18

To a Friend on the Anniversary of her Sister's Death

December 1908.

I must just write you one line to say how much I shall be thinking of you to-morrow, and especially at the Mass. These anniversaries are so terrible, bringing back one by one the details of the past, moment by moment; and I know how you suffered this time last year. But the grave, however dark, has the other side to the eye of faith; while the Magdalene looked into the grave and wept she saw the vision of Angels, and the empty Tomb, and the Presence of our Lord and so can we. As we look on and pray and weep, gradually Faith gives the clearer vision, and around it, through it, we see the light of joy for those we love. 'He is not here '-so said the Angels, and those we love are not in the tomb but the land of light and peace. On this side of the grave there are weeping friends and breaking hearts, but of those for whom we weep we can at times get glimpses where there is no more sorrow nor weeping nor any more grief, for God has wiped away all tears from their eyes. A year on earth measured by the progress of a soul that has gone to God must bring such progress of sanctity and knowledge that we can scarcely imagine it.

19

To a Friend whose Sister was going through a Time of great Bodily Pain

[Undated.]

I am indeed sorry to hear that your sister is suffering so much again and that the improvement

was so short-lived; it must be wearing and exhausting.

It is comparatively easy to brace oneself to bear pain for a time, but a fearful ordeal to find it go on indefinitely. I always think of suffering in relation to Satan's challenge to God: 'Doth Job serve God for nought, try him, and he will curse Thee to Thy face.' The challenge, unheard by Job, as to whether he did not serve God for what he got from Him. The challenge, in other words, whether men love God for Himself or His gifts. To that challenge God's answer was, very well, try him, I trust him; but he limited Satan first to test him through loss of external things, and when he had proved faithful, he allowed him to be tested through bodily and mental suffering of the acutest form. He was, unknown to himself, witnessing to the unseen world how man can love God, and at the same time his own faith was being purified and cleansed. Who knows how far-reaching your sister's sufferings may prove, as a witness to God in this world and the other. But the real test is that the sufferer cannot see its meaning or why he is tested. Perhaps Satan has challenged God as to what kind of faith and love she has, and she is proving by her effort to be patient how real and deep it is. I wish I could help her; but when it comes to the deepest things no one can give real help but God.

20

Letter to One who had been passing through a Series of Severe Trials

[Undated.]

How God has been trying you of late-one thing after another. What does it mean?-yet it surely does mean something. It certainly makes one feel the

uncertainty of everything, and makes one know, even if one can't feel, that time dwindles into insignificance as eternity looms up before us. And yet what is eternity, and what influence can it have upon us, but a cold and dreary waste which we can't even try to fill up by our imagination without God. A great all-satisfying Person makes eternity tingle with life, and furnishes and warms it; we can't imagine it, except with the thought and love of God. We may dread and fear death, and shudder to look out beyond it into the unknown-and it is unknown-unthinkable -impossible to imagine, except as filled with a Presence which changes everything. Certainly He has been training you, at any rate in detachment-first one thing and then another, and now this; and in the time of uncertainty you can only try to love and cling to the Will of God whatever it may be.

How each of these letters bears the impress of the person to whom it is written! The writer seems in each case to feel the character with which he is in touch, always with the same aim of bringing God nearer and making each soul realise Him as the true comforter. The next letter is to a friend undergoing a long and severe illness.

21

December 31, 1893.

I have so wanted to tell you how much I think of all you have had to and still are suffering-now just on the threshold of the New Year, may I write just a line.

You have had so much to bear for so long, it must make one ask is there not a reason? and to me the

reason seems almost plain. Some have to work with hand or heart or brain, others have to do even more work, through suffering. It was not our Lord's words or even His love which saved the world, but His Cross and Passion. May it not be true that one should believe humbly that's [her brother] extraordinary power is in some sort gained and blessed through what you have had to bear for so long. We know how truly if one member suffer 'spiritually' all the members suffer with it. We can't, I think, doubt that much of the active work of the Church at home and in the missions is held up and blessed through those who suffer hiddenly in hidden homes and on hospital beds. People don't think of them or even thank God for them, when they rejoice in the work of some great teacher or bishop; but it may be God's eyes are resting on those sufferers, and because of what they are striving to bear so bravely God blesses the work. Spiritual relationships are strong, but when they are also bound up with natural relationships they must be stronger, and so, who can tell how much work you are doing for God while you are simply lying in bed, and feeling as if you could not bear it all much longer. So many men in -'s position, and with his extraordinary gift, get spoilt-people run after such a man till his life gets lowered and dragged down. I scarcely knew him till yesterday, and to-day, when I saw how truly power was going out of him, I like to think that you are allowed to hold up his hands, as two unknown men held up the hands of Moses while the battle went on. I do not think there is anything the least unreal in such a thought, nor should it rob one of the true and proper human desire and hope to get well. But I think it does give hope as long as one is ill, and enables one to see while one lies like a log, unable to do anything but endure, and offer it to God, that such time is not

wasted; and may God give you in the New Year many blessings for all your kindness to me. . . .

22

To the Same

October 24, 1894.

I have just been reading one of Mr. Carter's Meditations, where he says our Lord taught us that the life of the creature consisted in entire dependence upon God's will, seen only in the ordinary circumstances of life, and the need of the open eye of faith to be able to see God's will in such things, or anything but chance. But when faith does get a glimpse of God's will, ‘a thread of eternity running through and combining all the chances of time,' there we get the key to the mystery, not indeed so as to understand things, but so as to be able to accept them. He told Peter when he was young he planned his own life with more or less selfwill, but when thou shalt be old thou shalt stretch forth thy hands, and another shall gird thee and carry thee whither thou wouldest not '-life's training leading to the spirit of acceptance. I was thinking the other day how strangely God seems to deal with all of you, so much trouble and suffering; but there is the other side, the wonderful blessing that follows all ——ʼs work.

's

23

To the Same

March 5, 1900.

I am so very sorry to hear of all your trouble again,

but I hope the worst is over. . .

But you are