ore of practical than of theoretical faith.
Have ventured to tell her, in a note, what I feel and
have felt. I think many who have left Friends, and
become more decidedly serious since, remembering
that when Friends, the gospel was not precious to
them, fancy it is undervalued by the Society. My
note is as follows:--

My dear --- will, I hope, believe that I was not disposed
to receive her affectionate lines in any other than
that spirit of love in which they were written, and in
which, I am persuaded, it is the will of our blessed
Saviour for His disciples "that they all may be one."
Yes, my dear ----, I believe there is not a sentence in
thine in which I do not heartily join; and while we are
both seeking to believe, as thou says, "with the heart"
in Christ our Saviour, "in whom we have redemption,
through His blood, even the forgiveness of sins," let us
say not only, "Here is a point on which we can unite,"
but here is the one bond of fellowship, which unites the
whole ransomed Church, throughout the world, and
especially those who love each other, as I trust we do.
If we were more willing to let Christ be our all in all,
surely we should more realize this blessed truth. Disputations
on theoretical differences seem to me like disputes
on the principles of a fire-escape among those
whose sole rescue depends on at once committing themselves
to it, since the most perfect understanding of its
principles is utterly in vain if they continue mere
_lookers-on;_ while others, with perhaps far less _head-_knowledge,
are safely landed. This, it seems to me, is
the distinction between head-knowledge and heart-knowledge,
between dead creed and living faith; and every
day, I think, more convinces me that it is "with the
_heart_ that man believeth unto righteousness." As thou
hast so kindly spoken of myself, and thy kind interest
for me, may I add that what I have known, small though
it be, of this faith, has been all of grace; nor do I hope
or wish but that it may be, from first to last, of grace
alone. If I love Christ, it is because He first loved me:
because God, who is rich in mercy, has shown me the
great love wherewith He loved me, when I was dead in
sins; nor should I have had one glimpse "of the knowledge
of the glory of God, in the face of Jesus Christ,"
had not God, who "commanded the light to shine out of
darkness," shined in