week in Derbyshire, and saw more of the mill-stone grit and mountain limestone than I had ever seen before, both below and above the surface.

From thence I went to Cumberland, and had ten days of most delightful mountain pilgrimage. Moreover, I had a capital opportunity of seeing the mining in that part of the world, the friend with whom I was staying being in that line. From Cumberland I followed the course of what I had to do in the way of schools to Newcastle and York.

Scarcely any of the ground over which I went was new to me, but I enjoyed it not a whit the less. I have determined that the scenery of the Cumbrian group is the finest in its way of any that I have seen. The Italians, if they had the taste, would have quite as much inducement to visit our mountains and lakes as we have to go and see theirs. I forget whether you have ever been into Cumberland. If you have, I do not think you will quarrel with me for preferring the vale of Keswick, or rather the valley of the Derwent, to any spot in the world for mere physical beauty.

I have succeeded in some experiments I was having made in coloured lithography for my large maps beyond my hopes. They are advancing, but not rapidly enough to please an impatient man. The smaller were approaching completion, but an accident has thrown them back. They will, however, be in a sufficient state of forwardness for me to consult you respecting the completion of the series when we meet. I hope I am not keeping your' Conybeare and Phillips' too long.

QUEEN'S COLLEGE.

235

I now have to lecture on geography as well as Latin at Queen's College. This adds somewhat to my work, but not unpleasantly.

Pray give my love to your wife and to all my little friends, and believe me, yours affectionately,

SAMUEL CLARK.

CHAPTER X.

1848.

LETTERS.

From Letters to a Friend written in 1848.

It would have been very delightful for you and me to have taken the Holy Supper together to-day. But I hardly know whether the disappointment in this respect was not made up to me by the sense I had that our communion in its true nature is above place, and (so to speak) out of the reach of distance. We communicated together as really as if we had knelt at the same altar. As God governs all circumstances, it is no doubt right that we were denied the more palpable enjoyment. If we would but look in the right manner, we should always find God's ordinances beautifully fitted to meet the accidents and crosses of our mortal life.

Do not forget that there is a place which the great Head of the Church calls upon you to fill, in which you may work to His glory. Everyone, male or female, who has put on Christ, has just the same positive interest in the grand truth set forth in Rom. xii., 1 Cor. xii., and again in Ephesians.

You should be a practical, efficient servant of God,

whatever may be your sphere. You can be this-for Christ has died for you, that you should be such, and the truth has been sealed to you in baptism. Hope, believe, and be strong.

I have, for years past, been in the habit of writing letters of a certain kind on a Sunday evening. The mere mechanical labour of writing does not differ in kind, and very little in degree from speaking. Both are bodily exercises. If one is, in itself, objectionable, so is the other, and quietism must then be the only way of spending the Sabbath. But inaction is not rest-and rest is the object of the Sabbath. Now nothing is to me more complete rest than writing a friendly or affectionate letter, and I feel free to write on any subject on a Sunday, on which I should think it right to speak. Consider how our Lord justifies all works of love (even the meanest) on the Sabbath. Consider too how we, the clergy, are obliged to make it, as dear George Herbert says, 'our market-day.' If quietism had been what God ordained, these things would have been otherwise.

But do not suspect me of holding any but the strictest views on the obligation of the fourth commandment. I would keep most carefully all worldly business out of our thoughts, words and actions on the sacred day. I would release all servants as far as possible from household duties. I would not read or talk upon mere worldly topics of instruction or amusement. In short, I would make the day as far as possible unlike a common day, short of confounding sloth with rest, and dulness with peace.

*

I thank God for knowing experimentally that one's feelings may be sobered by our having kept a somewhat long watch upon the chances and changes of this mortal life, without being blunted and enervated. I might indeed with confidence go further, and say that they are invigorated by sobering, and if we are true to ourselves, they do not lose one jot of true life and freshness. Moreover, I have come to the clear apprehension that the real safeguard against that fearful temptation (loving a fellow-creature too much) does not consist in imprisoning the heart with a hedge, and saying to affection towards a loved object, 'Thus far shalt thou go, and no further.' Such a remedy would be in opposition to that all-pervading liberty wherewith Christ has made us free. We cannot possibly love a mortal who has a just claim on our affection too much, if we do but love God more. In other words, our safety is not in keeping down our love to the creature, but in keeping up our love to God. The former must indeed be limited by the latter, but the latter may be raised to infinity. If we do not learn this lesson from what the Son of God revealed to us when He took our nature upon Him, we read the Gospel to but little purpose.

*

I mentioned George Herbert, because I think every son and daughter of the Church should learn to appreciate him. There is a quaintness in his poems, belonging to the age in which he lived. But with the power of true genius, he enlisted that quaintness in the service in which he was engaged to such good purpose, that I am certain no one ever honestly studied him without feeling indebted to the quaint