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 LETTERS 
 
 BY THE LATE 
 
 REV. J. KEBLB, M.A. 
 
LETTERS 
 
 OF 
 
 SPIRITUAL COUNSEL AND 
 GUIDANCE, 
 
 BY THE LATE 
 
 REV. J. KEBLE, M.A. 
 
 VICAR OF HURSLEV;. : , . . . 
 
 R. F. ;^ILSON, M.A. 
 
 VICAR OF ROWNHAMS, PREBENDARY OF SARUM, AND EXAMINING 
 CHAPLAIN TO THE BISHOP OF SALISBURY. 
 
 "Behold, thou hast instructed many, and thou hast strength- 
 ened the weak hands. 
 
 "Thy words have upholden him that was falling, and thou 
 hast strengthened the feeble knees." — Job iv. 3, 4. 
 
 OXFORD and LONDON: 
 
 JAMES PARKER AND CO. 
 
 1870. 
 
 All Rights reserved. 
 

 'f.Thy.BoQk I love because Thyself is there." 
 
 ' ■ •* ' " ■ /. Williams' '* Thoughts m Past Years:' 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 T^HESE Letters form no part of Kebles 
 General Correspondence, which yet re- 
 mains to be published. Materials for it had 
 been collected, and the work begun by a far 
 more competent Editor; but, when he was 
 called to fill the place of one whose memory 
 will long be held in affectionate veneration, 
 not only in his own diocese, but throughout 
 the Church of England, Dr. Moberly felt that 
 the calls upon his time and thoughts would 
 be too weighty and manifold to allow of his 
 continuing the work. At the request of the 
 Keble family, it was undertaken by the pre- 
 sent Editor, and the Letters, then in Dr. Mo- 
 berly's possession, were, with the consent of 
 those who had furnished them, transferred to 
 his hands. 
 
 These, with others which have been since 
 contributed, are so numerous, and various in 
 
 ivil3219 
 
VI PREFACE. 
 
 character, and spread over so many years, 
 that the selecting and arranging is a work of 
 difficulty, and will require a considerable time 
 before a collection can be ready for publication. 
 
 But long before the Editor had any reason 
 to expect that this charge would be laid upon 
 him, a large number of the Letters in this 
 volume had been entrusted to him, on the 
 express understanding, that, if printed at all, 
 they should be in a separate collection, apart 
 from the General Correspondence. Many more 
 have since been added, on the same condition, 
 and the publication kindly allowed, (often at 
 the expense of personal feelings,) with the 
 charitable desire to make others, in some 
 measure, partakers in the benefit and comfort 
 which those to whom they were written had 
 themselves derived from them. 
 
 The Editor desires to express his sincere 
 thanks to all, who have contributed materials 
 to this collection, but most particularly to those 
 who, for the love of others' souls, have been 
 willing to place letters of so private a kind 
 (and to them so very precious), in the hands 
 
PREFACE. Vll 
 
 of a Stranger, and to entrust the use of them 
 to his discretion. He earnestly hopes that 
 nothing in his manner of dealing with them 
 will cause any to regret the trust thus reposed. 
 
 Those who are acquainted with the Lettres 
 Spirituelles of Fenelon and of S. Francis de 
 Sales, may trace a resemblance to them, espe- 
 cially to those of the saintly Bishop of Geneva, 
 in the Letters in this volume. 
 
 The reader must not expect to find in them . 
 an orderly, systematic, or exhaustive treatment 
 of the subjects to which they refer. They 
 are very far from this. Written often hastily, 
 amid the pressure of other duties, they are, in 
 some cases, spontaneous effusions, prompted by 
 affection and sympathy for those in trouble; 
 but, for the most part, they were called forth 
 by enquiries on various matters, more or less 
 closely touching the spiritual life, addressed to 
 him by different persons, of different characters, 
 and under different circumstances; and they 
 are directed simply to the need of the par- 
 ticular soul. It is the special case before him 
 which is in the writers mind, and not any 
 
Vlll PREFACE. 
 
 theological handling of the points referred to. 
 In many cases, moreover, they are the more 
 brief and unsystematic, because he counted 
 on supplementing them by personal advice and 
 direction. 
 
 The collection extends over nearly fifty 
 years : the date of the earliest letter contained 
 in it is 1817, that of the latest 1865. As a 
 general rule it has been thought best not to 
 give the date of each letter, in order, as far 
 as possible, to avoid everything which might 
 afford a clue to the person addressed. In 
 some cases, where there seemed no need to 
 guard against this danger, the dates have been 
 given. 
 
 A few Letters have been admitted into this 
 volume which have strictly no place among 
 Letters of Spiritual Counsel and Guidance ; 
 such are Nos. I., II., XIX., CXIII., CXVIL, 
 CXX., CXXL, and CXXII. The two first 
 are introduced as a beautiful and instructive 
 example of his way of dealing with himself ; 
 the others have been added, as containing, 
 each in their several ways, some word of 
 
PREFACE. IX 
 
 helpful guidance or soothing comfort amid the 
 perplexing questions of our day. 
 
 Of the first twelve letters, a few were written 
 before 1820, the rest, with one exception, be- 
 fore 1830. Letter XIII. is dated i860, and is 
 placed next to the one immediately preceding, 
 as affording a remarkable illustration of the 
 identity of his views on the subject of which 
 these letters treat, though they were written at 
 such a long interval. 
 
 The Letters from No. XIV. to LVIII. were 
 all written between the years 1840 and 1850. 
 The rest, for the most part, later. Six of the 
 Letters in this volume have already appeared 
 in Sir J. Coleridge's Memoir, viz. Nos. I., III., 
 v., XL, XIX., andCVIL 
 
 This is not the occasion for remarking upon 
 any peculiarities or graces in John Keble's cha- 
 racter ; but there is one, which has so much to 
 do with a right understanding of what he says, 
 and of his manner of saying it, particularly in 
 giving advice or direction, that it is desirable to 
 notice it, though at some length. 
 
 When you consult a person confidentially, 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 or hear his mind on a subject of importance, 
 it is well to know whether there is any pecu- 
 liarity in his words or manner, which is very 
 different from what you meet with in other 
 men. If such there be, and you are not aware 
 of it, and do not bear it in mind, there is a risk 
 of your mistaking the force of the advice given, 
 or of the judgment expressed. Now, no one 
 can fail to remark in these Letters (still more 
 will the idea be familiar, if they had any in- 
 timate acquaintance with Keble,) the great 
 diffidence and humility with which his ad- 
 vice is offered : it amounts not unfrequently 
 to an appearance of uncertainty about the ad- 
 vice given ; and that, in some cases, when you 
 would have expected that his mind would have 
 been clearly and decidedly expressed ; or when, 
 if you knew his life, you would know that 
 practically as regarded himself there was no 
 kind of uncertainty or hesitation. 
 
 It is quite possible that in this exceeding 
 backwardness and self-distrust there may have 
 been some admixture of timidity, or other na- 
 tural imperfection ; but it chiefly arose from 
 
PREFACE. XI 
 
 that most rare humility and self-depreciation, 
 which had become so ingrained in all he did 
 and said as to be part of his very self. You 
 could hardly ask his opinion on a matter of any 
 difficulty, on which his advice would not be 
 given with this sort of hesitancy ; so much so, 
 as sometimes to leave persons uncertain what 
 he really meant to counsel or direct, or whe- 
 ther he had made up his own mind in the 
 matter. But this conclusion would have been 
 entirely mistaken. With him, '' I think," '' I 
 suppose," '* I believe," and other such paren- 
 thetical expressions of uncertainty, did not 
 rightly convey doubt on his own part about 
 the matter, so much as the habitual uprising 
 thought, "who was he, that he should advise 
 anybody ?" and that the particular person who 
 was seeking his counsel or direction, was in 
 truth fitter to give it to, than to receive it 
 from, him. His own mind might be clear, so 
 that in acting himself, he would not make a 
 moment's hesitation : though, in determining 
 for another, this scrupulousness could not be 
 restrained from utterance. Hence, with him 
 
Xll PREFACE. 
 
 In advising, '' I think," '' I suppose," must often 
 be regarded as mere expletives. They were 
 introduced where another, who practically saw 
 his way with the same distinctness, would not 
 have thought of interposing them. '' I think 
 you had better," would be rightly interpreted, 
 ''you ought:" ''Don't you think it would 
 be right ?" would be equivalent to a simple 
 direction. 
 
 But to understand his mind and manner we 
 must go deeper still. This manner resulted 
 not simply from most rare personal humility : 
 there was another element underlying and 
 prompting this humility, — a deep sense of per- 
 sonal unworthiness and sinfulness, finding utter- 
 ance sometimes in expressions of self-abase- 
 ment and self-condemnation, so strong, as quite 
 to startle and distress one. 
 
 Thus he writes to his dear friend, Sir J. 
 Coleridge : — 
 
 " It really makes one afraid and ashamed to think 
 of one's own (now 70) years of uninterrupted health, 
 along with the sufferings of so many persons so un- 
 like oneself It would be a charity if people would 
 
PREFACE. XUl 
 
 sometimes in their Litanies pray for the very healthy, 
 very prosperous, very light-hearted, very much be- 
 praised," &c. — Keble's Memoir, p. 459. 
 
 And again, with still more startling dis- 
 tinctness : — 
 
 " Well can I understand from what I see in others, 
 and a great deal too well from myself, the heart-deep 
 truth of every word you say on the matter of those 
 sermons of Pusey's on * Sin and Love :' they are 
 two great depths, too deep by far for our sounding. 
 I suppose our safest prayer would be, that we may 
 be led gradually on to the perception of where we 
 are, in respect both of one and the other, and not 
 permitted to dwell on either exclusively. For my- 
 self, my inward history is a most shameful and miser- 
 able one, — really quite different from what you and 
 others imagine ; so that I am quite sure, if you knew 
 it, you would be startled at the thought of coming 
 to such an adviser, so long and so late has the 
 misery been ; and it ought to be a bitter penance to 
 me to be so consulted. But I believe that I have 
 sinned before now, in drawing back on such occa- 
 sions, and I hope never to do so again ; use me, 
 therefore, dear friend, such as I am, if I can be of 
 any use to you at any time ; but pray for me, bona 
 fide, that I may be contrite, for that is what I really 
 need." — Keble's Memoir^ p. 326. 
 
 But even this gives an inadequate idea of 
 
XIV PREFACE. 
 
 how inseparable from him this feeling was. 
 Here is a little note to the present Bishop of 
 S. Andrew's, much his junior, then Second 
 Master of Winchester College, with whom, at 
 that time, judging from the Mr. Wordsworth 
 at the end, he did not feel in very close in- 
 timacy. It is an acknowledgment of his Ser- 
 mon on Repentance. 
 
 "HuRSLEY Vicarage, 
 
 Dec. 2 2, 1845. 
 "My dear Friend, 
 
 " Indeed I am very much obliged by your kind 
 present : although I have, alas ! more and sadder 
 reasons than you know, or can possibly guess, for 
 feeling most deeply humbled at the credit which 
 I seem most deceitfully to allow my friends to give 
 me. I have not yet had time to read your kind 
 present attentively, but I am sure I shall very much 
 like it, when I do, except for the reason I have in- 
 dicated. May I ask one favour more of you, which 
 pray grant in the very terms in which it is asked : 
 that you will beg that I may be truly humbled and 
 ashamed by undeserved praise and good opinion ; 
 I assure you, never had man more need of such 
 a prayer. 
 
 " Ever, dear Mr. Wordsworth, 
 
 " Your obliged and affectionate 
 "J. Keble." 
 
PREFACE. XV 
 
 Most persons of real earnestness occasionally 
 feel the truth, and literal suitableness of such 
 expressions, as applied to themselves, with an 
 almost overpowering clearness and force. The 
 deeper the insight into the greatness and 
 holiness of God, and His countless mercies 
 towards us, the more intense and entire will 
 be the sense of sinfulness and unworthiness. 
 All earnest believers feel this sometimes. But 
 it is a singular gift of grace when this feeling 
 is habitual ; so habitual as to impress its mark 
 on a man's whole moral bearing, in words and 
 actions. This was eminently the case with 
 John Keble. Some quotations have been made 
 from letters, marking the depth and irrepres- 
 sible strength of this feeling in his later years. 
 Utterance was a relief, from a sense of hypo- 
 crisy if he did not speak. ** While I held 
 my tongue, my bones consumed away through 
 my daily complaining." How early, and how 
 strongly this conviction was inwrought in him, 
 may be seen from the following extract from 
 a Sermon written in 1816, at the age of twenty- 
 four : — 
 
XVI PREFACE. 
 
 "Let us begin at the root of the evil, our hearts, by 
 a strict judgment of ourselves, according to the rule 
 which Christ has given us, and by earnest prayer to 
 judge aright ; let us make ourselves thoroughly sure 
 of our own utter unworthiness, and then set ourselves 
 in earnest to do all our own duty ; so shall we have 
 little time left to search out other men's faults. Let 
 us resolve from this moment to think the best we 
 can of them, and never, as we hope to stand in the 
 last judgment, never make their doings a standard 
 whereby to try our own, except it be to shame our- 
 selves for not better following their good example. 
 Whenever we feel the old leaven working within us, 
 whenever we catch ourselves in so much as a severe 
 thought, let us instantly fly to prayer : let us silence 
 the unmerciful spirit by the remembrance of what 
 God has forgiven us, and let us beat down the proud 
 spirit with the terrors of the judgment to come." 
 
 Such an habitual estimate of self as is ex- 
 pressed in these and like passages, does not 
 need explanation. It is not a weakness, but 
 a grace. The counterpart of the language is 
 to be found in the mouths of the chiefest of 
 God's Saints. Let any one single out from 
 the Bible the names of those who were spe- 
 cially in favour with God. Foremost among 
 them would be the names of Abraham, Job, 
 
PREFACE. XVll 
 
 David, Daniel, S. Paul, seeing that each of 
 
 these has his own special title of honour from 
 
 God Himself, in token* of His favour. '' The 
 
 friend of God," " the perfect man and upright," 
 
 *' the man after God's own heart," '' the man 
 
 greatly beloved," '' a chosen vessel unto Me." 
 
 And how do these holy persons, concerning 
 
 whom it may be said in a very special manner, 
 
 " whose praise is not of men, but of God," how 
 
 do they speak about themselves? ''Who am 
 
 but dust and ashes :" "I repent and abhor 
 
 myself in dust and ashes :" '' My sins are more 
 
 in number than the hairs of my head, and my 
 
 heart hath failed me:" *' Oh ! remember not 
 
 the sins and offences of my youth : " (and what 
 
 a blameless youth !) " We have sinned .... to 
 
 us belongeth confusion of face:" "Sinners, of 
 
 whom I am chief." It is to be observed, that 
 
 these are not merely expressions of humility, 
 
 but of shame and sorrow, and of conscious 
 
 sinfulness and unworthiness. They afe not 
 
 merely the expression of awe at the Majesty 
 
 and Holiness of the great God with whom we 
 
 have to do, but of a sense of a depth of evil 
 
 b 
 
XVlll PREFACE. 
 
 within. In every age God's Saints have given 
 utterance to their feelings about themselves 
 in language of this sort, and with like strength 
 and energy. Words of deepest self-con- 
 demnation are the vernacular tongue of Saints. 
 It is not for the strength or character of the 
 expressions, that we go to Scripture. They 
 may be found everywhere. But it is because, 
 in the Scripture examples mentioned, we have 
 not only the expression of the feeling on one 
 side, but also, on the other, the word of God's 
 approval of those who so esteemed and spoke 
 of themselves. The words, as regards them- 
 selves, are the words of man, but the judgment 
 is the judgment of God. And those whose 
 habitual estimate of themselves most nearly 
 corresponds with the literal sense of the words 
 of those holy men of old, will, so far, more 
 nearly approach to their likeness, who " had 
 this testimony, that they pleased God." 
 
 It might seem sufficient thus to have pointed 
 out, that this vivid present consciousness of 
 personal sinfulness is a characteristic of God's 
 choicest Saints. It would be natural, and it 
 
PREFACE. xix 
 
 may be, more becoming, thus to leave the sub- 
 ject. But to do so, would be to miss a chief 
 part in the lesson of the life of him who 
 speaks in these Letters ; for, in truth, the real 
 reason why such words seem to many, per- 
 haps to most persons, either to savour of ex- 
 aggeration, or else to betoken a conscience 
 burdened with the memory of grievous sin, is 
 to be found in the low and insufficient esti- 
 mate of the awful heinousness and deadly evil 
 of all sin, too commonly prevailing in the 
 thoughts even of earnest and devout persons. 
 Those who have not realized and inwrought 
 into their minds some idea of the inconceiv- 
 able and unapproachable holiness of Him with 
 Whom we have to do, and of the awful near- 
 ness of His indwelling Presence in our souls, 
 can never duly estimate the presumptuous 
 guilt of sins of thought. The following ex- 
 tract will shew what John Keble's teaching 
 was on this subject : — 
 
 " Let our subject to-day be, The One Holy Spirit, 
 with His differing gifts, abiding alike in every mem- 
 ber of Christ. 
 
XX PREFACE. 
 
 " Consider what a fearful notion this gives us of 
 our condition. To know that we are in God's sight, 
 that He looks on our heart, is exceeding awful : to 
 know that He looks on us as persons whom He has 
 called to be His own, whom He bought with His 
 own Blood, and for whom, therefore. He cares with 
 especial care, this makes our case still more serious : 
 but to be aware that the Most High and Holy Spirit, 
 by the covenant of our Baptism, is really abiding 
 within us : that we are, as S. Paul said, the Temple 
 of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in us : 
 this, indeed, is awful beyond all awfulness. How 
 can we be idle, thoughtless, negligent of our souls ? 
 how can we deal lightly with any duty ? above all, 
 how can we pollute our souls and bodies with any 
 kind of wilful sin ? we, to whom Christ has said, * I 
 will pray the Father, and He shall give you another 
 Comforter, and He shall abide with you for ever*.'" 
 
 How entirely the view which he thus 
 brings before others pervaded his own mind, 
 and gave a tone and colour to all his 
 thoughts about himself, we have ample means 
 of knowing. 
 
 Those who have read his Lectures on 
 Poetry, will remember his theory, that Poetry 
 Is the irrepressible expression of pent-up feel- 
 
 * Plain Sermons, by contributors to the " Tracts for the 
 Times," No. CLXXVIII. 
 
PREFACE. XXI 
 
 ings, which crave for utterance, and yet are 
 too deep for any more familiar interchange 
 or expression. Poetry (according to Keble) 
 is the pouring out of the most sacred utter- 
 ances of the soul ; relieving the spirit of 
 thoughts which it shrinks from communicating 
 to another, and yet which are a burden till 
 they have thus in some way taken shape and 
 clothed themselves in words. Poetry becomes 
 a sort of public confession of what is within, 
 though veiled by being generalized. The 
 Poet speaks his own thoughts, his own feel- 
 ings, his own troubles and inner griefs, but 
 he puts them as it were into the mouth of 
 another, and so finds relief 
 
 Bearing in mind this his theory of Poetry, 
 his poetical utterances come to have more or 
 less the character of Confessions ^ ; indeed, it 
 might, perhaps, be not untrue to say, that 
 the "Christian Year" was to John Keble, in 
 
 ^ " I had long ago considered about printing the Dedication 
 you speak of: but somehow or other (though Davison re- 
 commended it), I could not bring myself to it ; it seemed too 
 much like printing one's own private Confessions : and so to 
 be sure is half the book." — Coleridge^ s Memoir, p. 121. 
 
XXll PREFACE. 
 
 some measure, what the Confessions of S. Au- 
 gustine were to that great Saint. 
 
 Looking at it in this light, let any one take 
 up the book, turn to any of those well-known 
 passages which express deepest self-condem- 
 nation and abasement, and see what is the 
 nature of the sin which weighed so heavily 
 upon his spirit. It will be found, in every 
 case, to be sins of thought ; shortcomings and 
 imperfections in faith, gratitude, love, or de- 
 votion ; wandering imaginations, unchastened 
 desires. Sins about which, it is to be feared, 
 most Christians hardly give themselves any 
 concern at all, and for which they certainly 
 do not judge themselves very severely. 
 
 Take as an example those stanzas of the 
 Poem for the Sixth Sunday after Trinity : — 
 
 " If ever, floating from faint earthly lyre, 
 Was wafted to your heart one high desire, 
 By all the trembling hope ye feel, 
 Think on the minstrel as ye kneel : 
 
 " Think on the shame, that dreadful hour 
 When tears shall have no power, 
 Should his own lay th' accuser prove, 
 Cold while he kindled others' love : 
 
PREFACE. XXlll 
 
 And let your prayer for charity arise, 
 That his own heart may hear his melodies, 
 And a true voice to him may cry, 
 ' Thy God forgives — thou shalt not die.' " 
 
 What IS it which he fears may bring shame 
 upon him in the Day of Judgment, and make 
 " his own lay" his accuser, and against which 
 he so earnestly desires the prayers of others ? 
 It is coldness and unlove. 
 
 " Cold while he kindled others' love." 
 
 Or take again the verses for the Twenty- 
 fourth Sunday after Trinity : — 
 
 " Or what if Heaven for once its searching light 
 Lent to some partial eye, disclosing all 
 The rude bad thoughts, that in our bosom's night 
 Wander at large, nor heed Love's gentle thrall ? 
 
 " Who would not shun the dreary uncouth place ? 
 As if, fond leaning where her infant slept, 
 A mother's arm a serpent should embrace : 
 So might we friendless live, and die unwept." 
 
 Here to live friendless and die unwept, 
 and to be a cause of shuddering horror to 
 others, such as a serpent would be to a 
 mother, if found coiled in her infant's cradle, — 
 
XXIV PREFACE. 
 
 all this IS the result of no deadly act or 
 even word of sin ; but It rises before him as 
 the natural and inevitable consequence which 
 must follow, if, for one moment, the soften- 
 ing veil were withdrawn, and our " rude bad 
 thoughts'' exposed to the eyes of our friends. 
 
 Another most striking instance may be 
 found in the Poem for the Seventeenth Sun- 
 day after Trinity, where love of pleasure, 
 desire for the praise of man, or fretfulness 
 and discontent, are set forth as sins which as 
 far surpass in guilt the crimes and idolatries 
 of the Jews, as Heaven is above earth, and 
 
 " As earthly hopes abused, are less than hopes divine." 
 
 And why ? A few lines further on we read, 
 
 " Thou Who hast deigned the Christian's heart to call 
 Thy Church and Shrine." 
 
 This is the thought; it is this living faith 
 in, and continual remembrance of, the indwell- 
 ing Presence, which causes such sins to appear 
 to him so exceeding sinful, such an outrage 
 against the majesty and condescending love 
 of Almighty God. 
 
PREFACE. XXV 
 
 Many other examples might be given, but 
 these must suffice ; the thought once sug- 
 gested, can hardly fail to rise up again and 
 again, to those who are familiar with his 
 Poems ^ 
 
 It cannot be matter for surprise, that one 
 thus penetrated with a sense of his own un- 
 worthiness, should have shrunk at times from 
 the discharge of that special office which, after 
 being for long in abeyance in our branch of 
 the Church, has lately (through the grace of 
 God stirring mens hearts to seek after a 
 deeper and more thorough repentance) been 
 called for, and claimed by our people at our 
 hands, in a manner which leaves us no choice. 
 
 None more than he, felt the loss which 
 the disuse of Confession has brought upon 
 our Church, or rejoiced more in its growing 
 restoration ; but to his deep humility it would 
 have been a relief, if penitents could have 
 
 <= See " Christian Year," First Sunday after Christmas, 
 Monday before Easter, Good Friday, First Sunday after Easter, 
 Second, Third, and Twelfth Sunday after Trinity, &c. 
 
 See also " Lyra Innocentium," Prefatory Poem, Danger of 
 Praise, &c., &c. 
 
XXVI PREFACE. 
 
 been led to seek it from other hands and lips 
 than his own. 
 
 This feeling, too, finds vent and utterance 
 in the ''Christian Year:" we see it in his 
 Poem on the Visitation of the Sick : — 
 
 " Such have I seen : and as they pour'd 
 Their hearts in every contrite word, 
 How have I rather long'd to kneel 
 And ask of them sweet pardon's seal ! " 
 
 Nor was this only the feeling of youth 
 and inexperience when first called upon thus 
 to exercise his sacred office : to the end of 
 his life it remained the same, or rather deep- 
 ened In him; and "the grey-haired saint" 
 of threescore years and ten, who had fought 
 a good fight, and kept the faith, and well- 
 nigh finished his course, to whom eyes turned, 
 and hearts clung, wherever throughout the 
 world, children of the English Church were 
 to be found, shrank with the same deep con- 
 sciousness of unfitness and unworthlness from 
 the exercise of the " authority committed unto" 
 him, as did the young Priest in the early 
 days of his ministry. Those who have been 
 
PREFACE. XXVll 
 
 I 
 
 privileged to receive such ministrations at his 
 hands, well know how, as it were in spite of 
 himself, this feeling impressed itself on all 
 his outward bearing. 
 
 And here lay the secret of that exceeding 
 tenderness to others, which was in him al- 
 most as striking a characteristic as his severity 
 towards himself. It is ever thus. He who 
 is most deeply penetrated with the thought 
 of his own sin, will ever think most tenderly 
 of the failings of others. His deep sense of 
 the holiness of God, will indeed make him 
 hate sin, in himself or in others, with an 
 intensity of hatred unknown to the less pure 
 in heart ; but though he " hate ^ the trespass 
 most, yet when all other love is lost," he will 
 " love the poor sinner," after the pattern of 
 Him, Who, though understanding the sinful- 
 ness of sin as none other could possibly under- 
 stand it, yet never drew back from any, how 
 deeply stained soever with deadly sin; Who 
 
 •* " Christian Year," Second Sunday after Trinity. 
 
XXVlll PREFACE. 
 
 Himself gives contrition, and then accepts it, 
 and "shrinks not at our sin -defiled touch, 
 but accounts our penitence as innocence, and 
 our grief for our sins as purity ^" 
 
 In conclusion, a few words of apology are 
 due for the length of this Preface. 
 
 It seemed to the Editor that, without some 
 discussion of the subject, readers who had 
 not personally known him, might be perplexed 
 by passages in the Letters, or, it may be, led 
 to erroneous surmises ; and in truth also it 
 has been a relief to himself, thus to give 
 utterance to some of his thoughts about the 
 beloved and honoured writer, and to endeavour, 
 however faintly and imperfectly, to sketch, 
 and so bring before others, that one special 
 feature, in which the grace of God shone forth 
 most markedly, in the saintly character of 
 him with whom it was his privilege to live 
 in very close intimacy for thirty years : to 
 whom he owes a vast debt, a debt not only 
 
 ^ See " Sermons preached at Consecration of S. Saviour's, 
 Leeds." Sermon I. 
 
PREFACE. XXIX 
 
 of love and kindness undeserved and unvary- 
 ing throughout those thirty years, but also 
 another, and a far deeper one, — a debt which 
 (so be it) may, perhaps, be truly expressed 
 in the words of the aged Apostle to his son 
 in the faith — 
 
 on Kol aeavTov fxoi 7rpoao(f>eL\eLS. 
 
 R. F. W. 
 
 RowNHAMS, Southampton, 
 S. Mark's Day, 1870. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 IV. To the Same, on Resisting Inclinations to Remorse 
 
 V. To a Friend, on the Death of his Infant Child . 
 
 VI. To a College Friend, on Changing his Profession 
 
 VII. To the Same, on the same Subject 
 
 VIII. To a Friend, on the Strictness of our Lord's Teaching 
 in the Gospel .... 
 
 IX. To the Same ..... 
 
 X. To the Same, on the Death of his Sister 
 
 XL To a Friend, who had consulted him on the Scruples 
 of Another Person .... 
 
 XII. To a Friend, newly Ordained : Exhortations to Cheer 
 fulness in Duties : Caution against over-strictness as 
 to Recreations and Amusements 
 
 XIII. To a Clergyman, on Amusements 
 
 XIV. To a Lady, on Spiritual Dryness 
 
 XV. To the Same . . . . " . 
 
 XVI. To a Young Lady, whose Father had forbidden her 
 applying to him for Spiritual Advice 
 
 XVII. To a Lady : on Observing Advent 
 
 XVIII. To the Same, on the expected Death of her Sister 
 
 PAGE 
 
 I 
 
 I. On the Death of his Sister Mary Anne 
 
 II. To another Friend, on the same Subject . . 4 
 
 III. On Conquering Melancholy by active Kindness to Others 6 
 
 7 
 
 8 
 
 10 
 
 12 
 
 14 
 19 
 23 
 
 24 
 
 26 
 30 
 33 
 36 
 
 ib. 
 
 37 
 38 
 
XXXU CONTENTS. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 XIX. On the Evils resulting from Disuse of Confession in 
 
 the English Church . . . -39 
 
 XX. To a Clergyman, on the Choice of a Curate . -41 
 
 XXI. On Confession and Fasting . . . .42 
 
 XXII. To a Father, on the Death of his Child . . 43 
 
 XXIII. On speaking freely of the Departed . . -44 
 
 XXIV. On the Same . . . . -45 
 XXV. On Prayer for the Departed .... ib. 
 
 XXVI. Advice concerning Confession . . -47 
 
 XXVII. To an Officer in the Army, on Conversation at 
 
 Mess, &c. ..... 48 
 
 XXVIII. To the Same, sending a Form of Penitential Prayer 50 
 
 XXIX. To the Same, on United Prayer for the Church . 52 
 
 XXX. To the Same, on Private Eucharistical Prayer . 53 
 
 XXXI, To a Lady, an entire Stranger, en Repentance . 55 
 
 XXXII. To the Same. — Meaning of Satisfaction. — Safe Rule 
 
 in Church Difficulties. — On Feelings and Conduct 58 
 XXXIII.. To the Same, on Catholic Yearnings. Cheering 
 
 Hopes for the Church of England . . 62 
 
 XXXIV. To the Same, on Meditation, Fasting, and sensible 
 
 Comfort in Devotion . . . '63 
 
 XXXV. To the Same, on Contrition . . '67 
 
 XXXVI. To a Clergyman, on admitting to Communion one 
 Burdened in Conscience, who had not made 
 formal Confession . . . '69 
 
 XXXVII. To a Clergyman, on dealing with one under Special 
 
 Temptation . . . . '72 
 
 XXXVIII. To a Young Layman, on Notes of the Church : Advice 
 
 as to Books and Conversation . . '74 
 
CONTENTS. XXXlll 
 
 XXXIX. To the Same 
 
 XL. To the Same : Hints on Self-guidance 
 
 XLI. To the Same, on Loneliness and lack of Sympathy 
 
 XLII. To a Friend under Disappointment 
 
 XLIII. To One in Distress for past Sin, and on Remedies 
 against Temptation .... 
 
 XLIV. Remedies and Helps under Temptation 
 
 XLV. To the Same : Practical Hints and Suggestions as to 
 Behaviour towards a Sceptical Friend 
 
 XLVL To the Same 
 
 XLVIL To the Same, on Confession . . . 
 
 XLVin. The same Subject continued 
 
 XLIX. To a Young Lady, who had consulted him as to her 
 wish to join a Sisterhood ... 
 
 L. To the Same, on Management of Time, on Dress 
 Silence, &c. .... 
 
 LI. To a Person under Special Temptation 
 
 LII. To the Same . . . . . 
 
 LIIL To a Relapsed Penitent 
 
 LIV. To the Same, on Confession and Communion . 
 
 LV. To the Same ..... 
 
 LVI. To the Same : Rules for Self-government 
 
 LVII. To the Same, on the same Subject 
 
 LVIII. To the Same : Rules of Penitence and Self- Protection 
 
 LIX. To an Unbaptized Lady desirous of Baptism, but 
 whose Parents were opposed to it . 
 
 LX. To a Lady, on being informed of the Death of her 
 Sister, the Widow of a Personal Friend of his own 
 
 PAGE 
 
 77 
 80 
 
XXXIV CONTENTS. 
 
 LXI. To a Young Lady, on Distractions, &c. 
 
 LXII. To a Lady, on Punishment of Sin, Free- Will, and 
 other Religious Difficulties . • . 
 
 LXIII. To a Lady, on the Absence of Conscious Love and 
 Devotion ..... 
 
 LXIV. To the Same, on the Same . 
 
 LXV. To the Same ...... 
 
 LXVI. To the Same 
 
 LXVII. On abstaining from Sacramental and using Spiri 
 tual Communion . ... 
 
 LXVIIL To the Same 
 
 LXIX. Against Searching too closely into Motives . 
 
 LXX. On Persevering without conscious Faith and Love 
 
 LXXI. To the Same ..... 
 
 LXXIL On the Binding Nature of an Engagement of Mar 
 riage made by a Minor 
 
 LXXIII. To a Young Lady on Accepting an Offer of Marriage 
 LXXIV. To the Father of an Illegitimate Child 
 I^XXV. To a Lady, on Submission to the Rules of a Re 
 ligious House .... 
 
 LXXVI. To the Same 
 
 LXXVII. To the Same, on Changing her Confessor 
 LXXVIII. Against indulging in Self-reproach . 
 LXXIX. To a Father, on the Death of his Son 
 
 LXXX, To the Same 
 
 LXXXI. To the Same ...... 
 
 LXXXII. To a Lady, on Temptations to Self-complacencyj 
 and on Imperfections in Self-examination and Con 
 trition, and Incompleteness in Confession . 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 XXXV 
 
 PAGE 
 
 On Special Subjects of Self-examination . -153 
 
 On Penitential Exercises for Lent . . -154 
 
 Giving Subjects for Meditation . . .157 
 
 On Writing when out of reach of Personal Confession 159 
 
 To the Same ..... 160 
 
 On Idle Thoughts ; and on Familiar Intercessions 161 
 
 To the Same : In Worship our Lord's two Na- 
 tures not to be Separated. — Suggestions as to 
 Dealing with Faults j and for Lent . -163 
 
 On Preparation for Holy Communion. — Acts of 
 Penance ...... 165 
 
 On Distractions . . .' . .167 
 
 On the Same . . . . .168 
 
 On Wishing for Death . . . .169 
 
 On Obedience to one's Confessor . . . id. 
 
 To an Undergraduate . . . .170 
 
 To the Same . . . . -171 
 
 To an Aged Clergyman under Spiritual Depression 174 
 
 To a Clergyman, who had written on behalf of 
 Another in Doubt . . . .178 
 
 On the Spiritual Trials of Weak Health . .180 
 
 Spiritual Communion : Light in which to be Re- 
 garded. — Comforts under Spiritual Privations 182 
 
 On Depressing Thoughts and Feelings, with allu- 
 sion to his Sister Elisabeth . . . 184 
 
 Meditations — Examples of . . .186 
 
 Forgiveness not determined by our Feelings . 189 
 
 Thoughts of Unbelief in Others not to Disturb 
 our Devotions . . . . .190 
 
 LXXXIIL 
 
 LXXXIV. 
 
 LXXXV. 
 
 LXXXVI. 
 
 LXXXVIL 
 
 LXXXVIIL 
 
 LXXXIX. 
 
 XC. 
 
 XCL 
 
 XCIL 
 
 XCIIL 
 
 XCIV. 
 
 XCV. 
 
 XCVL 
 
 XCVIL 
 
 XCVIIL 
 
 XCIX. 
 C. 
 
 CI. 
 
 CIL 
 CIIL 
 CIV. 
 
XXXVl CONTENTS. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 CV. Oversights not to be brooded over . . . 191 
 
 CVI. Sadness in Devotion not always Wrong . . ib. 
 
 CVII. To a Gentleman who had Consulted him about 
 
 a Change of Profession, and taking Holy Orders 193 
 
 CVIII. On Self-denial . . . . .194 
 
 CIX. Against Despondency in respect to one's Prayers 195 
 
 ex. On Joining an Association for United Prayer . 196 
 
 CXI. On Disinclination to Prayer . . . 197 
 
 CXII. To One on the Eve of his Ordination . . 200 
 
 CXIII. A Word on the Study of the Fathers . .201 
 
 CXIV. Sacramental Confession not to be of Single Sins 
 
 only . . . . . . 202 
 
 CXV. On the Presence of Non-Communicants at the 
 
 Holy Eucharist ..... 203 
 
 CXVI. On the Real Presence in the Holy Eucharist . 205 
 
 CXVII. On Reservation for Communion of the Sick . 208 
 
 CXVIII. On Celibacy as a Counsel of Perfection . . 209 
 
 CXIX. On Vows of Celibacy .... 210 
 
 CXX. On the Religious Revivals in Ireland . .211 
 
 CXXI. On the Burial Office . . . .219 
 
 CXXII. On the Ritual of the Church of England . . 229 
 
LETTER I. 
 
 On the Death of his Sister Mary Anne. 
 My Dear , 
 
 .... I knew you would be very sorry when you 
 heard of what has come upon us, and I feel that I can 
 write freely to you about it : but I cannot half de- 
 scribe to you the depth and intensity, at least so 
 it seemed to me, of my thoughts and feelings during 
 M. A.'s illness, and for some time since. Certainly 
 no loss could be so great, humanly speaking, to E. 
 and my Father, but they are both such sort of people, 
 that I have long been used to consider every thing 
 that happens to them as a certain good : and there 
 was nothing bitter in my grief as far as they were 
 concerned ; much less in thinking of M. A. herself : 
 but the real bitterness was when I thought of many 
 things in which I have been far less kind to her 
 than I ought to have been — somehow or other I have 
 for years been accustomed to talk to her far more 
 freely than to any body else in the world, though of 
 course there were two or three whom I loved quite 
 as well : but it has so happened that whenever I was 
 moody or fretful she has had to bear with me more 
 than any one ; and if I chose, I could sit down and 
 torment myself by the hour with the thought of it ; 
 
 B 
 
On the Death of 
 
 \ tlri'f 'is the orJy feeling of real bitterness that I have 
 on the subject, but I know it is wrong to indulge it, 
 and I trust soon to get over it entirely: indeed I seem 
 to have done so already, only I feel one cannot in 
 any way depend upon oneself. I am certain no 
 person who believes in the Atonement ought to in- 
 dulge in bitter remorse, and therefore, by God's 
 blessing, I don't mean to be uncomfortable if I can 
 help it, even in the thought of my past faults. I 
 have been so too much already, and it only serves 
 to make one lazy, and weaken one's own hands and 
 one's friends. If you please, therefore, don't let us 
 encourage one another in melancholy any more, but 
 let us always resolutely look to the bright side of 
 things ; and among other helps to be quiet, let us 
 always talk as freely to one another as we do now — 
 for nothing relieves one so much as making a clean 
 breast. 
 
 I never was so much impressed with the value 
 and excellency of cheerfulness as a Christian vir- 
 tue, as I have been since M. A.'s death. The re- 
 membrance of her peculiar cheerfulness, (for she had 
 more of it than any of us, except perhaps my Father,) 
 goes so far towards keeping us all up, especially E. 
 We keep thinking how vexed she would be to see 
 us annoying ourselves about her, and how she al- 
 ways wanted every body to live in sunshine, and it 
 quite makes us ashamed and afraid to feel deso- 
 late. You may easily imagine what a support this is 
 
his Sister Mary A nne. 
 
 to E., whose thoughts, both from her temper and cir- 
 cumstances, are more entirely fixed on M. A. than 
 either of ours can be. Of course she must feel like 
 a widow, but I trust not as a desolate one : certainly 
 she seems alive to every comfort, and her prevalent 
 feeling is one of deep thankfulness for the assurance 
 of M. A.'s happiness. ... 
 
 I like your plans of reading, but don't be dis- 
 heartened if you seem to do little : only I would 
 not indulge in reveries. As you speak of good 
 books, do look at the life of Mr. Bonnell, if it comes 
 in your way. It is in the list of the Christian Know- 
 ledge Society, and Hawkins, I know, can lend it to 
 you, — see p. 153. There is a passage which I have 
 found useful, and I suspect you may too. You can- 
 not think how often you come into my mind, espe- 
 cially now I am endeavouring to train myself to 
 a more thorough content and cheerfulness than I 
 ever yet practised. For I fancy that you and I re- 
 quire in some respects the same sort of training. 
 At any rate I know too well what passes in my 
 own mind to think any thing contemptible in you. 
 Now I think this is enough about ourselves, for I 
 hold it to be a selfish and dangerous sort of thing 
 for people to be always turning their eyes inward. 
 But don't let this hinder you from writing always as 
 freely of whatever is uppermost, as you do now, — 
 only please not to let your own faults, or any thing 
 uncomfortable, be often uppermost. As I said be- 
 
To another Friend, 
 
 fore, I am sure it is not natural it should be so, 
 in those for whom Christ died. This lesson I have 
 learned of dear M. A., and I hope not to forget it, 
 but to have it perfect by the time I see her again : 
 and if I can get you to have it too, so much the 
 better for us all. She often used to speak of you, 
 and I daresay to pray for you, for she fancied you 
 not quite comfortable, and she had a great feeling 
 for that sort of discomfort. 
 
 God bless you now, my dear Friend ; let me hear 
 from you as often as it seems to do you any good, 
 and don't mind what you write. Mention how your 
 Sister is ; I have heard nothing of her for a long 
 time. 
 
