s a whole, in
rich, varied and happy experiences. It was full of the genial, loving
spirit which inspired the Little Susy books and Stepping Heavenward;
full, too, of the playful humor which runs through Fred and Maria and
Me; and full, also, of the intense, overflowing delight in her God and
Saviour that breathes in the Golden Hours. From its opening to its close
she was--to borrow an expression from her Richmond journal--"one great
long sunbeam." Everywhere, in her home, with her friends, by sick and
dying beds, in the house of mourning, in the crowded street or among her
flowers at Dorset, she seemed to be attired with constant brightness. Of
course, there were not wanting hours of sadness and heart-sinking;
nor was her consciousness of sin or her longing to be freed from it,
perhaps, ever keener and more profound; but still the main current of
her existence flowed on, untroubled, to the music of its own loving,
grateful and adoring thoughts. Often she would say that God was too good
to her; that she was _satisfied_ and had nothing more to ask of life;
her cup of domestic bliss ran over; and as to her religious joy, it was
at times too much for her frail body, and she begged that it might be
transferred to other souls. Her letters give a vivid picture of her
state of mind during this memorable year; and yet only a picture. The
sweet reality was beyond the power of words.

In the early part of this year the correspondence of Madame Guyon and
Fenelon fell into her hands, and was eagerly read by her. The perusal
of this correspondence led, somewhat later, to a careful study of the
Select Works, Autobiography, and Spiritual Letters of Madame Guyon, thus
forming an important incident in her religious history. Heretofore she
had known Madame Guyon chiefly through the Life by Prof. Upham and the
little treatise entitled A Short and very Easy Method of Prayer; and
both seem rather to have repelled her. In 1867 she wrote to a friend:

There is a book I would be glad to have you read, and which I think you
would wish to own; 'Thoughts on Personal Religion,' by Goulburn. I never
read a modern religious book that had in it so much, that really edified
me. I take for granted you have Thomas a Kempis; on that and on Fenelon
I have feasted for years every day; I like strengthening food and
whatever deals a blow at this monster Self. Madame Guyon I do not
understand.

But now she began to feel, as so many earnest seekers after hol