ecially occupied her thoughts. In her earlier
writings she had laid but little stress upon it--not because she
doubted its reality or its necessity, but because her mind had not been
led in that direction. Stepping Heavenward is full of God and of Christ,
but there is in it little express mention of the Spirit and His peculiar
office in the life of faith. When this fact was brought to her notice
she herself appeared to be surprised at it, and would gladly have
supplied the omission. To be sure, there is no mention at all of the
Holy Spirit in several of the Epistles of the New Testament; but a
carefully-drawn picture of Christian life and progress, like Stepping
Heavenward, would, certainly, have been rendered more complete and
attractive by fuller reference to the Blessed Comforter and His
inspiring influences.

_To a young Friend, New York, Jan. 8, 1873._

I feel very sorry for you that you are under temptation. I have been
led, for some time, to pray specially for the tempted, for I have
learned to pity them as greater sufferers than those afflicted in any
other way. For, in proportion to our love to Christ, will be the agony
of terror lest we should sin and fall, and so grieve and weary Him. "One
sinful wish could make a hell of heaven"; strong language, but not too
strong, to my mind. I can only say, suffer, but do not yield. Sometimes
I think that silent, submissive patience is better than struggle. It is
sweet to be in the sunshine of the Master's smile, but I believe our
souls need winter as well as summer, night as well as day. Perhaps not
to the end; I have not come to that yet, and so do not know; I speak
from my own experience, as far as it goes. Temptation has this one good
side to it: it keeps us _down_; we are ashamed of ourselves, we see we
have nothing to boast of. I told you, you will perhaps remember, that
you were going to enter the valley of humiliation in which I have dwelt
so long, but I trust we are only taking it in our way to the land of
Beulah. And how we "pant to be there"! What a curious friendship ours
has been! and it is one that can never sever--unless, indeed, we fall
away from Christ, which may He in mercy forbid!... I do pray for you
twice every day, and hope you pray for me. I do long so to know the
truth and to enter into it. Certainly I have got some new light during
the last year, in the midst of my trials, both within and without.

To another young friend she writes a few days l