 Ever and ever yours, 
 J. K., jun. 
 
 LETTER II. 
 
 To ANOTHER FrIEND, ON THE SAME SUBJECT. 
 
 I don't think I ever felt the Almighty so near 
 me, as during this whole time ; and you know when 
 one is impressed with that feeling, it is quite impos- 
 sible to repine. And another thing which has the 
 same effect, is the strong impression how very much 
 M. A. would be vexed if she could know that one 
 is fretting at her deliverance. One feels it more in 
 her case than one should in most others, because of 
 the very remarkable cheerfulness and contentedness 
 
on the same Subject. 5 
 
 of her character ; she quite started back from any 
 thing like querulousness, and I trust I have made 
 up my mind to learn of her, now she is in Paradise, 
 what I was but too slow in learning while we had 
 her in sight — that "all is for the best." Dear soul, 
 I cannot help thinking her death in many respects 
 very like that of a martyr. She had a strong im- 
 pression that something was going to happen, and 
 seemed as if she was preparing herself like a devoted 
 being. She had subdued all her little quickness of 
 manner I may call it rather than of temper, so that 
 the servants remarked the change in her ; could not 
 bear to have fault found with any body or any thing, 
 and was always overflowing with thankfulness and 
 resignation. 
 
 If an Angel had given her notice of what was to 
 happen she could not have prepared herself more 
 thoroughly for it, as far as we can judge. . . . And 
 now we have the unspeakable comfort of thinking 
 that it is our own fault if every moment does not 
 bring us nearer to her again. Sometimes indeed it 
 will come across one, " What can E. do without her ?" 
 but it will not do to distress one's self about her, who 
 has been so long and so kindly helped. No doubt 
 God has ways of supporting her more than we know 
 or dream of ; and so the end is, we must be comfort- 
 able, if we would not be unthankful and unchristian. 
 
On Conquering Melancholy. 
 
 LETTER III. 
 
 On Conquering Melancholy by active Kindness 
 TO Others. 
 
 My Dear , 
 
 I am bound to thank you over and over again for 
 your last letter ; It was and is a real comfort to me : 
 for I am tolerably sure you are in the right way ; 
 only don't dwell too much upon whatever may have 
 been wrong : to some minds it may be necessary, 
 but not to those who are in danger of becoming 
 indolent by too much thinking about themselves : 
 and when you find yourself, as I dare say you some- 
 times do, overpowered as it were by melancholy, the 
 best way is to go out, and do something kind to 
 somebody or other. Objects either rich or poor 
 will generally present themselves in the hour of need 
 to those who look for them in earnest, although Ox- 
 ford is not perhaps the most convenient place to find 
 them in. However there they surely are if you will 
 take the trouble of looking for them, and perhaps 
 that very trouble is in some sort an advantage in 
 doing away a moody fit ; although I always reckon 
 it a great privilege of a country Parson that his 
 resources in this way lie close at his own door. 
 
 Writing, too, I have known in many cases, a very 
 great relief, but I almost doubt the expediency of 
 
On Resisting Inclinations to Remorse. 7 
 
 preserving journals, at least of looking much back 
 upon them ; if one could summon resolution to do 
 so, I fancy the best way would be to write on till 
 one was a little unburthened, and then put one's 
 confessions in the fire. But in all these things, of 
 course no one can judge for his neighbour. And 
 whatever you do, don't put your confessions to me 
 in the fire ; for it does my heart good to receive 
 them : it makes me hope that I am sometimes use- 
 ful, which is a sensation I don't very often experience. 
 
 LETTER IV. 
 
 To THE Same, on Resisting Inclinations 
 TO Remorse. 
 
 My very Dear , 
 
 I cannot say I was surprised, though I was deeply 
 grieved at your account. You know, better than 
 I can tell you, all that I would say to comfort and 
 support you in this very severe trial, and indeed you 
 have said all that one ought to need by way of 
 comfort, in what you tell me of your sister, and of 
 
 himself: I cannot help thinking that you judge 
 
 yourself too harshly in what you say, and have no 
 doubt in my own mind, that he would give a very dif- 
 ferent account of the effect of your mutual intercourse 
 on him. But indeed, I know too well that there is 
 no dictating to other men's feelings in matters of this 
 
8 To a Friend, 
 
 sort : only as a general rule, I should say to every 
 one, do not indulge in remorse as a matter of feeling 
 or fancy. There is none of us but has reason 
 enough to make himself miserable in that way, if 
 it were at all allowable to do so. 
 
 LETTER V. 
 
 To A Friend, on the Death of his Infant 
 Child. 
 
 My Dearest Friend, 
 
 It is presumptuous in me, I know, to pretend to 
 comfort you on so sad an occasion as this, but I 
 must tell you truly that my heart bleeds at the 
 thought of your loss, though I know it is absolutely 
 impossible for me to sympathize with you under it ; 
 
 but you have better comforters who do, not only 
 
 and dear , but a more effectual one than either, 
 
 even Him, who when He saw a dead man carried 
 out, the only son of his mother, had compassion on 
 her. He is even now touched with a feeling of the 
 sorrow of heart which has fallen upon you and your 
 dear wife, whom God bless, confirm, and comfort 
 for His sake. 
 
 My dear friends, think as little as you can of 
 yourselves, but think of the blessed infant whom, 
 you presented so few days ago before Christ in His 
 earthly temple ; think of her being even now ad- 
 
on the Death of his Infant Child. 9 
 
 mitted to serve Him in His heavenly temple, day and 
 night, and knowing and praising Him infinitely better 
 than the greatest saint on earth can do ; and though 
 it is nothing in comparison of Eternity, yet it is 
 blessing enough to assuage your grief, — which, how- 
 ever good and Christian, must confess itself to be 
 but earthly, — when you consider that your darling 
 is put into her Saviour's arms so many years before 
 the time that most of His servants are admitted 
 there, quite safe, quite good, quite happy, and I dare 
 to say it, overflowing with love for you beyond what 
 all your kindness and tenderness could have made 
 her comprehend in the longest life that parents and 
 children can expect to enjoy together here. And al- 
 though David said his child could not return to him, 
 yet since we are taught that there is a sympathy be- 
 tween Paradise and earth, at least between the saints 
 in one, and the saints in the other, what if Christian 
 parents by holy living, should be supposed to have 
 this comfort among others, that their lost children 
 still watch over them, or in some way or other know 
 of their well doing ? The thought is not, I am per- 
 suaded, unscriptural, but thank God you have no 
 need of it. "• For if we believe that Jesus died and 
 rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus 
 will God bring with Him." You need not look fur- 
 ther for comfort than these words. 
 
 May He in Whom alone we can know comfort, 
 make them, and all other consolations which His 
 
10 To a College Frie7td, 
 
 Providence has in store for you, so truly comfortable 
 to you, that you shall be able to look backward 
 even to this sad time with humble thankfulness to 
 Him for helping you to suffer as Christians. So 
 prays, from the bottom of his heart, 
 
 Your affectionate friend, 
 1820. J. Keble. 
 
 LETTER VI. 
 
 To A College Friend, on Changing his 
 Profession. 
 
 My very Dear Friend, 
 .... We are not, God be thanked, in our own 
 hands, but in the hands of One Who loves us in- 
 finitely better than we do ourselves : if we could but 
 once possess ourselves with that belief (which yet is 
 more certain than any thing which we do not see 
 with our own eyes) how little, comparatively, would 
 such trials as these appear to us, in comparison, 
 I mean, with the least sin. And yet we commit 
 great sins every day as if they were things of course. 
 Indeed, we all need one another's prayers very much, 
 but not always in those respects most, in which our 
 friends are apt to suppose we need them most. How 
 comfortable to think that there is one Friend from 
 whom none of our necessities can be hid, and who 
 cares for them all, if we have not wilfully rejected 
 His care. 
 
on Changing his Profession. 1 1 
 
 I am sure I need not apologize for writing in this 
 strain to you, who are so possessed, as I trust, with 
 the love of our dear Master, that you would be glad 
 to dedicate yourself entirely to His more especial 
 Service and Ministry. But persevere with a good 
 heart, my dear fellow, where you are, and do not 
 doubt that Providence will give you opportunities 
 enough of being useful. 
 
 And perhaps to any man, who would fain be in 
 the clerical profession, but is hindered by circum- 
 stances, it may not be amiss to consider, that if 
 the chance of doing good is increased, the responsi- 
 bility is increased along with it : and it is a fearful 
 thing to think that one owes a heavier debt than 
 one's fellows to the Great Owner of all. Aye, so 
 fearful, that nothing could enable one to support 
 the thought, except it were the same recollection 
 with which I ended the last paragraph, and with 
 which, if we brought it in as often as we have occa- 
 sion, we should end every paragraph and every sen- 
 tence which we write or speak, i.e. that we have One 
 who has redeemed our infinite debt, as well as pro- 
 mised us unfailing supplies for the future. 
 
 1819. 
 
12 To the Same, 
 
 LETTER VII. 
 
 To THE Same, on the same Subject. 
 
 My very Dear Friend, 
 
 .... I know very well what those involuntary 
 scruples and doubtings are, which you say oppress 
 you so sorely. I dare say, indeed I see by your 
 letter, that you take the right view of the matter, 
 and use the right means, — Prayer and constant en- 
 deavours to improve in all other parts of holy living, 
 to cure, or at least abate the infirmity. I wish if 
 you have not done it yet, you would read a Ser- 
 mon of dear good old Richard, " On the Certainty 
 and Perpetuity of Faith in the Elect %" with a view 
 to your own case. I have been looking it over 
 this morning, and do not see what can be wanting 
 to a man's consolation, Avho being distressed like 
 you, shall thoroughly and Christianly consider that 
 Sermon. It is not Calvinistic, at least in any un- 
 pleasant sense of the word, so do not be frightened 
 at its title. 
 
 As to your profession, I think you were, and are, 
 quite in the right to let your friends choose for you, 
 what way you had best regulate your worldly in- 
 terests. As they, I verily believe, care more about 
 your getting rich than you do yourself, they are 
 
 * Hooker, vol. iii. part ii. Oxf. Ed. 
 
071 the same Subject 1 3 
 
 likely to manage better for you : and in the mean- 
 while, you have so much the more leisure for thoughts 
 and studies which you like better ; provided always, 
 that your said friends do not love you quite well 
 enough to pick pockets, or sic like, in your behalf 
 
 As to your not being a Clergyman, I am inclined 
 to think that on the whole, the law of compensation 
 is observed pretty exactly in the distribution of the 
 cares and consolations of the different professions ; 
 and though a Layman who is indeed a Christian, 
 has not so much leisure for the direct exercise of 
 devotion, &c., he has the great comfort of knowing 
 that his example is more likely to do good, as it is 
 less likely to be misinterpreted as the result of 
 worldly motives, or the mere cant of a profession : 
 a thought which I often fancy I can detect darting 
 itself into people's minds, and hindering them from 
 minding what we say to them. In short, my dear 
 
 , you would, I am satisfied, if you were now to 
 
 change, and become one of us, find anxieties and 
 annoyances quite enough, temporally speaking, to 
 overbalance any increase of comfort. If we do not, 
 it is, I am afraid, because we are not considerate 
 enough about the unspeakable awefulness of our trust, 
 and are therefore too soon satisfied with ourselves : 
 or else because we do not rate what God requires 
 of Christian people high enough, and therefore are 
 too soon satisfied with our flocks. So, unless you 
 think that you cannot be as good a Christian in your 
 
1 4 To a Friend, on the Strictness of 
 
 present profession as in ours, or in any other, I ad- 
 vise you to stifle all these regrets, and work on con- 
 tentedly in your present line ; and I doubt not of 
 a time coming, in which you will even rejoice (strange 
 as it may seem to you now) that you were not a 
 Parson. 
 
 LETTER VIII. 
 
 To A Friend, on the Strictness of our Lord's 
 Teaching in the Gospel. 
 
 My Dear Friend, 
 You see already what an unworthy choice of an 
 adviser you have made, by my long delay in an- 
 swering your very kind letter ; which affected me 
 a good deal in various ways, and not least with 
 shame at finding myself, as without foolish affecta- 
 tion I really did, so utterly unprepared and unworthy 
 to be so trusted. I thought I would give myself 
 a little time to think over the points mentioned in 
 your letter. But in so scrambling and dissipated 
 a way does one proceed, that I fear I have not 
 thought to any good purpose of the first, and shall 
 write no better an answer now, than I should have 
 done the hour after I received it : as to the second, 
 all the time I can spare .... has been long devoted 
 to thinking of it. And as it is so much more im- 
 portant of the two, and if I mistake not involves the 
 answer to the other in it, I will speak to it first. 
 
our Lord' s Teaching m the Gospel. 15 
 
 The plain truth then is, my dear friend, that I 
 have no doubt whatever, that the misgivings you 
 feel about the great strictness of the Gospel precepts 
 — of our Saviour's advice more particularly — are per- 
 fectly right and reasonable — and the more you allow 
 them, in a quiet way, to influence you in practice, 
 the happier and wiser you will be. It is nothing in 
 the world, I am almost certain, but the great de- 
 generacy of the Christian Church (foretold in the 
 Scriptures as plainly as possible) which makes people 
 turn away from certain precepts as if they were too 
 strict to be practised, and have recourse to so many 
 poor miserable shifts to get rid of them. And I 
 think, as a general rule, one of the best remedies for 
 this would be to consider these commandments as 
 so many instances oi friendly advice, rather than as 
 so many tasks set us — not to deal with them as 
 conditions, arbitrarily appointed before one shall be 
 allowed to enter into heaven, but as practices and 
 tempers of mind, naturally and reasonably flowing 
 from what we know to be the truth of our condition, 
 and of God's dealings with us. For instance, when 
 the question is about such a precept as St. Matt. 
 xix. 21, we are not to be nicely enquiring, how much 
 money is to be given in alms, but we are to consider 
 whether it is not natural and reasonable for one, 
 who sincerely believes the Gospel, to lay out every 
 farthing in some way, which deserves to be called 
 alms, i.e. in providing for the reasonable wants of 
 
1 6 To a Friend, on the Strictness of 
 
 others rather than his own superfluities, however 
 innocent in themselves these latter may be. It is 
 much better, as far as I can judge, on many accounts, 
 to ask ourselves rather what is reasonable ? than what 
 is necessary ? The same may be said of humility, 
 forgiveness of injuries, self-denial, devotional exercises, 
 and indeed every part of the Christian life. (Did 
 you ever read Law's " Serious Call ? " or his ** Chris- 
 tian Perfection ?") Now if one looks at things in this 
 light, judging always of what is reasonable and na- 
 tural with a view to the next world, I allow it will 
 be quite impossible not to feel sorrow and shame 
 and fear very often, perhaps oftener than not, both 
 for oneself, and for those committed to one's charge. 
 But still this is perfectly consistent with ^' a cheerful 
 view of religion ;" indeed the more cheerfully one 
 looks at that, the higher hopes one entertains and 
 the more one's heart is set upon the glorious des- 
 tinies in store for us, the more painful must be the 
 thought how sadly we have abused, and too often 
 are abusing or neglecting such talents. Who so 
 cheerful in religion as St. Paul .'' Yet he honestly 
 owned himself the chief of sinners in his own eyes. 
 Depend upon it, if a man does but try and act np 
 to these views, especially in the matter of humility — 
 and if he always goes upon what is reasonable, and 
 not upon mere feehng — indeed not at all by feeling 
 if he can help it — he will not want cheerfulness in 
 his religion, neither will he despond, however ill he 
 
our Lord's Teaching in the Gospel. \j 
 
 may think of things. He will be as much awake as 
 a bold and skilful seaman in a storm, who knows 
 how much his own safety and that of his messmates 
 depends on his keeping up his spirits, and doing 
 his best. 
 
 I have referred you already, in a parenthesis, to 
 what I should think, if read very considerately, you 
 will find the best authorities on this subject ; perhaps 
 you were acquainted with them before — in any case 
 I should like you to look at them and let me know 
 if they seem at all likely to steady your thoughts 
 upon it. Bp. Wilson somewhere or other recom- 
 mends the " Christian Perfection" very highly : pro- 
 bably you will see reason to think them books not 
 to be left carelessly about, nor put into every one's 
 hands, but I will say nothing to bias your judgment 
 any more about them. 
 
 Now to the question about dealing with Dissenters, 
 regularly or irregularly such. I confess I do not see 
 how a clergyman can well wash his hands of them al- 
 together. ... It will always be a question of discretion 
 and charity, to whom one should apply one's self, at 
 any particular moment, in order to have the fairest 
 chance of doing them good, — and dissenters in some 
 respects may be more impracticable, harder to be got 
 at than most others ; in this respect they may be prac- 
 tically, in a certain sense, excluded from one's care, 
 but I think one would do better not to consider them 
 as being so in theory; one would have one's eye on 
 
 C 
 
1 8 On our Lord's Teaching in the Gospel. 
 
 them as much as one could, just as one would watch 
 over persons guilty of other sins, humanly speaking 
 incurable, I should rather say, of which one sees no 
 present chance of cure ^. Of course, if this be true 
 of dissenters, it is more so of those who are mere 
 liberalists : no doubt there are many such cases in 
 which it may be useful to point out the absurdity 
 of their conduct, and leave them to judge of it for 
 themselves ; but it seems giving them up a great 
 point, to allow that one's interest in them really 
 ceases, because they choose to fancy you have none, 
 or only a partial one. 
 
 ^ The question here touched is simply, why a clergyman ought not 
 to look on Dissenters in his parish as entirely removed from his charge. 
 
 Elsewhere in these letters, Mr. Keble has expressed the feelings 
 which he entertained towards Dissenters individually, and his appre- 
 ciation of excellences among them. As to the manner of dealing with 
 them, the few following words are from one of his Sermons : — "Nor 
 let it be supposed that there is any want of charity in making some 
 difference in your behaviour to persons, and treating them with some 
 reserve, because they are enemies to the Church, or in any other way 
 going morally wrong." — Plain Sermons, vol. viii. p. 121. 
 
 Nor did he lay all the guilt of separation on them, as appears from 
 this observation to Mr. Tyacke, Rector of St. Levan, in 1864 or 1865 : 
 "Dissenters should be dealt with lovingly and forbearingly, as being, 
 alas ! the wronged party in bygone times." — Quoted from a letter of 
 the Rev. J. S. Tyacke to the Rev. J. Frewen Moor. 
 
 But these sentiments are not inconsistent with a strong conviction 
 that there is sin in the separation of bodies of Christians from the 
 Church, in their earnest and active opposition to her, and in their ener- 
 getic condemnation of her doctrines and forms of worship ; and that it 
 is the duty of a clergyman not to lose sight of this in his parish, but to 
 be ready to do what he can, as opportunity may serve, for bringing over 
 members of those bodies to the Church. — Ed. 
 
To the Same. 19 
 
 Now, my dear , you will say I have tolerably 
 
 overlaid you with my prose, but do not act as if 
 you thought I had done it on purpose to hinder you 
 from writing me another nice long letter ; such letters 
 do my heart good, they ought to do so in the best 
 sense. I am only now about writing to H. grievously 
 ashamed of myself. God bless you. {N.B. I au- 
 thorize you to return this.) 
 
 182, Ever y'-s affec^y, 
 
 J. K. 
 
 LETTER IX. 
 
 To THE Same. 
 My dear Friend, 
 I was a good deal ashamed of myself before, and 
 now I have been reading once again your very kind 
 letter, I am much more so ; but I had in some sort 
 depended on seeing you in one of my two visits to 
 Oxford since September, and rather wished to talk 
 with you, than to write to you, on the very interesting 
 subjects we have fallen upon. I doubt not before this 
 time you have pretty well satisfied yourself about 
 some of them, but as I know in these matters one gene- 
 rally goes on thinking and thinking for a very long 
 time, and it is hardly ever too late to add to one's con- 
 victions, I shall talk of them just as if I had had your 
 letter yesterday. With regard to Law, I thoroughly 
 agree with you that he ought to be read with caution : 
 first and foremost with great caution, lest one should 
 
20 To the Same. 
 
 delight one's self so much with the ingenuity and elo- 
 quence of the writer as to forget that 'tis a very 
 practical book ; this I take to be the caution most 
 requisite for the generality of readers. I agree with 
 you in not being able to go along with him in some 
 of his statements : but it is commonly in matters of 
 detail ; on his general principles, I think, he hardly 
 leaves you any doubt. 
 
 The unity of motive which he recommends, is, 
 I am persuaded, the only way to be comfortable 
 in this world, and surely it is the Christian way 
 to be happy in the next ; but then as to the 
 best method of practising and improving one's self 
 in it, these as surely, must vary, I should think, 
 with the characters and circumstances of different 
 persons, so that no two human beings probably 
 would have to pursue, externally, the same line of 
 conduct, though they might go upon exactly the 
 same principles : and this is what Law occasionally 
 seems to forget, e.g. about singing Psalms, whether 
 you have a voice or ear, or no — to which I should 
 add what he says about reading Plays, which he 
 condemns in the lump, without even excepting 
 Shakespeare — and this is a good instance of the 
 sort of modification I should propose for Law : 
 he thinks things being liable to gross abuse, and 
 actually so perverted in general, ought to be given 
 up ; but query, whether they might not be taken 
 and applied to a higher use, sanctified as it were. 
 
To the Same. 21 
 
 and whether this being acted on, would not prove as 
 real a sacrifice as the other, and a safer, because more 
 unobtrusive, kind of self-denial. Did you ever read 
 Robert Boyle's "Occasional Reflections ?" they are an 
 instance of the sort of thing I mean, and I persuade 
 myself St. Paul meant the same also, when he wrote 
 about meat of various kinds, " that every creature of 
 God is good," &c. i Tim. iv. 4, 5. What he says 
 of various tastes in food, may be applied, I should 
 think, to tastes of all sorts ; one is not to destroy 
 them, but to make them serve some good and re- 
 ligious purpose ; perhaps the expression " living sa- 
 crifice" (Rom. xii. i) may be meant to hint some- 
 thing of this sort. This sort of principle once esta- 
 blished, there seems no necessity for condemning or 
 allowing such and such amusements in toto ; every 
 one must be left to judge for himself, whether they 
 suit his character and circumstances, and this will 
 hold of clergymen as well as of other men. 
 
 You will probably have met with Bp. Home's 
 ''Cautions to the Readers of Mr. Law," and will 
 have found that they do not refer to the points we 
 have in hand immediately : but the sad set of 
 errors into which such a man was permitted to fall, 
 should certainly be a caution to us how much we 
 allow ourselves to be dazzled by his abilities, or over- 
 powered, as it were, by his peremptory tone. We 
 should cheek him, I think, with Bp. Wilson, and then 
 we shall be tolerably sure to be right. 
 
22 To the Same. 
 
 With regard to what you say of checking im- 
 proper conversation, no doubt it is our duty, and 
 must be done by each man according to his means 
 and measure ; to seem, I should say, to be, very 
 much annoyed and distressed by it, would I should 
 think, in very many cases, prove a sufficient rebuke ; 
 now and then one must speak out more decidedly. 
 I have been greatly wanting in this amongst other 
 duties : but once or twice, when I have made up my 
 mind to it among strangers, I have found no rea- 
 son to think I did harm or offended any body 
 In general, perhaps, it would be safer, and more 
 effectual, to direct what one says on such occasions 
 against the folly, rather -than the wickedness, of what 
 one has to complain of. But this is just one of 
 the things, in which general rules can do least, and 
 discretion and common sense most. 
 
 Here I have been writing away, as if I had a right 
 to dictate or advise on points upon which I am a very 
 young thinker, and alas ! a far younger practitioner ! 
 — but you have my theory, and if you think it right, 
 you will help me in my practice. There is a way of 
 doing so which I need not name to you, and which 
 I earnestly beg of you to employ for me. 
 
 I sincerely condole with you on the sad instance 
 
 which tells me has occurred in your parish. It is 
 
 one of those startling cases which must be looked for, 
 from time to time, in an age of depravity and apostacy. 
 He told me what he said to you about it, with which 
 
To the SamCy on the Death of his Sister, 23 
 
 I heartily concurred. My own notion is that clergy- 
 men generally have more to blame themselves for as 
 to neglect in the way of example, and the way of 
 special intercession, than in the way of direct warning: 
 though I am afraid my own indolence and timidity 
 make me a bad judge rather of this matter. I would 
 add that what is most shocking, very frequently is far 
 from having the worst effect. It opens people's eyes, 
 sometimes, to their true state ; whereas if they had 
 gone on with comparative decency in the ordinary 
 godlessness of their neighbours, they would never 
 have come to a right sense of things. I hope it may 
 
 be so, sooner or later, in this instance 
 
 Now Farewell, and God bless you, my dear 
 Friend, 
 
 Ever and ever yours, 
 1823. J. K. 
 
 LETTER X. 
 
 To THE Same, on the Death of his Sister. 
 
 My very dear Friend, 
 By some accident your letter only reached me 
 after post-time last night, or I would have answered 
 it immediately, although what can I say that you 
 and our dear Friend will not have said to your- 
 selves over and over } The comfort is, that the 
 thoughts which now support you will, by God's gra- 
 cious blessing, endure, and prove inexhaustible, as all 
 
24 To a Friend, 
 
 His consolations are : they will not pass away, as 
 the sting of regret and sorrow, after more or less 
 time, is ordained by Him to pass. What can be 
 a more abiding source of consolation, than the con- 
 templation with assured hope, of a soul so remark- 
 able for a clear and noble Christian simplicity as 
 your dear Sister's was (if one may without presump- 
 tion affirm it of any one), passing into that region 
 of peace, where all is pure, noble, simple, and Chris- 
 tian, and welcomed thither by the myriads of kindred 
 spirits which are there waiting for the remainder of 
 those with whom they are to be made perfect ? It 
 is unmixed joy : but as you say, we must not expect 
 to enter into it : we must submit to call the house 
 so visited, the house of mourning, and keenly to feel 
 it so : only let us try to offer up our consolations 
 and our sorrows together, as a sacrifice and memorial 
 which He may be pleased to accept ; and especially 
 to regard in that light the efforts, which affection 
 will be ever prompting us to make, in the way of 
 doing that which the Departed we know would most 
 approve. 
 
 LETTER XL 
 
 To A Friend, who had consulted him on 
 THE Scruples of Another Person. 
 
 I AM clearly of opinion the young lady should 
 discontinue those observances which seem to fret and 
 
on the Scruples of another Person. 25 
 
 distract her so much. It seems like Fasting, which no 
 one is tied to, even by the laws of the Church, when 
 it is bona fide against their health : much less by any 
 rule they can set themselves. 
 
 Clearly this is a case of melancholy from bodily 
 constitution, and the person should be recommended 
 to avoid all vows and singularities of every kind, as 
 mere snares. I seem to be speaking so positively 
 about what I must be ignorant of, that I am afraid 
 my opinion is worth even less than usual ; but sup- 
 posing the representation in your friend's letter to 
 be correct, and Jeremy Taylor right in his Ductor 
 Dtibitantiunty touching the management of a scrupu- 
 lous conscience, (p. 158, et seq.*'), I don't think I 
 can be very wide of the mark. ... At any rate 
 a person of this temperament should be cautioned, 
 as matter of dtity, to refrain from binding herself by 
 anything like voluntary vows in future : it is a mere 
 snare, and should be repressed like any other temp- 
 
 '^ The following are a few of the sentences, to which reference is 
 probably made. — Ed. 
 
 "Let the scrupulous man avoid all excess in mortifications and cor- 
 poral • austerities, because these are apt to trouble the body, and con- 
 sequently disorder the mind. " 
 
 "Let the scrupulous man interest himself in as few questions of 
 intricate dispute and minute disquisitions as he can. " 
 
 "Let the scrupulous man take care that he make no vows of any 
 lasting employment." 
 
 ' ' That religion is best, which is incorporated with the actions and 
 common traverses of our life ; and as there will be some foolish actions, 
 so there will be matter for repentance : let this humble us, but not 
 amaze or distract us." — Ductor Dubitantiuniy bk. i. chap. v. rule 5. 
 
26 To a Friend, newly Ordained ; 
 
 tation. If she cannot be quite satisfied (as at times 
 I suppose she will not) with having broken through 
 her own rule in this instance, why cannot she add 
 one sentence to her Morning and Evening devotions, 
 relating to this particular subject ? This, if made 
 habitual, would, as it seems to me, answer all pur- 
 poses ; but she must not be fanciful, and imagine 
 one's prayers do no good if one is uncomfortable all 
 the time. I am sure it would be bad enough with 
 some of us, if we let present comfort come into our 
 calculations on that matter. 
 1827. 
 
 LETTER XII. 
 
 To A Friend, newly Ordained ; Exhortations to 
 Cheerfulness in Duties : Caution against over- 
 strictness as to Recreations and Amusements. 
 
 My dear , 
 
 .... I am afraid .... that you are allowing sudden, 
 and (no doubt) substantially right, impressions on 
 the most important of all subjects to make you less 
 active, less cheerful, and less useful, than Providence 
 intended you to be. Even in my narrow round of ex- 
 perience, I have seen so much that is really injurious 
 to truth and piety, arising from that view of the 
 Christian life which I understand you to incline to, 
 that I am truly grieved whenever I hear of any of 
 my friends taking it up. I do not mean that it is 
 
Exhortations to Cheerfulness in Duties, &c. 27 
 
 possible for a man to be too much in earnest about 
 religion, or to give up too much of his time to it : 
 on the contrary, he who takes the injunction " do all 
 to the glory of God," in the most literal sense, ap- 
 pears to me to come nearest to the true sense of it. 
 But then I differ from some whom I most sincerely 
 love and respect, in my interpretation of the maxim, 
 as applied to the present state of the world. I do not 
 think the glory of God best promoted by a rigid 
 abstinence from amusements, except they be either 
 sinful in themselves, or carried to excess, or in some 
 other way ministering occasion to sin. On the con- 
 trary, I believe that there is more charity lost, than 
 there is sobriety gained, by any unnecessary appear- 
 ance of austerity. Self-denial seems to mean, not 
 going out of the world, but walking warily and up- 
 rightly in it. Nor can I well imagine any greater 
 service to society than is rendered by him, who 
 submits to its common routine, though something 
 wearisome, for this very reason : lest he should offend 
 his neighbours by unnecessary rigour. 
 
 Besides, if our neighbours' pleasures be harmless, 
 and we have it in our power to increase them, with- 
 out breaking any law of God or man, is it quite 
 agreeable to the spirit of Christian Charity to refuse 
 to do so .? Is it quite agreeable to such passages as 
 " Rejoice with them that do rejoice ;" or to our 
 Saviour's example in working the miracle in Cana, 
 and in submitting to the reproach of being a man 
 
28 To a Friend, newly Ordained ; 
 
 gluttonous and a wine-bibber, rather than ofifend un- 
 thinking sinners by too much preciseness ? Is it 
 quite agreeable to the general spirit of the Gospel ? 
 which directs us, even when we fast, not to be of 
 a sad countenance, and which, next to inculcating 
 the necessity of a thorough inward change, seems 
 anxious to discourage any violent outward one, ex- 
 cept when it is a plain duty. 
 
 On this head, my impression has been formed 
 a good deal, I believe, by the seventh chapter of the 
 first Epistle to the Corinthians, not from any direct 
 precepts, but from the general tone and tenor of its 
 morality. But whether it is the strength of my pre- 
 judice, I know not, but almost every time I look into 
 the New Testament, I feel the more convinced, that 
 the more quietly and calmly one sets about one's duty, 
 and the less one breaks through established customs, 
 always supposing them innocent in themselves, the 
 more nearly does one act according to the great 
 Exemplar there proposed. 
 
 You see I am giving you one proof, at least, that 
 I still consider you as an old friend : viz. lecturing 
 away at you, hastily. Very likely what I have said 
 may be not at all to your purpose : very likely it 
 may be a mistaken view which I have taken of the 
 matter, but I do assure you, it is a sincere and de- 
 liberate one ; not got up, as you may very naturally 
 have supposed, with a view to convince you. Indeed, 
 it is a point so continually occurring in practice, 
 
Exhortations to Cheerfulness in Duties, &c. 29 
 
 that a man must have some principle of his own 
 about it, and I am fully aware that no man can lay 
 down his own rule for the standard of another's con- 
 duct. I hope, therefore, you will consider what 
 I have written above as being simply the state- 
 ment of my own rule, and some of the grounds on 
 which it stands. 
 
 You yourself (or rather your reasoning part, when- 
 ever it can get the better of your feelings,) will be 
 the best able to judge whether the rule suits your 
 own situation and temperament, and whether the 
 arguments are well founded or no. Only give me 
 a line .... for indeed I am anxious to hear from 
 you, and tell me how you are, and promise to give 
 my sermon a candid consideration if it deserve it, 
 and if not, to forgive me for having bothered you 
 at all with it. 
 
 One thing more : I think I understood .... that 
 your lowness of spirit arises in great measure from 
 a fear that you have undertaken the priestly office 
 without due preparation. Now without knowing more 
 of the particulars than I do, it is impossible to say 
 whether your fears are well grounded or not ; this, 
 however, I will boldly say, that supposing them ever 
 so just, it is not a life of inactive remorse or con- 
 stant penance which is required of you, but one of 
 all diligence and activity. I will put it in the words 
 of one whose life I would recommend you to read 
 with all speed, and who can never be suspected of 
 
30 To a Clergyman, 
 
 making light of any miscarriage in so weighty an 
 affair : it is Bishop Bull, in a sermon which probably 
 you have read. Speaking of the great danger of 
 our calling, he says, " For mine own part, I cannot, 
 I dare not justify myself, or plead not guilty before 
 the Great Judge of Heaven and earth : but do upon 
 the bended knees of my soul, bewail my sin, and 
 implore His pardoning grace and mercy, crying 
 mightily unto Him, Deliver me from this blood- 
 guiltiness, O Lord." But then he continues, "Having 
 laid ourselves at God's feet, let us not lie idly there, 
 but arise, and for the future do the work of God, 
 with all faithfulness and industry." I the rather re- 
 commend this excellent man to your study and imit- 
 ation, because I think he has so completely refuted 
 a notion, which I know several wise and good men 
 entertain, of its being wrong to mingle literary pur- 
 suits, properly so called, with those of a Clergyman. 
 The passage above is taken from the second volume 
 of his English Works, lately republished, page 168'^. 
 1817. 
 
 LETTER XIIL 
 
 To A Clergyman, on Amusements. 
 
 My dear Sir, 
 Your communication is most deeply interesting : 
 I only wish I may be able to speak truth and com- 
 
 *^ Vol. i. p. 164, Oxford, printed at the Clarendon Press. 
 
on A musements. 3 1 
 
 fort for such a person as you describe. I feel very- 
 stupid : one can but try. 
 
 All my life long, I have been used to take what 
 many would call the laxer view of common recrea- 
 tions and the ordinary pleasures of life, supposing 
 them of course, innocent in themselves, and not so 
 indulged as to give scandal, or withdraw the heart 
 from God ; and leaving it free to those who feel 
 themselves inwardly called, and Providentially en- 
 couraged, to something higher — something like coun- 
 sels of Perfection — to take that course. 
 
 The whole tenor of Holy Scripture, as expounded 
 by the Church in all ages, and not least clearly by our 
 own standard teachers, appears to me to bear out 
 this view. Only think what a treasure of secondary 
 satisfactions (so to call them) the Bible itself is : the 
 perfection of poetry, language, and history, — its bless- 
 ings on conjugal love, family delights, the ways of 
 little children, the beauties and mysteries of art and 
 nature. It seems to say, " Take all these and make 
 much of them, for God's glory : be assured that there 
 is nothing innocent so trifling, that it may not be 
 thus sacrificed to Him." And when our Lord says, 
 "Woe to them that laugh," &c., I understand Him 
 to be warning us against a frivolous worldly temper, 
 not against the moderate indulgence of the instinct 
 which prompts laughter, to cheer those who need 
 cheering ; or sometimes in a warning way, to correct 
 those who need correcting. In all this, I believe 
 
32 To a Clergyman, on Amusements. 
 
 I concur with such writers as Hooker, Bp. Taylor, 
 George Herbert, Isaac Walton, &c., not to mention 
 foreign writers. 
 
 I should think the best and most blessed way for 
 young persons under guidance, would be, to go upon 
 these principles, watching themselves very carefully, 
 and taking advice when needful, of course with 
 earnest prayer on the special subject. If, then. Al- 
 mighty God has some better thing for them than 
 ordinary life. His Providence will guide them on to 
 it : but the less they choose for themselves, the 
 more humbly they await the indications of His will, 
 the better. I would point out that even in the life 
 which is outwardly most secular there is room for 
 the greatest Christianity in all parts of life. 
 
 These are but trite generalities, but they may 
 suggest here and there a useful thought, and if you 
 wished me to go more into detail I would gladly 
 do so ; but it would be desirable to have more par- 
 ticulars ; personal knowledge would be most to the 
 purpose if it could be had. . . . 
 
 Believe me with best wishes. 
 Very sincerely yours, 
 i860. J. Keble. 
 
To a Lady, on Spiritual Dryness. 33 
 
 LETTER XIV. 
 
 To A Lady, on Spiritual Dryness. 
 
 My dearest Child, 
 I have just been reading over your letter, and 
 am more vexed than I can say, though not half so 
 vexed as I ought to be, with myself, for not having 
 answered it. I cannot say that engagements have 
 hindered me. I might and ought to have written ; 
 neither am I quite so bad as to have forgotten you. 
 It was the old bad habit. And now what can I say, 
 more than you have heard and read in a much better 
 form many times before } One thing I will say, for 
 I am most firmly persuaded of it, that a great part 
 of your dulness and dryness about holy things, pro- 
 bably the whole, so far as it is accountable for by 
 human judgment, is a symptom of your illness : and 
 I daresay you often feel the like distressing want 
 of interest in other matters which you would fain 
 take an interest in : I daresay you often have to 
 rouse yourself up, and force yourself to be or seem 
 amused with things which in former days would 
 have taken hold of you without any effort. If it is 
 so in ordinary things, then its not being so in reli- 
 gious services and meditations would be a merciful 
 interference, more perhaps than one could reason- 
 ably expect ; and its not being granted, ought not 
 to dishearten one, nor make one think oneself the 
 
 D 
 
34 To a Lady, 
 
 subject of a special judgment. Another thing Is, 
 that all religious meditation has a tendency, If it be 
 not Its direct work, to turn the mind's eye back as 
 It were on Itself; and this Is necessarily a painful 
 and wearisome effort, and causes a sort of aching 
 which cannot well be endured when the frame or 
 spirits are weakened by sickness of certain sorts : 
 I suppose, then, that it is a provision of God's mercy 
 to disqualify the mind In such cases for meditation, 
 and keep it In a kind of dulness, which however 
 uncomfortable, may be as good for the soul and 
 mind, as sleepiness (which Is often also most uncom- 
 fortable) Is for the body. Any how it is, and must 
 be, a grief to you, and so far part of His fatherly 
 discipline : but If conscience, fairly examined, charges 
 you with no more than you have by His Grace 
 truly confessed and repented of, (though that were 
 ever such deadly sin,) you must not take this, any 
 more than other troubles, as a token of wrath, but 
 as an earnest (how strange soever It may seem to us) 
 of great Love hereafter to be revealed ; pardoning 
 Love, inexhaustible, everlasting Love. O my dear 
 Child, only think of the joy and consolation, when 
 all that is now crooked shall be made straight, and 
 all that Is wanting shall be numbered, and His for- 
 given ones shall see, once for all, how these distresses 
 have served to purge them, perhaps, and make them 
 white, and otherwise prepare them to see His Face 
 with joy. 
 
on Spiritual Dryness, 35 
 
 In the mean time I beg of you, do not be too 
 severe, do not strain your inward eye by turning it 
 too violently back upon itself: remember you are 
 bound for others' sake, as well as your own, to be, 
 if you can, and not only to seem, comfortable and 
 cheerful. Do not be afraid to take, as they come, 
 the little refreshments and amusements which His 
 mercy provides for you, and be not too nice in 
 comparing your interest in these with the dulness 
 you may possibly feel in direct religious exercises. 
 Take a lesson from your little ones (may He be 
 with them !) and be patient, or cheerfully thankful, 
 as the case may be, without blaming yourself for 
 what is in all probability God's visitation, no direct 
 fault of your own. 
 
 We have rather a cloud over us here at present, — 
 
 the loss of our dear kind and the public aspect 
 
 of Church matters. Our own households, I am thank- 
 ful to say, are most thriving ; and the Parish gets 
 dearer, and I seem to understand it better as the 
 time draws near for quitting it — I mean in the na- 
 tural course of things : though what Lord John may 
 do to quicken it no one can say. 
 
 My dear love to and y and my wife's to 
 
 all, you especially. 
 
 Your very affec*® but not exemplary, 
 J.K. 
 
36 To the Same. 
 
 LETTER XV. 
 
 To THE Same. 
 
 My very dear Child, 
 I have but one minute to say that your note was 
 a great comfort to me : although it did not at all 
 lessen the impression of my own woodenness, which 
 I carried away with me from our little conference. 
 I could at least have given a Priest's Benediction, and 
 that I now desire to do with all my heart and soul : 
 for you and all those who are now around you, and 
 whom at a distance you most think of. As for 
 advice, I can only say over and over what you know 
 far better than I : cast all your care upon Him, 
 both in respect of pain, and of regret for what- 
 ever, in your low state of health, may sometimes 
 appear doubtful to you in things past. Cast it all 
 
 upon Him. 
 
