t we may follow in His steps. We must call
nothing, and no man, common or unclean. My own life and my own
interests are terribly contracted. Sometimes I have been foolish
enough to glory in the fact, and to think that I honour God in caring
only for my brother's soul and not for his whole life. But love has
taught me that this is a low and incomplete view. God numbers the very
hairs of our head, and he who loves and tries to help another must
enter into his life and care for all that he cares for. I hope that
God will spare me a little longer to work in College, and to learn to
become one with others--to see life with their eyes, to let them teach
me--that so, if it please Him, I may gain some of them for His service.

The disciple cannot expect to be above the Master. The Master was not
popular. He explained His deepest teaching to a few--a very few. If
you have one or two to whom you can explain part of your being, thank
God. You will find that {141} one man understands one side, another
appreciates another side. It is a comfort that there is One who knows
us through and through. What a terrible blank life would be if we had
no God to whom to pour out our whole soul! There are sides of our
being which no one but God seems to be able to apprehend. I am feeling
now comfort at nights in simply telling Him all--feelings which I
cannot explain to any one else, asking Him to interpret, to sift, to
allow the better to live, to annihilate the untrue. I do not cease to
expect great things from Him, to expect that He will do for my 'parish'
as a whole more than I have dreamed of or wished for. But then I am
content if He works slowly, and does what I did not wish or expect to
happen. He works slowly in nature, and I am not surprised if human
nature is still more stubborn material for Him to work upon. But what
a joy it is when one character in which we are interested, for which we
have prayed and wrestled in prayer, shows slight but sure signs of
healthy development! I feel inclined to shout for joy at the
miracle--for it is a miracle--and I thank God and take courage. He
does not let us see many results, but He lets us see just enough to
help us to go forward. It is a help when what is clear and true to us
begins to dawn upon another. 'My belief gains infinitely,' says
Novalis, 'when it is shared by any human soul.'

Let your 'parish' clearly see that 'it is one thing to be tempted,
another thing to fall