drawing lessons from such objects as attracted her, she aimed pre-eminently at being useful-deriving some comforting or strengthening devotional thought from them."-The latter portion of this statement is verified by a production of the preceding summer, written in fulfilment of the promise to her London friend. On transmitting it, after a suitable apology for delay, she says: "However I did what Dr. Chalmers recom mended his students at St. Andrews to do-instead of waiting for the inspiration, I sat down doggedly this morning resolved to write something. And here it is fresh from the mint, as new as, or rather, newer than this morning's Times. I am only sorry it is not more worthy your acceptance. I wish I could send you the bouquet which suggested the lines, all dripping with dew as I gathered it in the early morning. It would speak to you with a silent though living eloquence that my pen would fain rival but cannot.” In dew-gemmed beauty, cluster round thy path, Hath traced, in the exquisitely veined leaf, These are the o'erflowings of His goodness,— Art thou His child? and when He speaks, can'st thou, 'My Father ?" Then behold His autograph! May be to thee; each calyx studded thick 1855] A SOCIAL PICTURE. 179 CHAPTER VIII. A social picture-Coleridge's Aids to Reflection-Martin's Last Judgment, and other paintings-Letter to a friend on reaching his majority—National sins-Coleridge's Ancient Mariner—Reason, faith, and unbelief-Gilfillan's Galleries of Portraits-Bigg's Night and the Soul-On the condition of disembodied spiritsDeath of her Uncle Campbell-Rev. B. Gregory-Joy amid sorrow -Dr. Channing-Gay parties-Vinet's Gospel Studies. THE year 1855 opened auspiciously on Miss Hessel. It brought facilities for a long purposed visit to her friend at Leeds. On Jan. 22nd she endeavours to enable Mrs. Wto realize her social felicity. "Imagine our little coterie ; good, sober, sterling Mr. R, and his excellent wife, with a beautiful soul, sanctified and ennobled by a deep and vigorous piety, who throws all her energies into the service of her Redeemer, and might say with Elijah, 'I have been very jealous for the Lord God of Hosts,' for she is the champion of the religion of the Bible against all innovations. Then comes my gentle, high-souled, deep-thinking friend Sarah, whose inner life, with its calm depths of thought, is penetrated by few even of her friends, but in the sanctuary of whose heart I feel I have a place, won only by years of reciprocated sentiment and feeling. How much I owe to her, I can know only in eternity; but I thank God for such a friend. Then there is Mr. H- with his marvellous faculty of turning everything into fun, and who entertains us with wit, satire, and puns in endless variety; and little T—, who was made to be teazed by H— and who seems to think that rather unfortunate. and sis., |