 Your loving and unworthy father in Him, 
 
 J. K. 
 
 LETTER XVI. 
 
 To A Young Lady, whose Father had forbidden 
 
 HER APPLYING TO HIM FOR SPIRITUAL AdVICE. 
 
 My dear YOUNG Friend, 
 I feel quite sure that by the blessing of God your 
 giving up what you had wished for, in the spirit 
 
To a Lady, on Observing Advent. 37 
 
 in which you try to do so, will be a far greater help 
 to you than any special guidance in the world, much 
 more that which you are now parting with. In- 
 deed, I have a thought or two, but I will not trouble 
 you with them, as to some of the probable reasons 
 why things have been so ordered. But one great 
 comfort is, it is a simple case, and there can be no 
 doubt about the line of duty in it. . . . 
 
 With every kind wish to you and yours, and the 
 best benediction that I can give, which 1 hope vir- 
 tually to repeat every morning of my life, 
 
 I am always 
 
 Your afifec*^ friend, 
 J. Keble. 
 
 LETTER XVII. 
 
 To A Lady, on Observing Advent. 
 
 My dear Friend and Child, (it is well that you 
 have one more real and better Father,) forgive me 
 for not having written sooner — many things have in- 
 terrupted me : and now I fear I must be more brief 
 than I ought. . . . 
 
 The thought you speak of is, I suppose, not an 
 unnatural one to occur to frail mortals, making in 
 any sense an effort towards perfection. Whatever 
 its origin be, it must be prayed against and not 
 indulged : but I would not have you deal bitterly 
 
38 To the Same, on the expected DeatJi of her Sister. 
 
 with yourself about it. I suppose if a person go on 
 gently following the leading of God's good Provi- 
 dence, and not pretending to take his lot into his 
 own hands, he will not be suffered either rashly to 
 undertake too much, or in frailty to swerve from 
 what he has undertaken. . . . 
 
 For an Advent rule, I scarce know what to say : 
 so incredibly ignorant and inexperienced am I, as 
 you will find more and more. But it occurs to me 
 that perhaps during that season you might make the 
 Wednesday another Friday, by some little hardness 
 as your health and usefulness may bear, and by 
 meditating for a stated time on the Four Last 
 Things. 
 
 Ever, my dear child. 
 
 Your afifec*% 
 
 J. Keble. 
 
 May I say that / very much need your remem- 
 brance just now.-* 
 
 LETTER XVIIL 
 
 To THE Same, on the expected Death of her Sister. 
 
 My very dear Child, 
 
 I need not say, be of good comfort. He says it so 
 
 plainly. And among other things which occur as 
 
 very comforting, and which will, I doubt not, come 
 
 out more and more when it is all thought over, like 
 
On the Disuse of Coitfession, &•€. 39. 
 
 stars in the sky, it seems so good that your dear 
 
 Sister was allowed those quiet months at , where 
 
 she was probably able to adorn herself for this time, 
 more tranquilly than she could well have done else- 
 where. 
 
 We shall try and pray for her as you desire : no 
 harm to do so, if she should have gone into another 
 
 room. 
 
 V^ most affec*^ 
 
 J.K. 
 
 LETTER XIX. 
 
 On the Evils resulting from Disuse of Con- 
 fession IN THE English Church. 
 
 Another reason for my being a worse corre- 
 spondent than usual, is that somehow or another the 
 Parish t^ikes up more and more time ; as one gets 
 more acquainted with the people, more and more 
 things occur which make me think a visit worth 
 while. This is a reason for which I ought to be 
 very thankful, though it is sad to think, after all, 
 how very little one knows of one's people. We 
 go on working in the dark, and in the dark it will 
 be, until the rule of systematic Confession is revived 
 in our Church. 
 
 This is one of the things which make persons like 
 Mr. Gladstone, however competent in most respects, 
 yet on the whole incompetent judges of the real 
 
40 On the Disuse of Confession, &c. 
 
 working of our English system. They do not, they 
 cannot, unless they were tried as we are, form an 
 adequate notion, how absolutely we are in our pa- 
 rishes like people whose lantern has blown out, and 
 who are feeling their way, and continually stepping 
 in puddles and splotches of mud, which they think 
 are dry stones. 
 
 Then the tradition which goes by the name of 
 Justification by Faith, and which in reality means 
 that one who has sinned, and is sorry for it, is as 
 if he had not sinned, blights and benumbs one in 
 every limb, in trying to make people aware of their 
 real state. 
 
 These are the sort of things, and not the want of 
 handsome Churches, and respect for Church Autho- 
 rity, and such like comparatively external points, 
 which make me at times feel so disheartened about 
 our system altogether, and cause a suspicion, against 
 one's will, that the life is gone or going out of it. 
 
 And this is why I so deprecate the word and the 
 idea of Protestantism, because it seems inseparable to 
 me from "Every man his own absolver;" that is, in 
 other words, the same as "Peace where there is no 
 peace," and mere shadows of Repentance. 
 
To a Clergyman y on the Choice of a Curate. 41 
 
 LETTER XX. 
 
 To A Clergyman, on the Choice of a Curate. 
 My dear , 
 
 I wish I could help you to a good Curate, but 
 you are one out of three very pressing applications 
 which I received about the same time. I fear there 
 will be more and more difficulty in getting such 
 helpers as we should thoroughly like, as the effect 
 of what the Bishops and Heads of Houses have been 
 doing for the last three years comes to be more felt. 
 Numbers of young men, such as one should most 
 wish to have, are, I imagine, deterred from ordina- 
 tion, by fearing that they should be more or less 
 mixed up with the Protestant interpretation of the 
 Articles. . . . 
 
 Perhaps it is hardly worth mentioning to you, 
 
 but I see the name of a Mr. , mentioned as 
 
 having been dismissed from a London Cure by the 
 Bishop, for preaching a sermon on Confession. I 
 think if I wanted a Curate, I should enquire about 
 him, not of course make him an offer at once, but 
 try to ascertain through others whether he was a 
 good and discreet man, and if he were, give him 
 a preference. Whoever can discreetly and effectually 
 bring in Confession, will do, I should think, one of 
 the best things for this poor Church as she is at 
 present. 
 
42 071 Confession and Fasting. 
 
 LETTER XXI. 
 
 On Confession and Fasting. 
 My dear Friend, 
 
 I really do not know of any particular in which 
 at present I can amend your suggestions. For my 
 own case (for miserable recollections make me shrink 
 from hearing confessions), I could wish that you had 
 chosen some other for that part of your course ; but 
 I would not on any account check you, if you think 
 it good for yourself I have not a copy of the devo- 
 tions which have been adopted, and if I had, I do 
 not know that I should like to be forward in suggest- 
 ing alterations in devotional forms actually adopted. 
 There seems a risk of disturbing people. 
 
 I hope you will be careful about the Fasting, and 
 keep a medical conscience in your own bosom or that 
 of some friend who may be trusted. Family men 
 (I mean those who live with others) are embarrassed 
 sometimes by the effect of their example on those 
 others, to whom perhaps what they do may be im- 
 prudent. Such cases I suppose are provided for 
 by the rule of " Mercy not Sacrifice," until the too 
 tender conscience of the other party can be suffi- 
 ciently hardened. 
 
To a Father, on the Death of his Child. 43 
 
 LETTER XXII. 
 
 To A Father, on the Death of his Child. 
 
 What can such an one as I am say to comfort 
 a Father at such a time as this must be to you 
 that you do not know much better yourself.? but 
 in all grief it is something to see in a friend's hand- 
 writing that he is trying at least to sympathize 
 with one, and of this you may be sure on my part. 
 And whilst we are writing, and thinking, and trying, 
 we are all, if we are not wanting to ourselves, coming 
 nearer the perfect Comfort, of which all these are 
 but shadows. How remarkable that so soon after 
 
 's affliction, you should be visited in the same 
 
 way. Who knows how far your thoughts of him, 
 or other circumstances connected with his loss, may 
 have prepared you and yours for this blow } or how 
 the rest and happiness of the one departed may be 
 entwined with that of the other .'' There is nothing 
 wrong, I trust, in dwelling upon such thoughts when 
 they come into one's mind ; and if they help to make 
 one muse on sudden trials with resignation and awe, 
 may we not think they were intended, and are ap- 
 proved of.? ... . 
 
 Surely, as you have always been helped to feel 
 for others, so many and many both here and There 
 will be helped to feel and pray for you : and now 
 we have the comfort of knowing, what we were even 
 
44 On speaking freely of the Departed. 
 
 afraid to dream of until Providence recalled our 
 thoughts, as of late, to the Ancient Church, that we 
 may innocently and piously pray for our departed, 
 and that they no doubt remember and pray for us. 
 Surely that one thing is worth a great deal of trouble 
 and annoyance, such as seems from day to day to 
 be gathering like a cloud around us. 
 
 Surely, too, it is something to know that dear chil- 
 dren are safe from the manifold and most bewilder- 
 ing trials which seem fast coming upon us. Happy 
 those who have not to charge themselves with some 
 part of the public evil, on account either of their 
 meddling with things too high for them, or touching 
 God's pure truth when themselves impure. This is, 
 by-the-bye, to bespeak your remembrance, now when 
 affliction has brought you, in a manner, unusually 
 near the Throne. 
 
 LETTER XXIII. 
 
 On speaking freely of the Departed. 
 
 I NEED not say to you, because you must know it 
 full well, how desirable it is to lose no time in using 
 ourselves to speak freely and calmly to one another 
 of those who are out of sight, as though they were, 
 as they are, 07ily out of sight. 
 
On Prayer for the Departed. 45 
 
 LETTER XXIV. 
 
 On the Same. 
 
 May it please Him that when the few years are 
 over during which we shall be in different rooms in 
 God's House, one may not be found quite unworthy 
 to meet him again. And surely one may hope this, 
 since to those who are forgiven it will be permitted 
 
 to see even His Face, Who made and all His 
 
 saints what they are .... 
 
 I do hope that you will, as soon as you can, use 
 yourself to name his name, and speak freely of him 
 at home and among friends. I fear it may be doing 
 violence to yourself at first ; but I dread your shrink- 
 ing from the subject too much. It will be such a loss 
 of comfort to yourself and others : and one feels so 
 sure of what he would wish. 
 
 LETTER XXV. 
 
 On Prayer for the Departed. 
 
 I CANNOT doubt that He who is the true Com- 
 forter has been and will be with you, tempering your 
 loneliness with sweet thoughts, such as He only can 
 impart, and that all that happens about your work 
 and your dear children especially, will be provi- 
 dentially ordered to help and soothe you. 
 
4-6 On Prayer for the Departed. 
 
 For one thing, I will venture to send you a sort of 
 suffrage, I believe from Bishop Andrewes, which one 
 very unworthy person at least has used for years 
 with far greater comfort than he deserves. 
 
 " Remember Thy servants and handmaidens which 
 
 have departed hence in the Lord, especially and 
 
 all others to whom our remembrance is due ; give 
 them eternal rest and peace in Thy Heavenly King- 
 dom, and to us such a measure of Communion with 
 them, as Thou knowest to be best for us. And bring 
 us all to serve Thee in Thine eternal Kingdom when 
 Thou wilt, and as Thou wilt, only without shame or 
 sin. Forgive my presumption and accept my prayers, 
 as Thou didst the prayers of Thine ancient Church, 
 through Jesus Christ our Lord." 
 
 We think a great deal of you, my very dear friends, 
 though some of us not half enough ; but no doubt 
 you are thought of there, where thoughts are deeds, 
 and deeds are blessings for ever. You must not be 
 too much disheartened, nor blame yourselves, if now 
 at your first coming home, you do not feel so much 
 alive as you would wish to the many blessings which 
 are still spared even to your sight : it is a natural 
 yearning which He who spared not His own Body, 
 nor His Mother's grief, will turn into a great grace 
 for you all. 
 
Advice concerning Confession. 47 
 
 LETTER XXVI. 
 
 Advice concerning Confession. 
 
 My dear 
 
 .... Two points in your statement (to me very 
 full of reproach) make your case, as it seems to me, 
 a comparatively simple one : the first, that you were 
 without early religious instruction ; the other, that 
 you did not relapse after Communion. This being 
 so, and our Church not laying down any rule how 
 particular a confession should be, I think the degree 
 of detail may best be left to your own judgment, 
 according as you may seem to want guidance in any 
 point, or as the act of confessing may relieve your 
 own mind as a penitential exercise. 
 
 The Absolution appears in this case so distinctly 
 sealed beforehand by the Judge Himself, that I 
 should not think of requiring more than the naming 
 of the crimes and bad habits for which it was desired. 
 And I should not doubt that you might by God's 
 blessing cheerfully go to His Altar, as usual with 
 you. Even in the Roman Church, I believe, pro- 
 vision is made for the case of a penitent fully intend- 
 ing to confess, and only waiting till he has oppor- 
 tunity. Of course I may be mistaken, .... but thus 
 it appears to me. Would it not be well to consult 
 some other person } though I shall be most thankful. 
 
48 To an Officer in the A rmy, 
 
 if it please God to make me of any use or comfort 
 to you. 
 
 Ever believe me, dear , 
 
 Very sincerely yours, 
 J. Keble. 
 
 LETTER XXVII. 
 
 To AN Officer in the Army, on Conversation 
 AT Mess, &c. 
 
 My dear Friend, 
 Forgive my delay in writing. I have really been 
 a little perplexed what to say about your case of the 
 dinner and unpleasant conversation. It seems to 
 me one in which a very great deal must depend on 
 the chance of doing good at some future time, by 
 bearing with undesirable things for a while. In the 
 natural course of things you will be acquiring rank 
 before very long, and this will enable you perhaps to 
 give a permanent check to what is disagreeable, and, 
 for the sake of this, it may be your duty to go on. 
 It must be very unpleasant, for it must be in fact 
 a series of cases of conscience continually occurring ; 
 instances, I mean, which cause you to doubt whether 
 you should be silent, or testify, or quit the company. 
 One's mind must, I suppose, be made up upon con- 
 sideration of the general effect and tendency of what 
 takes place both upon oneself and others. Things 
 
on Conversation at Mess, &c, 49 
 
 may be bad, yet one may have good reason for 
 thinking that they would be worse if one went away. 
 I suppose it is open to you to make excuses from 
 time to time, and so get rid of a good many of the 
 Friday dinners ; and, in the meantime, since by 
 God's blessing you are tolerably sure of your pur- 
 pose, you can best judge for yourself upon com- 
 paring particulars, and choose the least of two 
 evils. 
 
 About self-examination and meditation I have just 
 the same difficulty that you speak of. ... . But I 
 should suppose that a few sentences of (e.g.) the 
 Decades in Taylor's " Golden Grove," or out of Bp. 
 Wilson's "Maxims," or such poems as Bp. Ken's Morn- 
 ing Hymn, or (best of all) the Gospel History, or our 
 Lord's discourses, resolutely thought on for a few 
 minutes, with real persevering endeavour to exclude 
 other thoughts, might by degrees answer the purpose 
 in some measure, and train a person to think (if one 
 may say so) for himself. The self-examination is 
 comparatively easy when a person is pretty well 
 aware of his own feelings ; but of course, the best 
 can perform it but imperfectly ; and beginners must 
 not be disheartened if they seem to themselves to do 
 little or nothing. 
 
 I must say good night, for it is getting very late, 
 and write again if anything more occurs. It is indeed 
 a great comfort to know of one's being remembered 
 and thought of regularly, by a friendly heart, in one's 
 
 E 
 
50 To the Same, 
 
 great need, and I hope we shall be able to go on 
 
 quietly with that observance 
 
 Church and academical matters look, I fear, very 
 ominous, and there is much need that every one 
 should pray for this Church and for all who are per- 
 plexed in it. 
 
 Ever y'' very affec*®, 
 J. Keble. 
 
 LETTER XXVIII. 
 
 To THE Same, Sending a Form of Penitential 
 Prayer. 
 
 My dear Friend, 
 I have been on the point of addressing you several 
 times, and hardly know what has hindered me, ex- 
 cept, for one thing, that I have not been able to fix 
 upon any collect which seemed as if it would quite 
 suit our purpose, which, however, I have not lost sight 
 of, as I trust you have not. I like your notion of the 
 51st Psalm, with a short collect, very much, and have 
 tried to act upon it, but have hitherto found none in 
 our P. Book which suited exactly. That for Ash- 
 Wednesday seemed to do best. But to-day I have 
 been turning over the Roman Missal, and one has 
 occurred, which, with a very slight turn in the trans- 
 lation, seems eligible. I will write it at the foot of 
 this. For the time, I am such a sort of person that 
 I cannot depend on myself to be punctual ; only 
 
sending a Form of Penitefttial Prayer. 5 1 
 
 I should say that in general sometime between 2 and 
 4 o'clock I shall hope to say this Service, and shall 
 think of you doing the same ; unless ycfu wish for 
 any alteration. Provided we substantially remember 
 
 each other, I am indifferent about the details With 
 
 all kind regards, believe me affectionately, though 
 most undeservingly, yours, 
 
 J. Keble. 
 
 Proposed Service, 
 
 Lord have mercy, &c. 
 Our Father. 
 
 f". Turn us, O God our Saviour : 
 l^. And let Thine anger cease from us. 
 Antiphon. Wash me throughly from my wicked- 
 ness, and cleanse me from my sin. 
 Psalm 51. 
 Antiphon y as before. 
 
 Let us pray. 
 
 O God, Who towards all that trust in Thee de- 
 lightest in pity rather than in anger, grant unto us 
 worthily to bewail (and do meet penance for) the 
 evils which we have done : that we may obtain the 
 grace of Thy consolation : through our Lord Jesus 
 Christ. 
 
 The Lord bless us, &c. (as at the end of the Com- 
 mination Service.) 
 
52 On United Prayer for the Church. 
 
 LETTER XXIX. 
 
 To THE Same, on United Prayer for the Church. 
 My dear Friend, 
 
 I have been desiring R. to think of some 
 
 regular prayer for the Church of England, and per- 
 plexed spirits within her pale, to be used at one of 
 the hours. P. is very desirous of it, and so are many 
 others. What he thought of was the Lord's Prayer 
 with that special intention, and the 130*^ Psalm. 
 Each might use it at his own hour, but the point 
 would be, to have it at some time in the twenty-four 
 hours. So of your prayer for Church extension : 
 your way is a very good one, and I should be sorry 
 to interfere with it. Another, perhaps, might prefer 
 the Lord's Prayer with that intention, and the 6^]^^ 
 or some- such Psalm. The great point is to know 
 that people are praying for the same thing, daily. 
 
 I am very glad of S. Augustine's College, and of 
 Medley's appointment, and of what I hear of Ceylon. 
 Really, at present, the colonial Churches appear the 
 most encouraging part of our Church, and I cannot 
 but take courage when I think of them. What a 
 comfort it must be to the Bishop of London. What 
 follows refers to your former letter. With regard 
 
 to , I will only say two things, — that I could wish 
 
 him to be particularly remembered in the Interces- 
 sion mentioned above, and that all I come to see 
 
071 Private Eucharistical Prayer. 5 3 
 
 and know of him makes me think more highly 
 of him. 
 
 My own feeling about the Churches is, that Eng- 
 land, Rome, and Greece, being all, I trust and hope, 
 parts of the one Church, no person ought to leave 
 that one of the three in which God's Providence has 
 placed him, nor yet to feel jealous or hostile towards 
 the others, but rather as our Lord spoke of the man 
 who was casting out devils in His Name, but not 
 following with the Apostles. Whether this view 
 would be tenable, if I had more learning and acute- 
 ness, I cannot say. In the meantime, I feel sure that 
 unlearned Englishmen cannot be very wrong if they 
 
 go in all points by the Prayer-book 
 
 Y^« affectiy, 
 
 J. Keble. 
 
 LETTER XXX. 
 
 To THE Same, on Private Eucharistical Prayer. 
 
 My dear 
 
 I am sorry that I should be again a defaulter, the 
 rather as I was actually consoling myself with the 
 thought that this time you were in my debt, and 
 even now I cannot realize my having heard from 
 you ^ince I wrote, but I have no doubt that you 
 are right ; and now I think of it again, it does strike 
 me that I don't remember ever thanking you for 
 your kind information about the non-rejection of 
 
54 0)1 Private Eucharistical Prayer. 
 
 the Communion Office at Trinity College, and yet 
 few things that I have heard of lately have given 
 me so much pleasure. For us, I think it may be 
 even better than as if that Office had been exclu- 
 sively adopted ; it brings before men so clearly the 
 fact that the two offices are reconcileable, and that 
 this can only be by adopting the higher interpreta- 
 tion of ours. 
 
 Now with regard to your question. I see no ob- 
 jection whatever to a private layman's using in his 
 Eucharistical devotions any such portion of an old 
 orthodox Liturgy as that which you have sent to 
 me. Besides Bishop Wilson, we have in the " Holy 
 Living," and Bp. Andrewes' long extracts from vari- 
 ous Liturgies, proposed as part of private devotion, 
 and surely there is a special consolation in using 
 what comes recommended by the Ancient Church. 
 I use, or try to use, something of the kind, very like 
 your extract from S. James's Liturgy. I am not 
 aware of any objection to a person's privately using 
 the word "offer" as you do. In Thomas a Kempis 
 (to mention no more) there is, if I mistake not, ample 
 precedent for it. 
 
 I apprehend we may, without fault, mention in our 
 commemoration of the dead any who had departed, 
 being not expressly out of communion with the 
 
 Church With our kindest regards, • 
 
 Your affec*% 
 
 J. Keble. 
 
To a Lady, on Repentance. 55 
 
 LETTER XXXI. 
 
 To A Lady, an entire Stranger, on Repentance. 
 
 My dear Madam, 
 
 Pray forgive my delay : I have been unusually busy 
 in the Parish, and now have only time to write a 
 short, and, I fear, unsatisfactory letter. But I hope 
 you will believe that I sincerely sympathize with 
 your distress, and shall be only too glad if I may 
 be the means of helping you at all. 
 
 Your question, " What is Repentance ?" may be 
 answered by referring you to almost any of the de- 
 votional Books generally received either among Eng- 
 lish or Roman Catholics ; the regular account of it 
 being, that it includes Contrition, Confession, and 
 Satisfaction, — but I rather suppose that all this is 
 familiar to you, and that you are rather anxious for 
 some way of testing your own feelings and doings, 
 than for rules and definitions concerning Repentance 
 in general. Among English Books I do not, at this 
 moment, recollect a better help than Kettlewell's 
 " Companion to the Penitent ;" and many persons 
 have found, I believe, exceeding benefit by the use 
 of the Third Part of " The Paradise of the Christian 
 Soul, translated and adapted to the use of the Eng- 
 lish Church." I will not at present mention more 
 Books than these ; but I am very anxious that you 
 should be quite aware of one thing, which both these 
 
56 To a Lady, an entire Stranger, 
 
 and (I apprehend) all other Books which treat truly 
 of the subject, are careful to inculcate, viz. that the 
 wish, the continued wish to be contrite, is contrition : 
 the wish to hate one's evil self is the beginning of 
 such hatred. A person who feels it in the slightest 
 degree, and encourages the feeling, and tries to have 
 more of it, and is grieved not to have more, — such 
 an one, so far, is surely coming to our Lord, and 
 "him that is coming unto Him, He will in no wise 
 cast out." Undoubtedly the first effort at all this 
 will be very faint and imperfect, but so are all our 
 beginnings, and our perceiving them to be such is 
 a good sign, not a bad one. The only sure and 
 sufficient test of reality in one's feelings, I suppose 
 to be our conduct, i.e. our deliberate thoughts, our 
 words, and our actions, and especially in little every- 
 day unnoticed and unnoticeable matters : if we are 
 gradually trying more and more to bring them into 
 captivity to the love of God and our neighbour, we 
 may have the comfortable hope that God accepts 
 our Repentance, however imperfect. In your own 
 case, if I understand your letter rightly, submission 
 to a great degree of spiritual loneliness seems a main 
 part of the trial. If you can submit to doubt, per- 
 plexity, misgivings, even to desolation, as to bereave- 
 ment or bodily pain, striving to make the best of 
 it, and take it cheerfully as part of His gracious deal- 
 ings with you, and putting down every complaining 
 thought either of your personal or ecclesiastical posi- 
 
on Repentance. 57 
 
 tion, I trust that in His good time you will find that 
 you are in a sure and safe way. 
 
 Your question about dancing, &c., is of a kind 
 which, I believe, the best advisers are used to answer 
 conditionally. Such things, they say, are not bad 
 in themselves, but in the abuse of them ; and I sup- 
 pose it very often happens that persons, if they use 
 them at all, find them so instrumental to one bad 
 feeling or another, that their wisest course, if they 
 can choose, is to refrain from them. But I can con- 
 ceive cases where it would be unloving, or undutiful, 
 to act strictly in this rule ; where, for example, the 
 wish of parents is concerned. I can even conceive 
 cases where it would be more real self-denial to go 
 to such a party than to stay away from it. One can 
 scarcely lay down a universal rule ; it must depend 
 on one's own inward temptations, and on the degree 
 of scandal likely to be given to others. 
 
 Pray make use of me, such as I am, without scruple, 
 if I can be of the smallest comfort to you. Should 
 anything further occur to me, I will write without 
 waiting to hear from you again. With earnest 
 wishes for your comfort and best welfare, I am, 
 dear Madam, 
 
 Very faithfully yours, 
 J. K. 
 
5 8 Meaning of Satisfaction. 
 
 LETTER XXXII. 
 
 To THE Same. — Meaning of Satisfaction. — Safe 
 Rule in Church Difficulties. — On Feelings and 
 Conduct. 
 
 My dear 
 
 To take the topics of your letter in order 
 
 The word "satisfaction" is used by Divines — Hooker 
 for example — to express those good works, words, 
 and thoughts, by which a contrite heart would na- 
 turally express its desire to make amends, if it could, 
 for the wrong done, not only to our brethren, but also 
 to our God and Saviour, by our sins : worthy fruits 
 of Penance the Commination Service calls them ; 
 and although, of course, there can be no merit in 
 them, strictly speaking, yet it has always been con- 
 sidered in the Church that He graciously accepts 
 and rewards them: the penitential fasts, sackcloth, 
 &c., of the Old Testament, and the "revenge" spoken 
 of in the New (2 Cor. vii. 11), are, I suppose, cases 
 in point. 
 
 Well may we grieve and humble ourselves for the 
 state of our Church ; but, at the same time, we should 
 do well to consider always how great a favour it is 
 that we have a Church at all, that we are not like 
 North Africa, or Asia Minor, almost or quite cut off 
 for our sins ; and with all our might let us pray 
 against any such grief as throws off the blame of 
 
Safe Rule in Church Difficulties. 59 
 
 what is wrong from ourselves, on our condition, i.e. 
 on God's Providence. I only wish that I and all 
 who are tempted by such feelings, may be guided 
 to suppress them, until such time as we have made 
 thorough trial of our Prayer-books, according to our 
 means. I am greatly mistaken if that simple rule 
 would not prove, in God's good time, sooner or later, 
 a way of Peace and Truth, to every one who tries it 
 in earnest. But we must make up our minds to any 
 degree of doubt and misgiving that may be ordained 
 to punish and try us. In our days, when there is 
 comparatively no persecution, who knows but these 
 inward struggles may be the appointed way of per- 
 fecting those whom He favours. 
 
 To the question regarding conduct and feeling, 
 I should say, without any doubt or hesitation at 
 all, that the approbation of Him who sees in secret 
 depends not on conscious emotions, but on sincere 
 endeavours to obey Him. " This is the love of God, 
 that we keep His commandments." Do so because 
 it is your duty, and put your heart in His Hands 
 by Prayer, and He will deal with it as He knows 
 best ; by-and-by you will find that you have been 
 loving Him, perhaps even when you felt coldest. 
 Our conduct He leaves to ourselves, but our feelings 
 He keeps, in great measure, in His own Hands. You 
 wish to feel love, and you know that " if there be 
 first a willing mind, it is accepted according to that 
 a man hath, and not according to that he hath not." 
 
6o On Feelings and Conduct, 
 
 Only beware of unduly loving any creature, and that 
 is just what our conduct, well watched, will test. 
 I suppose it much safer for most of us to be dis- 
 tressed with the fear that we do not love God, than 
 to be pleasing ourselves with the thought that we do 
 love Him. It must require a very high tone of con- 
 duct to be safe in thinking that we enter consciously 
 into the spirit of such a book as the '' Imitation of 
 Christ." 
 
 With regard to the very painful subject with which 
 your letter concludes, I have been used to think, that 
 we are in no sort judges how far " invincible igno- 
 rance" may excuse a person in the sight of God for 
 any degree of speculative unbelief, provided he really 
 tries to act up to the light vouchsafed. This way of 
 thinking the Fathers of old applied to the cases of 
 the good and virtuous heathens, and, by parity of 
 reasoning, it may, one should think, apply to many 
 cases among ourselves, whom the letter of our for- 
 mularies would seem to condemn. Why, then, may 
 you not hope humbly, that at some time, in some 
 state or other, the true faith and the mercy which 
 it reveals may, in some degree at least, reach to such 
 an amiable person as you describe, though we may 
 not see or know how } In the meantime, your speak- 
 ing or not on such matters, is surely a question of 
 expediency, depending on the chance of doing good. 
 You can but watch and pray for opportunity and 
 guidance, and help to make the most of any opening 
 
0?i Feelings and Conduct. 6i 
 
 that may be granted. Sayings, doings, and looks, 
 which seem very slight in themselves, have often 
 a good deal of virtue, I believe, in such cases ; and 
 waiting on sickness or decline, gives occasion some- 
 times to unexpected ways of helping those whom 
 we love. 
 
 Circumstances separated me a good deal from my 
 dear friend, R. H. Froude (of whom you ask), in his 
 last illness ; but I have heard enough of it to say 
 with some confidence, that he did enjoy that com- 
 fortable hope which the Gospel offers to sincere 
 penitents, both for a good while before, and also 
 especially on his death-bed. 
 
 I seem to have written very coldly on many most 
 touching subjects ; but if, by His undeserved mercy, 
 I have been able to suggest anything which may 
 help or comfort you, it will be a real joy to me : 
 and I beg of you, my dear young Lady, to have 
 no scruple in writing as often and as much as may 
 seem to relieve you or do you good. I fear you 
 will often find my answers very unsatisfactory : if 
 you wished it, I could introduce you to the corre- 
 spondence of others far more likely to help you 
 than I am. In any case, believe me, with all best 
 wishes. 
 
 Your affectionate Friend and Servant in our Lord, 
 
 John Keble. 
 
62 On Catholic Yearnings, &c. 
 
 LETTER XXXIII. 
 
 To THE Same, on Catholic Yearnings. Cheering 
 Hopes for the Church of England. 
 
 My dear 
 
 I will no longer delay acknowledging your last 
 letter, which was indeed a great comfort to me, as 
 giving me reason to hope I might be of some little 
 use to you, which is more than I am fit to dare 
 hope for. But I am too busy or too lazy to answer 
 it as it ought to be answered. You must just take 
 what occurs to me on its topics in their order. I can 
 quite enter into the forlorn feeling of being alone in 
 your Cathohc yearnings: but, in the first place, no 
 
 doubt there are many even in who sympathise 
 
 with you, if you could but know them : and, in the 
 next place, it is one of the privileges (which are 
 also the trials) of a Catholic mind, to depend very 
 much on distant unseen sympathies — to be *' never 
 less alone, than when alone." S. Paul in his imprison- 
 ment seems to have had a great deal of this feeling, 
 and a person in your circumstances may surely with- 
 out presumption welcome any thoughts of the kind, 
 provided they encourage no dreamy neglect of present 
 duties. You ask if I have hope of our Church. Yes, 
 indeed, by the blessing of God, I have a very com- 
 fortable and growing hope, that a better generation 
 is coming on. I seem to see such an improvement 
 
On Meditation, Fasting, &c. 63 
 
 in the younger clergy, and, indeed, among the young 
 
 people of the higher orders generally. People seem 
 
 to me to think rather more of their Baptism than 
 
 they did : though the contrary notion, which you 
 
 (I think justly) call Heresy, has been of course called 
 
 out and rendered rampant by the very opposition as 
 
 well as by other things. . . . 
 
 Pray do not ever feel the least scruple in writing 
 
 to me, if it is any comfort or use to you. I cannot 
 
 say to you what a help it is to me, when such hints 
 
 as I can give seem to do good instead of harm. 
 
 I hope to be remembered in your Prayers at this 
 
 blessed season, and to remember you also. Hitherto 
 
 I have done so, I believe, daily since your first letter. 
 
 May He who was this day made man, be your Guide 
 
 and your Comforter by His good Spirit. Believe 
 
 me always 
 
 Very truly and aff ^y yours, 
 
 J. Keble. 
 
 LETTER XXXIV. 
 
 To THE Same, on Meditation, Fasting, and sensible 
 Comfort in Devotion. 
 
 My dear , 
 
 Do not think that I had forgotten you : your cir- 
 cumstances are far too interesting for that : I believe 
 I try every Morning to remember your name in my 
 prayers, such as they are. 
 
64 On Meditation^ Fasting, and 
 
 For Meditation on the Passion of our Lord, I 
 should think Mr. Isaac WiUiams' two portions of 
 a Harmony of the Gospels, with a sort of Commen- 
 tary, entitled, the Holy Week, and the Passion, would 
 be found very useful. Bishop Taylor, in his " Life of 
 Christ," will suggest a good deal. There are also two 
 little publications, which might help : " The Cross of 
 Christ," edited by Dr. Hook; and "Short Meditations 
 and Prayers on the Passion," published by Longman, 
 and printed at Lymington. If I add those of Bp. 
 Andrewes' Sermons which relate to the Passion, 
 I shall at least have specified an abundant store of 
 matter for meditation : but I suppose a few Books 
 of the kind, well studied, are commonly more profit- 
 able than many. 
 
 Of Fasting, I think Divines comnlonly say, that it 
 has three distinct ends : i. Mortification, that is, as- 
 sisting to overcome the natural man, and rendering 
 us more able to resist temptation, such as S. Paul 
 speaks of, i Cor. ix. ; 2^^^^^, Penance, i.e. helping and 
 expressing contrition for sins past, as when the same 
 S. Paul, on his conversion, fasted three days ; and 
 3^^^y, Contemplation, assisting the mind to withdraw 
 itself from earthly things, of which Moses' fast is 
 commonly considered an instance. You will find 
 some useful remarks on this matter in Bp. Taylor's 
 " Holy Living," and in the Fifth Book of Hooker's 
 " Ecclesiastical Polity." 
 
 I have kept back to the last the most delicate and 
 
^ 
 
 sensible Comfort in Devotion. 65 
 
 difficult of your inquiries, — difficult to me, not so much 
 from any doubt I have as to the substance of the 
 Truth, as from a fear that I shall not be able to 
 speak of it as I ought, to a tender spirit, such as I 
 conceive yours to be. The truth, as I take it, is that 
 spiritual ease and comfort is so far like that of the 
 body, that, while we all naturally long for it, our 
 Great Father knows it not to be good for us all, and 
 so He denies it to some, and grants it to others, in 
 ways and degrees, the rule of which is secret to us. 
 To say that our sensible comfort and assurance is 
 a sure or necessary sign of God's favour, must be 
 a mistake, if it were only that it contradicts our 
 Lord's agony, and the feeling that He had on the 
 Cross, not to speak of many saintly examples in 
 Scripture : and to say, that no one of " your way of 
 thinking" is made (humanly speaking) happy thereby, 
 contradicts, I should say, one's daily and hourly ex- 
 perience. I thank God I could mention very many, 
 who are (to all human appearance) plain instances to 
 the contrary of such a saying. At any rate, I cannot 
 but think, that the whole of Scripture from begin- 
 ning to end, could we read it with an unbiassed eye, 
 would quite disenchant us, if I may so say, of the 
 notion of assurance and comfort being the measure 
 of spiritual perfection. Perhaps no other Book could 
 be mentioned, after the Bible, more likely to quiet 
 a person's mind with the true impression on this sub- 
 ject, than Thomas a Kempis on the " Imitation of 
 
 F 
 
66 To the Same, 
 
 Christ," which has been translated .... so as to make 
 it very suitable for English readers. There are also 
 two Sermons of Hooker's, one on the Perpetuity of 
 Faith in the Elect, the other called a Remedy for 
 Sorrow and Fear; and there is Bp. Wilson's "Sacra 
 Privata," which contains a great treasure of devo- 
 tional thought on this very subject. For my own 
 part, I should be quite miserable if I thought, as your 
 friends appear to think, that the present comfort and 
 satisfaction of a person's mind is in any degree a test 
 and measure of his being in favour of God. If it were 
 so, how could it be said, that the Peace of God 
 " passeth all understanding .?" or (as Luther, I believe, 
 expressed it), that many have it not, who make sure 
 of it ; some, who seem almost to despair of it, trul}^ 
 have it } Surely it is too high and blessed a gift to 
 be tested and analysed by any emotions, or by any 
 reasoning of ours. The holy writers seem rather to 
 speak of it as of a kind of instinct, like infants' trust 
 in their mothers, than as of a definite feeling or view, 
 which we can experience or reflect upon. I should 
 say to you, then, my dear young friend, thank God 
 and take courage, trusting entirely to His goodness, 
 who has enabled, and will still further enable, you to 
 contend with some degree of success against your 
 daily defects and infirmities. One of these overcome 
 by His aid, is worth whole years of supposed security 
 and highly-wTought feeling, without such earnest self- 
 mastery. I shall be very anxious to hear from you 
 
on Contrition, 6'j 
 
 again on this matter, when you have time and incli- 
 nation to favour me with a line. Meanwhile, be- 
 lieve me, 
 
 Yours faithfully in Him, 
 
 J. Keble. 
 
 LETTER XXXV. 
 
 To THE Same, on Contrition. 
 
 My dear , 
 
 .... I will now recur to the principal topic of your 
 letter, so far as to say, that I believe all the Masters 
 of devotion are agreed, that the wish to be contrite, 
 continued and carefully encouraged, is in God's sight 
 not only the beginning of contrition, but the very 
 exercise of the habit itself, implying, as it does, ha- 
 bitual watchfulness and great jealousy of oneself in 
 regard of whatever indulgences and employments 
 are found to lessen tenderness of conscience, and the 
 sense that one ought to be penitent. In short, I 
 should say that the letter which I have now before 
 me, in which the writer deplores her want of con- 
 trition, is in itself an outpouring of a truly contrite 
 heart, and as such I trust and believe has been gra- 
 ciously accepted, with many other like thoughts and 
 words, by Him, who can and will make the least that 
 we try to do worthy of Him : and that He has 
 blessed, and will bless you, with many a holy and 
 
68 To a Clergyman, 
 
 fruitful Communion, in token of His acceptance of 
 the feelings which you are ashamed of, but which 
 He has long ago declared Himself pleased with, 
 even when He said to Mary of Bethany, " She hath 
 done what she could." Your sense of His mercy in 
 preserving you from grievous sin and giving you an 
 early sense of His goodness, is far indeed from being 
 any blemish in such contrition as I am speaking of : 
 and as to the bitterness of feeling which holy men 
 often express, I can only say, what I have said to 
 you before, that feelings are not directly in our own 
 power, any more than tears are. The will and the 
 wish, in this as in other things, are, I doubt not, 
 a true sacrifice of God. 
 
 Did you ever happen to read the Life of James 
 Bonnell, or the Journal of the late Mrs. Trimmer, or 
 a book published a few years since, called " Memo- 
 rials of a departed Friend T They all of them might 
 be thought by some deficient in contrition, yet who 
 can doubt that the writers were truly contrite and 
 humble persons } 
 
 My dear young Friend, I am not, I verily believe, 
 in any degree flattering you, but only delivering what 
 I am persuaded is His message, when I bid you again 
 to "thank God and take courage," and to go cheer- 
 fully on in the same way, wherein He has mercifully 
 led you so far : the more lonely, the more sure, in 
 one sense, of His special aid. 
 
 Once more forgive me, and if you can, give me 
 
on admitting to Communion, &c. 69 
 
 something to do or write for you, that I may in 
 some sort make up for this very unkind neglect. 
 And beHeve me, 
 
 In Him whom we would serve, 
 
 Your sincere Friend, 
 J. Keble. 
 
 LETTER XXXVI. 
 
 To A Clergyman, on admitting to Communion one 
 Burdened in Conscience, who had not made formal 
 Confession. 
 
