to show on the field
of battle. But the reward is sure. I feel strongly that this life is
but the prelude to a larger life, when each faculty will have its full
exercise.

Ah yet, when all is thought and said,
The heart still overrules the head;
Still what we hope we must believe,
And what is given us receive;
Must still believe, for still we hope,
That in a world of larger scope,
What here is faithfully begun
Will be completed, not undone.

These words come from dough--the soul of honesty.

_To H. J. B._

Derwent Hill, Ebchester, Durham: April 14, 1902.

It seems to me a truism to say that we ought to look at life in the light
of eternity. Only then does the true significance of the meanest action
in life appear. Life is redeemed from triviality and vulgarity. So far
from worldly possessions losing their value, and ordinary occupations
appearing insignificant, their importance is realised as never before.
If man does not live for ever, his character and actions seem of
comparative unimportance. If he does live for ever, it is rational for
him to look at each action in the light of that larger life which he
inherits. If something like class distinctions are eternal, it is an
inducement so to use your distinctive privileges here in a worthy manner,
that hereafter you may use them for nobler ends.

{165}

I have expressed myself badly, but you will see what I want to say. My
relations to you surely become not less, but more important, when I
realise that I am only beginning to know and love you here. The eternal
element in them--the knowledge that there is throughout an implicit
reference to a Third and Unseen Person in all that I say to you or think
of you--fills me with a sense of awe, and makes the relations more real
because more spiritual.

_To the mother of his godchild, Margaret Forbes._

July 6, 1902.

I cannot tell you what a pleasure it was to see my godchild. . . . I
feel she has a strength of purpose and a desire to know the truth which
will fit her for high service in God's kingdom on earth. I pray for her,
and I shall do so in the future with fuller understanding and with great
hope. What God hath begun He will assuredly bring to perfection. I hope
that some day she will learn to pray for Uncle Forbes. I should value
her prayers. It is good to feel that in the midst of your weary time of
weakness God has given you such a child as a pledge of His affecti