Beale, Dorothea, 1831-1906; Cheltenham Ladies' College -- History; Teachers -- England -- Biography
‘Perhaps you will soon find some ways more suited to yourself
than some of those I have suggested; but you asked me. I
will try to get a beautiful prayer I have heard asking for
light. It may be that the answer will be a baptism of fire;—a
heaping coals of fire on our heads, and thus purifying us from
evil. I would say earnestly, compel yourself (though often
unwillingly), to look up to the Father, as the noblest souls
have done in all ages, whether Christian or not. You must catch
some beams of heavenly light, and see, as St. Stephen did, that
man may be glorified to stand at the Right Hand of God, and to
share with Him in carrying out His purposes of love. I think
you will be led on to see the Father revealed in the Son; to me
He is the Way, and it seems His words are true for us now: “No
man cometh _unto_ the Father (cometh near so as to see and know
Him) but by Me.”
‘May the Good Shepherd lead you to green pastures and the still
waters of comfort.’
To one who found danger and unreality in forms and ceremonies, and who
wrote: ‘I feel I am cutting myself off from you in writing like this.’
She replied:—
‘_PS._—Nothing will cut you off from me. I thought I had given
no rules, only such suggestions as a heathen philosopher might
have followed. I wrote my letter hastily; I should like to see
what I said.
‘Your letter gave me pain, which was partly selfish, to find I
was too ignorant to help you. We must have a little talk some
day.’
To one who had written that she had to fight hard against pessimism
caused by much unaccountable and apparently needless suffering. She
answered:—
‘_November 10, 1895._
‘I think our faith in God, as in any person, rests more on what
He is than what He does....
‘Now I come to the conclusion:—
‘(1) That in Nature is revealed an intelligence whose limits
we cannot see; One, _i.e._ infinitely wise and mighty. (2) In
good men we see benevolence, the earnest desire to bless up to
the limits of their power. In the Christ we see this without
any limit of selfishness, and we say, If Man, the Son, is thus
loving, then the Father is love. “No man knoweth the Father,
but the Son.” We can approach God, so as to know the character
of God, only thus, it seems to me. You have here the argument
of Saul (Browning). Then when you allege against the witness
of the heart, the facts of Nature, I answer that however
inexplicable by us these facts are, this witness for God, which
comes from within, cannot be overthrown.
‘Nor, indeed, does that fact of animals preying on one another
trouble me much. Death to them, _i.e._ the stopping of the
activities of life suddenly, whilst they are in full vigour,
seems better than the gradual decay of sickness. There is with
them no anticipation and no joy in cruelty.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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