 I THINK, on referring to the letters I have received 
 from the person you allude to, that you a little mis- 
 apprehend the facts of the case, in this respect, that 
 what I have received is neither a confession, nor does 
 it express any urgent or settled longing for confes- 
 sion, as the necessary and ordained means for remis- 
 sion of sins. Rather it speaks primarily of need of 
 guidance, and of confession only, or chiefly, so far 
 as preliminary to such guidance. And so far is it 
 from being of the nature of a confession properly 
 so called, that it would not enable me to judge posi- 
 tively whether you are correct or no in your notion 
 of the seriousness of the case. What I did, therefore, 
 was simply this, (so far as I feel at liberty to speak 
 of it.) A person in doubt and anxiety applies to me, 
 not knowing for certain whether she should confess 
 to me or not, but willing to do so, if it were thought 
 
70 To a Clergyman^ 
 
 right, when opportunity should be given, and wishing 
 for some hints how to go on in the meantime. I send 
 her some such hints which I happen to have by me, 
 not directing her to act by them, but for the chance 
 of their suiting her, and amongst them is one recom- 
 mendation of frequent Communion. 
 
 You see, therefore, it is not (so far as I can say) 
 quite the case which you put ; I am not quite sure 
 that there is deadly sin upon the conscience, nor yet 
 that the person looks to Confession as the one way 
 in which the sin may be remitted. So far as I know, 
 you might perhaps admit her to Communion, with- 
 out infringing your own rule. But it is very likely 
 that on both these points you know more than I 
 do as yet. 
 
 I shall, of course, advise the person not to present 
 herself for Holy Communion in your church without 
 your express permission. But what if she should ask 
 me, " May I receive elsewhere T' 
 
 I am, (to my shame,) for many reasons, a very 
 inadequate judge of such matters, with very little 
 either of reading or experience. But I have no 
 doubt that if we are bound in this matter by the 
 rules of the Roman Catholic Church, the law is as 
 you lay it down, only I thought it had been more 
 stringent. I thought the Roman Catholic Church 
 had said, " No man with deadly sin upon his con- 
 science must communicate without special private 
 Absolution," without reference to the opinion or 
 
on admitting to Coinmuniony &c. 
 
 desire of the individual : whereas you, if I rightly 
 understand you, would admit a person who was satis- 
 fied in conscience, without any thought of priestly 
 absolution. But the moment that is wished for, you 
 consider the person under a different rule. You think 
 that then all the strict requirements of the foreign 
 confessional take place. Now this is what I have 
 not yet been able to understand. I should have 
 thought that if the Priest and Penitent between them 
 may decide in each case on that greatest point, 
 whether there shall be Auricular Confession or no, 
 much more is it left to them to judge on the details 
 connected with it : e.g. how minute it should be ; 
 whether read or merely spoken, &c. ; and, amongst 
 other things, how it should be timed, and whether 
 or no the delay of it should keep a person from the 
 Holy Communion. One sees, of course, that there 
 is the greatest room for abuse and self-deceit in these 
 things, as there is, no doubt, in the permission to 
 dispense with Auricular Confession altogether, which 
 yet I believe you allow to be granted by our Church. 
 We may wish it otherwise, but we must take things 
 as we find them ; and although it would greatly 
 simplify matters, and make one's task, in a certain 
 sense, much easier, to tie ourselves to the foreign 
 rules, I feel that, in spite of ourselves, the line which 
 our Church has taken compels us to modify them in 
 very charity to the many souls which would, I fear, 
 otherwise be repelled from their best hope of recovery. 
 
72 To a Clergyman y on dealing 
 
 After all, I do not know that in the particular case 
 there is so much difference between us. It may be 
 reduced, I think, to this, that you would repel from 
 Holy Communion any one who was but longing for 
 Auricular Confession from an indefinite notion that 
 it might do him good in the way of deliverance from 
 grievous sin : / should say, " You ought not to come 
 till you have so confessed, if you distinctly believe 
 this to be the one way of deliverance." And I can 
 easily conceive that in most cases I might recornmend 
 yours as the safest way, though I do not see that 
 our Church authorizes me to insist on it in all cases. 
 
 I think I ought to apologize for interfering, as 
 I seem to have done, with your flock • and yet I 
 hardly know how I can help it. I trust and hope 
 that all wall end well. 
 
 I shall recommend the person, if in doubt, to ab- 
 stain as you direct, and take it as a penance ; if free 
 in conscience, and the burthen of abstinence ver}- 
 unsettling, I might perhaps yield to her communi- 
 cating elsewhere at Easter. 
 
 LETTER XXXVII. 
 
 To A Clergyman, on dealing with one under 
 Special Temptation. 
 
 I DO not see how you could give better advice than 
 you have done, in the distressing, but by no means 
 uncommon, case which you have partly described 
 
with one tinder Special Temptation. 73 
 
 to me. I fancy that I quite understand it, as far as 
 I can understand other people's cases ; and that it is, 
 in all probability, partly a trial permitted by the 
 Almighty in the way of bodily and nervous disease, 
 partly an effort of the Evil One to divert the soul 
 from those regular religious exercises, which he knows 
 are its appointed means of health and security. The 
 sceptical feelings you mention, point strongly that 
 way. I cannot consider him responsible either for 
 them, or for his devotional distractions. He confesses 
 them, prays against them, hates them in his heart, 
 wishes to have more poignant anguish for them, gives 
 them no manner of encouragement : how, then, can 
 they be accounted his, and not his enemy's } 
 
 I should have most comfortable and sure hope that, 
 by steadily persisting in such a course as you de- 
 scribe, he will turn these distresses into occasions of 
 blessing, whether he feels it so in this world, or no. 
 Does he know the " Spiritual Combat," and Thomas 
 a Kempis } there is much in both of them to his 
 purpose .... I would warn your friend especially 
 against late hours, and loss of sleep. Any other sort 
 of asceticism would be better than that. 
 
74 To a young Layman, 
 
 LETTER XXXVIII. 
 
 To A YOUNG Layman, on Notes of the Church : 
 Advice as to Books and Conversation. 
 
 My dear Sir, 
 
 Your letter, which I received this afternoon, needs 
 no apology. . . . Not to keep you in suspense, I will at 
 once reply to your four questions as I may at the 
 moment, intending to write again, if anything more 
 satisfactory occurs to me, and requesting you very 
 sincerely to write to me without scruple, as much 
 and as often as it may seem good for your relief, on 
 these serious and painful subjects. You may depend 
 on my not betraying your confidence. 
 
 Now for your first point. ... I have been used to 
 think that, not the Church of England exclusively, 
 but the Catholic Church throughout the world, had 
 the promises of the Gospel confined to its pale, yet 
 without prejudice to the notion that God's mercies 
 might overflow, towards those especially, who, trying 
 to do their best in their position, are kept from be- 
 lieving merely by invincible ignorance. And this 
 I believe to be the doctrine of all parts of the 
 Church, and of the Church of Rome quite as de- 
 cidedly as of any other. Of course we are inade- 
 quate judges both of the degree in which people try 
 to do their best, and of what is invincible ignorance ; 
 and from the unhappy divisions of the Church, now 
 
on Notes of the Church, &c. 75 
 
 for many centuries, we are also but poor judges who 
 are, or are not, within her pale. My own impression 
 is, that the three great divisions of Rome, Greece, and 
 England are (at least I hope so) within the pale. 
 Others, holding the Creed but not having the fellow- 
 ship of the Apostles, would seem to be in schism. 
 Deniers of the Creed, in whole or in part, in heresy. 
 Socinianism seems a very aggravated form of this, 
 no more entitled to call itself Christian, than the 
 teaching of Mahomet, who owned one God, and our 
 Lord to be His prophet. 
 
 2. I trust there is no reasonable doubt that the 
 Bishops and Priests of either of the three great 
 sections of the Church which I have mentioned, have 
 Christ's commission conveyed to them by imposition 
 of hands, for the offering and consecration of the 
 Holy Communion, and are, therefore, successors of 
 the Apostles as Christian Priests. 
 
 3. As to books to be read, I am not very fond of 
 urging the study of Evidences as such. But I should 
 recommend to all who have leisure, and will take the 
 trouble of thinking, that they should read and con- 
 sider Bishop Butler's " Analogy," which contains the 
 principles of all belief ; our assent to the several doc- 
 trines of the Gospel being but the application of 
 those principles. 
 
 I should earnestly advise any person who wished 
 to be well grounded in the truth, instead of reading 
 controversial books (unless* his duty as a clergyman 
 
76 To a young Layman, &€. 
 
 or the like compelled him) to go on taking for 
 granted that the doctrine of the Church was true, and 
 acting upon it. I believe this to be, I will not say 
 the best, but the 07ily way to come to a real grasp of 
 holy truths. Mr. Newman's Sermons will, I think, be 
 of as much use as any book I know, in sustaining 
 persons in such a resolute faith as this, and in re- 
 moving occasional misgivings. I should, of course, 
 assume the devotional rather than critical study of 
 Holy Scripture itself: the Gospels especially. 
 
 4. Generally speaking, I should greatly deprecate 
 such argumentation as you enquire about. Rather 
 I would advise a person to retire into himself, and 
 meet profane sayings by inward devotion ; of course 
 taking proper opportunities of shewing that he feels 
 that kind of pain, which will hinder a kind or even 
 a well-bred person from holding such language be- 
 fore him. 
 
 Your letter does not hint at any possibility of your 
 withdrawing out of the reach of such distressing and 
 (perhaps) perilous discourse. I presume, therefore, 
 that circumstances make it impossible. 
 
 Excuse this very hasty answer to such serious 
 questions : and believe me, dear Sir, with very sincere 
 prayer that you may be safely guided through your 
 difficulties, 
 
 Yours very truly, 
 J. Keble. 
 
To the Same. yy 
 
 LETTER XXXIX. 
 
 To THE Same. 
 
 My dear , 
 
 I have been wishing to write to you ever since 
 I received your letter, but there has been rather 
 a press of parochial business. And now, I fear, I shall 
 seem to answer you rather briefly and abruptly, but 
 you must not think it arises from want of interest, or 
 from any wish to have fewer or shorter letters from 
 you (for, believe me, your letters are most refreshing 
 to me), but your questions this time involve so much, 
 that if I were to enter into them at any length, I 
 should be trying more than I have time for. So 
 I will just send you my first and general impressions, 
 and bear the matters in mind, should anything occur 
 hereafter. 
 
 I see nothing that you can do in the very distress- 
 ing sort of trial which you mention, but to shew 
 yourself unmoved by it, as far as you are yourself 
 concerned, and distressed as far as God's honour is 
 touched ; and if this be accompanied with command 
 of temper, and with scrupulous and earnest endea- 
 vours to be useful and agreeable in all innocent ways, 
 I cannot but hope that you will before long begin to 
 find your reward in some way or other; the whole 
 matter being of course committed to God by secret 
 and diligent prayer, and that prayer commended by 
 persevering endeavours to be holy. 
 
78 To the Same. 
 
 Those who, professing to take Scripture literally, 
 argue from what was said to Adam that there was 
 no future state for him and his posterity, might be 
 asked why they cannot take the sayings of the New 
 Testament (S. John v. 28, and others equivalent to it) 
 as literally : they surely speak more unequivocally. 
 
 But, perhaps, what was meant was (what Bishop 
 Warburton, among others, I believe held), that if our 
 Lord had not redeemed man, he would have perished 
 by annihilation. This, I think, we may let pass, as 
 a subtlety which no way concerns us. 
 
 The Roman controversy is one to which I feel 
 myself altogether inadequate, for want both of read- 
 ing and other qualifications, but my impressions are, 
 I. That we are bound to continue thankfully in that 
 Branch of the Church in which Providence has placed 
 us : and that, with a view to our doing so, it is best 
 to avoid reading works such as this of Bishop Baines 
 (which I never saw) probably is, written purposely 
 to unsettle those out of Communion with Rome : in- 
 deed, I would say, avoid controversial reading gene- 
 rally, and employ yourself rather with what is devo- 
 tional and practical. 
 
 2. And on the other side, I never could have much 
 sympathy with those who dwell eagerly on the sup- 
 posed errors of that Church. I cannot see why, under 
 common circumstances, we may not be at once faith- 
 ful to our own Communion, and neutral towards 
 Rome. It seems to me an extraordinary stretch of 
 
To the Same. 79 
 
 private judgment, for a private Christian to condemn 
 either ; and although no course unhappily is without 
 difficulties, yet I trust that it may be found a safe 
 way at the last, to go on where Providence has set 
 one, labouring and praying, not controversially but 
 practically, for that holiness which alone can truly 
 unite men, and which, if generally revived, would no 
 doubt bring back with it, visible unity. With regard 
 to those two little books of mine, I know they are 
 very superficial, and lay down the law far too posi- 
 tively for a person of so little reading as myself. I 
 do not, therefore, advise you to trust them any fur- 
 ther than you find them borne out by real good 
 authorities. 
 
 Law's "Serious Call" is most admirable, but one 
 must not quite swear by him, as he had sometimes 
 a most curiously one-sided way of looking at a 
 matter : of which you will find an instance in his 
 advising every person to sing aloud, in church and 
 in his room, whether with or without voice and ear. 
 
 As to the last and most serious part of your letter, 
 I will say at once, that I know of no insuperable 
 difficulty to hinder a person in your line of life from 
 changing it, at some time, for Holy Orders — I have 
 known instances of it ; nor do I see any reason, from 
 what you tell me of your own case, why you should 
 discard the thought to which you seem to have been 
 in some sense providentially guided ; only do not so 
 dwell upon it, as to make the disappointment too 
 
8o To the Same : 
 
 severe, should anything happen to hinder it alto- 
 gether ; nor yet so as to make you less active and 
 conscientious in your present calling. In short, keep 
 it in mind as a thing possible, and as a thought which 
 should help you to be more and more circumspect 
 in all your efforts to please God, but still as a very 
 doubtful matter, and one in which you are rather 
 to wait for the leadings of Divine Providence, than 
 to form decided plans for yourself. 
 
 I hope it will not be long before you will find it 
 possible to speak on this matter to some one con- 
 nected with yourself, and so having more right and 
 ability to judge than I have. 
 
 Believe me, dear , 
 
 With best wishes, 
 
 Yours affectionately, 
 J. Keble. 
 
 P.S. Thank you very much for remembering me, 
 as in the last sentence of your letter. I have much 
 need of all the good prayers that can be made 
 for me. 
 
 LETTER XL. 
 
 To THE Same: Hints on Self-guidance. 
 My dear , 
 
 It is so rare in our profession to find oneself treated 
 with real confidence, especially by young persons, 
 
Hints on Self -guidance. 8 1 
 
 that when such a thing does happen, one feels quite 
 refreshed by it : for my sake, therefore, as well as 
 your own, let me beg of you to address me and tell 
 me things without scruple, as long as I can be of any 
 use to you, or to any one for whom you are in- 
 terested. I do not wonder at the feeling you express 
 to me of dread as to what may happen by and by, 
 when your situation is a more dangerous one, nor at 
 your almost seeming as if you were a hypocrite in 
 your correspondence with me. We are, almost all 
 of us, such double-minded persons, our best moments 
 so miserably unlike our worst, that it is but natural 
 we should sometimes feel so, and then our enemy 
 will endeavour to make us think it is all over with 
 us, at least for the present, and that we may just as 
 well be consistent, at least for a time, in pursuit of 
 present enjoyment ; but let me beg of you not to 
 listen to him, but rather to the good angels who 
 would make you consistent the other way. 
 
 Perhaps, left as you are to yourself, it may help 
 you towards this happy result, if you keep, at least 
 for a time, some sort of register of your advances or 
 relapses in those matters on which your conscience 
 most troubles you : something very brief, only just 
 sufficient to help the memory, and if it were in short- 
 hand, or some kind of cypher, so that, even if mislaid, 
 it might betray nothing, this would lessen one objec- 
 tion to the practice. 
 
 You might try it, at least for a time, say a week 
 or a month, and see how it answers. 
 
 G 
 
82 To the Same, 
 
 I am in good hope that when you go to reside 
 in London, you will find more help than you now 
 perhaps fancy. I may perhaps be able to help you 
 with introductions, if you let me know when you are 
 going. In the meantime be of good heart, and never 
 permit your mind to indulge in any kind of despond- 
 ency. Our Lord's rule, "Take no thought for the 
 morrow," may well be applied to this matter, as 
 well as to others merely temporal. 
 
 I do not wonder at what you say of poor Blanco 
 White's book ; it Is just what I should expect from 
 all that I have heard of It, and' remember of him. 
 I understand that it strikes persons who knew him 
 well, and who are otherwise best able to judge, as 
 being simply infidel and unchristian. 
 
 Jones's is a very good little book. I suppose the 
 reason of its not being reprinted may be, that of 
 late that controversy has not been very rife, as a 
 controversy. I do not know the Natural History of 
 Religion. 
 
 I shall be glad If anything happens before long 
 to bring us Into personal acquaintance with each 
 other, though I have an uncomfortable conscious- 
 ness that you would find me very different from 
 what your imagination tells you. Could not you 
 
 give me a line beforehand whenever you go to , 
 
 and go or come back our way. Do think of it, and 
 Believe me always 
 Your faithful and affectionate friend, 
 J. Keble. 
 
on Loneliness and lack of Sympathy. 83 
 
 LETTER XLI. 
 
 To THE Same, on Loneliness and lack of Sympathy. 
 
 You must not be too much cast down by the sort 
 of ill-feeling which you seem to perceive in those 
 around you, since you have tried to realise your con- 
 victions more thoroughly. Provided we guard against 
 pride and rash judgment, I suppose such things may 
 even be thankfully accepted as an additional ground 
 for hoping that one is, so far, in the right. 
 
 Certainly it is a deep and real addition to your 
 trials that you have no one near to whom you can 
 at all speak freely on the matters nearest your heart. 
 But it must be borne, like bereavements of all kinds, 
 with patience, its contingent ill effects, such as you 
 describe, watched and prayed against, and I make 
 no question that in this way it will surely, and not 
 very slowly, be turned into a blessing. One great 
 possible advantage of it I seem to discern, that it 
 even forces a serious person to have root in himself, 
 instead of leaving him in danger of relying too much 
 on the one, two, or three, whom he might feel that 
 he could trust. 
 
 It is a severe discipline, the loneliness in which you 
 are placed ; but if met manfully and in the fear of 
 God, I suppose it to be singularly calculated to es- 
 tablish a high and noble character, higher and nobler 
 
84 On Loneliness and lack o'f Sympathy. 
 
 than could be easily formed in more comfortable 
 circumstances. 
 
 One thing occurs to me as a possible help in sooth- 
 ing and relieving your pent-up feelings, viz. that you 
 should, if circumstances allow, get into a regular 
 course of some kind of charitable visiting among 
 poor and distressed people. 
 
 Music heard and practised, poetry read and written, 
 drawing, scenery, gardening, and all kinds of out-of- 
 door recreations, if not too exciting, may be made 
 useful in this way, but the specific is works of charity 
 and devotion. 
 
 I hope I shall soon hear from you again ; and 
 again I beseech you, do not fear writing either too 
 often or too long. 
 
 Believe me always 
 
 Affectionately yours, 
 J. Keble. 
 
 P.S. I quite enter into what you say of your first 
 placing where you are, and should be sorry if the 
 words of that Sermon were felt as blaming such 
 arrangements indiscriminately. I suppose I meant 
 them as cautionary. But I was, and am, quite unfit 
 and unworthy to pass censure on any one. 
 
To a Friend under Disappointment. 85 
 
 LETTER XLII. 
 
 To A Friend under Disappointment. 
 My very dear , 
 
 Forgive my not writing sooner. It is not through 
 forgetfulness, for, indeed, my thoughts are very much 
 with you, and so it is with us all, whom you have 
 trusted with what was in your heart. It is, indeed, 
 a real calamity, a heavy burthen which you are called 
 on to bear ; but in it, as in all other ills, we are 
 mercifully permitted and invited to " make a virtue 
 of necessity." As one tells the poor people, most 
 truly, that their involuntary fasts, patiently acqui- 
 esced in, will be accepted as voluntary sacrifices, 
 so (and much more, in proportion to the complete- 
 ness of the sacrifice, and the greatness of the pain) 
 will it be in this case. 
 
 I wish some of us could have been with you in 
 your journey home, which must have been, humanly 
 speaking, so dreary : but as we know Who was with 
 you, so I should not wonder if you had much com- 
 fort that we cannot know of. As I write, it strikes 
 me that the prayer in Thomas a Kempis, bk.iii.c.29% 
 
 * ' * Blessed be Thy Name, O Lord, for ever ; for that it is Thy will 
 that this temptation and tribulation should come upon me. 
 
 " I cannot escape it, but must needs flee unto Thee, that Thou mayest 
 help me, and turn it to my good. 
 
 "Lord, I am now in affliction, and it is not well with me, but I am 
 much troubled with the present suffering. 
 
86 To One in Distress for Past SiUj 
 
 especially the application in it, of St. John xii. 27, 
 is particularly suited to this kind of trial. May you 
 be helped, and I somehow feel sure that you will 
 be helped, to make much of it, and of such like 
 thoughts. 
 
 LETTER XLIII. 
 
 To One in Distress for past Sin, and on Remedies 
 AGAINST Temptation. 
 
 My dear , 
 
 If you knew my real history, you would know 
 how little it would become such an one to turn 
 
 "And now, O beloved Father, what shall I say? I am in a strait ; 
 save Thou me from this hour. 
 
 ** Yet therefore came I unto this hour, that Thou mightest be glori- 
 fied, when I shall have been greatly humbled, and by Thee delivered. 
 
 "Let it please Thee, Lord, to deliver me; for, wretched that I 
 am, what can I do, and whither shall I go without Thee ? 
 
 "Grant me patience, O Lord, even now in this my strait. Help 
 me, my God, and then I will not fear, how grievously soever I be 
 afflicted. 
 
 "II. And now in these my troubles, what shall I say? 
 
 ** Lord, Thy will be done ! I have well deserved to be afflicted and 
 grieved. 
 
 " Surely I ought to bear it ; and O that I may bear it with patience, 
 until the tempest be overpast, and all be well again, or even better ! 
 
 "But Thine omnipotent Hand is able to take even this temptation 
 from me, and to assuage the violence thereof, that I utterly sink not 
 under it ; as oftentimes heretofore Thou hast done unto me, O my God, 
 my mercy ! 
 
 " And the more difficult it is to me, so much the more easy to Thee 
 is this change of the right Hand of the Most High." — Imitation, bk. it. 
 § 29. -(Ed.) 
 
and on Remedies agaiiist Temptation. 8/ 
 
 away from a frail and erring brother; and were I, 
 indeed, such as you mistakenly imagine, it would 
 be the very joy of my heart to welcome and en- 
 courage the penitent. I do not mean to make light 
 of the sad account you sent me : the fall, no doubt, 
 has been grievous, and you do well to judge and 
 condemn yourself for it, but do not for a moment 
 despond. Set yourself to the work of penitence as 
 you would to the cure of any bodily illness : judge 
 and punish yourself secretly and soberly for the 
 fault, and watch with all your might against every 
 degree of relapse, especially guarding (as our Lord 
 Himself directed) the eyes. I suppose no words can 
 express the importance of that one caution. 
 
 If evil thoughts occur in the night, rise and pray 
 on your knees for a few moments : say, e.g. the 
 51st Psalm. Some slight bodily hardship is often 
 useful, I believe, at such times. Be very careful 
 about your fasting, whether in the way of penitence 
 or precaution ; it causes sometimes, especially when 
 persons are unused to it, a kind of reaction very 
 distressing. If you have reason to fear that, you 
 had better use hard and unpleasant diet, instead 
 of actually going without. 
 
 If you find that your mind is still oppressed, and 
 especially if your enemy still haunts you, make use 
 of the Church's motherly direction about confession. 
 You will find directions for it, and for the con- 
 duct of your repentance altogether, in a little book 
 
88 Remedies and Helps under Temptation. 
 
 lately republished, Kettlewell's " Companion for the 
 Penitent." 
 
 Pray do not give up your intention of coming to 
 see us; there is one person in the house, at any 
 rate, who ought to be very thankful to be allowed 
 to kneel down and ask pardon with you ; one who 
 has need of all the help he can find for himself, 
 and to whom, therefore, it is the greatest charity to 
 shew him how he may be of some little help to 
 others. I quite depend upon making your acquaint- 
 ance some day. God grant we may meet in peace ; 
 and we shall do so, if we meet as true penitents. 
 
 Ever yours afifec^y 
 J. Keble. 
 
 LETTER XLIV. 
 
 Remedies and Helps under Temptation. 
 
 My dear , 
 
 It was a great relief to hear from you again, sad 
 as your report is in some respects : for I had begun 
 to fear that I had lost you quite : I mean, that I 
 was to give up the hope which I had entertained, 
 and in which I found a peculiar sort of comfort, 
 that I, unworthy as I know myself to be, might be 
 permitted to do you good. Your writing again is 
 a merciful token, that both you and I may have 
 hope for ourselves and for one another ; I trust I am 
 not wrong in saying this with entire confidence. 
 
Remedies and Helps under Temptation. 89 
 
 If the Great Judge had already sentenced you, 
 He would not put it into your mind to have such 
 misgivings, and to write so of yourself to one, to 
 whom you are drawn no otherwise than as to His 
 (supposed) instrument for your good. No, my dear 
 young friend, be sure you are very very dear to Him. 
 He is but waiting to see you stand manfully in 
 His strength (which you will have if you pray for 
 it) against the next assault of your enemy: you 
 know you can do it, if you will — you have that 
 power, for how would it be if some one were by 
 who stood in some very dear and sacred relation 
 to you, a parent for example, or a sister? Should 
 you not of course keep then from outward excess 
 at least, such as they could take notice of? Only 
 in this case you must not wait for outward excess : 
 the time to think of God's eye being upon you is 
 when your own eyes are tempted to look the wrong 
 way, or your ears to listen to what you know will 
 prove near occasions of sin ; it is there, where the 
 battle of purity must be fought, and where the 
 purity of Repentance must begin to be recovered, 
 even if that of innocency is lost 
 
 In other words, the only safety in temptations, pro- 
 perly called carnal, is in flight ; when that can be 
 had, it is vain trusting to resistance. This you will 
 find strongly put in a little book called the " Spiri- 
 tual Combat," which has been translated, and edited 
 by Dr. Pusey ; there are many things in it which 
 I think may be useful to you. 
 
90 Remedies and Helps under Teinptati07i. 
 
 I cannot but hope something from your being 
 called home just now ; family anxiety (for I will 
 hope it may not amount to affliction) and absence 
 for a while from the scene of your usual tempta- 
 tions, seem providential calls, of which a good use 
 may be made. I would beg of you to watch every 
 thing of that sort, every thing that tends to recall 
 you to your better self, however trifling or merely 
 accidental it may seem. 
 
 You are, if I do not guess wrongly, sensitive and 
 quick in your imaginations, and able, therefore, to 
 catch up and to interpret every hint of that kind 
 which your ever-present Friend may vouchsafe you. 
 The mere exercise of watching for such hints will 
 do you good, by God's blessing, in many ways. 
 
 Do you know La Motte Fouque's "Sintram and 
 his Companions.?" if you do not, I would beg you 
 to get it and read it ; it will explain what I mean 
 in these last sentences, which perhaps may be rather 
 obscure. 
 
 I should repeat to you now, more earnestly than 
 ever, the advice I gave, about avoiding disputes and 
 mere conversations on sacred subjects. You seem 
 yourself quite aware of the danger, and perhaps it 
 behoves you more than ever to think of others, who 
 might be injured by one's conversing on such sub- 
 jects, without earnest preparation of the heart and 
 conduct. 
 
 In the mean time, be of good courage, I beseech 
 you, in this respect also ; make it specially matter 
 
Remedies and Helps tmder Temptation. 91 
 
 of your prayers, and assure yourself that here, as 
 in the other equally painful subject, it is not having 
 a bad thought suggested to you, but consenting to 
 it, which makes guilt before God. 
 
 If the worst comes to the worst, and you find 
 yourself so tempted in your present situation that 
 you cannot fight, you have still the chance of flying, 
 that is, of sacrificing your present prospects ; if you 
 could so do it as to punish yourself only, it might 
 be an acceptable offering, and obtain a great bless- 
 ing. But I say this, of course, in great ignorance, 
 and in much doubt whether I ought to say it at 
 all ; only that this, or indeed anything would be 
 better than going on in a bad way, in a kind of 
 reckless despondency. 
 
 If anything more occurs to me, I will write to 
 you again, for, indeed, I think of you daily : but 
 I deeply wish you had some one at hand whom 
 you might trust in these matters. Yet, again, you 
 have such an One at hand ; only fear not to trust 
 Him. And never, never give way to despair. Think 
 of the good Angels and Saints praying for you, and 
 of your friends who are gone ; and think of one 
 most unworthy, who depends partly on you, to 
 " cover the" sad " multitude of his sins." 
 
 Ever anxiously and affectionately yours, 
 J. Keble. 
 
92 Practical Hints and Suggestions as to 
 
 LETTER XLV. 
 
 To THE Same: Practical Hints and Suggestions as 
 TO Behaviour towards a Sceptical Friend. 
 
 My dear young Friend, 
 
 I must thank you over and over for the joy and 
 comfort which your letter has given me, for, indeed, 
 I was afraid that I might not hear from you again, 
 and did not know where you might have wandered : 
 but I have never, I believe, gone for a day with- 
 out thinking of you, and that I now receive such 
 a letter from you, I cannot but be very thankful. 
 To be sure it does not look much like thankfulness 
 to have gone on for near three weeks without re- 
 plying. But in good truth we have been very busy 
 here. . . . There has also been an unusual number of 
 deaths in the village: and I have gone on hoping 
 that I might write more satisfactorily. But it will 
 not do to wait any longer, and I must answer your 
 very interesting applications as I can. 
 
 My answer, I think, will come to this ; that if 
 I could make your personal acquaintance, I should 
 be much better able to give you an opinion, both 
 as to your London life, and as to the course to be 
 pursued with your young friends about .whom you 
 consult me. 
 
 With regard to the first, the notions which I have 
 are so very vague and general, that I really do not 
 
Behaviour towards a Sceptical Friend. 93 
 
 know how to give advice. But if we could converse 
 a little, face to face, something definite and useful 
 might possibly turn up. You know, of course, that 
 young men have now opportunities, more than they 
 had, of attending the Services of the Church, and, as 
 I trust, more sympathy among one another, in their 
 endeavours to be good or penitent. Indeed, I sup- 
 pose that you would be able to secure thorough 
 spiritual guidance of a truly Catholic sort in London, 
 if you could make up your mind to apply for, and 
 act upon. it. In the mean time, I hope that you will, 
 without scruple, make any use that you can of me, 
 only bearing with my tardy and scanty replies, and 
 believing, as the truth is, that it is, in one sense, 
 a great comfort, and in another a very useful lesson 
 to me, to receive such applications. 
 
 I wish I could see my way more clearly in advising 
 you with regard to that other most sacred matter. 
 The principles, I suppose, of all such enquiries are 
 to be found in Bishop Butler's " Analogy ;" but to 
 apply them to this, or any other special point of 
 Theology, may require deeper thought than you can 
 expect, in such a young person as you mention. 
 
 Yet if a man can bring himself to study the Bible 
 reverentially, I confess it does appear to me, that the 
 Unity of the Godhead on the one hand, and on the 
 other, the claim of our Lord to be loved and trusted 
 in as God, are both so expressly set forth, as to make 
 the Arian hypothesis prima facie untenable. And 
 
94 To the Samey 
 
 so I expect it will be found again, as it always seems 
 to have been found after no long time, though it 
 may revive more or less among the confusions of 
 this generation, of which I think I see symptoms, 
 besides what you report. 
 
 Of course one must suppose the happiest way 
 would be, if such an one as your friend could submit 
 himself unreservedly to the Church's teaching in the 
 Creeds, making experiment of it by a holy life. But 
 if he cannot bring himself to that, I know nothing 
 in the way of argumentative reading that I can re- 
 commend better than Bishop Pearson, especially on 
 the second Article. (I suppose he is a scholar.) If he 
 is a metaphysician, I could almost think that part of 
 S. Augustine on the Trinity might prove interesting, 
 and help to satisfy him. But I really wish you could 
 come here, if it were but for a day . . . and we could 
 talk over these things at our leisure. 
 
 Ever believe me. 
 
 Yours affectionately, 
 J. Keble. 
 
 LETTER XLVI. 
 
 To THE Same. 
 
 My dear 
 
 "We hope to be at home again the end of next 
 week, and shall be very happy to see you at any 
 
on Confession. 95 
 
 time afterwards that may be convenient to you. . . . 
 It will be a real pleasure to make your personal 
 acquaintance, and to be permitted to hope that I 
 may be of use to you ; but do not wait for that or 
 anything else in making good rules and trying to 
 keep them. I fear you will find things at Hursley 
 very different from what you probably in your kind- 
 ness expect ; but the good rules I speak of are the 
 same everywhere, and within your reach always. 
 
 I should recommend you, if you can, to make your- 
 self contented with your Parish Church, disregarding 
 what you perceive to be contrary to the Prayer-book, 
 and taking whatever is doubtful in the best sense. 
 
 Those who know better than I do seem to think 
 
 this the right course in such cases, now, alas ! too 
 
 common. 
 
 Believe me, 
 
 Yours always very truly, 
 
 J. Keble. 
 
 LETTER XLVIL 
 
 . To THE Same, on Confession. 
 
 My dear young Friend, 
 
 Indeed I am very sorry for you, but I must not 
 
 lose a moment in beseeching you not to despair, but 
 
 to go on courageously in the way of penitence, on 
 
 which, by God's grace, you have entered. I feel sure 
 
g6 To the Same, 
 
 that as the evil spirit must have rejoiced in your fall 
 (no doubt he was especially busy with you, those 
 who are making any kind of effort in the way of 
 goodness must always expect to find him so), so the 
 good Angels rejoiced, and I trust are still rejoicing, 
 at your having the heart to confess. May He, who 
 put that good mind into you, strengthen you more 
 and more by His grace, that you may feel more and 
 more the shame and horror of so dealing with the 
 members of Christ, and resolve more and more 
 earnestly, to avoid not only the sin, but all tempta- 
 tions and near occasions of it, however dull and 
 wearisome the time may seem to pass to you. The 
 dulness and weariness, as far as they go, will be 
 useful in the way of penance. 
 
 I forget whether I mentioned to you, in talking of 
 this kind of subject, that some people had found it 
 useful to associate the idea of dirt, of bodily foul- 
 ness and loathsomeness, with temptations of that sort. 
 But I am persuaded that in most cases (and yours 
 seems no exception) regular confession, and not oc- 
 sional only, will be found the best help, by way both 
 of precaution and remedy. It was partly with this 
 view that I mentioned to you Mr. , whom I sup- 
 pose to be a most discreet and charitable director. 
 But I hope you will understand that I am quite 
 at your service, should you prefer "opening your 
 grief" to me. Providence having somehow brought 
 us together. 
 
on Confession. 97 
 
 I think you had better begin immediately to pre- 
 pare for what is called General Confession, by re- 
 viewing your whole history, and setting down your 
 sins as well as you can ; any book of preparation 
 for the Holy Communion will help you to do so. 
 And, having this paper by you, you may add to it 
 from time to time, as new faults occur, or old ones 
 are remembered ; and then when a good opportunity 
 comes, you may pour it all out into your loving 
 Lord's ear, through some one of His unworthy 
 Priests, and be by Him, through the Priest's mouth, 
 so fully absolved, that the sins, if not returned to, 
 shall be no more mentioned unto you, and you may 
 with humble confidence communicate as often as 
 ever you can reverently draw near. In the mean- 
 time, I should rather recommend your abstaining 
 from Holy Communion, unless the time, from cir- 
 cumstances, were too long, in which case you should 
 make your earnest purpose of special confession, 
 when it may be had, part of your preparation for 
 the Sacrament 
 
 Pray consider this, and with earnest prayer. I 
 cannot but hope that courage will be given you to 
 try this remedy, bitter as it must be, and to perse- 
 vere in it. You need not have to wait long, as, if you 
 
 prefer Mr. (which, on many accounts, I should 
 
 be glad of), you might go to him at any time. The 
 practice once begun, I trust in His great goodness 
 would go on, and do you great good. The general 
 
 H 
 
9^ The same Subject continued. 
 
 confession need not be repeated, though you changed 
 your director, unless you wished it. 
 
 May He, who can, forgive and bless you. 
 And believe me always. 
 
 Your affectionate Friend, 
 J. Keble. 
 
 LETTER XLVIII. 
 
 The same Subject continued. 
 
 Your letter was a great comfort to me, and I 
 earnestly hope and pray that you may not suffer 
 anything to move you from the course which you 
 have marked out for yourself. I am so sure it is the 
 right one. If I had plenty of time, I might, perhaps, 
 have much more to say on the best way of dis- 
 charging the duty you have now undertaken of 
 special confession. At present I will only just say, 
 be not too scrupulous in setting down things, nor yet 
 too general, but take some one or more as specimens 
 in any kind which may have become habitual, and 
 describe the frequency of the habit, if you can, by 
 the number of sins in a given time, and the degree, 
 by some aggravating circumstances, such as your 
 conscience most reproaches you for, and He who is 
 merciful will accept it, if fairly so intended, for a full 
 confession. What you write is best written in some 
 kind of cypher or abbreviation, lest it be lost, and do 
 
To a Young Lady, on joining a Sisterhood, 99 
 
 harm. Do it all as a religious exercise, as in God's 
 presence, and a good deal on your knees. Being 
 thus set down as you may remember it, it will save 
 you the trouble of recollection when you come to 
 confess, and you will be more at leisure for pure 
 contrition. 
 
 On the whole matter you will find good directions 
 in Bishop Taylor's " Holy Dying," and " Golden 
 Grove ;" and also in KettlewelFs " Companion to the 
 Penitent." 
 
 May God and all good angels be with you in the 
 good work. 
 
 LETTER XLIX. 
 
 To A Young Lady, who had consulted him as to 
 
 HER wish to join A SiSTERHOOD. 
 
 My DEAR Miss , 
 
 How little do you know what sort of a person you 
 are consulting, on so very sacred a matter ! but let 
 that pass ; worthy or unworthy, my office binds me 
 to do my best for a Christian person who thinks I can 
 help him ; and it will be indeed a comfort, of which 
 I am quite unworthy, if I am enabled to be of any 
 use or consolation to you. I cannot but be very 
 thankful that the wish you mention should have been 
 put into your heart, and again, that you should have 
 submitted it, in the manner you have done, to your 
 parents ; this latter seems to me, if I may say so 
 without presumption, one of the most comfortable 
 
100 To the Same, 
 
 tokens that the former was from God ; and if so, it 
 cannot of course be meant that it should pass away 
 from your mind or memory ; it must, as you in- 
 stinctively feel, give a tone and colour to all your future 
 life. Only there are two things to be guarded against; 
 one, that so long as your parents are known to dis- 
 approve, it should not ripen into a positive purpose, 
 or anything amounting to a vow ; the other, that in 
 shaping your course of life by it, there should be as 
 little as possible for them to take notice of, in such 
 a way as might pain them. But to you I need 
 scarcely mention this. Indeed, whilst I write it 
 occurs to me, that your having mentioned this sub- 
 ject to them may very much lessen the difficulty of 
 your keeping any rules which you may find profit- 
 able for you. They can better enter into your feel- 
 ings, and good may be done in many ways. I have 
 only to add, that whatever other deficiencies you 
 find in me (as indeed, among other things, I have 
 scarcely any experience as a trusted adviser), at least 
 I shall attend with deep interest to anything you 
 may wish to say or write to me ; and may God grant 
 that I may be able to be of service to you, and not 
 prove utterly unsuited to the aweful name of Spiritual 
 Father. 
 
 May God bless you, for surely you are His dear 
 child, and believe me, 
 
 (Always asking your prayers,) 
 
 Sincerely and afi"ectionately yours, 
 J. Keble. 
 
on Management of Time, on Dress, &c. loi 
 
 LETTER L. 
 
 To THE Same, on Management of Time, on Dress, 
 Silence, &c. 
 
 My dear Miss , 
 
 .... I quite approve of your plan for making the 
 most of your days and hours, with the understanding 
 ahvays that you do not bind yourself to it, so as to 
 make it an entanglement, and that the part which 
 relates to fasts and vigils be always modified as 
 health shall seem to recommend. Concerning silence, 
 dress, and ornaments, I can only think of one general 
 caution, in addition to what you mention ; viz. to 
 watch well one's likings and dislikes, whether they 
 tend towards silence and plainness, or the contrary, 
 and, in a gentle, unobtrusive kind of way, rather to 
 contradict them than not ; I do not mean violently, 
 for that would be unnatural and unreal, but just 
 a little, and of course only in cases where obedience 
 and other duties leave a choice. I do not know that 
 I have any more to say on your plan, except wishing 
 it a most hearty God speed, and telling you what 
 a comfort it is to me, as I go about the parish seem- 
 ing to do no good, to think of you and other kind 
 friends at a distance remembering one. 
 
102 To a Person 
 
 LETTER LI. 
 
 To A Person under Special Temptation. 
 
