Letter 90. To a Lady

It was a real comfort to me to have tidings of your souTs state, my dearest child, for in truth I have a very special interest therein. The difficulty which you experience in prayer will not lessen its value in God’s Sight, for He prizes a service offered Him amid contradictions, whether internal or external, more highly than one which is all sweetness and delight; even as our Lord Himself reconciled us to God through His own labours, His bloodshedding. His Death.

Neither should you be surprised not to see any great progress either in your temporal or spiritual progress. All trees, my dear child, do not bear fruit at the same season. Some of the best are longest in coming to maturity. I have heard it said that the palm tree grows a hundred years before it bears fruit God has hidden within the secrets of His Providence when and how He vouchsafes to answer your prayers, and it may be that He will answer you most graciously by so doing rather according to His views than yours. Be at peace, my child, within His Fatherly Arms, and in His Loving Care. You are His and His only. I have a most thankful remembrance of that day when, after your confession, prostrate before His Mercy Seat, you dedicated yourself and your whole life for ever and in all things to His most Holy Will So be it, my dearest child. I am, irrevocably, your very humble, &a p.S. — Oh, dear child, by what various ways this Eternal Providence delights to comfort them that are His. Truly it is a great grace when He keeps back our reward and happiness imtil the life to come. This is only a last word. May God be our all for ever. Amen.

[ 594.] XCIII.