_June 9._--Wrote to Miss Elwell. Letter from Cheltenham. Copied certificates. Worldly. Spoke angrily to A. At this time there are many allusions in her journal to crossness. Probably it was the result of that supreme test of the active, energetic mind--the enduring of uncertainty. In 1901 she wrote to a friend about this period of her life:-- “Once I had an interval of work, and I thought perhaps God would not give it me again--but after that interval He called me here. I think now I can see better how I needed that time of comparative quiet and solitude, and a time to think over my failures, and a time to be more helpful to my family.” Whilst still young, Dorothea Beale formed the habit of frequent attendance at early Communion, which she maintained all through her busy life. Like the saintly men and women of all ages, she felt that the more strenuous and exacting her work, the more she needed these hours of Communion. The Sacraments of the Church as generally necessary to salvation she believed to be two--Baptism and Holy Communion--but the whole of life to her was sacramental. More and more as years passed by did outward and visible things become to her the signs of inward and spiritual realities: to her, and to those of her school of thought, sacramentalism meant “the discovery of the river of the water of life flowing through the whole desert of human existence”. But Dorothea Beale was no dreamy, unpractical mystic, holding herself aloof from the practical difficulties of life. She realised that there is little value in a religion that cannot find expression in the life of every day; and little strength in the soul that is not continually fortified by the struggle of work and the carrying out of duty. “The religion of Dorothea Beale,” says Mrs. Raikes, “was far indeed from being a mere succession of beautiful and comforting thoughts. It meant authority. It involved all the difficulties of daily obedience, it meant the fatigue of watching, the pains of battle, sometimes the humiliation of defeat. Intense as was her feeling on religious subjects, it was never permitted to go off in steam, as she would term it, but became at once a practical matter for everyday life.” CHAPTER V. SMALL BEGINNINGS. O, I am sure they really came from Thee, The urge, the ardour, the unconquerable will, The potent, felt, interior command, stronger than words, A message from the Heavens whispering to me even in sleep. These speed me on. --WALT WHITMAN, “Prayer of Columbus”.