Church of England -- Clergy -- Correspondence; Clergy -- England -- Correspondence; Robinson, Forbes, 1867-1904 -- Correspondence
The term is almost over . . . I am enjoying a quiet Sunday. What a
blessing these Sundays are {182} to us--a foretaste of a fuller life of
service and worship hereafter! I have been thinking lately with comfort
of the quiet perpetual work of the Holy Spirit, silently but surely
leading us on to higher things--comforting, correcting, guiding. It
gives ground for hope in dealing with men, this knowledge that there is
One who perfects what we feebly struggle to begin, who watches over men
with a love that will not let them go. We are not alone in our work; we
have omnipotence and illimitable wisdom on our side, forwarding our
efforts. When I consider what the Spirit has accomplished in my own
life, I have large hope for others. The argument from personal
experience is singularly convincing. 'The fellowship of the Holy
Ghost'--it is He who unites men and interprets them one to the other. It
is He who gives spirit and life to our words.
_To H. J. B._
Bexley House, Cromer: March 31, 1903.
It was good of you to send me that card from Florence. You don't know
how glad it made me. To know that you were thinking of me was a strength
to me. Your love for me comes as a perpetual surprise and inspiration.
I feel a brute compared with you, but the knowledge that you care for me
more than you do for most men makes me feel that I must try to be good.
'In Italy of the fifteenth century renaissance we see in strange
confusion all that we love in art, and all that we loathe in man!' Greek
history was short compared {183} with the Hebrew: I suppose because
intellectual and artistic ideals are more easily realised than ethical
and religious. It takes time to make a saint. It is part of the
discipline of life to find the two sets of ideas apparently antagonistic.
There is a higher unity in which they are blended--in God Himself. It
must be right to follow the dictates of conscience when it bids us lose
our soul if we would gain it. We cannot trust God too much. If we
forget our self, He will see that our truest self is ultimately realised.
I can't express myself well, for I have just finished a spell of hard
work. I have sent away my tripos papers to-night. I am going up to
Edinburgh on Friday or Saturday. I fear I shall not see you until April
21. Will you tell Armitage that I will, if convenient to him, sleep at
Westminster that night instead of going straight to Cambridge? The
hopelessness of ever showing my gratitude to you or of ever making you
realise how much I love you oppresses me. I don't know what I should do
if I had not One Higher than I am to confide in--if I could not leave you
in His hands--if I could not gain strength and life for you by appealing
to Him.
O brother, if my faith is vain,
If hopes like these betray,
Pray for me, that I too may gain
The sure and safer way.
And Thou, O God, by whom are seen
Thy creatures as they be,
Forgive me if too close I lean
My human heart on Thee!
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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