[Transcriber's note: The Greek phrases in the above paragraph were transliterated as follows: _phobos_--phi, omicron, beta, omicron, final sigma; _ouk_--omicron, upsilon, kappa; _estin_--epsilon, sigma, tau, iota, nu; _en_--epsilon, nu; _te_--tau, eta; _agape_--alpha, gamma, alpha, pi, eta; _hoti_--(rough breathing mark) omicron, tau, iota; _agape_--alpha, gamma, alpha, pi, eta; _kaluptei_--kappa, alpha, lambda, upsilon, pi, tau, epsilon, iota; _plethos_--pi, lambda, eta, theta, omicron, final sigma; _amartion_--alpha, mu, alpha, rho, tau, iota, omega, nu; _didote_--delta, iota, delta, omicron, tau, epsilon; _kai_--kappa, alpha, iota; _dothesetai_--delta, omicron, theta, eta, sigma, eta, tai, alpha, iota; _humin_--(rough breathing mark) upsilon, mu, iota, nu] Your faith can only grow with exercise, and you exercise it by praying for others. You would only be selfish if you prayed for some one else _in order that_ your own soul might be benefited. But don't think too much of selfishness. Bring {156} all your half selfish desires to Him who knows us through and through; and in His presence, almost unconsciously, your motives will gradually be purified. You will learn to walk in the light as He Himself is in the light. As I look back on this letter, a large part of it seems selfish. I expect much is; but, even in the selfish parts, there is something more besides. I can only just say what I feel, and ask God gradually to eliminate what is wrong. In His light I shall see light. Life is large, and I am fearful lest, in attempting a rough and ready asceticism, I should exclude as wrong some elements which are in reality God-given. I feel that in the case of our affections and our longing for beauty. They are implanted in us, and tended and watered by One who is perfect Love and perfect Beauty. They easily lead us into sin, but that fact does not imply that they are wrong in themselves. We have to bring them to their source that He may interpret them, 'Too late have I sought thee,' said Augustine, 'thou Beauty, so ancient and so new, too late have I sought thee.' I cannot understand the mystery of your life, dearest, but I feel that all that craving for beauty is in some kind of way a craving for God. Only God demands the first place in your life before He will give you any satisfying interpretation of that aspect of His life. You must love Him for what He is--not simply because He is Beauty. I slept and dreamed that life was Beauty, I woke and found that life is Duty. {157} They are not really contradictory conceptions. Nay, Duty has a spiritual beauty of her own. But sometimes they seem for a moment divergent, and then you must at all costs choose the latter, and you will find that The topmost crags of Duty scaled, Are close upon that shining tableland To which God Himself is shield and sun. And, if I am not mistaken, that land will be utterly full of an absolutely satisfying beauty.