 I THINK it probable that some of your worst falls 
 arise in some measure from your getting into an 
 excited and irregular state of body and mind by 
 sitting up late, whether for study or amusement, and 
 that if you could set yourself a moderately strict 
 rule in that matter, and keep to it, besides the little 
 self-denial, it would be a help to you, in more ways 
 than one. At the same time you know very well that 
 there is one who will make it his particular business 
 to put this sort of temptation in your way. . . . 
 Therefore you must not be too much cast down, 
 nor think all is going wrong, should you find your- 
 self for a long time haunted in the way I mean : 
 only do not lend yourself to it in the least degree, 
 do not wait to fight, but fly ; and perhaps it may 
 help if you use yourself to consider it as specially 
 a work of the devil, which no doubt it often is. If you 
 can get your hours of sleeping and waking properly 
 arranged, might you not, do you think, find time 
 to say the fifty-first Psalm before your other prayers, 
 the first thing on waking in the morning : and then 
 if you should happen to wake in the night, it would 
 suggest itself. Especially when the enemy seems 
 near, it would be almost sure help, if you got up 
 and prayed. 
 
under Special Temptation. 103 
 
 As to the bitter and scornful words, might it not 
 be a good help against them to make a rule of trying 
 to remember at such times something that you are 
 most ashamed of. The very effort would do much 
 good, though the thought were ever so rapid and 
 superficial, and might scarce seem to amount to 
 contrition. 
 
 I shall, I hope, pray for you, that your earnest wish 
 for a like-minded companion may be granted, and 
 that it may prove an effectual help in the way you 
 wish. I think you should be aware that some of 
 your trials are of that subtle nature that no society, 
 nor state of life, nor anything else but the grace of 
 God blessing one's sincere endeavours, can overcome 
 them. So that, even if you had such a friend, some 
 of the gravest of your trials might still continue : 
 and by His gracious help you may be completely 
 delivered without such an outward advantage. Only 
 be resolute in guarding your thoughts and senses, 
 and cleanness of heart will, by God's blessing, return ; 
 and if I am not mistaken, this will help more than 
 you might think in checking the bitter and angry 
 thoughts and words which you complain of. For 
 few things, I suppose, put a person more out of tune, 
 than the feeling of continually yielding to what he 
 is ashamed of, and what, in his better mind, he 
 detests. 
 
 Ever yours very affectionately, 
 J. Keble. 
 
104 To the Same. 
 
 LETTER LII. 
 
 To THE Same. 
 
 I WILL mention two things which may help you. 
 
 1. Some penitents have found help in using them- 
 selves when they wake in the night to rise and say 
 the fifty-first Psalm, with the latter part of the Com- 
 mination Office. 
 
 2. All, penitents or not, may find help in fixing 
 on one petition of the Lord's Prayer to be thought 
 on specially each day in the week. 
 
 LETTER LIIL 
 
 To A Relapsed Penitent. 
 
 FiLi IN Christo carissime, 
 
 You may judge what a grief and disappointment 
 to me was your report of yourself, though I was so 
 far prepared for it as to have great misgivings in 
 consequence of not hearing from you : still I own 
 it is more distressing than I had hoped, and I am 
 not sure, that, had I been at hand, I should have 
 recommended so early an approach to the most 
 holy things : perhaps I might, but it would have 
 depended on tokens of which it is impossible to judge 
 at a distance. But do not understand me as blaming 
 you in the least, my dear young friend. I dare say 
 
To a Relapsed Penitent, 105 
 
 you did it for the best, and I trust that He has 
 blessed and will continue to bless it. I think you 
 will do well to set yourself this rule, should you fall 
 in the same way again, at once to confess, and sus- 
 pend yourself from Communion, until you have my 
 answer ; not giving way to false shame, nor running 
 the chance of further relapses. And in any case 
 might it not be well to send me a report of yourself 
 weekly ; though ever so summary, it might be better 
 than nothing. Also, if I had seen you, I should 
 have asked you a little about the "near occasions" 
 (as they are called) of your relapses, — in the way 
 of place, company, books, enticing objects, whether 
 in the street or at home, and the best ways of 
 avoiding them. 
 
 We are sad children, and must deal cunningly 
 with ourselves ; and sometimes a very simple pre- 
 caution, undertaken and kept in the fear of God, 
 and prayer, and as in the Presence of Christ, will 
 baffle a very deep and dangerous snare of the enemy. 
 
 As you are often hindered from the Church 
 prayers, it seems the more needful for you to prac- 
 tise repeating Psalms and saying short prayers to 
 yourself. Sisters of Mercy do so in the streets, and 
 why should not Brothers of Penitence } 
 
 Also, would it not be well to have something to 
 amuse your mind in walks and vacant hours, and 
 keep it out of mischief Especially let me beg of 
 you to be punctual in your self-examination, and if 
 
io6 To the Same, on Confession and Commimion. 
 
 you could meditate every morning for a short time 
 on Eternity and something connected with it, on 
 the Divine Presence, or on i Cor. vi. 19, and other 
 such texts, until you found yourself in a way to 
 offer earnestly such a resolution as I will enclose 
 herewith, I trust you would find yourself gradually 
 released from the sad chain which has wound itself 
 round you. This is all that occurs to me at present. 
 Let me hear very soon ; and believe me. 
 
 Now as ever, 
 Your very afifec*^ and anxious, 
 J.K. 
 
 LETTER LIV. 
 
 To THE Same, on Confession and Communion. 
 
 I HAVE a mingled feeling from your last note ; 
 great pain at what it tells of one thing, yet thank- 
 fulness to hear of so m.uch (surely we may humbly 
 say so) general improvement. With regard to Holy 
 Communion, I believe, according to the exact rules 
 of the Churches that require auricular confession, 
 you ought not to participate again before absolution. 
 But I consider that English Priests are not only per- 
 mitted, but commanded, to leave to their penitents 
 a certain discretion with regard to those rules. You 
 must use the best of your judgment, with prayer, 
 and strict watchfulness during the remainder of this 
 
To the Same. 107 
 
 week, and if you then heartily in conscience think 
 it best to communicate on Sunday, I trust that by 
 His grace you will be right. To be quite exact, 
 
 I suppose you would have to confess to , or 
 
 some other Clergyman, orally, all serious falls that 
 you could remember since you were absolved, and 
 seek fresh absolution and direction. But I repeat 
 that according to English rules, as I understand 
 them, this may be dispensed with. Only be very 
 very careful that your being spared this humiliation 
 prove not a fresh occasion of faUing. 
 
 LETTER LV. 
 
 To THE Same. 
 
 Your letter is most welcome, and a great comfort 
 to me in two ways especially. 
 
 1. How thankful we ought to be to Almighty 
 God for preserving you in your main trial, and for 
 enabling you on the whole (I trust we may say) to 
 win some ground. 
 
 2. I am glad to know what you now tell me of 
 your circumstances, how that your remaining in your 
 present line of life is in some sort a continued act 
 of self-denial. Trying as it must be, it is so far 
 satisfactory, as it is a penance enjoined on you by 
 God Himself, and if so taken and acknowledged, 
 I doubt not that by His blessing it will help in the 
 
io8 To the Same : 
 
 work of penance, and tend towards making repent- 
 ance complete and effectual. Will you think of it 
 so in your devotions, and ask for that particular 
 blessing on your day's work ? So undertaken, it 
 will surely prosper in that whereunto He sends it ; 
 and in His good time, if He sees it best. He may 
 call you to His more immediate service. 
 
 I hardly know what to recommend you for Holy 
 Week, pressed as you are with business ; but per- 
 haps Isaac Williams's book with that title may be 
 as good a help to meditation as any you can find. 
 Do not read on too glibly, but pause on it when any 
 affecting thought occurs, so as to make it medita- 
 tion in earnest. And if you can keep the hours of 
 prayer with any good little book (e.g. Christie's 
 " Day Hours,") it may be of good use. 
 
 And now may God bless you with all the blessings 
 of this good time, and grant you entire victory over 
 His and your enemies. In Him I hope to be. 
 
 Yours always affectionately, 
 J. Keble. 
 
 LETTER LVI. 
 
 To THE Same : Rules for Self-government. 
 
 My dear , 
 
 I must write one line, if it be only to say, never 
 scruple about writing to me under the notion of my 
 
Rules for Self-government. 109 
 
 being busy. I scarce know what could be of more 
 consequence to me than helping such work as I trust 
 you are now thoroughly engaged in, be it only by 
 affording you a means of relieving your mind. It 
 seems to me that the sort of frequent report you have 
 sent me of late may be of great use to you, and 
 I would say by no means discontinue it. (I destroy 
 your little papers, when I have read and considered 
 them.) By the blessing of Him to whom this season 
 belongs, I trust you have been making real use of 
 it. This last report comforts me again. Only be 
 in one sense more on your guard when the instinc- 
 tive restraint of the penitential time is over. Be 
 sure there will be a re-action, if not averted by spe- 
 cial grace, for which I hope you will pray. 
 
 The watching of your temper will be a hard fight, 
 but not a hard plan of operations. Do you think 
 you could get into a way of calling up a contrite 
 thought of whatever you are most ashamed of when 
 anything affronts you } If you could subdue pride 
 and anger by contrition for evil desire, this would 
 be killing two or three birds with one stone. The 
 doubting thoughts probably come from the quarter 
 you suggest They cannot be much of your own 
 since they take such opposite directions. Would 
 it not be best to try and put them down as you 
 would any other bad thoughts .'' I was foolish about 
 Isaac Williams's book ; I meant that on the Passion, 
 and forgot there were two. 
 
no To the Same, 
 
 With my most sincere Easter benediction, such 
 as it is, believe me, dear son in Christ, 
 
 Y^ ever afifec*^, 
 J. K. 
 
 LETTER LVII. 
 
 To THE Same, on the same Subject. 
 
 My dear , 
 
 I have just been reading over your last note, and 
 will now say what occurs to me about the society of 
 your old friends as constituting a near occasion of 
 sin. May you not adopt a middle course between 
 entire separation and going along with them in ill. 
 By all means keep your good resolutions of keeping 
 from \}aQ place, whatever it be, which you have found 
 so dangerous, and be not afraid or ashamed to let 
 your friends know, that, for reasons which seem to 
 you good, you have made such a rule ; keep steadily 
 but good humouredly to it, and let them have their 
 laugh at you if they will ; and be also on the watch 
 for occasions to oblige them innocently, and give up 
 your own wishes to them in other little indifferent 
 things. I shall be much surprised if the coldness 
 you speak of do not soon pass away. If not, bear 
 it quietly as a little penance, and be sure that you 
 can do nothing really more unkind to them, as well 
 as to yourself, than by swerving from your good 
 rules in compliment to them. 
 
 Another point in your last note appears to me 
 
on the same Subject. HI 
 
 very much to be thought of, where you say, you 
 seemed to yourself to be " acting under some power- 
 ful agency," &c. Surely this feeling is providential, 
 to warn you who it is that assails you so restlessly. 
 Depend upon it, that being cannot bear to see your 
 earnest beginnings of penitence, and it is not without 
 him that such backslidings take place, and the next 
 thing that he tries is to get people to give up in 
 despair ; but do not you let him, even for a quarter 
 of an hour, get such dominion over you. Say a short 
 prayer ; use the sign of the cross ; exorcise him in 
 the Saving Name, or in that into which you were 
 baptized, and fear not but he will retire discomfited, 
 and after a time you will not have help only, but 
 peace. Only do not depend on that peace, but fear 
 and suspect yourself, and pray very often against 
 that special danger. 
 
 The moroseness of temper which you sometimes 
 complain of, may in part be due to the same cause, 
 and may be profitably met in the same way. What- 
 ever you do, never doubt that He is always most 
 willing to receive you on true repentance, and that 
 the first trouble in that way is always the least. 
 I mean that all delay only makes the pain greater. 
 
 If by such rules and thoughts as these you still 
 find yourself unable to keep your ground steadily, 
 it may be worth considering whether you would do 
 
 well to open your mind to Mr. , or some other 
 
 Priest on the spot, going to him immediately, as the 
 
112 To the Same : 
 
 "Spiritual Combat" advises, after every serious trans- 
 gression, to confess and be directed with regard to 
 Holy Communion. The general confession made 
 to me need not in that case be repeated, any more 
 than might be necessary to give him a proper notion 
 of the case ; but every deadly sin since the last 
 confession, should, as nearly as may be, be specified. 
 Believe me always, 
 
 Your affectionate Fatherly Friend, 
 J. Keble. 
 
 LETTER LVIII. 
 
 To THE Same : Rules of Penitence and 
 Self-Protection. 
 
 My dear , 
 
 I was longing to hear from you, and am very glad 
 you have written : though of course it is a deep 
 grief that you can make no better a report. In- 
 deed and indeed, my dear son in our Lord (as you 
 encourage me to call you), your case is a very 
 anxious one ; the frequent relapses seem to indicate, 
 that the view taken of it at first was hardly so serious 
 as it should have been. Do you not yourself think, 
 that you ought now for penance to impose upon 
 yourself a pretty long abstinence from Holy Com- 
 munion, in short not to venture there again until 
 you are regularly absolved t and I suppose it would 
 
\ 
 
 Rules for Penitence and Self -Protection, 113 
 
 be wrong to absolve without proof of penitence by- 
 long abstinence from open and deliberate sin of that 
 kind. And do not think that this is beyond your 
 power : you know that you can, if you will earnestly 
 try, as in God's Presence, and with prayer to Him, 
 you can resist and overcome temptations : you can 
 look another way : you can stay in doors after night, 
 when no business calls you out : you can hold your 
 tongue from accosting those whom you ought not : 
 you can, being awake at night, rise and kneel on 
 the floor and say a prayer, instead of permitting 
 yourself to be carried away by waking dreams of sin. 
 However, I am not now writing an answer to your 
 letter. I have not time just now, but I was anxious 
 
 to say a word or two now at your return to . 
 
 It seems somewhat providential that you should 
 change your abode there just now, and as the old 
 abode led into mischief, so let us hope, that, by the 
 blessing of God, you may turn over a new leaf in 
 the new one. By no means renew the intimacy 
 which you speak of, under any specious fancy which 
 may suggest itself to your mind of doing good to 
 the other party. Flight is the approved remedy in 
 such cases. Keep your distance and pray for her 
 and for yourself. And whatever you do, do not *go 
 boasting of your sin, nor be ashamed to be and to 
 seem (so far as you must seem anything) penitent. 
 Use the solitude which you dread as a penance, and 
 get some professional friend to set. you a task of 
 
 I 
 
114 Rules for Penitence and Self-Protection. 
 
 professional reading, which, if you are indolently- 
 inclined, may in some sort answer the same purpose. 
 And try and remember what sort of observances, 
 quasi-penitences, and other precautions, seemed to do 
 you most good in times past, when your repentance 
 seemed most real, and go back to them now ; the 
 very recurrence, besides its other uses, will help to 
 make you contrite. Perhaps you will kindly tell me 
 what has seemed to answer best with you in this 
 way, and I will endeavour to think if anything 
 more can be done. As to the two violent remedies 
 you speak of, I fear that neither of them would 
 be an effectual remedy, except the heart could be 
 changed. Do not dream of such things, but employ 
 yourself; pray regularly, keep early hours (I suspect 
 this is of great consequence), and meet each tempta- 
 tion as it occurs valiantly, using yourself to consider 
 that your Enemy is present in person, if you could 
 see him, and that your Lord is yet more present. 
 Among writers, it strikes me that Bishop Taylor will 
 help as much as any : but never forget that in this 
 war flying is better soldiership than fighting. Do 
 what good you can : the prayers of those whom you 
 help, and of those whom you forgive, will be a great 
 thing for you. I hope I shall soon write again : 
 meantime accept my blessing such as it is. 
 
 Ever your anxious and loving, 
 J.K. 
 
To an Unbaptized Lady desirous of Baptism. 115 
 
 LETTER LIX. 
 
 To AN Unbaptized Lady desirous of Baptism, but 
 WHOSE Parents were opposed to it. 
 
 My dear Madam, 
 
 Indeed your letter required no apology. Even 
 if it were not the duty of us all to do what we 
 can to shew the way to a fellow-traveller, I can 
 truly say that it has filled me with interest, as it 
 must any one who has not the heart of a stone. 
 I only wish that I was more certain of being able 
 to give you the best advice, but He to Whom and 
 through Whom you (I am sure) pray continually, 
 will I trust help me. 
 
 You have described your case so fully and clearly 
 that one feels greatly helped in forming an opinion, 
 and I will tell you at once the conclusion to which 
 I have come: premising that not being myself a 
 Father, and feeling that it would be a great con- 
 firmation or correction of my own view to have an 
 independent opinion from one who is so, and having, 
 by God's goodness, a clerical friend close at hand, 
 of whom I will only say, that if you knew him you 
 would, I think, have gone to him in preference to 
 all others, I took the great liberty of laying your 
 case before him, of course confidentially (I hope 
 I was not wrong in this ; he has a large family of 
 sons and daughters, some of them grown up), and 
 
1 16 To an Unbaptized Lady desirous of Baptism^ 
 
 I this morning received his opinion quite in unison 
 with my own. 
 
 We think, i. that you cannot go on as you are ; 
 God's providence clearly calls upon you to make 
 your profession. 2. It can only be that profession 
 to which in your mind and conscience you adhere, 
 and towards which it appears that He has been 
 silently and graciously leading you. Any other 
 would be untrue in itself, and the appearance of 
 any other would be a kind of scandal in various 
 ways. This consideration seems to us to make one 
 of your alternatives impossible, viz. the receiving 
 Dissenters' Baptism under protest. I do not say 
 that such baptism might not be valid ; there is no 
 need, I think, to discuss that question, because, how 
 valid soever, you will, I think, perceive on recon- 
 sideration, that there would be a sort of painful 
 unreality in it which would hardly bear reflection 
 afterwards. It would be voluntary schismatical bap- 
 tism, which would require to be healed, as it were, 
 by confirmation, and in order to be healed, must be 
 repented of and confessed as a fault. Nor can I 
 think that it would really satisfy your father. Such 
 as you describe him, he would be particularly alive 
 to the unreality of it, and if it were sanctioned by 
 one of us, it might prove a fresh ground of offence. 
 
 3. On the other hand, it seems very undesirable 
 to go elsewhere and take such a serious step un- 
 known to your parents, or only apprising them of 
 
but whose Parents were opposed to it. 117 
 
 it afterwards. It has an air of undutifulness, mis- 
 trust, and concealment, which ought by all means 
 to be avoided if possible. 
 
 It remains 4. as the most advisable course, that 
 you should take some good opportunity and method 
 of opening your mind to your parents, directly or 
 through another, in speech or in writing, as you 
 may be led to think best. 
 
 You might say to them quite firmly, but with all 
 meekness and dutifulness, that you have gradually, 
 and as you believe providentially, been brought 
 into this mind, adding such details as may seem 
 to you fit and discreet ; that your mind is (please 
 God) made up ; you cannot be happy unbaptized, 
 and you feel that it would be a false and profane 
 thing for you to be baptized into any communion 
 saving that of the Church of England. If your 
 father receives this as you apprehend, it seems to 
 us that you would best do your duty both to him 
 and to your Heavenly Father, by giving him to 
 understand that you will be content to wait awhile, 
 and not press for immediate baptism, in hope that 
 he may reconsider his objections. 
 
 This would be but fair to him, even if he were 
 less likely to be keen and somewhat stern in his 
 opposition : considering how suddenly the thing will 
 come upon him, and from what point of view he 
 must unavoidably see it at first. 
 
 Well, this will probably cause a delay for an in- 
 
Ii8 To an Unhaptized Lady desirous of Baptism, 
 
 definite time in your obtaining your heart's desire ; 
 but you must not be broken-hearted, nor too anxious. 
 You may comfort yourself with recollecting for how 
 long a time, for months and years not unseldom, 
 the baptism of many has been providentially de- 
 ferred, on whom, nevertheless, God's blessing evi- 
 dently rested. According to ancient discipline, you 
 yourself might have been submitted to long pro- 
 bation, as a catechumen, most likely from now until 
 Easter at least; and if it seemed hard, you would 
 have quieted yourself with the thought that it was 
 God's discipline, God's doing, and to be sure He 
 would not permit you to be a loser by quietly sub- 
 mitting to it. Quiet yourself, my dear young lady, 
 now with the like thought, and spend the weeks 
 or months of delay, in earnest preparation for the 
 unspeakable gift. If they should be years, they will 
 be nothing as compared with its greatness. 
 
 After a time — who knows — you may even gain 
 your father, or at least gain his not uncheerful per- 
 mission, when he saw you thus walking before God 
 and him in faith and humbleness. Should it be 
 otherwise. He whom you wish to serve will answer 
 your prayers, and shew you when, and how, to come 
 to His Baptism. 
 
 Should it be His will to call you suddenly out 
 of this world, so suddenly that even at the last 
 moment you could not be baptized — your being 
 taken away in the midst of such a course, with full 
 
but whose Parents were opposed to it. 1 19 
 
 desire and prayer for baptism, the Church and the 
 Saints of God have always held that in such case 
 He accepts the will for the deed. 
 
 Of course I do not mean that if, after a fair allow- 
 ance of time, you see no chance of obtaining your 
 parents' leave, you ought not (under further advice 
 and with much prayer) to act for yourself, being 
 of the age you are, and in the mind in which you 
 would then be known to be. 
 
 My dear young friend, my heart aches for you, 
 and I cannot say what comfort it will be, if, as I am 
 in good hope, you shall be enabled to tell me one 
 day, that the course which my friend and myself 
 have thus ventured to recommend, has been blessed 
 by your peacefully attaining what your soul longs 
 for. But whether we hear of it in this world or no, 
 if it be the course of faith and patience, its blessing 
 will come only the more surely for being delayed. 
 
 One word more. It is probable that in your cir- 
 cumstances one great part of your trial will be to 
 hear things, which with all your heart you love and 
 reverence, evil-spoken of: and you will be tempted 
 may be, at times, to speak and think the worst of 
 Dissenters, as such, and of their ways. Force your- 
 self, I beseech you, rather to keep silence, unless 
 there be some grave duty in speaking ; and to be 
 glad, really glad, when you can speak and think 
 well of them. Carry this rule out — you will want 
 all helps to steady you in the Holy Church, troubled 
 
120 To a Lady, on the Death of her Sister, &c. 
 
 as it is with so many sad divisions ; and this rule 
 of "not rejoicing in iniquity, but rejoicing in the 
 truth," i.e. in others' truth and goodness, will go 
 a great way, please God, in keeping you right, im- 
 perfect as you will find many things. 
 
 Commending you to the Good Shepherd, I re- 
 main, in Him, 
 
 Y' faithful servant, 
 
 J. Keble. 
 
 LETTER LX. 
 
 To A Lady, on being informed of the Death of 
 HER Sister, the Widow of a Personal Friend 
 of his own. 
 Dear Miss , 
 
 Your letter just received is, indeed, a trouble and 
 a surprise to me ; yet when I think again, why 
 should we be troubled or surprised that He who 
 is Love, and giveth Love, should not suffer those 
 whom He had made happy together, and who, we 
 trust (humanly speaking), were in His sight lovely 
 in their lives, to be long divided in their deaths } 
 
 The shortness of the notice in itself would be 
 indeed startling — but what a notice is widowhood 
 itself ! and it is a deep comfort to think of a sister, 
 
 and of such a friend as being with her at 
 
 the time. 
 
 The thoughts and sayings of dear N. concerning 
 
To a Young Lady y on Distractions , &c. 121 
 
 those out of sight were always such as to make one 
 almost involuntarily picture to oneself what meet- 
 ings there must be in Paradise ; and now (D.V.) it 
 is with him no more an imagination, but a blessed 
 reality. God grant us all to be ready when our 
 time, which is near, shall come. 
 
 Accept my sincere thanks for remembering me 
 at such a time, and believe me. 
 
 Dear Miss , 
 
 Your obliged and affectionate servant, 
 J. Keble. 
 
 LETTER LXL 
 
 To A Young Lady, on Distractions, &c. 
 
 My dear Child, (for so your letter even forces 
 me to call you,) 
 
 .... I should like you to look at a little book 
 which you may perhaps have, "Aids to a Holy Life," 
 by a Mr. Bund. . . . Your failure of recollection in 
 church is no new nor rare thing. In some respects 
 it may be perhaps mended by mechanical helps — 
 something equivalent to a Rosary as a kind of me- 
 moria technica. And you will remember Bp. Tay- 
 lor's advice, to gather up as it were all the mean- 
 ing of the lost prayer into a hearty Amen at the 
 end of it. Remember this too, (which is in all the 
 books, and I have no doubt it is quite true), that the 
 
122 To a. Lady, 
 
 hearty desire to be contrite is accepted as contrition, 
 the hearty desire to believe as Faith, &c. In case 
 anything should happen to hinder my coming, .... 
 I will now give you just this one direction. Some 
 time when you can best do it, before your next Holy 
 Communion, say the Lord's Prayer, the Collect " Al- 
 mighty God unto whom all hearts be open," and 
 then, on your knees, tell our Lord (who of course 
 is always with us,) what you have told me in this 
 letter, with anything else which you would wish to 
 tell, and earnestly beseech Him to bless this Com- 
 munion to you, in the particular way which you 
 feel the want of, — steady methodical efforts after 
 self-knowledge and devotion. This may be inserted 
 in your usual nightly confession, or may be tried 
 at any other time, as you may find convenient. 
 God bless you, my dear Child. 
 
 Your affec*® old friend, 
 J.K. 
 
 LETTER LXII. 
 
 To A Lady, on Punishment of Sin, Free-Will, 
 
 AND OTHER RELIGIOUS DIFFICULTIES. 
 
 The subject on which you have written to me, is 
 indeed a very aweful and mysterious one ; and when 
 followed up by an enquiring mind may easily bring 
 with itself misgivings and perplexities, nay, perhaps 
 it must do so, for is it not a part of the unanswer- 
 
on Punishment of Sin, &c. 123 
 
 able question, How should there be any evil at all 
 in God's world ? But taken simply as it stands in 
 Scripture, and as it is received by simple unrefining 
 persons, especially when they are called on them- 
 selves to endure God's chastening, it seems to ap- 
 prove itself to our natural and Christian instincts, 
 to be indeed part of the faith which we profess when 
 we call God our Father. " For what son is he whom 
 a father chasteneth not ?" and is not chastening 
 punishment ? When a mother puts her child to pain 
 for some fault which she wishes to correct, we call 
 it properly punishment, though it proceeds entirely 
 from love. But parental love is but the shadow of 
 Divine. Therefore I suppose that the sentiment one 
 hears so often from the sick poor, " I trust and pray 
 to have my punishment in this world, and not in 
 the next," is founded on truth and piety. Nor do 
 I see how it at all interferes with the only All-suffi- 
 cient Virtue of the Cross. These sufferings are, in 
 one way, the Father's mode of applying the Cross 
 to us, as His Sacraments are in another way. 
 
 I hope that in the passage to which you allude, 
 which I suppose to be in page 62, you will find 
 nothing inconsistent with this. 
 
 You seem to think that the fulness of our Lord's 
 Atonement excludes all notion of temporal punish- 
 ment to be laid on those for whom it is made, 
 but you do not allege words or facts of Scripture, 
 only it seems to you to follow from the doctrine that 
 
124 To a Lady, 
 
 "the punishment demanded by God's justice for the 
 sins of the whole world, was fully endured by the 
 Saviour of the world." Now these are not Scriptural 
 words, nor words of the Church, and however they 
 may be true in a sense, I should fear to argue from 
 them against the obvious apparent meaning of Scrip- 
 ture, in such cases (e.g.) as that of David, and the 
 others alleged in the Sermon. Besides, (I am almost 
 afraid to write it, but is it not so, that) this argument, 
 literally taken, would exclude eternal as well as 
 temporal punishment from those for whom He died ; 
 and, therefore, with no few unhappy religionists of 
 these days, we should be driven to deny either eter- 
 nal punishment or universal redemption. 
 
 I should have thought that all we know is, " Christ's 
 Sacrifice is in some way a satisfaction to God's jus- 
 tice for our sin," but how, we are not told. Then 
 with regard to those who seem to pass through life 
 without temporal punishment for their faults, we 
 surely know neither their faults nor what they may 
 have to endure already ; much less do we know 
 what Death and Judgment may be to them. 
 
 The Almighty has stores of chastening secret to 
 us, as well as of mercy in its more placid form ; and 
 I believe that those whom we have every reason 
 to believe His most beloved, have always most 
 earnestly welcomed those pains which they hoped, 
 in some unsearchable way, might help to purify 
 them. This applies, I think, among other forms of 
 
on Punishment of SiUy &c, 125 
 
 suffering or penance, to that which Dr. Pusey (taking 
 up our Lord's express warning) has dwelt on in 
 a way which perplexes you. The shame of Con- 
 fession is a most grievous penance, but is it not 
 a necessary part of Repentance ? and does it at all 
 interfere with the completeness of pardon ? The 
 instances you allege of the faults of Saints do not 
 appear to me to tell against this. Who knows how 
 much they may have undergone from the conse- 
 quences of their sins, or how earnestly they may 
 have confessed them, and taken the shame upon 
 themselves "i 
 
 Then as to the difficulty of reconciling judgment 
 according to works with a full and free pardon ; since 
 both are distinctly declared in Scripture we must 
 believe both, though we could not at all reconcile 
 them. But when we recollect the infinite degrees 
 of reward, which He, we know, has in His Treasure 
 House, we seem so far a little assisted in imagining 
 how this may be. 
 
 I will not now enter into the explanation of the 
 passage from S. Jerome, it may very well be over- 
 strained, and yet the general doctrine be right. But 
 even taken literally, it appears to me to follow quite 
 as logically from such texts as S. Matt. xvi. 27, as the 
 opposite kind of inference from the texts that speak 
 of pardon. (By -the -bye, Ezek. xviii. 22, and such 
 places, do not seem to exclude our confession, but 
 the upbraiding of those who hear us, after pardon.) 
 
 On the whole, would not the idea of Penance 
 
126 To a Lady, on the Absence of 
 
 (surely a most Scriptural idea,) if we would accept 
 and realize it, of itself supply a sufficiently practi- 
 cal answer to the kind of embarrassment which you 
 (in common doubtless with many) feel ? I do not 
 mean Penance humanly inflicted, only or chiefly, but 
 rather Divine Chastenings — "sinners accepting the 
 punishment of their iniquity," 
 
 To your last difficulty I would say that God 
 leaves us free to resist what He works in us, (see 
 Isa. xxvi. 12, which seems to me to contain both 
 parts of the doctrine of justification,) and therefore 
 we are justly punished if we do resist. But who 
 can speak or think with perfect accuracy on such 
 a subject as the exact boundary of His promptings 
 and our free-will? Do you know Bishop Butler's 
 "Analogy?" If not, it may help you to read it, 
 especially the parts about Punishment as a means 
 of probation and purification. 
 
 LETTER LXIII. 
 
 To A Lady, on the Absence of Conscious Love 
 AND Devotion. 
 
 My dear , 
 
 I am much confirmed in my opinion, that your 
 distress is, in a great measure, what may be called 
 " morbid feeling," and that the way to deal with it 
 is, not so much by direct opposition as by refusing 
 to attend to it, and turning the mind another way. 
 
Conscious Love and Devotion. 127 
 
 This, therefore, with such authority as I have, I en- 
 join you to do to the best of your power, at least 
 until I see you again. Pray against it beforehand, 
 but do not brood over it when it comes. I have no 
 doubt that, if another person were to come to you 
 with the same kind of trouble in heart, you would 
 say to him, " If you had no kind of love for God, 
 you would not be troubled at your want of love for 
 Him ;" and this at once makes an unspeakable dif- 
 ference between your case and such as was supposed 
 in that Sermon. I say this (which I am sure is true) 
 for the chance of its being useful, but you are not 
 to go on thinking about it, but to turn away from 
 the subject entirely, and let your self-examination 
 for the present rather turn upon the government of 
 your thoughts, ways, and tempers, towards your 
 fellow-creatures. This, I trust, by the blessing of 
 God, will be an effectual help to you in all respects. 
 May that blessing be on you for ever, dear daughter, 
 is the sincere prayer of 
 
 Your affec*^ friend, 
 J. Keble. 
 
 LETTER LXIV. 
 
 To THE Same, on the Same. 
 My dear Child in our Lord, 
 I am truly sorry for your distress : yet in sub- 
 stance I fear I can say little to help you that I have 
 
128 To the Samey on the Same, 
 
 not said before. It is a trouble to be borne, this con- 
 sciousness of being so dull and dry when you least 
 wish to be so : only take care that you do not grow 
 impatient, as though you were hardly used in its 
 being allowed : neither be too minute in searching 
 out the reason of it, only let it make you more and 
 more watchful of your general conduct, especially 
 against the infirmities of your temper. Take care 
 that you do not ask angrily, " Must I continue to 
 serve God in slavish fear?" Of course you must, 
 if it be His will. Is it not infinitely better than not 
 serving Him at all t Do not dwell upon this sub- 
 ject ; do not allow yourself to be worked up into 
 any bitter feelings about it. Every morning, as ear- 
 nestly as you can, commit yourself in prayer con- 
 cerning it to our loving Saviour, and then dismiss it. 
 Do not fret about it between whiles ; you cannot help 
 being grieved at it when it occurs in private or public 
 devotion, but then also dismiss it as well as you can 
 at the end, by an earnest wish before God, which wish 
 will be in His ears a prayer, that He would forgive 
 you what in it may be due to any fault of your own, 
 and enable you to mend it : and for the rest, that He 
 would either relieve it, or enable you to bear it as He 
 knows to be best for you, and especially pray against 
 all bitterness. 
 
 For reading I do not think anything so likely to do 
 good as " Meditations on the Life and Death of our 
 Lord." Do you know Isaac Williams' books on that 
 
To the Same. 129 
 
 subject ? if you have not studied them, you might 
 
 try them. 
 
 God be with you. 
 
 V affec*« Father in X*, 
 
 J.K. 
 
 .... I think you ought not to indulge the some- 
 what morbid feeling which you express about our 
 Lord's own words, but neither need you violently 
 overbear it. There is danger lest under the guise 
 of humility, (and not I daresay without a mixture 
 of true humility in it,) it may have a touch of the 
 old danger — ill temper (so to speak) towards God. 
 Might you not draw up for yourself a very short 
 prayer to be used some time every morning, for grace 
 to derive comfort for that day from His own words } 
 
 LETTER LXV. 
 
 To THE Same. 
 My dear Child, 
 
 I am grieved to the heart at your distress, and 
 the more as I cannot help fearing that it may be 
 greatly owing to insufficiency in one who ought to 
 know better how to help you. 
 
 It seems to me so entirely a matter of dreamy 
 morbid imagination, that I could sometimes wish 
 myself a physician as my only chance of being able 
 to deal with it. This plainly shews that praying for 
 
 K 
 
130 To the Same. 
 
 you is at least one thing which one is bound never 
 to neglect, and I hope not to do so. 
 
 In the meantime, what if you were calmly to con- 
 sider (and set down ?) what thoughts and ways have 
 done you good in previous attacks of this sort, and 
 what you would say to another person who should 
 describe to you such feelings as his or her own ? 
 May He, who only can, effectually relieve you. 
 
 Ever y^^ affec*'?', 
 J. Keble. 
 
 LETTER LXVI. 
 
 To THE Same. 
 
 My dear Child, 
 
 I am truly sorry to hear of your distress con- 
 tinuing, but I must put it to your own conscience, 
 whether there is not in it somewhat of self-torment- 
 ing and wilful pevishness ; and whether, so far, the 
 remedy is not, by God's mercy, in your own power. 
 I must beg you to ask yourself whether you are 
 really endeavouring to shake off the morbid feelings 
 which haunt you, as sincerely as you would en- 
 deavour to cure a tooth-ache. You refer to some 
 similar trials in times past. Perhaps it might be 
 
 well if you would tell me what was Mr. 's course, 
 
 which you seem to say prospered then. May God 
 
On Abstaining from Communion, &c. 131 
 
 bless and relieve you ! and He surely will if you are 
 not wanting to yourself. In Him 
 
 I am ever y^^ most truly, 
 J. Keble. 
 
 LETTER LXVII. 
 
 On abstaining from Sacramental and using 
 Spiritual Communion. 
 
 My dear Child, 
 
 I am inclined still to think that it will be better 
 for you to draw back from Holy Communion for 
 a short time — the next Sunday or two — by way of 
 a serious check and warning to yourself, and of a 
 kind of penitential sacrifice, which may be blessed, 
 please God, with a greater measure of grace to re- 
 sist in future the first promptings of rebellious fret- 
 fulness at finding your spiritual life dry and uncom- 
 fortable. And for your support in this banishment, 
 you will do well to use, at least on the Communion 
 days, some form of Spiritual Communion. If you 
 cannot find one to suit you in your books, I will 
 try to find one for you. May God bless and cheer 
 
 you. 
 
 Always in Him, 
 
 y- aff'« Father and faithful Servant, 
 
 J.K. 
 
132 To the Same, 
 
 LETTER LXVIII. 
 
 To THE Same. 
 My dear Child, 
 
 I am full of thoughts and good wishes about you, 
 for indeed I have not been quite free from self-re- 
 proach ; . . . . and it is a relief to me to find that you 
 are not made quite ill. I daresay you are in the 
 right in going on with what you have begun, yet 
 I think surely it would be very wrong in you and 
 me not to have regard to your bodily weakness in 
 the manner of doing it 
 
 I think it would be a good thing if I were to stop 
 you, and send you away when your feelings begin 
 to turn the comfortable ordinance into unprofitable 
 self- tormenting. If I were to do such a thing, it 
 would not be at all as blaming you, but as a possible 
 way of helping you to command . yourself : may 
 our Lord visit you night and morning, and keep far 
 from you all snares of the enemy : may His holy 
 angels wait around you to keep you in peace, and 
 may His blessing be upon you for ever, through our 
 Lord Jesus Christ. 
 
 The shame and pain you feel in confession is to 
 be accepted as a Penance, not to be brooded over as 
 a fresh sin. Be comforted. What if, while you are 
 so cast down, the angels should be more than ever 
 rejoicing over you } 
 
 Y^ aftec*« Father in X^ 
 J.K. 
 
Against Searching into Motives. 133 
 
 LETTER LXIX. 
 
 Against Searching too closely into Motives. 
 
 My dear Child, 
 
 My entire conviction is that your anxiety about 
 your motive for what you do in the way of penitence 
 is carried too far. He^ on purpose, for the most part 
 hides that point from us ; so that few, if any, shall 
 be able to say in what measure they are influenced 
 by love, in what by fear, and shame, and indignation, 
 and such inferior, yet legitimate motives. You, my 
 child, must learn to bear this painful doubt, and to 
 be thankful that He releases and keeps you from 
 wilful sin anyhow. You must pray and strive for 
 love, but not be violently grieved, nor angry with 
 yourself, should you still feel as if the lower motives 
 alone, or nearly alone, were yours. . . . 
 
 Do not allow yourself, if you can help it, to sit 
 for many minutes, moody and dreaming. Your 
 judgments, your conduct, your feelings towards others 
 — that is where your minute watchfulness should be, 
 there will be the proof of your grief being accepted 
 as real contrition, much more than in any conscious- 
 ness you may seem to have of it at the time. 
 
 Your loving Father in Christ,, 
 J.K. 
 
134 On Persevering without Faith and Love. 
 
 LETTER LXX. 
 
 On Persevering without conscious Faith 
 AND Love. 
 
 Dear Child, 
 
 Certainly I do not understand you. There is but 
 One who can do that entirely : but I feel tolerably 
 certain that I have as accurate a notion as is usually 
 given to one man concerning another : and I still 
 say to you the same, " Patience, seek patience." Try 
 still to be good and religious, and Faith will in His 
 good time come after ; or rather the sense of Faith. 
 For no doubt, in the sight of Him who sees all, the 
 soul, which, feeling as if it could not believe, reso- 
 lutely perseveres in trying to go on as if it did be- 
 lieve, that soul believes, with a faith more and more 
 acceptable the longer it stands so sharp a trial. 
 
 This is the substance of the chapter you ask me 
 about : very good for you if you will receive it : only 
 do not set yourself against it, nor yet think the 
 worse of yourself, if you find you cannot be com- 
 forted by it at present. 
 
 Your loving F. in Christ, 
 J. K. 
 
To the Same. 135 
 
 LETTER LXXI. 
 
 To THE Same. 
 
 My dear Child, 
 
 .... I should, according to my judgment of the 
 case, strongly recommend your going to the Holy 
 Communion to-morrow : but let it be with as earnest 
 resolution and prayers as you can make, that you 
 will not again so give way to your feelings as to go 
 on absenting yourself from Church and Communion, 
 for want of sensible comfort in such duties. In a 
 word, pray for Patience ; it is the first, last, and 
 middle thing for you to ask. And pray that I may 
 not be found altogether unworthy to help and com- 
 fort you : and believe me always, dear child in our 
 Lord, in Him your affec*^ Father, 
 
 J.K. 
 
 LETTER LXXIL 
 
 On the Binding Nature of an Engagement of 
 Marriage made by a Minor. 
 
 My impression certainly has been all along, that 
 an engagement made by a minor, and not sanc- 
 tioned, rather I should say positively disallowed, by 
 a parent, is altogether null and void, according to the 
 Law concerning Oaths and Vows in Numbers xxx. 
 I mean as to the formal and quasi-ritual effect of it : 
 
I 36 On the Binding Nature of an Engagement, &c, 
 
 there may of course be circumstances attending it 
 which may make it more or less binding on the 
 parties in a moral sense, as matter of generosity and 
 honour, and doing as one would be done by. 
 
