sforming influence which the studious
contemplation of all excellence exerts by a necessary law of our
nature; but whose Life and Death include all motives which can enforce
His lessons on humanity;--motives all intensely animated by the
conviction that He is a Living Personality, in communion with our own
spirits, and attracted towards us by all the sympathies of a friendship
truly Divine; "who can be touched with the feelings of our infirmities,
though Himself without sin." May He become so familiar to our souls,
that no suggestions of evil from within, no incursion of evil from
without, shall be so swift and sudden that the thought of Him shall
not be at least as near to our spirits, intercept the treachery of
our infirm nature, and guard that throne which He alone deserves to
fill; till, at every turn and every posture of our earthly life, we
may realize a mental image of that countenance of divine compassion
bent upon us, and that voice of gentle instruction murmuring in our
ears its words of heavenly wisdom; till, whenever tempted to deviate
from the "narrow path," we may hear Him whispering, "Will ye also go
away?" when hated by the world,--"Ye know that it hated me before
it hated you"; when called to perform some difficult duty,--"If ye
love me, keep my commandments"; when disposed to make an idol of any
thing on earth,--"He that loveth father or mother more than me is not
worthy of me"; when in suffering and trial,--"Whom I love I rebuke
and chasten"; when our way is dark,--"What I do thou knowest not now,
but thou shalt know hereafter"; till, a word, as we hear His faintest
footsteps approaching our hearts, and His gentle signal there according
to His own beautiful image, "Behold, I stand at the door and knock,"
our souls may hasten to welcome the heavenly guest.

So may it ever be with you and me! And now I find the very thought
of these things has cured all my dark and turbulent feelings, as
indeed it ever does; and I can say before I go to rest, "O man, my
brother, I am at peace with thee!"

Ah! what an empire is His! How, even at the antipodes, will these
lines touch in your heart a chord responsive to that which vibrates
in mine! .... I go to Harrington in a few days, and as our
conversation (perhaps, alas! our controversies) will turn upon some
of the most momentous religious topics of the day, I shall keep
an exact journal--Boswellize, in fact--for you, as well as I can; and
how well some of my earli