_February 27._--In bed all day. There are duties still undone though I see death near. _February 28._--Not in college. Much time wasted and [I was] disobedient to the voice of duty. _March 15._--A little more work for my children to-day. I thank Thee for some help. May I consecrate time and energies to Thee. _April 5._--Tried, but not successfully, with my Confirmation children. Feeling too ill to do well. Thy Will be done. In 1882 she passed through a time of great darkness and depression, but she finally won through as one of her indomitable spirit was bound to do. When this experience had passed Dorothea Beale had changed. Her religion had become more spiritual; her knowledge of other souls more intimate; her desire to help those passing through similar experiences, intense. One of the immediate results of her time of difficulty was the starting of Quiet Days or Retreats for teachers at Cheltenham at the end of the summer term, alternatively with the biennial Guild meetings. To her, a teacher’s work was first and foremost spiritual; and she realised the need of times of refreshment and re-establishment in the faith for those who are continually “giving out”. The Quiet Days she established proved a great help to many teachers from all parts, and her letters to old pupils and others passing through times of difficulty reveal a great insight only given by personal experience. To her friend, Miss Belcher, she wrote:-- “We were all so full of hope at first and are much disappointed that relief has not come; ... I think, perhaps, you may be specially suffering for one, that her faith may be once more awakened. Every sufferer thus ‘lifted up’ does in a measure draw the hearts of others to Him through whom we are able to reveal the power of faith.” To another she wrote:-- “I have just heard of this fresh trouble. Surely you must be intended to do some work for others specially needing heart’s blood. This paper was put into my hands just as I heard of your fresh disappointment and anxiety.” The mediatorial and purifying purpose of suffering is an idea frequently found in her writing. The South African War was a great burden on her mind. In 1900 she wrote:-- “It is difficult to keep up one’s active powers with this nightmare; one is so sure that all suffering is intended to be purifying and we must glorify God in the fires.”