 It is plain that what is said about the greatness 
 of the penalty for violating betrothal does not touch 
 this, because in this way of taking it, it is as if no 
 betrothal had occurred. In modern cases, which 
 might seem to tell the other way, one must take 
 into account, that betrothal, by the Canon Law 
 amounts much more nearly to marriage, than it does 
 by our law. And I suppose that in such matters the 
 safest way is to take the law of one's own land as 
 one's rule, except it be against the law of God. The 
 Canons, which forbid a betrothed marrying another, 
 take betrothal for something more than what we 
 call engagement, for they refer expressly to a solemn 
 benediction given by the Priest, as constituting the 
 sacredness of it. There is a good deal in Bishop 
 Taylor coming more or less near to the subject. 
 
 I should be very sorry to encourage people to 
 take things too easily, but in this instance, especially 
 since the person is such as I understand him to be, 
 there seems no obligation either legal or moral. 
 I trust the parties will advise with some one who 
 can give a far more complete answer. 
 
To a Voting Lady on an Offer of Marriage. 137 
 
 LETTER LXXIII. 
 
 To A Young Lady on Accepting an Offer 
 OF Marriage. 
 
 I AM slow in considering what to say, and how to 
 say it. And now I am writing, I fear I shall but 
 disappoint you ; for the question which you ask mc 
 to decide for you is really and truly one which can 
 only be decided by yourself, and in effect must be 
 so at last. You know what the marriage vow is ; 
 you know the conditions and objects of marriage, 
 as they are sufficiently set down in the Marriage 
 Service ; you know whether you can pledge your- 
 self to the fulfilment of those vows without doing 
 violence to your conscience. If you distinctly feel 
 that you cannot, surely you must decline it. I can- 
 not believe that those who love you would go on 
 urging you to it. You see I put it upon the state 
 of your heart and affections, waiving the considera- 
 tion of any supposed vow, and not going into the 
 question, how your heart and affections came to be 
 such as they are, one way or the other. I hope 
 you will not think this unkind. I am sure it is the 
 safest way for one called on, as I am, to speak on 
 such imperfect and scanty knowledge, and it seems 
 to me that it would sufficiently decide your course. 
 You must not, ought not, to say, I will be this man's 
 wedded wife, unless you feel in your heart that you 
 
138 To the FatJier of an Illegitimate CJiild. 
 
 quite entirely mean to be so, and trust that you are 
 not sinning in so doing. It is your own responsi- 
 bility, laid upon you doubtless for good. I do not 
 see how any opinion of any other person can relieve 
 you of it. But He who has laid it on you, doubt 
 it not, will enable you to bear it after His will. 
 He has guided and fed you all your life long unto 
 this day ; He will not forsake you in such a trying 
 moment. He will help you and others to bear the 
 suspense, if the answer of your heart be still doubt- 
 ful ; or the pain and disappointment, if it be other 
 than they might wish. 
 
 LETTER LXXIV. 
 
 To THE Father of an Illegitimate Child. 
 
 Dear Sir, 
 I wish to say a few words to you on a very pain- 
 ful matter. ... I fear it is impossible for you to deny 
 
 that you are the father of 's child, and I do 
 
 beseech you to consider what a heavy burden this 
 ought to be on your mind. You are not like an 
 ignorant person, brought up amongst unprincipled 
 people ; you cannot but know that, however lightly 
 the world may treat such sins as these, the Bible 
 speaks plainly, and says, they who do such things, 
 cannot inherit the kingdom of God ; and that these 
 are the very sinful lusts which you renounced in 
 your Baptism and Confirmation, so that now you 
 
To the Father of an Illegitimate Child. 1 39 
 
 have, by indulging them, cast away the blessing of 
 your Baptism, and ought not to have a moment's 
 peace of mind until you have some good ground 
 to believe that you are in God's sight a true peni- 
 tent. S.Matt. vii. 7—10 ; S. Luke xi. 5—13 ; S. Matt, 
 xviii. I — 14. 
 
 You ought not to be easy for this plain reason, 
 that if you should die before such a change has 
 taken place in you, you are sure to be lost for ever. 
 You cannot deny this without contradicting a great 
 many plain words of God. Then, besides the danger 
 of your own soul, what a burthen it is to have to 
 answer for the souls of others, unhappy partners 
 in such sins ; innocent, perhaps, until corrupted by 
 you ; or if they had gone wrong before, plunged 
 by you into deeper wickedness. 
 
 Remember our Lord Himself says, "Whoso shall 
 be the cause of sin to one of these little ones, it 
 were better," &c. Think what it must be to meet 
 them at the last day, and to feel that you are the 
 cause of their ruin — the devil's agent to prepare 
 them for his kingdom, and not only them, but all 
 others whom such bad example tends to corrupt. 
 
 Now I do not at all suppose that you ever in- 
 tended all this mischief; nor do I doubt that, as 
 a good-natured young man, you are sorry for the 
 present misery of this poor young woman ; but the 
 mischief you see is done : you were carried away 
 by your passion in spite of good instruction ; and 
 
140 To the Father of an Illegitimate Child. 
 
 however sorry you may be now, surely experience 
 must have taught you to mistrust yourself for the 
 future. Surely you must feel that if you do not 
 now turn over a new leaf entirely, and seek God's 
 pardon and help in a truer and better way than 
 you have hitherto done, there is no chance, but you 
 will go on from bad to worse : and what will the 
 end be ? For the sake of your parents, and for your 
 own sake, I beseech you to think on these things 
 now : you know as well as I do that the time will 
 soon come when you will wish you had thought on 
 them. If, according to our Saviour's and the Church's 
 direction, you make use of me or any other clergy- 
 man to advise you in the difficult work of steady 
 repentance, you are aware, af course, that any 
 clergyman is bound to keep people's secrets so 
 applying to him. 
 
 But, in any case, repentance after such things must 
 be a long and painful business, and particularly it 
 will be quite necessary to make up your mind not 
 to care for the foolish laughter of those who make 
 
 a mock at sin Do let me have the comfort of 
 
 knowing that you intend to repent in earnest. 
 
To a Lady, on Submission, &€. 141 
 
 LETTER LXXV. 
 
 To A Lady, on Submission to the Rules of a 
 Religious House. 
 
 My dear Child, 
 
 I hope my not writing sooner, though I cannot 
 excuse it, may have served the purpose of clearing 
 your mind, as it has driven you upon thinking for 
 yourself, and you seem now to find that you could 
 not conscientiously make the required promises to 
 anyone ; which is so far an improvement in your 
 position, as it takes away the uncomfortable thought 
 of some vague feeling of mistrust towards any per- 
 sons in particular. 
 
 I should not myself have construed the rules, .... 
 as enslaving consciences and taking off responsibility 
 in the way you apprehend. And I should have 
 thought that anything of that sort which you may 
 have heard of (I am too well aware that there is 
 a risk of it), comes not from the system itself, but 
 from the abuse of it by persons more or less morbid 
 in their views and feelings. But I will not argue 
 this point with you, only I would beseech you to 
 think very gently of those who, construing such rules 
 differently, do not think it wrong to submit to or 
 enforce them. 
 
 For yourself, my dear child, I can only hope that 
 
142 To the Same. 
 
 circumstances may enable you to go on in this kind 
 of free obedience and voluntary work in which you 
 are now living. No one has a right to be angry 
 with another because he is not able to receive coun- 
 sels (if so be) of perfection, which at first he had 
 been supposed able to receive. ... I need not say 
 to you that the more you feel obliged to decline 
 binding yourself by written or spoken rules, the 
 more should you endeavour to practise an unforced 
 sweetness and self-denial in your behaviour to all ; 
 " free from all," you should so make yourself " ser- 
 vant to all." I feel very hopeful that, so doing, you 
 will be enabled to be of great service both to the 
 Sisterhood and to the penitents, with the cordial 
 approbation of the Directors, and without any un- 
 due strain upon your own conscience and feelings. 
 
 I will not say more at present, hoping, as I do, to 
 see you before long. 
 
 Y^ afifec^^ Father in Christ, 
 J. Keble. 
 
 LETTER LXXVI. 
 
 To THE Same. 
 
 My dear Daughter in our Lord, 
 
 I really do not think that you need at all dread 
 being committed further than you would think right 
 by anything they propose to you : I mean com- 
 
To the Same. 143 
 
 mitted beyond what is plainly on the surface of 
 the words. And on the other hand, I hope and be- 
 lieve that they will make allowance for your being 
 unable in some respects to come up to the measure 
 of " hardness," which seems to them best for the 
 work. 
 
 Where all are so much in earnest, there must be 
 some way of going on comfortably together : but 
 one feels certain that there will always be more or 
 less of a call for patience and fair interpretations on 
 both sides. Might it not be a good thing for you 
 to be on the watch for opportunities and little ways 
 of shewing confidence in them, and suiting yourself 
 to their wishes the more carefully in all indifferent 
 matters, because there are one or two things in which 
 you cannot exactly do so } But this, and more, 
 I have no doubt you do. Your account of your- 
 self, which I have been just looking over (and which 
 renews my shame for not writing sooner), shews that 
 by His mercy you are in that way of conscientious 
 watchfulness, which is the straight way to have things 
 set right, and I daresay you watch your words par- 
 ticularly, and are careful not to let anything drop 
 which may say more than you mean (like what you 
 told me of) ; this care is more required in you than 
 in some others, because of a certain pointy with which 
 you know how to express yourself, and which some- 
 times acts as a temptation to say what one after- 
 wards regrets. 
 
144 To the Same, on Changing her Confessor. 
 
 LETTER LXXVII. 
 
 To THE Same, on Changing her Confessor. 
 
 My dear Child, 
 
 Your kind notes from time to time have been 
 a great and undeserved comfort to me, shewing, as 
 I trust, that you find more and more that you are 
 in the right place, and with the right persons, and 
 that you and your work are getting more and more 
 suited to each other. I know there are several points 
 in your former letter which I ought to advert to ; 
 but I have not left myself time to do so now ; and 
 I do not like to keep you waiting for an answer to 
 this morning's note. I wish, as I have often wished, 
 that I were nearer at hand, to save you from any 
 difficulties of the kind. The shrinking you feel is 
 of course what all would feel in opening their grief 
 to a fresh person, and it is clearly better, in the 
 abstract, to keep to the same. Whether in this case 
 this is overbalanced by the inconvenience of the 
 journey, and by the incidental good effect of your 
 shewing such unequivocal confidence in those near 
 you, you can judge better than I. On the whole 
 (unless it were thought best to transfer yourself to 
 a Priest near at hand for the future), I should fancy 
 it might be best for you to dispense with regular 
 confession this time, with the full purpose (D.V.) of 
 
Against indulging in Self-reproach. 145 
 
 supplying it when convenient. Any questions which 
 had better be answered viva voce, you might ask 
 
 of , telling only what would be necessary for 
 
 them to answer, and this would shew confidence 
 without the inconvenience of a change of Confessor. 
 I hope to write again soon. 
 
 Always your loving Father, 
 J. Keble. 
 
 LETTER LXXVIII. 
 
 Against indulging in Self-reproach. 
 
 My very dear Child, 
 Now that our Confirmation is over (and with many 
 things about it to make one very thankful), I may 
 write a line or two to you, of whom I am so often 
 thinking ; especially at 9 o'clock A.M., on those days 
 (rare and far between) when I do as one ought at 
 that hour. I cannot help imagining sometimes, that 
 this visit may be almost too trying for your spirits : 
 and among other fancies, I sometimes say to myself, 
 I hope she does not give way to those thoughts of 
 self-reproach which I know did at one time trouble 
 her ; as if this continued helplessness were a token 
 of displeasure. Believe me, my dear daughter in 
 Christ, such a feeling ought not to be encouraged, 
 any further than as it may help to keep one humble 
 and thankful at having so much more in the way of 
 blessing than one could possibly deserve. For this 
 
 L 
 
146 Against indulging in Self-reproach. 
 
 purpose it may be well that such misgivings should 
 now and then cross the mind with a shade of sadness : 
 but what I am anxious to say to you, is, (I daresay 
 it is not needed, yet I will say it,) that they ought 
 not to be dwelt upon, nor encouraged. I should fear 
 in such case their becoming morbid and really wrong; 
 for if one got to be at all positive about the matter, 
 it would be presumptuously pronouncing on what 
 must be a secret of Providence : and it would damp 
 both one's own thankfulness and others' happiness. 
 Therefore I should say, when such an idea comes 
 across you (which from time to time I should think 
 it probably would), deal with it as you would with 
 the first stirrings of anger : you cannot help feeling 
 them, but your business is to put out the spark at 
 once. When it has roused you it has done its work, 
 and so has this misgiving (supposing there be any 
 ground for it) when it has made itself felt as a mis- 
 giving. Now whether there be any ground for it or 
 no, is perhaps a question not to be solved in this 
 life : certainly the mere fact of your delayed reco- 
 very does not at all tend to solve it, as you your- 
 self would, I am sure, be one of the first to see and 
 urge in the case of another person: Do not, then, 
 dearest child, I beseech you, take this trouble as 
 a token of anger, but rather as a token of more than 
 fatherly love from Him who, perhaps, knows, that 
 your lot in life would be too happy, your cup too 
 richly filled with blessings, which, however pure, are 
 
Against indulging in Self -reproach* 147 
 
 yet of this earth, were it not for this drawback. Look 
 on it so, as coming from a Father, and do not seek 
 to measure exactly whether any of it, or how much, 
 is penal. The Church, you know, in the Visitation 
 Service, mentions two causes for which sickness is 
 sent unto men, but does not set us upon determining, 
 which is the cause in our own case, how much we 
 are concerned in the one and not in the other. In 
 the matter referred to, you did for the best at the 
 time : you did not wilfully do wrong : if there were 
 a mixture of human frailty in the motive, you pa- 
 tiently and lovingly submitted to your Father's way 
 of curing you. All this is good and healthy : let 
 this be the course of your thoughts, but do not 
 beyond this indulge in self-reproachings : if they 
 come, put them away. This is my earnest advice 
 to you ; very likely you may not need it, but you 
 will, I am sure, excuse me for offering it. I feel so 
 certain, that if the other line had been taken, equal 
 or sharper misgivings would have ensued : and as 
 far as one dare speculate, I see such great providen- 
 tial good arising out of what was done. May God 
 grant that you may be able to tell me you have 
 no heart-ache of the sort which I apprehend ; or at 
 any rate, that you are resolved by His grace, as 
 a matter of duty, not to indulge it. . . . 
 
148 To a Father J on the Death of His Son. 
 
 LETTER LXXIX. 
 
 To A Father, on the Death of his Son. 
 
 What can I say to you . . . to thank you as I 
 ought for your most comfortable letter. I knew it 
 would be full of comfort, but this somehow is be- 
 yond my expectation ; ... it looks to me like a fresh 
 world opened for you, both of sorrow and of con- 
 solation. Well do I know what thoughts I ought 
 to have of it, so far as I am myself concerned ; but 
 for you all, one's heart can rest in nothing but leaving 
 you, as it were, to Him Whom you can all but see 
 taking your child up in His arms, and giving him 
 His final blessing. I hope not to forget what you 
 speak of in my prayers, such as they are : I shall 
 ask that for which I hope as confidently as I well 
 can for any special mercy — that this merciful trial 
 may be fully blessed, to all the purposes for which 
 it is sent ; for correction, where need may be ; for 
 high and heavenly improvement to you all. May 
 you have many a more joyful Christmas, I do not' 
 think you will ever have a much happier one in 
 this world. Forgive me if I say what I ought not. 
 I have been much interrupted in writing this. Your 
 
 letter this morning met one from , with a similar 
 
 account of his only boy. . . . This evening brings 
 a much worse account than any before of . So 
 
To the Same. 149 
 
 His people seem to be fast entering into their rest, 
 or rather, His rest. 
 
 Ever your loving and grateful, 
 J. K. 
 
 LETTER LXXX. 
 
 To THE Same. 
 My very dear Friend, 
 I must write you one line on this soothing and 
 trying day — the most trying and soothing of all but 
 one in the whole year (at least, I suppose it must 
 be so to a parent) — to say that we are thinking of 
 you, and have been so all day. It seems to make 
 a third in our own troubles in a remarkable manner. 
 . . . One tries to feel it all, and is but the more con- 
 vinced that there is but One who really can do so. 
 May He bless your new year. 
 
 Ever believe me yours gratefully and lovingly, 
 
 J. K. 
 
 H. K, Innocetits' Day. 
 
 LETTER LXXXL 
 
 To THE Same. 
 
 Just one little word, my dear kind friends, to say 
 how much we think of you all, and comfort our- 
 selves with the assured hope how much you are 
 thought of in Paradise, more and more, as your 
 treasures are more abundantly gathered in there. 
 
150 To a Lady, 
 
 ** Fast in Thy Paradise, where no flowers can wither," 
 
 it seems to come naturally into one's mind when 
 
 one thinks of dear , and her love of pure spring 
 
 flowers continuing to the last I do trust and 
 
 hope that the remembrance of such may go on 
 winning and purifying many, to whom God's Provi- 
 dence has made them specially known, long after 
 they have been taken out of our sight. It is a 
 fragrance which, please God, can never pass away. 
 To Him be all the praise. He will accept it, even 
 from the unworthiest. 
 
 LETTER LXXXII. 
 
 To A Lady, on Temptations to Self-complacency, 
 AND on Imperfections in Self-examination and 
 Contrition, and Incompleteness in Confession. 
 
 My dear Child, 
 I have no doubt that what you complain of is 
 perfectly correct, viz. that in your daily notes you 
 do not put down the worst thing ; that worst thing 
 being, in fact, a sort of blind vein of self-satisfaction, 
 which would fain accompany you all along in what 
 you try to do for God, for your neighbour, and your 
 own soul. I dare say this is your principal tempta- 
 tion, but you must still keep worrying it away by 
 such considerations as you yourself allege to impress 
 
on Temptations to Self-complacency, &c. 151 
 
 yourself with its utter folly. You must pray espe- 
 cially against it (vide Ps. cxxxi.), you must do pen- 
 ance for it by trying inwardly to turn away from, 
 and be pained at the affectionate praise even of 
 those whom you would most wish to approve you. 
 You may, by God's grace, both accept the affection 
 with joy, and yet shrink with real dread from the 
 praise, and, as it were, stop your ears to it : e.g. any- 
 thing of the sort uttered by certain revered friends 
 would naturally recur often to one's memory, and 
 one would be tempted to dwell on it ; then it would 
 be a real and good act of penance to turn from the 
 recollection and think of something else. 
 
 Again (I speak it in doubt, but you will judge 
 if there is anything in it), could you sometimes con- 
 trive for yourself little penances, in the way of dress, 
 or by otherwise doing violence to your taste, when 
 you are conscious that you have forgotten yourself 
 in the way of self-praise or of seeking praise ? Such 
 self-denials would, I apprehend, be as effectual in 
 the way of penance to you, as fasting, or watching, 
 or hard lodging, to those who can bear it. I am 
 not sure that you need trouble yourself at the mere 
 circumstance that you do not feel so much, after 
 a time, the downfalls, which at first made themselves 
 so keenly felt. It is the nature of emotions of all 
 kinds, good, bad, and indifferent, to be most felt, 
 when the object is new, or newly revived : but the 
 measure of your condition is not your feeling but 
 
152 To a Lady., on Self-complacency, &c. 
 
 your practice : if the sins are more watched against, 
 and occur more rarely, less flagrantly, and are of 
 shorter continuance, it is an improvement much more 
 to be trusted, and more indicative of real contrition, 
 than if you felt them as bitterly, or more so, with- 
 out that practical improvement. One would wish 
 and pray for both marks (" Oh, that my head were 
 waters," &c.), but the former state is more healthful 
 and hopeful, generally. As to not having told all, 
 one knows, of course, that you could not have done 
 so, nor ever will be able to do so : but so it is with 
 all penitents. He knows all before, yet forgives and 
 heals them as in the Gospel to-day, and helps them, 
 if it be needful, to tell all the truth the next time. 
 As a general rule, do not worry yourself afterwards 
 with musing how much better you might have done : 
 only look calmly at your short-comings, with a view 
 to amendment the next time. I hardly know how 
 to frame your questions for self-examination, even 
 if I more exactly remembered the points you men- 
 tioned to me when you were here. My memory, 
 I fear, gets worse and worse. But I will try ac- 
 cording to what your letter suggests, though I doubt 
 not you are already in the way of asking yourself 
 the same things. I dare say you inquire of your 
 conscience, " Has there been, since the last self-ex- 
 amination, any marked instance of self-praise, such 
 as to be at once recollected } or of seeking praise 
 for its own sake 1 or of fretfulness at the change 
 
On Special Subjects of Self-examination. 153 
 
 you speak of, or for any reason ? (I mean fretfulness 
 indulged, for one cannot help shadows crossing one's 
 mind), or of ill-advised talk about others ?" 
 
 Believe me, dear child, very affectionately your 
 Father, in Him Whom we would serve, 
 
 J. K. 
 
 LETTER LXXXIII. 
 
 On Special Subjects of Self-examination. 
 
 My dear Child, 
 .... As far as I can judge from the samples you 
 have sent me, I could imagine that it would be 
 very useful in giving you method and courage, and 
 a sense (D.V.) of getting on, and in hindering you 
 from spending too much time and thought in self- 
 reproachings, if you were to select some one out 
 of the several subjects to which your memoranda 
 refer, to be, for a time (so to speak), your special 
 battle-field. That is, that for a time, say to the be- 
 ginning of Lent, you should set yourself to overcome 
 especially some one fault; and by way of naming 
 one, which will be easily marked and felt, I would 
 propose that it should be, what I see you repeatedly 
 complain of, inconsiderate words or ways regard- 
 ing . You might make this your special matter 
 
 of watching and prayer and self-examination, and 
 continue little penances (I mean not violent, though 
 
154 Ojt Penite7ttial Exercises for Lent. 
 
 real as far as they went) for any failures in it : and 
 besides the direct advantage of curing the fault 
 itself, it would be of much indirect help in other 
 things. Of course, one may help oneself very much 
 in such a case, by using oneself to think how soon 
 the time may come when we shall long after such 
 opportunities of dutifulness, and it will be too late. 
 I will not give you any further rule at present. 
 Your plan of setting down, and (if you think it 
 better) sending to me but one out of many specimens, 
 is a very good one, I think. I quite understand 
 them to be only such. In the nature of the case 
 they must be so to almost all people. You gladden 
 my heart, dear child, by your sweet words about 
 my other child (or grandchild i*) ; I always thought 
 the sunshine was in rernm nattirdy which would 
 make her blossom out. 
 
 In Him your loving R, 
 J.K. 
 
 LETTER LXXXIV. 
 
 On Penitential Exercises for Lent. 
 Dear Child, 
 What you feel about Lent is, I imagine, what all, 
 or almost all, feel, who set themselves to observe it 
 in earnest ; even though they are ever so much 
 guided : how to do it, or how they have done it, 
 must be to them as unsatisfactory a question as 
 
On Penitential Exercises for Lent, 155 
 
 what to do can be to you. Those who have been, 
 or yet in some sense are, under the dominion of 
 some known and wasting sin, have so far a more 
 definite course ; where, by God's mercy, that is not 
 the case, the perplexity you speak of, painful as 
 it is, may well be borne with true thankfulness, 
 that one's case is not far more miserable. That 
 will be one way of improving it. Another, of course, 
 is to make it an occasion of prayer, e.g. if you were 
 to turn the substance of your last letter to me into 
 an address to Him, pouring out yourself to Him at 
 large, stating to Him all the difficulties and cravings 
 which He knows already, but loves to be told of, 
 as Moses, Job, Jeremiah, David did. The 143rd 
 Psalm, if I mistake not, is just in the key, to which 
 your heart will respond. And among uninspired 
 writings there is a book on the list of the Chris- 
 tian Knowledge Society, " The Meditations of James 
 Bonnell, Esq.," in which spiritual troubles are dealt 
 with in a way, perhaps, to soothe and help you. 
 If you cast yourself before Him as well as you can 
 in this spirit, and tell Him all, and beg Him to 
 think for you of all that you know not how to 
 tell Him ; He will as surely help and guide you 
 as He has taught you to call Him Father. You 
 will judge better than I whether it would not help 
 you to do all this in writing. I would wish it to 
 be done quite at large, and not to take up any 
 very long time at once, so as either to excite or 
 
156 Oil Pen itential Exercises for L ent, 
 
 weary you more than can be helped. I should 
 hope and expect that upon using this, or some such 
 devotional help, you would be guided in the choice 
 of times and forms of prayer, and exercises of self- 
 denial, as may best suit your case. Meanwhile, I 
 would propose one or two obvious things, i. That 
 you should annex something Lenten — a collect, a 
 verse, or part of hymn — to each of your stated offices 
 of private devotion. 2. That you should, at some 
 time in the day, practise meditation, for at least 
 half-an-hour (and here again the pen might be use- 
 ful), on some Lenten subject: e.g. on Monday on 
 Contrition : Tuesday, Confession ; Wednesday, Pen- 
 ance (voluntary and involuntary) ; Thursday, Inter- 
 cession ; Friday, our Lord's Passion in some of its 
 details ; Saturday, Resignation. The Sunday sub- 
 ject might be suggested by the Sunday services. 
 Direct self-examination might, and prayer of course 
 ought, to be always part of this exercise. Modes of 
 self-examination are more difficult to suggest. Sleep- 
 ing on the ground is rather an extreme measure, 
 and I could not recommend it in your case, as far 
 as I can judge. It would either hurt your health, 
 or you would soon become used to it, and it would 
 make small difference. Two cases appear to me, 
 in which it is desirable — as penance or check to 
 grievous sin, or as inuring people to necessary priva- 
 tion in missionary labours : but these are not here 
 in point. Dress, I believe, I have mentioned before. 
 
Giving Subjects for Meditation. 157 
 
 I suppose that in this respect ladies are not alto- 
 gether free agents, otherwise one might fancy there 
 might be a good deal of room for self-denial, without 
 ostentation or singularity. You mention amusing 
 books and talk ; perhaps the quantity of these, in- 
 cidental to your position, might be lessened by a 
 little arrangement ; and it seems to me that it 
 would be probably a real, and therefore an accept- 
 able, sacrifice. Again, it is a good Lenten exercise 
 to refrain from speaking, when it would tend to 
 blame others, or get credit to oneself, unless it be 
 a matter of duty ; and this alone will furnish a good 
 deal of matter for watching and self-examination. 
 Then there is going oneself to pay or prolong un- 
 pleasant visits to people of various ranks ; to do 
 useful work, writing or study against the grain, and 
 other disagreeable things, which experience will sug- 
 gest : and some of these which I have mentioned 
 may, perhaps, not inconveniently be appropriated to 
 some one day of the week, or otherwise practised 
 on something of a system. 
 
 Y^ affec*^ F. in Him whom we serve, 
 J.K. 
 
 LETTER LXXXV. 
 
 Giving Subjects for Meditation. 
 .... My notion is, that in the " Devotional Helps" 
 you have just what you asked of me for meditation. 
 
158 Giving Subjects for Meditation. 
 
 But I will set down what occurs to me, endeavour- 
 ing to combine the subject of the season in each 
 case with the matters which you specify as troubling 
 you. The subject of next week is the Light of 
 God's Truth (Collect), shining in us before men 
 (Epistle), even in trouble (Gospel). Think, then, 
 with yourself, when you are dispirited about the 
 matters temporal or spiritual which trouble you, on 
 such places as (i.) Isa. 1. 10, 11 ; (2.) when you for- 
 get your prayers or the like, on S. Luke xxiii. 45, 46 : 
 (3.) when you cannot get over dislike to any one, 
 on S. Matt. xxvi. 47 — 50 ; (4.) when it vexes you to 
 be treated as bodily weak or ill, think of S. John 
 xix. 28 — 30; (5.) when it is hard not to be with 
 sick friends, &c., think of S. John xi. 3 — 6 ; (6.) when 
 your soul refuses comfort, think of David (Ps. Ixxvii.), 
 and of Jacob (Gen. xlviii. 15, 16), and of our Lord 
 (S. John xix. 27, 28) ; (7.) When you feel as if you 
 
 had been hasty towards , think of her love as 
 
 an image of God's, and how He loves and turns 
 all to good (Isa. Ixvi. 13). Try this for the present, 
 and let me know how it works. I will not now 
 assign you any further penance, but serve God, be 
 cheerful, and do not lean too much on any of us. 
 Beware of " Hero worship." 
 
On Personal Confession, &c. 159 
 
 LETTER LXXXVI. 
 
 On Writing when out of reach of Personal 
 Confession. 
 
 My dear Child, 
 I think it a very good plan for you to write 
 down the main points you would wish to speak of, 
 if verbal confession were convenient ; and whether 
 you send it to me or not, that you should lay it 
 before Him in prayer, and offer to Him solemnly 
 all your languor and short-comings to be healed 
 in His own good time and way. When you have 
 done this solemnly, first in your preparation, and 
 afterwards in Holy Communion itself (as you know 
 Thomas a Kempis did), then you will have a right 
 to say to whatever it is that keeps on disquieting 
 and disheartening you so about everything, " I have 
 put the matter into my Saviour's hands, and there, 
 by His grace, I will leave it." I speak this of all 
 vague and general impressions, e.g. that one never 
 loves enough, that what one does right one does 
 from the wrong motive, &c. Where any command- 
 ment is distinctly broken, let the breach be dis- 
 tinctly confessed with prayer, and, if need be, by 
 that confession repeated at stated times, but do not 
 worry yourself perpetually about it. Such a course 
 
i6o To the Same. 
 
 tends in a mind like yours to mere useless regret, 
 or even fretfulness, which can do no one any good. 
 Y*" loving Father in our Lord, 
 J.K. 
 
 LETTER LXXXVIL 
 
 To THE Same. 
 Dear Child, 
 I quite agree with you that the most comfortable 
 
 thing for dear , would be to have some one to 
 
 whom she might entirely defer, and who would en- 
 tirely sympathise with her; in a word, to have her 
 father back again. But there is this token of its 
 not being the best thing for her, that Providence has 
 denied it, perhaps, in part, for this very purpose, that 
 she may make her crown brighter by facing trust- 
 fully and enduring patiently the distress of her pre- 
 sent position. . . . Your account of the kind of trouble 
 to which she would probably be exposed by accept- 
 ing the ministrations of the Parish Clergy, enables 
 me to judge more clearly of the case, and perhaps 
 I may have already met it in part by something 
 which I said in my hurried note to her on Sunday ; 
 viz. that my own custom, when I am not celebrating, 
 is not to look at all to see how the service is con- 
 ducted. For you know, my dear child^ Who it is 
 that really offers, and that it is His Church which 
 ministers, — Christ the Priest, and His Church the 
 
On Idle Thoughts, &c. i6i 
 
 Deacon ; and I think we ought to arm ourselves 
 with faith, thus we shall not suffer nor lose any 
 part of the blessing by the ignorance, or error, or 
 even positive wickedness of the human instrument ; 
 we should take it for granted, that the celebrating 
 Priest has the same intention as the Church. The 
 special point which you mention, the neglect to ob- 
 serve the Rubric with regard to the '* Remains," is 
 easily obviated in private Communion, because care 
 can be taken to have some one with the sick, who 
 will deal with it reverentially, even if the sick person 
 himself be too helpless. 
 
 I have heard that the Clergyman of is one 
 
 who would sympathize. But the Curate himself 
 would be far best. You will judge how much or how 
 little of this to mention to him or to anyone. 
 
 Y^ ever affec*^, 
 J. K. 
 
 LETTER LXXXVIII. 
 
 On Idle Thoughts; and on Familiar Intercessions. 
 
 My dear Daughter in Christ, 
 
 Your letter has been a great comfort to me, for 
 I never know at the time whether I am not doing 
 more harm than good. 
 
 "With respect to the distress of idle chimerical 
 thoughts, — in which I can greatly sympathize, having 
 
 M 
 
1 62 On Idle Thoughts, &c. 
 
 had in very old times just the same doubt of the 
 reality of things which you describe, — might it be 
 worth while to try the effect of short Ejaculatory 
 Prayers, or of forcing oneself to contemplate (if 
 within reach) a picture of our Lord crucified, or 
 some other such memorial of some of the great and 
 ever-present realities ? For such a state of mind is 
 like a real dream, out of which one needs to be 
 effectually startled. 
 
 I think that you need not scruple applying to 
 persons in your intercessions, any name or title 
 which you would deem consistent with respect to 
 call them by, in speaking of or to them. You know 
 they would be sorry to be left out of your prayers 
 through any scruple of that kind. 
 
 I will endeavour to put into this cover the little 
 night service which I think I spoke of to you. Fray 
 have no scruple in writing and mentioning things 
 to me, and believe me always. 
 
 Very affectionately yours, 
 
 In Him whom we would serve, 
 
 J. Keble. 
 
In Worship our Lord's Two Natures, &c. 163 
 
 LETTER LXXXIX. 
 
 To THE Same : In Worship our Lord's two Natures 
 NOT TO BE Separated. — Suggestions as to Dealing 
 WITH Faults; and for Lent. 
 
 My dear Child in Him whom we hope to Serve, 
 
 I am almost inclined to think that it may be as 
 well for you not to analyse your motives and feelings 
 in such a matter as your letter chiefly refers to. It 
 is enough that the particular mode of helping thought 
 does not suit you ; that it causes perplexing thoughts 
 about our Lord's two Natures. I should say, by all 
 means let it alone, and employ the simple Cross, 
 or whatever help you find more available. 
 
 It may be well as a general rule, to add, that it 
 never has been the way of Christian Devotion to 
 distinguish in Worship between our Lord's two Na- 
 tures. We worship His Person Who is both God 
 and Man, without scruples or ideal separations : but 
 we do not call upon His Saints or Angels, because 
 He has not commanded us to do so. 
 
 This is to my mind the simple, true, and sufficient 
 account of the difference in that respect between 
 the reformed and unreformed Church. I should be 
 loth to charge the latter with confusion in its doc- 
 trine of our Lord's two Natures, in consequence of 
 its receiving these Invocations : although I much 
 
164 In Worship our Lord's Two Natures, &c. 
 
 fear that some such evil consequence is too likely 
 to flow from it, especially just now. 
 
 You speak of ill consequences from even so much 
 seclusion as you are now living in : might not that 
 seclusion be modified so far as is necessary, by in- 
 tercourse with some of the ladies who are working 
 there as you are, and with whom you must have 
 more or less of sympathy ? If your present rules 
 
 forbid this, might I with propriety write to , to 
 
 propose some modification ? 
 
 I believe that the '^Aids" recommends a person 
 to attack one fault at a time ; and where the faults 
 are distinctly perceived, I suppose it would be the 
 most practical way. 
 
 About a rule for Lent, I think I should connect 
 it with this last subject ; i.e. might it be well to choose 
 as a subject of Morning meditation, and afternoon 
 or evening prayer, some one of the faults which one 
 wished to correct, or of the virtues which one wished 
 to acquire } If you approve of this, and will mention 
 any subject, I can suggest such devotions as occur 
 to me. 
 
 About confessing again, you must judge for your- 
 self Advice may of course be written, but Abso- 
 lution must be given in person. We can easily 
 manage it if you wish. I am, dear daughter in our 
 Lord, affectionately yours, 
 
 J. Keble. 
 
 I 
 
On Preparation for Holy Communion^ &c. 165 
 
 LETTER XC. 
 
 On Preparation for Holy Communion. — 
 Acts of Penance. 
 
 My dear Child for our Master's sake, 
 .... I quite understand the difficulty of suiting 
 our common books, such as " Steps to the Altar," 
 to the use of very frequent Communicants : but, to 
 my shame be it spoken, I am very unready with 
 any plan for meeting it. The only thing that comes 
 into my head is to suggest the use of the " Aids to 
 a Holy Life," for the additional Communions, keep- 
 ing the "Steps to the Altar" for the first Commu- 
 nion (say) in every month, and then using general 
 confession. For the Thursday, one might take par- 
 ticular confession, according to Mr. Bund's rules, of 
 the special fault which one is most engaged in war- 
 ring against. For the three other Sundays, any 
 three of his general heads which one felt most oc- 
 casion to attend to — for each Sunday, one. 
 
 Or one might take the four first sentences of the 
 Offertory, which always appear to me as if they 
 were selected with a view to Self-examination; 
 the first, as against vainglory ; the second, against 
 worldly-mindedness ; the third, against selfishness : 
 the fourth, against hypocrisy. One or other of these 
 might well furnish matter for trying and judging 
 
1 66 On Preparation for Holy Communion, &c. 
 
 oneself for half-a-week. In short, there is ample 
 material in the book I mentioned, but devotions are 
 wanting, and you would have to select them for 
 yourself 
 
 If the notion, thus generally stated, seems to you 
 likely to be useful, you will soon, I think, find suit- 
 able prayers and Psalms and texts : and I shall be 
 glad to mention for your consideration any which 
 occur to me. 
 
 With regard to the special obligations and trials 
 of a Sisterhood, I regret to say that I am really 
 quite ignorant. I may imagine and infer about 
 them, but I cannot say I know. But if you cultivate 
 right tempers according to such rules as are given 
 in the little book which I have mentioned, I cannot 
 think that you will be practically at a loss, in the 
 duties either of that, or any other state of life, to 
 which you are fairly called. 
 
 About acts of Penance, I hardly know what to 
 say. You know yourself what your little tastes are, 
 and inclinations in indifferent matters : bearing these 
 in mind, and at the same time watching your in- 
 clinations to wrong, you will be taught the way to 
 correct the latter by the former. 
 
 My dear Child, God bless you. 
 
 Yours always afifec*^^, 
 J.K. 
 
 I 
 
On Distractions. i6'j 
 
 LETTER XCI. 
 
 On Distractions. 
 
 My dear Child, 
 
 I do not wonder that the increased quantity of 
 work and responsibility, especially with the sore trial 
 of the withdrawal of Mr. 's aid, proves so be- 
 wildering, and such an interruption to your devo- 
 tions. It is but natural that it should be so : it is 
 as when I am near the schoolboys in church, and 
 am drawn aside to notice their behaviour. You 
 have a large family to think of, and it is impossible 
 that this should not be continually interfering with 
 your attention in times of devotion. 
 
 But do not let this confound or alarm you. Use 
 yourself, in the course of the work itself, to say in 
 your heart short ejaculations now and then, so offer- 
 ing your work to God as it goes on; and do not 
 allow yourself to brood over the imperfection you 
 may be conscious of in what you have been doing ; 
 offer it all up, with all its blemishes, as a sacrifice 
 in Christ's name. Turn your troublesome thoughts 
 themselves into prayers, you will find them fitting 
 on, oftener than you might expect, to the regular 
 prayers of the time or occasion. Every thing, we 
 know, fits on to the Lord's Prayer. 
 
 I do not recommend any great change in the 
 
1 68 On the Same. 
 
 number and order of your devotional services, they 
 should rather be frequent than long, and I would 
 not be disheartened, nor tempted voluntarily to omit 
 any of them (business I dare say will often compel 
 omissions) on account of the difficulty of attending, 
 or the like. Prayer, which seems to yourself cold 
 and formal, offered and persevered in as a duty, 
 may win you a greater blessing than that which 
 seems to flow most freely, and which gives most 
 comfort at the time. What a comfort there is in 
 considering Who said, " The spirit is willing, but the 
 flesh is weak." .... I do not suppose that if we met 
 I could in substance give other advice than what 
 I have now written, which, indeed, comes to little 
 more than " go on in cheerfulness and patience." 
 
 I think you will find that by His mercy, before 
 long, your prayers and work help one another : but 
 whether you feel it or no, I have no doubt that they 
 do. God bless you, my dear daughter in Christ, 
 and restore, if it be His will, our dear sick friend. 
 
 In Him your affectionate Father and Friend, 
 J. Keble. 
 
 LETTER XCII. 
 
 On the Same. 
 
 .... I BEG of you not to be too much distressed if 
 you find no great difference, for ever so long a time. 
 
On Wishing for Death. 169 
 
 in respect of the wanderings which harass you. Do 
 your best in reason against them, and then bear 
 them as a trouble, rather than accuse them as a fault. 
 
 LETTER XCIII. 
 
 On Wishing for Death. 
 
 My dear Child, 
 Your letter both grieves and refreshes me. May 
 He, who can, give you and all of us, the full con- 
 solation of the refreshing part of it, without as yet 
 reahzing the part which grieves one. You will not 
 think it unkind if one still prays that you may be 
 spared and helped to do more and more work for 
 Him. But He knows best ; as He willeth, so be it. 
 .... Who that believes and realizes, can help de- 
 siring to depart and to be with Christ.? but like 
 all other desires, which we cannot help, it should be 
 with humility and submission, and fear of presump- 
 tion, and charitable care for others. 
 
 LETTER XCIV. 
 
 On Obedience to one's Confessor. 
 
 My dear Child, 
 In reply to your friend's question. "To obey a 
 person as one's Confessor," might mean differently 
 in the mouths of different people : but, I suppose 
 
I/O O71 Obedience to one's Confessor. 
 
 in this instance, it means absolute unquestioning 
 obedience in all instances, and that, as it should 
 seem, to a comparative stranger. I could not my- 
 self make such a demand, unless, from previous 
 knowledge of the case, I was tolerably sure it was 
 necessary, e.g. to prevent a Romanizing conscience 
 from trifling with me, and with the ordinance. 
 
 And if the promise ought not to be demanded, 
 it cannot, I imagine, be wrong to decline making it. 
 Only one should be very careful not to be guided 
 in the matter by prejudice or self-will. I wish the 
 former adviser may recover sufficiently to be con- 
 sulted : his opinion would be worth a hundred given 
 at a distance. 
 
 Farewell, my dear friend and daughter in Christ, 
 and believe me always. 
 
 Affectionately yours, 
 J. Keble. 
 
 LETTER XCV. 
 
 To AN Undergraduate. 
 
 Do not be downhearted ; your difficulties are sure 
 to occur to an earnest youth at this time, and your 
 safe way will be, to go on as you have begun, 
 keeping to the Prayer-book as nearly as you can, 
 and without any special profession, or marked and 
 
To an Undergraduate. 171 
 
 singular observances ; letting people find out, if so 
 it happens, that such is your rule. 
 
 If you can get hold of a sermon in Newman's 
 first volume on S. Matthew v. 1 5, it will shew what 
 I mean. 
 
 Whatever people do, or decline to do, as to con- 
 fession, 1. should not go upon feelings one way or 
 the other, but upon calm consideration, with prayer. 
 
 2. Should not be allowed to lessen their .sense of 
 their own responsibility. 
 
 3. To whomsoever the confession is to be made 
 outwardly, it should be made distinctly to our Lord 
 beforehand, in the conviction that He knows it all 
 beforehand, and has declared His will that it shall 
 be somehow made known. S. Luke xii. 2. 
 
 This I write, not to bias your judgment, but worth 
 serious thought in any case. 
 
 Ever yours most lovingly, 
 J.K. 
 
 LETTER XCVI. 
 
 To THE Same. 
 
 I MUST begin, as I said, to write you a few lines 
 when I can ; and, first of all, though I daresay it 
 is not necessary to remind you of it, your difficulties 
 about which you have written, being all about out- 
 ward profession, and how to let your light shine 
 before men, one may hope that, by the blessing of 
 God, your heart and conscience are right, so that 
 
1/2 To the Same. 
 
 as you are sworn, so you are stedfastly purposed 
 to keep all His righteous judgments ; not so much 
 to consider whether what He commands or forbids 
 seem great or small, but simply that He does com- 
 mand or forbid it, and to examine yourself daily, 
 and order your ways accordingly. 
 
 Having thus (humanly speaking) a clear con- 
 science in matters that are known only to God and 
 yourself, you may, with less fear of self-deceit, apply 
 yourself to others, and plan how to do most good 
 to them. 
 
 And as this latter is, of course, a subject of special 
 prayer, so that prayer, to be effectual, requires con- 
 stant watching, not to incline to wickedness in one's 
 own heart. Zeal, even self-denying zeal for the 
 Church, may do good to others, and yet prove a 
 dangerous delusion to a man's self This is the 
 foundation. I daresay I need not have said any- 
 thing about it. Now this being pre-supposed, and 
 what I said in my former letter about obedience 
 to the Prayer-book added to it, here is at once 
 a real and continuing witness borne to Christ ; all 
 the more telling, because it is silent and unobtrusive, 
 felt, rather than observed, by others ; and the less 
 conscious you are of it yourself, as to its effect on 
 others, the better. Indeed, I suppose it would be 
 a good prayer to God, to hide from us any good 
 that we are allowed to do, except so far as may be 
 necessary for one's guidance and perseverance. 
 
 Well, a young person going on thus, meets, of 
 
To the Same. 173 
 
 course, with well-meaning persons, who propose to 
 him, or set him an example, how to do good, or 
 witness for Christ in some special way. He thinks 
 of it in his prayers, he turns it over in his mind, 
 he sees clearly, perhaps, that even if he demur to 
 the thing itself, the principle of it is good, and good 
 to be brought to his thoughts, reminding him, per- 
 haps, of some point of duty or devotion, which it 
 will be well for him to think more of than he has 
 done, e.g. in the union for prayer ; if a man saw 
 reason, or if his parents, &c., were in the mind to 
 doubt, yet the substantial point is secured by his 
 promising to say the Lord's Prayer, or the petition 
 in the Litany, or the Collect for all conditions of 
 men, in that special sense, so often. 
 
 But on all matters, especially where there is any- 
 thing demonstrative or unusual, there is nothing like 
 a good and willing adviser at hand, and such you 
 
 will find Mr. . If you would Hke to speak to 
 
 him, but feel shy, I will ask him to speak to you, 
 and you need not fear to be as unreserved with him 
 as you may find comfortable. I don't say at once. 
 Take him for a kind of director — for on that you 
 would of course, in any case, consult your Father. 
 
 This is all I have to say now, except God bless 
 you, and help you to act on the true meaning of 
 S. Mark x. 21, and to go on serving Him cheerfully. 
 
 Your most loving, 
 J. K. 
 
1/4 To an Aged Clergyman 
 
 LETTER XCVII. 
 
 To AN Aged Clergyman under Spiritual 
 Depression ^. 
 
 My dear Sir, 
 I learn from your nephew that you have some- 
 times expressed a wish to see me : I hope not to 
 forget this, in case our Hves should be spared, and 
 anything bring me into your neighbourhood ; for in- 
 deed I should rejoice if I were permitted to be of 
 any use or comfort to you, not only from the re- 
 
 ' The following particulars, extracted from the letter to the Editor 
 which accompanied Mr. Keble's, are inserted by kind permission 
 of the writer. They give additional interest to the letter, witnessing 
 as they do to the value of his words of Christian comfort and en- 
 couragement. 
 
 "My relative was dying at an advanced age, though with unimpaired 
 faculties ; his body gradually wearing out without any pain or disease : 
 but he was oppressed with a deep sense of his sinfulness, and fear that 
 he had not been forgiven, and consequent absence of all comfort in 
 prayer. One day, in answer to a suggestion to consult some others, 
 the words burst from him, * Oh that John Keble were here.' Though 
 senior to Keble he had known him in early life. I at once, though 
 a stranger to Keble, wrote to him, describing as well as I could the 
 state of mind, and begged him to be kind enough to write. It drew 
 from him the letter, of which I enclose a copy. As it may give to 
 others the same comfort that it did to him, and be the means of 
 smoothing the death-beds of others as it did his, I will not with- 
 hold it. 
 
 *' Some days after its receipt he looked up to me suddenly and 
 said, *I am quite happy now,' and in the same quiet happiness* 
 of faith he died. " 
 
under spiritual Depression. 175 
 
 membrance of times past, when we used occasionally 
 to meet, and of mutual and dear friends now, most 
 of them, taken out of our sight, but (you will allow 
 me to say it) from a real debt of gratitude which 
 I owe you for having been, I believe, the first to draw 
 my mind towards the right way (so far as I have 
 attained to it) of deahng with "the little ones" of 
 the flock. As I am not able to wait upon you, 
 I avail myself of a hint from your nephew, that 
 a few words in writing might be not unacceptable. 
 
 You feel, my dear Sir, (you would not wish to feel 
 otherwise,) what a nothing, and worse than nothing, is 
 what you have done for our Lord, compared with what 
 it ought to have been ; and the thought will at times 
 occur — "how is it possible that such an one can be 
 accepted } " and the comfort and hope which you 
 know to be intended for all, seems somehow to be 
 denied to you, for the time. Yet, at the bottom of 
 your heart, I am quite sure you do not doubt the 
 "comfortable words," especially that most comfort- 
 able word "all," with which we are so continually 
 encouraged. The invitation is to "<3://that travail," 
 it is "worthy of all to be received," it is for ^^ all 
 that believe in Him ;" for any man that hath sinned 
 He is the Propitiation, and He is willing to be an 
 "Advocate." I have no doubt you try to teach 
 this to yourself, as you have so often taught it to 
 others ; but you cannot always bring it home to 
 yourself ; you cannot always feel it true ; and this 
 
176 To an Aged Clergyman 
 
 alarms and perplexes you, as it has, and does, and 
 will, thousands before, around, and after you. May 
 I mention one or two methods of dealing with this 
 trial, which, by God's blessing, may be useful to you 
 — one or other of them ? 
 
 I could say, for one thing, make your account be- 
 forehand with this trouble coming upon yoUy as yozi 
 would with a fit of bodily pain, to which you might 
 know yourself liable; and offer it to God as you 
 would the bodily pain, in deep resignation, giving 
 yourself up to Him, to deal with you, in this respect 
 also, as He knows best. And, as we know that in 
 some mysterious way, our bodily sufferings are united 
 (if we take them rightly) to those of our Lord on the 
 Cross, so we may venture to associate these sadder 
 misgivings of the soul with the deep agony and sense 
 of desertion which He vouchsafed to endure for us. 
 And we may believe that, in ways known to Him, 
 they are made instrumental to our final purification 
 and salvation. One way in which this may happen, 
 we may well believe, is this : the more entirely we 
 are made to feel the worthlessness of all that we 
 have ourselves been or done, the more are we thrown, 
 wholly and solely, upon the merits of Him, who 
 is our only Hope : and this deep and bitter feeling 
 may be our Lord's providential way of causing you 
 to cast all your care upon Him, as you no doubt 
 endeavour to do, but feel that you do it but in- 
 adequately : this distress may render you more 
 
under spiritual Depression. 177 
 
 earnest in doing so ; and " if there be first a willing 
 mind" — you know the rest, and how fully it applies 
 to the inward offering of Faith and Repentance, as 
 well as to the outward one of Alms. Once more ; 
 I should wish to say, I am continually saying, in 
 effect, to persons in such trouble as you sometimes 
 feel, " which do you really want of the Almighty ? 
 Comfort now, or pardon and acceptance hereafter?" 
 The latter, of course : and it may be that the im- 
 perfection you complain of in the former, may greatly 
 help towards that better thing ; for " the Peace of 
 God passeth all understanding." Many, having it, 
 feel as if they had it not : but many, alas ! wanting 
 it, feel (like the Pharisees) as if they certainly had 
 it. Which is better : to kindle a fire of one's own, 
 and compass oneself about with sparks, and have to 
 walk in that light ; or to walk in darkness, and have 
 no light, only trusting (i.e. unweariedly trying to 
 trust) in the Name of the Lord, and " staying your- 
 self" as you may "on our God .?" 
 
 Let me beseech you, dear Sir, to go on trying this ; 
 and in a short time you will see and know what 
 a Rock you have been indeed standing on. Those 
 who have gone on trying in earnest to love and to 
 cling to Him, in spite of all discouragement, inward 
 and outward, in spite of low spirits, and the bitter 
 sense of uselessness and unworthiness, they of all 
 others may be said to walk by Faith, not by Sight. 
 How can they fail to receive the blessing of Faith ] 
 
 N 
 
178 To a Clergy man y who had written 
 
 My dear Sir, excuse my running on in this way : 
 sometimes the merest truism put in the homeliest 
 way may help, where a higher sort of teaching has 
 failed or might fail. But I trust that you will have 
 more and more of that inward comfort and teaching 
 which makes the soul happily independent of hu- 
 man suggestions, however well meant. 
 
 May the Almighty Guardian of our souls bring us 
 all to Himself, when and how He knoweth best. 
 
 Pray, my dear Sir, for 
 Your faithful and affectionate Servant in Christ, 
 
 John Keble. 
 
 LETTER XCVIII. 
 
 To A Clergyman, who had written on behalf 
 OF Another in Doubt. 
 
 Rev. and dear Sir, 
 Your account, though sad, gives me much hope 
 that this poor young lady, for whom it is impossible 
 from your account not to feel very deep interest, 
 will before long, by God's blessing, be restored to 
 hope and comfort. There is no doubt that she gives 
 way to feelings which do not at all belong to her 
 case, because, as I have pointed out in a note on the 
 very page you refer to, " hopeless misery," as far as 
 we can judge from Scripture, can only be when this 
 world is over. As long as a man lives, the word 
 
on behalf of Another in Doubt. 179 
 
 is spoken to him, " Come unto Me," &c. The ques- 
 tion is then, If this lady heard that voice from 
 Heaven, and knew that it was addressed to her, 
 (which she could not doubt, since it says expressly, 
 "All ye"), what would she do? which way would 
 she turn ? Let her do the same now, to the best 
 of her power ; and as God is true, she will find relief 
 sooner or later, and continuing to do so, will find 
 salvation at last. 
 
 I believe that in this I am uttering the sentiment 
 of one of the wisest and best of human comforters, 
 Thomas k Kempis, " Imitation of Christ," i. 25, n. 2. 
 " When one that was ^," &c. Perhaps if you can get 
 this lady to put her mind to this thought, she may, 
 by God's blessing, find in it what may help her. 
 
 I am away from home, but hope to be there after 
 next week. Of course I would wish, if I could, to 
 be spared just now any call to a distance. But 
 if it seem that an interview is very desirable, and 
 the lady cannot come to me, and wishes it, I will 
 gladly wait upon her, when and where it may be 
 
 ^ [In the letter the passage is only referred to. It is as follows. — 
 Editor] : — 
 
 ' * When one that was in anxiety of mind, often wavering between 
 fear and hope, did once, being oppressed with grief, humbly prostrate 
 himself in a church before the altar in prayer, and said within himself, 
 ' O if I knew that I should yet persevere !' he presently heard within him 
 an answer from God, which said, ' If thou didst know it, what wouldst 
 thou do ? Do now what thou wouldst do then, and thou shalt be se- 
 cure. ' And being herewith comforted and strengthened, he committed 
 himself wholly to the will of God, and his anxious wavering ceased." 
 
i8o On the Spiritual Trials 
 
 most convenient. May God bless her, and you for 
 your charity towards her. 
 
 Believe me, 
 Truly yours, 
 J.K. 
 
 LETTER XCIX. 
 
 On the Spiritual Trials of Weak Health. 
 
 My dear Child, 
 Your trial is indeed a severe one, but by no means 
 unusual in various degrees among those whom God 
 calls to serve Him. It is indeed but one of those 
 belonging to sickness, and in that way you must 
 treat it, as when the doctor tells you you must not 
 go to Church. Its being inward instead of outward 
 makes no difference in this respect. To reconcile 
 you the more to this, suppose you regard it in this 
 light — that our Lord Himself is the Physician, and 
 your feeling that emotions exhaust you, is a token 
 from Him that He would not have you indulge in 
 them, but rather reserve yourself for any emergency 
 which His Providence may have in store for you, 
 and in which He may unmistakeably call upon you 
 not to spare yourself Would it be well to consider 
 of some plan involving regular thought, which might 
 be profitable to yourself, and perhaps others, with- 
 out involving emotion or any strain upon the feelings.? 
 Could a series of subjects for thought on Sacred 
 
of Weak Hexlth. i8i 
 
 History be contrived, which would in a certain 
 sense engage, without wearying or exciting you ? 
 Could you find some friend near, or afar off, who 
 might take part with you in the same' work, and 
 with whom you might interchange ideas and im- 
 pressions ; e. g. you could take a portion of Holy 
 Scripture, and deal with it as P. Young has set us 
 an example, not aiming to excite your own or others 
 feelings, but simply trying to set down the Truth 
 to His honour and glory. A very few days, and 
 a very short verse or two each day, would be suffi- 
 cient for an experiment of this sort : and when you 
 had found out how to tone down your meditation 
 sufficiently, you might, perhaps, venture on longer 
 spells of it, and it might, by His blessing, come to 
 be something like soothing music, quieting and re- 
 freshing both body and soul. Do you remember 
 Wordsworth's poem on the Nightingale and the 
 Stock Dove } Depend on it, dear child, that the 
 languor which is brought on, not by sin or negli- 
 gence, but by the Visitation of God's providence, 
 will never tell against you in His account. Say to 
 yourself what you would to any one else, " He will 
 lay no more on you, than He will make you able 
 to bear." . . . However, I would recommend your 
 trying for the present something like what I have 
 suggested, if indeed I have made myself intelligible ; 
 if not, give me a line, and I will try to explain, by 
 example or otherwise. 
 
1 82 spiritual Communion^ &c. 
 
 If it is not too exciting for you, I would recom- 
 mend your practising Spiritual Communion, so as 
 to supply, as far as may be, the want of more fre- 
 quent actual Communion. Of the frequency you 
 would soon be able to judge for yourself But very 
 likely you have already some rule of the kind. 
 Ever believe me, 
 
 My dear Child, 
 Your faithful friend in Him whom we would serve, 
 
 J.K. 
 
 LETTER C, 
 
 Spiritual Communion : Light in which to be 
 Regarded. — Comforts under Spiritual Privations. 
 
 My dear Child, 
 I have been to Scotland again, and otherwise so 
 hurried, that I have behaved very ill to you. Much 
 do I fear that I have put you to a real Penance in 
 so keeping you without an answer : and yet, in one 
 respect, I should not be much surprised if my doing 
 so turned out rather for your help. For I am sure 
 that part of your trial is a temptation to lean too 
 much upon direction, and to seek it too minutely 
 in everything. So far I am not sorry that you have 
 been thrown upon yourself, though ashamed that it 
 should have been owing to my slothfulness. I think 
 I must still give you the same general advice, to 
 
Comforts under Spiritual Privations. 183 
 
 meditate, with or without writing, either on the sub- 
 jects I suggested, or (which I shall rather like at 
 this time especially) on any other course which may 
 present itself to your mind. . . . You might do this, 
 if you thought well, during this blessed week which 
 is coming. 
 
 Of course Spiritual Communion cannot be like 
 real Sacramental Communion, though none can tell 
 how great a blessing may attend it, properly used : 
 and it has no promise^ that I know of, to distinguish 
 it from other Prayers : but the Church recommends 
 it ; Bp. Wilson and, I believe, Bp. Taylor and the Pa- 
 radisus AnimcEj exemplify it. I should think it might 
 be considered as in a certain way united to one's 
 latest Communion, as a continuation of the Devo- 
 tions then offered, and so peculiar comfort and help 
 may very well be hoped for from it. Or you may 
 connect it prospectively, with your intended next 
 Communion, as part of your preparation. 
 
 And be sure, my dear child, that you have no 
 need to indulge perpetual fears and misgivings. You 
 have not to do with a hard Master, but with a loving 
 Saviour, who knows what you can bear, and lays 
 His burden upon you accordingly. It is His will 
 to try you by these spiritual privations, and by the 
 painful achings of heart which accompany them. 
 Try to make this His will yours, by patient sub- 
 mission to this trouble, so long as He allows it 
 to continue. Yet do what you can to allay it, by 
 
1 84 On Depressmg Thoughts and Feelings, 
 
 prayer, by cheerful thoughts of His thousand great 
 mercies every hour and minute multiplied upon you, 
 by making your spiritual exercises rather frequent 
 than long, and by turning your thoughts sometimes 
 to intercession for others, in a large and detailed way, 
 when self-examination and prayer for yourself seems 
 (as it sometimes must) weary and unprofitable. I 
 have been for two weeks at several times among the 
 Forbeses, with whom you would have much sym- 
 pathy. They are quite a large party in Edinburgh, 
 and it is beautiful to see how they all light up the 
 moment their kinsman the Bishop comes in sight. 
 We are most thankful for the result of that trial. You 
 should have seen the note that came from Ch. Ch. 
 in reply to the Telegram conveying the news of it. 
 Ever, my dear Child, 
 Your Fatherly friend in our Lord, 
 J.K. 
 
 LETTER CL 
 
 On Depressing Thoughts and Feelings, with 
 
 ALLUSION to his SiSTER ELISABETH. 
 
 My dear Child, 
 Among other thoughts, which come into one's 
 mind at such times as we have been lately going 
 through, and in which, in a certain sense (if it please 
 God), I should desire to continue all my life — is 
 a feeling how unkind and unsympathetic, without 
 
with allusion to his Sister Elisabeth. 185 
 
 intending it, one must have partly been, and partly 
 appeared, from time to time, in such troubles as yours, 
 and especially in neglecting you so long as I have 
 done. God forgive me : and I hope you will. I am 
 sure I have never forgotten you for a day. But from 
 what I hear of your health I fear you must have 
 needed much comfort, and perhaps I might have 
 given you a little. One thing I will mention to 
 you — that when I think of my dearest sister in the 
 depressing moments of her illness, I am, more or less, 
 reminded of your troubles, for all her longing seemed 
 to be for guidance — a feeling that there was some- 
 thing to be done, and she did not know what — 
 " would somebody be so good as tell her ; " and 
 her favourite verse next to the fifty -first Psalm, 
 (which she continually recurred to) was "Teach me 
 to do the thing that pleaseth Thee," &c. So, my 
 dear Child, be so far comforted as that your trials 
 in the way of bewilderment and seeming helpless- 
 ness are so far like hers. For I quite think, that 
 for all she seemed so calm, she had often to bear 
 up against the same kind of feelings, in her time 
 of comparative health. I fancy she found great help 
 in writing out prayers and texts, and meditations 
 (as I believe Bp. Wilson did). It seemed, I suppose, 
 to throw them more entirely out of themselves, than 
 when they were, as it were, composing for themselves ; 
 I don't know whether this may suggest any thing to 
 you. But if it does not suit, never mind. 
 
1 86 Meditations — Examples of. 
 
 My dear wife (D. G.) bore up well through the 
 nursing. She never tried to sit up, and for the last 
 
 ten days, or more, our sister from was with her, 
 
 and my brother too, and they are still here. But 
 C.'s breath is very distressing, though I believe 
 
 Mr. does not think it alarming, and if the 
 
 weather permit, we start to-morrow for Devonshire 
 — Dawlish for the next week. Our kind, very kind 
 
 love to you, dear Child, and to . Don't trouble 
 
 to answer this but at your leisure. 
 
 Your loving Father in Christ, 
 J.K. 
 
 LETTER GIL 
 
 Meditations — Examples of. 
 Dear Child, 
 
 After my manner I am answering your letter just 
 too late, I fear, to be of any use. But really I am 
 not sure that it would not be kinder to leave you 
 to make your meditations for yourself. At least, 
 this ought to be your aim, "to try to swim without 
 corks" if you can, not in self-reliance, but in humble 
 hope, that He who has given you a mind to try will 
 help you also to what will please Him. (Another 
 sad gap in my writing — we are got to Monday 
 Evening!) 
 
 I will at once see what I can think of, though even 
 now, I fear, I shall be too late for this post. 
 
Meditations — Examples of. 187 
 
 For what remains of this week I should like you 
 to meditate on the tokens of God's love in that third 
 chapter of Genesis ; how it kept more than even pace 
 with our sins, coming early in the morning, calling 
 us when we hid ourselves, inviting us to confess, 
 tempering each sentence with mercy, providing gar- 
 ments, withholding the fruit, which might have led 
 to a miserable eternity, &c. And you may go over 
 whatever you can remember of His Providence to- 
 wards yourself or others, which strikes you as being 
 in point. Do the same next week with the History 
 of the Flood, and the week after with that of Abra- 
 ham, and so on through Lent ; the Lessons of that 
 season being throughout, a wonderful exhibition of 
 God's Providence towards the chosen people, not 
 hard to apply to individual Christians. 
 
 Now I must thank you dear — with a great deal 
 
 of my heart for your kind help as to , which 
 
 I think will just help us to what we want. It was 
 
 too bad to neglect you, whilst you were working so 
 
 hard for us. 
 
 Nevertheless believe me, 
 
 Y'"^ ever lovingly, 
 
 J.K. 
 
 Twenty-fourth Sunday after Trinity. 
 
 Christ's touch (Gospel) absolving His people from 
 their offences (Collect) and giving them joy and 
 strength (Epistle). 
 
1 88 Meditations— Examples of. 
 
 Think first, that even Christ's touch is not always 
 a perfect cure at once. S. Mark viii. 22 — 25. 
 
 2. That the token of amendment is not always 
 the feeling oneself better, but the rising to do God's 
 work. S. Mark ix. 26, 27. 
 
 3. That the Holy Church throughout all the world 
 is praying for you as in the Epistle, v. 1 1. 
 
 Twenty-fifth Sunday after Trinity. 
 
 A. The Lord our Righteousness (Epistle) ; B. leav- 
 ing stores in His Church for us (Gospel) ; C. that we 
 might plenteously bring forth good works (Collect). 
 A. what troubles you } (a.) past sin, (/3.) abiding sinful 
 infirmity. He is our righteousness in respect of both ; 
 {a.) by His Cross, (/3.) by His Spirit, trust Him and 
 rejoice. 
 
 B. He has left His tokens, (a.) of pardon, (yS.) of 
 grace, in both the Sacraments and in Absolution. 
 Think of Him as in person in all these. 
 
 C. Plenteously, i.e. constantly, (a.) not waiting, but 
 doing the duty, be it little or great, of each mi- 
 nute as it comes, i.e. trying and praying to do so : 
 (yS.) not wishing fretfully for other circumstances, 
 but forcing my will to be His. A miracle — but 
 earnest Prayer will work it. 
 
Forgiveness not determined by our Feelings. 1 89 
 
 LETTER cm. 
 
 Forgiveness not determined by our Feelings. 
 
 My dear Child, 
 
 I do hope we shall meet at this May or June, 
 
 if not in April ; but I take pleasure in believing that 
 He helps you along, and keeps you out of any great 
 perplexity or distress. Do not allow yourself to 
 doubt of our loving Lord's forgiveness, when He tells 
 you of it, as He distinctly does, both in Daily Service 
 and in Holy Communion, you trying to come sin- 
 cerely. Yet I had rather you felt as you do, than 
 be so very happy as some are, if that happiness 
 arises from their leaving the last accounts out of 
 sight. Is not the truly filial feeling to accept the 
 punishment of one's iniquity, praying that it may be 
 in time, not in Eternity ? — a prayer, which will surely 
 be granted, if one is sincere in trying to repent. 
 And you know the assurances of forgiveness : love 
 is so far from being inconsistent with a state of 
 penance, that it is rather implied in it. 
 
 Certainly that Oxford Cause is a matter for the 
 prayer of all good Christians : and I do not know, 
 humanly speaking, that we have much more than 
 that to rely upon, but it will be something to bring 
 out the fact, that as far as Judges and Courts go 
 there is no help. If parents and guardians would 
 
1 90 Thoughts of Unbelief in Others, &c. 
 
 do their duty in refusing to let their children be 
 taught by him, the evil would cure itself in great 
 measure. 
 
 Your loving Father in Him whom we would serve, 
 J. K. 
 
 LETTER CIV. 
 
 Thoughts of Unbelief in Others not to Disturb 
 OUR Devotions. 
 
 My very dear Child, 
 
 Your troruble about Celebration is very natural, 
 but you are right in being a little jealous of its 
 interfering with things more in your own power. 
 
 Such things as you have given me a sample of, 
 had (as you say) better be set down at the time, 
 ever so briefly, and you can send them to me or 
 not, as you think it worth while. 
 
 Trouble yourself as little as you can about the 
 unbelief of others, except to pray for them, the 
 rather, as you know, at least of many, that in their 
 unconscious hearts they really believe a great deal 
 more than they seem to do, or are distinctly aware 
 of themselves. Where should we be, if we let our 
 devotions be interrupted, here because people are 
 imperfect in the doctrine of the Sacraments, and 
 there because they pray, as they do, to the Blessed 
 Virgin Mary.? We ought to be too thankful that 
 
Oversights not to be brooded over. 191 
 
 the prayers themselves sympathize with us, that pro- 
 videntially no false doctrine is inserted there. 
 
 Of course, you spread the papers you send me 
 before Him, and pray over them. 
 
 LETTER CV. 
 
 Oversights not to be brooded over. 
 
 My very dear Child in our Lord, 
 For the rest, I do not say dismiss the over- 
 sight altogether from your mind, but I most earn- 
 estly say, "Do not worry yourself about it." Let 
 it stand as one of the faults, by God's mercy, for- 
 given, and not to be dwelt upon in detail, but only 
 recollected in its general substance as a reason for 
 clinging more and more to the gracious Saviour, 
 who thus shews us to ourselves, and what we might 
 (or rather would surely) be without Him. The rest 
 when we meet. In the meantime, do not grudge 
 yourself His holy comfort. 
 
 Ever y^ very loving, 
 J.K. 
 
 LETTER CVL 
 
 Sadness in Devotion not always Wrong. 
 My very dear Child, 
 I really cannot remember exactly what special 
 place it was in George Herbert which I happened 
 
192' Sadness in Devotion not always Wrong. 
 
 to quote to you. I think the point was to shew, 
 it is not, in every sense, wrong to be sad in our 
 devotions ; and yet that seems to me so very ob- 
 vious, were it only from the Psalms, and still more 
 from the Gospels, that I cannot imagine how any one 
 could have taught the contrary. Perhaps I might 
 refer you to that called "Affliction," which begins 
 " my heart did heave ;" which seems to suggest as 
 a kind of test of the sadness, that you should give 
 it a religious turn, make ^it an exercise in taking up 
 the Cross. Then there is "Bitter and Sweet," and 
 on the other hand, "The Method," "The Glance," 
 "The Size;" any of which, in its turn, may chance 
 to help you. 
 
 My dear wife, D. G., has not had her spasm again, 
 though she suffers much from her back : but now 
 we are to have all our rooms on a ground - floor. 
 And, as yet, the climate is tolerable. It was my 
 fault your not getting a proper farewell of her : I 
 let you go, and when she asked for you, you were 
 got too far off. So lay the blame on your loving 
 
 old friend, 
 
 J.K. 
 
 As to the sparks of vanity and fretfulness, and 
 other feelings of self, which you complain of, tread 
 them out, my Child, as fast as they arise, by daily 
 confession, as in the Lord's Prayer especially, when 
 they relate to . 
 
To a Gentleman on taking Holy Orders. 193 
 
 LETTER CVII. 
 
 To A Gentleman who had Consulted him about a 
 Change of Profession, and taking Holy Orders. 
 
 Concerning your scheme, one can feel nothing 
 but joy and thankfulness that such a thought should 
 have come into your heart. It startled me, I own, 
 at first ; but on coming to ask myself why, I really 
 believe that this was only from its being so new 
 and unusual a thing, though, in a certain sense, it 
 may seem very old : for who knows but it may 
 have been put into your mind for the same kind 
 of purpose, which made so many of our forefathers, 
 of all ages and stations, enter the religious life. 
 I do not, of course, compare the two, but may it 
 not be in our day the same kind of thing in some 
 measure } This I say to myself to meet the scruple 
 you hint at, and which a great many would feel, 
 about being less useful so, than as a layman trying 
 his best. It seems to me that this would be more 
 to the purpose, if you cut short your active pro- 
 fessional Hfe for the sake of doing this ; but it would 
 not be so ; it would be something substituted for 
 miscellaneous, and not strictly professional work, and 
 in that respect would perhaps involve a good deal 
 of self-denial; of course, you will consider well be- 
 forehand, whether, applying yourself, as you would 
 
 O 
 
194 On Self- Denial, 
 
 wish to do, to your new profession, you will have 
 leisure for the many calls for time and thought, 
 which are sure to be made on you, in your retire- 
 ment. You will not like to put them by ; and I can 
 fancy them going on, on such a large scale, as to 
 interfere seriously with your pastoral work. 
 
 I only mention this for consideration ; there may 
 be nothing in it, your habits being so active. 
 
 The testimony, both as regards religion generally, 
 and faith in our own Church particularly, would, 
 as it seems to me, be the stronger in such a change, 
 than in a person's continuing a dutiful layman. 
 
 On the whole (I have been just reading over your 
 letter again), I am much inclined to say, go on and 
 prosper, and may a great blessing attend you. 
 
 LETTER CVIII. 
 
 On Self-Denial. 
 
 In the matter of self-denial, I may mention 
 
 that perhaps your studies of various kinds may give 
 you room for some exercises of the kind ; you may 
 set yourself a strict rule to break off what you are 
 about, though it be never so interesting, as the solu- 
 tion of a question in Algebra, or something very 
 critical in a novel — when the time comes for re- 
 ligious exercise. I think it was John Wesley who 
 
Against Despondency in respect to one's Prayers. 195 
 
 set himself and others such strict rules against the 
 "lust of finishing." A peaceful Lent to you, dear 
 Child, and a happy Easter. 
 
 Your loving Father in Christ, 
 J.K. 
 
 LETTER CIX. 
 
 Against Despondency in respect to one's Prayers. 
 
 It is very distressing, and I feel greatly for 
 
 you ; but you must not give way to anything like 
 despondency. Your tendency, as you well know, 
 is to do so, in your prayers, as well as in other 
 things, the imagination haunts you of its being all 
 "no good." I should like you to try this time, 
 whether you can meet the trial by earnest " practice 
 of the presence of God :" e.g. whenever and where- 
 ever you receive this, try to fix your mind on this 
 certain truth, that our Lord is watching to see how 
 you read it, and just ask him, as heartily as you 
 can, to be with you and help you when the time 
 comes for evening prayer. When that time comes, 
 open your Bible on your knees, and look earnestly 
 on some such verse as, " I am He that trieth the 
 reins and the hearts ;" or, " Do not I fill heaven and 
 earth," &c. ; then shut your eyes, and try to think 
 of Him as really present, asking His help to do so : 
 then go on and say, "O, Good Saviour, grant me 
 
196 Oil joining an Association for United Prayer. 
 
 this once to say my prayers to Thee dutifully" (or 
 some such words) ; then go on with your usual ex- 
 ercise, remembering to ask particularly for grace to 
 pray the next morning ; and when that morning 
 comes, repeat the same process, varying (if you Hke) 
 words and text, &c. : and so on for a week, and 
 send me word how it answers. For a penance, I 
 scarcely know what to recommend ; the only thing 
 which occurs to me is, whether it might be well (if 
 
 not too sharp) to confess it to or , and 
 
 make a rule to do so if it recurred : but this should 
 not be done in a hurry. I only mention, I do not 
 recommend it. But it must be good to ask our Lord 
 to teach you Himself how to do penance. Go to 
 Him unreservedly, trust Him, He will surely help 
 you. In great haste. 
 
 Your very loving Father in Xt, 
 J.K. 
 
 LETTER ex. 
 
 On joining an Association for United Prayer. 
 
 My dear Child, 
 
 I am not myself one of the Association you 
 
 speak of, nor do I know very much about it. My 
 unpunctual forgetful habits have always made me 
 shrink from engagements of that kind, as knowing 
 too well what small chance there was of my toler- 
 
On Disinclination to Prayer. 197 
 
 ably fulfilling them. In spirit, one hopes that one 
 does so, after a sort, by trying to mean what one 
 says in one's daily prayers in church or at home. 
 I am rather inclined to think that in your case the 
 engagement might have the general good effect you 
 speak of ... . But take care that what you pledge 
 yourself to shall take up very little time ; and per- 
 haps it will. help you, to connect the prayer, from 
 time to time, with the thought of some particular 
 person who may seem to need such charitable help. 
 .... As to that old difficulty, I will just mention 
 that one troubled in that way seemed very much 
 to welcome the notion of dividing and sub-dividing 
 
 her devotions — a very little, but very often 
 
 This air was recommended to us as being very 
 
 temperate and soothing, though very moist It 
 
 is a beautiful bit of coast, pleasant drives when 
 weather allows, sober and comfortable church ser- 
 vices daily, and several kind friends, who know how 
 to be cordial but not intrusive. So on the whole 
 we are very comfortable : only it is not Hursley. . . . 
 
 LETTER CXI. 
 
 On Disinclination to Prayer. 
 
 I HAVE loitered so, my dear Child, that I am 
 almost afraid this cannot reach you before Christ- 
 mas Day, and, in any case, it will be too tardy. But 
 
198 On Disinclination to Prayer. 
 
 I will say what I can now, and if more occurs, you 
 
 shall have it, D.V I think you should not be 
 
 broken-hearted when that dislike of your prayers 
 comes on. It should put you, first, on being very 
 thankful for the quiet time that has gone before, 
 in the quantity of which you seem to be more 
 favoured than very many ; secondly, on considering 
 carefully whether anything in your behaviour, in- 
 ward or outward, may have occurred, which may, in 
 part at least, cause it, tempting the devil, as it were, 
 to tempt you. (For although Scripture does not 
 say that he or any created being can read our 
 hearts, I suppose that he is keen to watch every 
 glance, tone, and movement, and to take advantage 
 of the feeling or temper which it may betoken.) 
 Thirdly, both the thanksgiving and the prayer to 
 be helped in the examination, should be direct acts 
 of devotion. It might be well to draw up forms of 
 words, never mind how simple, against the next 
 trial, or when you begin to be tried, and force your- 
 self to say them, and, as much as you can, to feel 
 that you mean them ; for you know you do so in 
 
 the bottom of your heart Then, if God gives 
 
 you the sense of thankfulness, or helps you to a 
 sight of what has interrupted you, the spell is so 
 far broken, and most likely you will be able to 
 go on and pray as usual. If not, still a sign will 
 have been made, which will be sure to bring an 
 answer sooner or later, and it will be your duty to 
 
 i 
 
On Disinclination to Prayer, 199 
 
 go on with your forms of prayer — forcing yourself, 
 in spite of any disgust you seem to feel, and help- 
 ing yourself at frequent intervals with such exclama- 
 tions as a drowning man might use, "God, forgive 
 me ;" " Father, forgive, for I know not what I am 
 doing;" "Lord, save me, I perish," &c. And pray 
 beforehand, and at the time, against the power and 
 presence of the Evil One ; for one cannot but ap- 
 prehend that he has a great deal to do with such 
 cases. It might be well, perhaps, at the first con- 
 sciousness of such a trouble, very solemnly to place 
 yourself in our Lord's presence, make the sign of 
 the Cross, and use some grave kind of exorcism, 
 such as, " In the Name of, &c., depart from me, thou 
 bad Spirit ; and do Thou, O Lord, have mercy upon 
 me." In your Christmas devotions you will, I am 
 sure, present this great and sore trouble very earn- 
 estly before your Saviour ; and you need not fear 
 to come near Him for pardon and help — did He not 
 come on purpose to break such bands .'' I hope (D.V.) 
 to think earnestly of you, .... and if anything more 
 comes into my head that seems worth writing, I will 
 be sure, please God, to write The best of Christ- 
 mas blessings be with- you, dear Child, 
 
 Ever yours, 
 J.K. 
 
200 To One on the Eve of his Ordination, 
 
 LETTER CXII. 
 
 To One on the Eve of his Ordination. 
 
 My dear 
 
 When I think on what a point in your h'fe you 
 are come to, and what a nothing I have done for 
 you, I, who was so bound, on so many accounts, 
 to do my very best, I feel as if I ought to tremble ; 
 and at last, though now at the eleventh hour, I must 
 write you one little line, with such a blessing as I 
 can send, if it be but to shew you that you are 
 not quite forgotten. 
 
 My dear , take the word of one who knows, 
 
 by sad experience, that there is no comfort for an 
 ordained person, but in really striving, night and 
 day, to keep his Ordination vows, and especially 
 that one, in which we bind ourselves to frame and 
 fashion our lives according to the doctrine of Christ : 
 i.e. really and truly to lead holy lives — to please 
 Him in thought, word, and deed. I mention this 
 so particularly, because, obvious as it is, I know that 
 in the excitement of entering on a new state of life, 
 and in laying one's self out, as a kind and honour- 
 able mind naturally will, in waiting on others, there 
 is too much danger of a person's neglecting himself, 
 though his general intentions be good. Take my 
 word for it, your first and chief business will be to 
 
A Word on the Study of the Fathers. 201 
 
 keep yourself in order: I mean, especially, your 
 senses and thoughts ; if they be duly guarded, all 
 the rest will be blessed ; if they be indulged and 
 let to run wild, you may do much good, and seem 
 exemplary, yet all will be poisoned and blighted 
 within, and if you are saved, it will be so as by fire. 
 
 God grant that this, which is a real and sad truth, 
 may take fast hold of your heart, now in the be- 
 ginning of your ministry, that you may be a true 
 penitent before you put your hand to the Ark. 
 
 Many will befriend and pray for you, were it only 
 for your dear Father'*s sake ; do not you forget to 
 befriend and pray for yourself. I send you this 
 little book, who wrote it I do not well know, but 
 some such help seems especially needful for those 
 who are to guide others. 
 
 LETTER CXIII. 
 
 A Word on the Study of the Fathers. 
 
 I MUST say one word as to your remark that it 
 is startling to find our friends go off, as they come 
 to know more of the Fathers. It would be startling, 
 if it were not accompanied, as it avowedly is, both 
 in N. and W., and I suppose in all the rest, with 
 a growing disdain of the authority of the Fathers, 
 and a substitution of the later Church for them. 
 
202 Sacramental Confession, &c. 
 
 P., who, I imagine, knows as much of the Fathers 
 as any one, finds his old faith strengthened by them, 
 because he does not shift his ground, substituting, 
 as they do, Development for Tradition. 
 
 LETTER CXIV. 
 
 Sacramental Confession not to be of Single 
 Sins only. 
 
 About Confession : do you not think there is a 
 good deal in what is commonly alleged, that the Ru- 
 bric directs Confession, not of the particular matter 
 which troubles him only, but of " his sins ?" and 
 also in the reason assigned, that one part of the cha- 
 racter is so linked on with another, that a Director 
 cannot well enjoin penance, or give advice, or indeed 
 judge about giving Absolution, without such a gene- 
 ral view of the case as that saying imports. The 
 degree of detail is left to his judgment, I conceive. 
 
 My own feeling would be, that if a person does 
 not feel up to stating his whole case, I should bid 
 him be content with the general Absolutions, apply- 
 ing them to his own case ; advising him, of course, 
 as well as I could from the partial view he gave me. 
 
 I should not call this, refusing Absolution. 
 
 I have not read what Mr. writes, but if he 
 
 thinks he has a right to pronounce that Absolution 
 upon Confession not of the man's " sinsl' but of that 
 
On the Presence of Non-Commimicants, &c. 203 
 
 one only, or more, which he selects for Confession, 
 I consider it a very dangerous mistake of the Church's 
 meaning. 
 
 LETTER CXV. 
 
 On the Presence of Non-Communicants at the 
 Holy Eucharist. 
 
 .... I CANNOT deny that I have a strong feeling 
 against the foreign custom of encouraging all sorts 
 of persons to "assist" at the Holy Eucharist, with- 
 out communicating. It seems to me open to two 
 grave objections : it cannot be without danger of 
 profaneness and irreverence to very many, and of 
 consequent dishonour to the Holy Sacrament : and 
 it has brought in and encouraged, or both, (at least 
 so I greatly suspect), a notion of a quasi-sacramental 
 virtue in such attendance, which I take to be great 
 part of the error stigmatized in our 31st Article. 
 Even in such a good book as the Imitatio Christi, 
 and still more in the Paradisus AnimcBy one finds 
 participating " in Missa vel Communione," spoken of 
 as if one brought a spiritual benefit of the same 
 order as the other. This I believe to be utterly un- 
 authorized by Scripture and Antiquity ; and I can 
 imagine it of very dangerous consequence. But 
 whatever one thought of this, the former objection 
 would still stand, and it would not do to answer that 
 the early Church allowed, or even encouraged, the 
 
204 O^^ the Presence of Non-Communicants, &c. 
 
 practice, because, even if that were granted, (I very 
 much doubt it, to say the least), the existence of 
 discipline at that time entirely alters the case. I 
 used to argue in this way with poor R. W., but 
 I could never get him to mind me. 
 
 Yet of course I cannot deny that there may be 
 any number of cases in which attendance without 
 communicating may be morally and spiritually (I 
 could not say, sacramentally) beneficial : and in de- 
 fault of discipline, I should advise any person who 
 thought that such was his own case, to consult with 
 his Spiritual Adviser, and act accordingly : the clergy- 
 man of the particular church not objecting. 
 
 I am very sorry for what you say of 's case ; 
 
 but I could expect no other, from his shewing him- 
 self so palpably one-sided as he had done before. 
 
 The wish for an infallible guide to relieve one of 
 responsibility, is plainly very natural, but as plainly 
 not intended to be granted in this world. 
 
 God be with you, dear Mr. . 
 
 Believe me, ever affec^^^ yours, 
 J. Keble. 
 
On the Real Presence in the Holy Eucharist. 205 
 
 LETTER'' CXVI. 
 
 On the Real Presence in the Holy Eucharist. 
 
 You do not, I trust, consider me or my friends 
 who are in the same case to be maintaining our 
 interpretation as the only admissible one in the 
 Church of England. We are forced in reason and 
 conscience to ask leave to hold it ourselves, as 
 seeming to us more probable than any other : but 
 we are not enforcing it as a condition of Commu- 
 nion — far otherwise. We have been put on the de- 
 fensive, and there, unless we could see that we have 
 erred, we must try to make our stand. I cannot 
 believe that you would think it a duty to expel 
 us, though it is plain that a great many do. 
 
 Now I will try and say what my beHef is : and 
 you, my dear friend, of your charity will bear with 
 me if what I say grates upon your inward ear. 
 
 1. I believe that there is One, and only One True 
 Body of the Lord Jesus, in the sense in which any 
 man's natural body is called his own : That Body, 
 namely, which He took of the Blessed Virgin Mary 
 when He came into the world. 
 
 2. That neither this Body, nor the Reasonable 
 Soul which He took to Himself at the same time, 
 nor His Manhood, consisting of both together, have, 
 
 "^ The letter, from which this is an extract, is of considerable length, 
 but the part that follows what is here given, is of a theological and 
 controversial character, unsuited to this Collection. 
 
2o6 On the Real Presence in the Holy Eucharist. 
 
 or ever had, any distinct Personality, but have sub- 
 sisted, and ever will subsist, as taken into the Person 
 of the Word, the Eternal Son of God. 
 
 3. That as the Divine Word, or Person of Christ, 
 is everywhere and always Present and Adorable ; 
 so -ever since the Incarnation, the Presence of the 
 Body of Christ, or the Presence of the Soul of 
 Christ, or of Both united, whenever and wherever 
 and however He vouchsafes to notify it, is to be 
 taken as a warrant and a call for especial Adoration 
 on the part of all His reasonable creatures, to whom 
 the knowledge of His Two Natures has been vouch- 
 safed, — Adoration to Him as to God Most High, 
 and to His Holy Manhood, not separately, but as 
 subsisting in His Divine Person. I believe, therefore, 
 
 4. That His sacrificed Body, hanging on the Cross 
 and laid in the grave, was adorable. 
 
 5. I understand the words, "This is My Body, 
 
 which is j 1^ 1 [ for you," literally takeft, as de- 
 claring His Eucharistical Body, or That which He 
 gives us as the inward part of the Sacrament, to 
 be the same Body which was sacrificed. 
 
 6. And I believe that those words ought to be 
 literally taken : Therefore, 
 
 7. I believe His Eucharistical Body, or That which 
 He gives us as the inward part of the Sacrament, 
 to be adorable. 
 
 It seems to me that the only questionable link 
 
On the Real Presence in the Holy Eucharist. 207 
 
 in this chain, for one who believes the Nicene and 
 Athanasian Creeds, is the last but one ; " Those 
 words should be taken literally." Granting all the 
 rest, it might still be questioned. May not the words 
 mean only, *' This is a figure of My Body ?" or, 
 "This is (not My Body, but) something which in 
 energy and effect will be as it were My Body?" 
 The former of these, I suppose, to be the Zuinglian 
 view, the latter the Calvinistic. Besides these two, 
 I see no way of taking the words short of the literal 
 one. But neither of these two will bear the weight 
 of the 6th Chapter of St. John, or of the sayings 
 of the ancient Church, especially in the Liturgies. 
 Therefore I fall back on the literal sense, which 
 makes it necessary for me to allow Adoration, or 
 deny the *' taking of the Manhood unto God." 
 
 The difference between the Eucharistical Presence, 
 and the Presence in holy places and assemblies, I 
 should have thought, was something like this ; that 
 in the latter, our Lord's Body (of course I speak 
 not of His Mystical Body) is present only in such 
 manner as Hooker defines, E. P., v. 55, 7^; in the 
 former, as St. Ambrose writes, " Christ is there be- 
 cause the Body of Christ is there." 
 
 ' " The Person of Christ is whole, perfect God and perfect Man, where- 
 soever, although the parts of His Manhood being finite, and His Deity 
 infinite, we cannot say that the whole of Christ is simply everywhere, as 
 we may say that His Deity is, and that His person is, by force of 
 Deity." — Hooker, Ecd. Pol., v. chap. 55, 7. 
 
2o8 On Reservation for Communion of the Sick. 
 
 LETTER CXVII. 
 
 On Reservation for Communion of the Sick. 
 
 As to your rubrical case, I must frankly own that^ 
 
 I think has the best of the argument. It is 
 
 a matter on which many times I have wished, and 
 still wish, the Rubric altered, but I cannot deny that 
 
 (right or wrong) it is as express as possible Of 
 
 course it is a privation not to receive the Holy 
 Sacrament with the rest of His people, on His own 
 great days : but it would be balanced in my mind 
 by the feeling, that in the other course I was dis- 
 obeying the Church : and it is something that, by 
 deferring the private communion to some other day 
 in the Octave, you double, as it were, your own 
 Easter Communion. 
 
 Perhaps this may help to reconcile to the 
 
 sacrifice she will have to make, should you, on re- 
 flection, come to view the matter in this way. 
 
 To me it is a great satisfaction that we have 
 been from time to time getting a little nearer to the 
 old reverential ways in this, as in many other points ; 
 as any one may see, who will compare with one 
 another the Rubric concerning the Remains in Ed- 
 ward's and Elizabeth's time with that in the present 
 Prayer-book. 
 
On Celibacy as a Counsel of Perfection. 2og 
 
 LETTER CXVIII. 
 
 On Celibacy as a Counsel of Perfection. 
 
 Your letters imply two things : first, that Scrip- 
 ture gives no encouragement to persons to devote 
 themselves to a single life, as more angelical, and 
 enabling them to wait on their Lord with less dis- 
 traction. And again, that at any rate this is not 
 a case for such preference. On the first of these 
 points I feel qtnte sure that you are under a mistake. 
 Our Lord's words (which your letters do not notice) 
 are so very express : and in all reason St. Paul's 
 must be interpreted by them : and this has been the 
 interpretation, not of one or two writers only, nor 
 of one or two generations only, but of the whole 
 Church from the beginning. I will only just men- 
 tion two writers, to whom, perhaps, we owe as much 
 deference as any — Hooker and Herbert. Hooker 
 says, " Single life is a thing more Angelical and 
 Divine:" and Herbert says, "Inasmuch as Virginity 
 is a higher state than Matrimony, and the Ministry 
 requires the best and holiest things, the Country- 
 Parson is rather unmarried than married." Both 
 these were married men, and both far enough from 
 Popery. ... 
 
210 On Vows of. Celibacy. 
 
 LETTER CXIX. 
 
 On Vows OF Celibacy. 
 
 My dear Mr. 
 
 - I am sorry to write so tardily, and more sorry to 
 be of no real use to you, as I am conscious must 
 be the case. 
 
 The poor little scrap which I send with this, con- 
 tains a few references ^ such as I have been able to 
 make out, being myself rather behindhand in engage- 
 ments of my own at present. I should suppose — 
 
 1. That there were professed Virgins — whether 
 under perpetual vows or not, does not seem clear— 
 from the beginning, as a kind of class, not order, in 
 the Church. 
 
 2. That vows of Virginity were allowed and were 
 binding. 
 
 3. Perhaps there were Sisterhoods ; much more 
 probably than not. 
 
 On the whole, celibacy was greatly encouraged, 
 but great caution required in professing it. Vows 
 once made, whether in public or in private, were 
 
 ^ The references here alluded to, are such as Mr. Keble had leisure 
 just then to set down for the consideration of his correspondent, whom 
 he evidently considered to be better acquainted with the subject than he 
 was himself They are to various passages in the early Fathers, and to 
 Canons of ancient Councils. They are not given here, as, to be of any 
 use, they must be extracted at length, and would give quite a different 
 character to the letter, from that of the rest of the collection. — Ed. 
 
On the Religious Revivals in Ireland. 21 1 
 
 binding, and the breach of them a sin. Compare 
 St. Matt. xix. 12, and by way of limitation, the prin- 
 ciple in Numbers xxx. I fancy a great deal might 
 be gathered out of St. Augustine and the Post-Ni- 
 cene writers, to shew the secondary uses of the as- 
 cetic life, for works of Charity, &c. ; but these hints, 
 such as they are, seem all to relate to its primary 
 end, as a counsel of perfection ; which doctrine all 
 those ages appear to have accepted most unre- 
 servedly. 
 
 Forgive this meagre note, and believe me always, 
 
 dear Mr. , 
 
 Truly and affectionately yours, 
 J. Keble. 
 
 What a case this is of coals to Newcastle ! 
 
 LETTER CXX. 
 
 On the Religious Revivals in Ireland. 
 
 My dear , 
 
 Perhaps the simplest way of trying to give one's 
 thoughts on this very serious matter will be to take 
 
 's favourable statement as the correct account, 
 
 and mention what occurs to one on reading it, and 
 thinking it over, in connexion with the sure Word 
 of God. 
 
 I. "God at this time is shedding His Holy Spirit 
 in a marvellous way on His people," &c. But is 
 
212 On the Religious Revivals in Ireland. 
 
 He not always doing so, since Pentecost, according 
 to our Lord's promises on the Eve of His Death, 
 and according to the whole tenor of the Gospel ? 
 Are not all Christians in a supernatural state, as 
 Israel was in the wilderness, whether they will be- 
 lieve and act on it or no ? If anything more is 
 meant than the sanctification assured to all members 
 of Christ who apply for it in earnest, then surely it 
 is a new dispensation, something over and above the 
 Gospel. And then, what would St. Paul say to it t 
 See Gal. i. 8. 
 
 It is well that the Belfast miracles are disclaimed : 
 but certainly if there is a new Pentecost, or some- 
 thing more, one might expect from God's former 
 doings that there would be new miracles to an- 
 nounce it, and so far the Belfast people are the 
 more consistent. 
 
 2. " He who is acted on receives a clear knowledge 
 that his sins are pardoned, that He is in God's near 
 favour, and is among those who are saved," &c. 
 That is, in the place of miracles we have personal 
 assurance : each one's own personal assurance that 
 he is in God's near favour is a proof to himself, and 
 the great number of persons having that feeling, is, 
 or ought to be, a proof to the world. 
 
 Now I take it for granted that the good people 
 who have this sort of conviction would be far from 
 either thinking, or teaching, that it is to supersede 
 the plain letter of the Word of God, in such places 
 
On the Religious Revivals in Ireland. 21^ 
 
 as, "If thou wilt enter into life kee/> the command- 
 ments ;" " Blessed are they that do His command- 
 ments :" "This is the love of God, that we keep His 
 commandments." "By their fruits ye shall know 
 them," and " the fruit of the Spirit is," &c. &c. 
 
 What then will they say to any person, who, try- 
 ing himself by these standards, and not having the 
 least doubt of God's love to him, or that Christ died 
 for him, and that he has received the Holy Spirit, 
 is yet in fear and trembling (though not in despair, 
 God forbid), because of his much ingratitude and 
 many sins, and would really be afraid to pray for, 
 and trust, any such personal undoubting assurance, 
 lest it should lessen his contrition, or even encourage 
 him to take liberties. Would they say that such 
 an one was outside the covenant of grace, &c. ? Yet 
 who would an unprejudiced reader say reminded 
 him most of her whom we know to have been most 
 highly favoured ? — or of him who counted not him- 
 self to have obtained, but kept saying to himself, 
 "What if I should myself be a castaway ?" In short, 
 the whole of this doctrine of the necessity of assu- 
 rance is to me not left doubtful, but contradicted, 
 by such places as Philippians ii. 12, 13; indeed, 
 by the whole Gospel, our Lord's own teaching in 
 particular : and I pray God to keep us all from it. 
 
 3. As to the effects^ — God forbid one should dis- 
 
 1 Extract from the letter on which Mr. Keble was commenting. 
 ** Young men in the full vigour of life, in enjoyment of robust health 
 
214 O^^ ^^^^ Religious Revivals in Ireland. 
 
 parage any of His Works in any way, and we know 
 that all truth and goodness is His Work : but is it 
 not begging the question, to infer that these doctrines 
 are from Him ? because they who embrace them 
 are better than they were ? Suppose I shew you 
 a Roman Catholic who has become such from being 
 a Jew, and at the same [time ?] was really converted 
 from the love of the world to the love of God, would 
 you say at once, this proves that the worship of the 
 Virgin, &c., comes from God ? No : you would say, 
 and that truly, that no one could ever tell but that 
 the improvement was owing to the grace of God 
 coming and blessing the Faith by which this person 
 received, not that particular doctrine, but the great 
 Truths of the Creed common to all Christianity. 
 This seems to me to apply to the present case. 
 Persons "not eminent for concern about the truths 
 of religion" suddenly devote themselves to good 
 things, feeling in themselves, in a way unknown to 
 
 and all abundance, fond of all manly exercises, and not remarkable 
 for any intellectual attainments or concern about the truths of religion, 
 suddenly devote themselves to the study of God's Word, and to indoc- 
 trinating others with their own convictions. They give up manly 
 amusements of which they were fond, and devote all their leisure to 
 religious proselytism. They read their Bibles with much diligence, 
 and sit up late at night, conferring with one another, enlarging on 
 their own Spiritual condition, and praying. This is the great subject 
 of their conversation and correspondence. They organize religious 
 meetings, they press home on the careless, or cold and formal, the 
 necessity of a renewal and revival. Meanwhile they are attentive to 
 their own duties and conduct. " 
 
On the Religions Revivals in Ireland. 2 1 5 
 
 them before, how true and great these things are : 
 but might not people, and do they not often, take 
 the same good turn, without its being recommended 
 by this doctrine of "personal assurance?" The re- 
 formation may be due to truths in which all Chris- 
 tians agree, not to this notion, at best newly and 
 partially revealed. 
 
 Moreover, I cannot say that the list of good fruits 
 here given is to me quite satisfactory. New con- 
 verts cannot, I think, without some spiritual im- 
 propriety and danger, "give all their leisure to re- 
 ligious proselytism." 
 
 In the only case of sudden conversion related with 
 any detail in the New Testament, though it was 
 evidently a rare and miraculous work, there was 
 deep penance, much solitude, submission (where God 
 did not directly inspire) to the advice of those who 
 were disciples before. As to the conversions at large 
 (see Acts ii., and elsewhere), plainly the persons were 
 putting themselves altogether under the direction 
 of the Apostles, and their doing so was a neces- 
 sary token that they were of God, (St. Matt. x. 40 ; 
 I St. John iv. 6). I read ^ of people keeping Church 
 vigils (Acts XX. 7 — 11), but I do not read of 
 "young men suddenly converted" sitting up late 
 at night, conferring with one another, enlarging on 
 their own spiritual condition ; nor of their organiz- 
 ing religious meetings, &c., where there were already 
 regular elders ordained by Timothy and Titus. 
 
2i6 .071 the Religious Revivals in Ireland. 
 
 Much less do I read of their disparaging watchful- 
 ness, or imagining that they do right as of course. 
 
 These are my thoughts upon what calls 
 
 the "favourable" side of his statement. As to the 
 other side, I am sorry to say that I cannot find 
 anything to abate in what he says of the certain 
 tendencies of such an opinion in respect of doctrine 
 and Church practices, and of the possibility of Satan 
 transforming himself into an Angel of light in this 
 case as in so many others '". The goodness and piety 
 of the persons concerned in such a thing, at any 
 special time, or in any special instance, is no proof 
 
 ™ The sum of their Theology is God's work in themselves. For 
 further doctrines or substantial faith, there is, I suppose, none. They 
 need neither learning nor study. What they hold is God's truth by 
 personal inspiration, through study of the Bible. *' They have an 
 unction from the Holy One, and know all things." I suppose they 
 would accept the personal application of this text, not only as for the 
 saving of their own souls, but as making them guides and teachers of 
 God's people to bring them to a knowledge of His truth. The Church, 
 with its organization and ministry, creeds, ordinances and sacraments, 
 would come before them very much as formal. The hidden life-giving 
 grace, the renewing of the soul, would be sought elsewhere, by what 
 would seem to them more direct communion with God. Until their 
 hearts have been visited with this spiritual revival, they regard them- 
 selves and others as outside the covenant of Grace. 
 
 Can it be a device of the Evil One ? He tries all ways of deceit : he 
 can transform himself into an Angel of light. May not a trial of the 
 latter days be a delusive representation of God's truth, so as to draw 
 people away from the faith once for all delivered to the saints, and by 
 sowing divisions and substituting error to check the progress of Christ's 
 Kingdom, corrupt His truth, and carry away people after a phantom ? 
 So that in truth he may be gradually substituting another Gospel for 
 that which Christ and His Apostles taught. 
 
On tJie Religious Revivals in Ireland^ 217 
 
 that the proper " fruit," i.e. the tendency of the thing, 
 is good. 
 
 Simple and loving Faith may draw the sting of 
 the mischief from a few earnest and humble souls, 
 but the question is, — What will be the effect on the 
 average sort of the sons and daughters of Adam ? 
 I say this especially with reference to one topic 
 
 which has touched on — the regarding one's 
 
 self or others as outside the Covenant of Grace, and 
 of course destitute of its privileges, before this con- 
 scious revival has taken place. People who have 
 been taught this — how will they look upon their 
 old sins t You and I know too well by the sort 
 of sayings we hear by the side of many death- 
 beds : — "Oh, Sir, he's quite happy:" and yet the 
 man's life may have been very irreligious, and the 
 signs of repentance only just such as not entirely 
 to exclude hope. They could not take it so, if they 
 had not a kind of instinct which makes them pre- 
 sume on human assurance, as if it were indeed 
 Christ's token : which is just what this doctrine 
 encourages them to do. From whom can such in- 
 stinct come } The Spirit of loving, patient obedi- 
 ence may and will save sincere Christians, leading 
 good lives, independently of this doctrine, from such 
 use of it ; yet logically it is the legitimate use, and 
 the Adversary knows it but too well. 
 
 To put the whole in two lines ; — Why is our peo- 
 ple's standard of goodness so low, but because they 
 
2 1 8 On the Religious Revivals i7i Ireland, 
 
 undervalue their Baptismal Privileges ? and this doc- 
 trine indorses that sentiment and makes it a duty. 
 It warrants in all cases what I once heard a Dis- 
 senter say in one case ; — when he was told of his 
 boy telling lies, he said very calmly, " You know, Sir, 
 all have not the same grace." If that boy grew up 
 and ever got " converted," in this sense, I should fear 
 he thought little of the lies he had told before ; he 
 would hardly say the fifty -first Psalm in the sense 
 in which the Church by the Holy Spirit has always 
 taught her penitents to say it. He could hardly go 
 on in the spirit of that verse, — "I acknowledge my 
 faults, and my sin is ever before me : " he could 
 hardly pray continually with the Church, ^' Create 
 and make in me a new and contrite heart." And 
 as for such as are unconverted, and believe them- 
 selves so, they are sure almost to draw the conclu- 
 sion, that their time being not yet come to serve 
 God, their sins do not so much signify. 
 
 But after all, the great argument is the want of 
 Scripture authority for this need of special assur- 
 ance : without that, be its effects bad or good, it 
 cannot be other than a new Gospel. And then we 
 know what to think of it. 
 
 I am ever yours very afif^^, 
 J. Keble. 
 1861. 
 
071 the Burial Office. 2 1 9 
 
 LETTER CXXI. 
 
 On the Burial Office. 
 
 Written at the request of the late Bishop of Exeter^ 
 who says in a letter, 
 
 ''It was written at my request, after an earnest con- 
 versation with him, when the matter was to be brought 
 before the House of Lords. I think you will value it, as 
 I do, most highly." 
 
 I SUPPOSE that it would be a true account of the 
 Office for the Burial of the Dead in our Prayer- 
 book, to say that it is intended to set forth the 
 mind of the Church, which is the mind of Christ, 
 in regard of those who have died, being Members 
 of His Mystical Body. To call it a Form for the 
 Burial of the Body hardly expresses its full mean- 
 ing. It is a Form surely of commending the whole 
 person, body and soul, to Almighty God ; of bid- 
 ding the departed farewell, and leaving him in his 
 Saviour's holy keeping. Accordingly, in King Ed- 
 ward's first Prayer-book, the Priest, casting earth 
 upon the corpse, was to say, *' I commend thy 
 soul to God the Father Almighty, and thy body 
 to the ground ; earth to earth," &c. And in the 
 Collect afterwards, "We commend into Thy Hands 
 of Mercy, most merciful Father, the soul of this 
 our brother departed, N. And his body we commit 
 
220 On the Burial Office. 
 
 to the earth ; beseeching Thine infinite goodness 
 . . . that . . . -both this our brother and we may be 
 found acceptable in Thy sight." And, "We give 
 Thee hearty thanks for this Thy servant, whom Thou 
 hast delivered from the miseries of this wretched 
 world, from the body of death, and all temptation ; 
 and, as we trust, hast brought his soul, which he 
 committed into Thy holy Hands, into sure consola- 
 tion and rest. Grant, we beseech Thee, that at the 
 day of judgment his soul, and all the souls of Thine 
 elect, departed out of this life, may with us, and we 
 with them, fully receive Thy Promises, and be made 
 perfect altogether." 
 
 These expressions have been some of them modi- 
 fied : but not, assuredly, with any intention of throw- 
 ing doubt on the Church's view of our present co7n' 
 munion with our brethren departed. On the con- 
 trary, it stands to reason, that if the Church for the 
 time thought it expedient to withdraw her pre- 
 scribed forms of intercession for them, she would 
 have us the more earnest and affectionate in retain- 
 ing all unobjectionable memorials of them. At any 
 rate, in neither of the Offices is any more question 
 made of their being still within the Communion of 
 Saints, than there is of the living congregation being 
 all rightly called "Brethren," and "good Christian 
 people ;" all prayed for as such, all invited to the 
 Holy Altar-Table ; — no more question than St. Paul 
 made in his denominating the Roman Christians, 
 
On the Burial Office. 221 
 
 collectively, "beloved of God, called to be Saints," 
 or the Corinthians and others, " Saints," and " sanc- 
 tified in Christ Jesus," and "faithful Brethren." So 
 much as this, is ingrained, as it were, in the very 
 texture of the whole service. You do not get rid 
 of it by altering any single expressions, such as those 
 which are sometimes objected to. If the objections 
 be allowed, we have but two alternatives : either 
 there must be no service at all, or it must be toned 
 down to the simplest acknowledgment, such as a 
 Deist might perhaps make, of God's over-ruling Pro- 
 vidence. It could not be Scriptural^ for Holy Scrip- 
 ture everywhere (as we know on the highest autho- 
 rity) implies the continued personal existence of 
 the Dead, and some communio7i between them and 
 the living. 
 
 Suppose the Service analysed in detail, with a 
 view to this account of its general drift. Why, first 
 of all, is the body brought to consecrated ground — 
 ground set apart as especially belonging to Christ 
 — and there met by one of Christ's representatives ? 
 Why, but because it is to be committed to Christ's 
 keeping, and He accepts the charge of it t He, the 
 same Christ, that had once vouchsafed to take it 
 up in His arms and bless it ; whose gifts and calling 
 are declared to be without repentance. 
 
 Next, the Church, assuming (as all along in the 
 person's lifetime) that the Baptismal blessing has not 
 beeji finally forfeited, repeats after her Lord the 
 
222 Oil the Burial Office. 
 
 words of promise depending on that assumption. 
 There is the promise of continued life as well to 
 the departed as to the surviving believer : " He that 
 believeth in Me, though he were dead, yet shall he 
 live ; and whosoever liveth and believeth in Me shall 
 never die." There is also the promise of the Resur- 
 rection of the Body, to behold with the very same 
 eyes the returning Saviour : "He shall stand at the 
 latter day upon the earth ; and though after my 
 skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall 
 .1 see God : whom I shall see for myself, and mine 
 eyes shall behold and not another." The common 
 anticipation of that sight is a far greater thing to 
 bind the survivors to the departed, than death and 
 burial and decay to separate them. 
 
 Then, following her loving Saviour in such sym- 
 pathy as He shewed by His Tears over the grave 
 of Lazarus, and by His Compassion on the Widow 
 of Nain, the Church does, in a manner, condole with 
 her departed child, and with the rest who are soon 
 to depart, on their sad helplessness and desolation 
 in the moment of Death, naturally considered ; *' We 
 brought nothing," &c. But she makes haste again, 
 as at Nain and at Bethany, to console them : " The 
 Lord gave," &c. As if she should say, " This is the 
 message which I have of Him to declare unto you, 
 * Trust thy departed ones with Me : living and dying 
 they are Mine : I do but summon them from one 
 room in My house to another.' " 
 
On the Burial Office. 223 
 
 The appointed Psalms of course take up and con- 
 tinue the melody, mingling our Lord's lesson to 
 the living with His merciful sympathies towards the 
 Dead ; putting into our mouths the strains of re- 
 signation and hope, which yesterday were the solace 
 of those who are gone ; so as to make us feel that 
 we are but going on with the service which they 
 left unfinished. And in the Lesson, all, dead and 
 living alike, are called to hear by Faith the voice 
 of the Archangel and the trump of God. It is 
 printed on the soul as with lightning, that we with- 
 out them, and they without us, cannot by any means 
 be 7nade perfect ; that our Communion, sealed by 
 Death, is inseparable for ever. 
 
 Strengthened by such a revelation, the Christian 
 mourner comes to the most trying moment of all ; 
 and a word of sympathy is provided for him again 
 from the Book of Job : that Book of the Old Testa- 
 ment, which peculiarly exhibits the compassion of 
 the Almighty towards the most humiliating and repul- 
 sive forms of human misery : " Man that is born," &c. 
 And the accompanying prayer or hymn, true to the 
 tone of all Christian Antiquity, is so worded as almost 
 to turn itself into a prayer for the Departed, as well 
 as for the survivors. At least, if such a thought 
 should occur to any one using the Prayer, it has been 
 ruled, I believe, on high authority, that he need not 
 suppress it, as undutiful to the English Church. And 
 probably he would but be praying as St. Paul might 
 
224 On the Burial Office. 
 
 by the grave of Onesiphorus. Now in whatever 
 mode or degree such intercession is allowed or allow- 
 able in the English Church, so far, plainly, the 
 Burial Office will be a Form of Communion with 
 the Dead, not simply of warning, consolation, and 
 prayer for the living. 
 
 In the solemn Proclamation, for instance, which 
 accompanies the actual interment, the " sure and 
 certain Hope," of course refers to the Article of the 
 Creed. But is it in human nature to assist in that 
 service without a secret wish (and a wish breathed 
 to God is a prayer), that so it may prove when this 
 grave comes to be opened .'* 
 
 Observe, too, the text, part of which follows as an 
 ajithem ; especially if it be rendered more exactly 
 according to the original : " Blessed are the dead 
 which die in the 'Lord from that moment:" i.e. I sup- 
 pose their blessedness begins immediately ; "yea, saith 
 the Spirit, that they may rest" (or perhaps, "in a 
 place where they shall rest") "from their labours; 
 but their works are following with them," (=" attend- 
 ing on them " T). What a deep interest are we here 
 invited to take in their present condition ! What 
 a distinct idea (in one respect) of the nature of their 
 happiness is presented ! Their labours are no more 
 — it is perfect tranquillity : but their works — the 
 fruits of their labours — follow on with them ; the 
 effects of their devout practice and holy obedience 
 abide in their hearts and in their heavenly or Para- 
 
On the Burial Office, 225 
 
 disa'ical lives. This saying, thoughtfully received, 
 may by God's mercy do much towards lessening 
 the weary interval between the bereaved and the 
 Departed. 
 
 The prayers which follow will give more entire 
 relief, now that we have warrant of God's Word for 
 believing, that as we sympathize in our measure 
 with our brother's "joy and felicity," and give thanks 
 for his deliverance out of "this sinful world," so he, 
 who, in character, is still what he was, and what 
 God's co-operating grace had made him, does in far 
 higher perfection still sympathize with us in our 
 prayers, — still cries out with the Church on Earth, 
 "How long, O Lord, Holy and True.''" — still joins 
 (according to Dante's beautiful tradition), in the 
 Lord's Prayer, only modified of course by his know- 
 ledge of things by us at present inconceivable and 
 unutterable. 
 
 In the concluding Collect all these our instinctive 
 aspirations are summed up, sealed and sanctioned, 
 in that we are ordered to present them to God in 
 express thanksgiving and prayer. "The spirits of 
 them that have departed hence in the Lord," are not 
 dead, but live with Him : "the souls of the faithful, 
 after they are delivered from the burden of the flesh," 
 are not in senseless slumber, but "in joy and felicity." 
 They are still our brethren, and we theirs : as such 
 we are to give thanks for them, and to pray with 
 them that His Kingdom may fully come : our bliss 
 
 Q 
 
226 On the Burial Office, 
 
 is theirs, and theirs is ours : as Time fails and Eter- 
 nity comes on, we are still drawing nearer to them 
 and they to us. Such is our thanksgiving for them 
 and for ourselves ; and by St. John's Revelation, we 
 know that a door has been opened in Heaven, and 
 voices have come out to signify that in all this we 
 are joining faintly but t'ruly in the services which 
 they in their separate estate are permitted to offer. 
 
 Finally ; in a lower key, as beseems frail sinners 
 yet on their trial, "we meekly beseech" our Common 
 Father to save us from forfeiting our blessed Com- 
 munion, for which we have been thanking Him, with 
 our brethren out of sight. We do not pray that it 
 may be restored, for all along, our acknowledgment 
 has been, that their departure was no interruption 
 to it ; and this very Collect, as is the way of God's 
 heavenly music, repeats the notes with which the 
 Office began : our Lord's own saying, " I am the 
 Resurrection," &c. ; and St. Paul's assurance, equi- 
 valent to that of Job, " Sorrow not as the rest who 
 have no hope ; for ... . them that sleep in Jesus shall 
 God bring with Him," i.e. " As we shall see Him, 
 so shall we also see them, with these very eyes of 
 ours." But what we do pray for is, that that most 
 assured meeting may be blessed : that when this 
 grave is opened, and we again meet him whom we 
 have laid there, it may be with mutual joy, and not 
 with grief. 
 
 And as this prayer expresses fear and trembling 
 
On the Burial Office. 227 
 
 for ourselves, so the clause in it, which speaks of the 
 Departed is purposely so framed as to express no 
 kind of assurance. I question not that before now 
 many a loving enthusiastic heart has almost felt 
 a shock of disappointment, as it was uttered, " We 
 meekly beseech Thee .... that we may rest in Him, 
 as our hope is this our brother doth." But when 
 we come to consider it, is there anywhere, even in 
 the whole Prayer-book, a clause more full -fraught 
 with Wisdom and Charity t It is indeed the key to 
 the construction of the whole Office. All along, the 
 high and joyful sayings, seeing that they are put 
 into the mouth of mortal man, who cannot read the 
 heart, are to be understood as utterances of sincere 
 Hope, not of opinion, much less of absolute cer- 
 tainty, so far as regards the individual. It is the 
 condition of our earthly being. Higher than this 
 we dare not go, even in the case of one who may 
 appear to us, and to all, to have led the most saintly 
 life : and lower than this, i.e. to the exclusion of all 
 Hope, still less, if possible, may we venture, know- 
 ing our Lord's Almightiness and Mercy, and how 
 He can act on the Spirit of Man, if so it please 
 Him, in a moment of time. Only in very extreme 
 cases indeed, where the providential signs are such 
 that no serious person can resist them — such cases as 
 could not well be provided for beforehand under any 
 system of discipline, and which therefore must be 
 met, as they arise, under episcopal correction — could 
 
•228 On the Burial Office. 
 
 the Church be warranted in declining to express any 
 the slightest hope. 
 
 The real difficulty in certain instances does not 
 arise from that saying, nor from anything else in 
 the special wording of the office, but from the fact 
 that the whole of it, both what is said and what is 
 done, from beginning to end, implies that we are 
 dealing with members of Christ's Body ; which the 
 Rubric also virtually affirms by excluding the un- 
 baptizedand excommunicate. In the total abeyance 
 of our Lord's discipline, it is impossible not to see 
 that the spirit and meaning of that Rubric, as of large 
 portions of the Bible and Prayer-book, is daily and 
 hourly disregarded, and the Burial Service, in com- 
 mon with many other services, (not of course in- 
 tentionally,) profaned. This, I conceive, especially 
 as regards the Holy Eucharist, is a topic which 
 must unavoidably insert itself into any full discus- 
 sion of what is called the Burial Question. If it 
 seem to the Governors of our Church (as is most 
 likely) unapproachable at present, I shall be thank- 
 ful to hear that things remain as they are, only 
 with a generally received understanding that all 
 equitable allowance will be made for the clergy in 
 the rare and frightful cases above alluded to. 
 
 Jan.^ 1864. 
 
On the Ritual of the Church of England. 229 
 
 LETTER CXXII. 
 
 On the Ritual of the Church of England". 
 
 My dear 
 
 I have heard something of a proposal to move 
 Convocation, in support of the Bishop of London's 
 expected effort, to obtain a Royal Commission for 
 dealing with an important portion of the Prayer- 
 book. Will you allow me to lay before you the 
 grounds, or a few of them, of the very serious 
 misgiving with which I should regard any such 
 endeavour 1 
 
 It seems to me perfectly suicidal at present for 
 the lovers of the Church to be opening the door 
 to Parliamentary interference with spiritual matters ; 
 unless, indeed, they have made up their minds that 
 the present state of things is so intolerable, that the 
 most religious course is that which will most surely 
 separate us from the State. For it is too evident 
 that the rising Liberalism of the day, being not so 
 much irreligious as anti-dogmatic, while it professes 
 to look with impartial indifference on our several 
 
 " **I hope this [letter which appeared in *the Literary Church- 
 man'] is more known and considered, especially at this time, than I fear 
 it is. It is written in such an admirable spirit, and with so much 
 clearness and cogency, that one might hope it might furnish a useful 
 guide to the clergy, and allay somewhat of the bitterness, which is so 
 much to be lamented in the manner of waging the present controversy. " 
 — Coleridge's Memoir of J. Keble,p. 527, First Edition. 
 
230 On the Ritual of 
 
 schools and sections, yet has no objection to play 
 them one against another for the purpose of putting 
 down all distinct and exclusive teaching. Why do 
 its professors laugh to scorn all that we say, do, or 
 feel — as Englishmen, not merely as Churchmen — 
 touching the abuse of the Royal Supremacy in the 
 matter of the Judicial Committee ? Because they 
 know well, that as things are, the Royal Supremacy 
 is ultimately the mind and will of the House of 
 Commons, and that mind and will being on the 
 whole averse to dogma, they, of course, uphold the 
 institution which is found to work in the same direc- 
 tion. Thus it was in the Gorham cause ; thus it 
 would have been in Archdeacon Denison's, but by 
 a providential accident ; thus, flagrantly, in the deci- 
 sions on behalf of the Essayists and of Dr. Colenso. 
 Now to these opponents of definite doctrine there 
 can be no greater encouragement than to find a set 
 of religious men, working their work, as against those 
 who are eminently men of dogma — upholders of the 
 Prayer-book, because of its primitive character. The 
 fact was not lost upon them, you may be sure, that 
 the other day, when there seemed to be a chance 
 of bringing earnest Churchmen to agree in seeking 
 redress for the great grievance touching Appeals of 
 Doctrine, the demur and difficulty and failure was 
 mainly due to those, to whom the Gorham decision 
 had been most welcome. Nor will it lightly be 
 forgotten, that the " Record " evinced as much zeal 
 
the Church of England. 231 
 
 at least, in baffling and discrediting the Bishop of 
 Capetown's work for the Church of Natal, and all 
 his synodical action, as ever it had done in warning 
 men against the rationalism, which called him out. 
 Support from that quarter to Bishop Tait's threat- 
 ened application was only what might have been 
 expected, and Erastians might reckon on it, as no 
 doubt they do, very confidently. But that you, my 
 
 dear < , and persons sympathizing with you, should 
 
 be found in co-operation with them, this is so far 
 beyond what the Innovators could reasonably have 
 looked for, that it will multiply their number perhaps 
 by tens, and their hopes and energies by thousands ; 
 and in the same proportion will discourage and con- 
 found the resistance of those, who, loving as you do 
 the Faith and the Church, regard the preservation 
 of the Prayer-book in all material points as essential 
 to the maintenance of both among us. For it will 
 go near to destroy all chance of successfully resisting 
 a Parliamentary revision of the Prayer-book. I say, 
 *'a Parliamentary revision;" for a Royal Commis- 
 sion, to be effectual, cannot end in anything else. A 
 Royal Commission, of course, must be a Government 
 measure. Now I do not suppose that the present Go- 
 vernment, as a body, any more than either or both 
 Houses of Parliament, are themselves violently dis- 
 posed to such an undertaking ; some of them, I be- 
 lieve, would deprecate it with all their hearts. But 
 should any considerable number of sober and earnest 
 
232 On the Ritual of 
 
 Churchmen unite with the Puritans and Erastians in 
 asking for it, it would be immeasurably harder for 
 such recusants to maintain their position ; and the 
 holiest things would too probably have to be laid, 
 as it were, on the table of the House of Commons, 
 how to be treated, who can say ? At any rate, 
 I would not willingly bear the least part in the 
 responsibility of such a thing. 
 
 But you will say, "It is Coftvocation which we 
 wish to address, and that with the view of obviating 
 the apprehended intrusion of Parliament." A dan- 
 gerous policy, though one were ever so sure of the 
 goodness and wisdom of the proposed enactment. 
 The Church, so calling in an alien power to inter- 
 fere with spiritual laws, will find itself by -and -by 
 like the horse in ^sop's fable, unable to shake off 
 its rider. To-day, at your request, the State new- 
 models your Ritual ; to-morrow, at the request of 
 some one else, or of its own free judgment, it will 
 be new-modelling your Creeds and Prayers. Signifi- 
 cant notice was given of this tendency even in the 
 course of a late transaction, which in some respects 
 looked like an instance of deference to Church au- 
 thority. It being suggested that the Bill for altering 
 the Form of Clerical Subscription should follow the 
 constitutional precedent of the Act of Uniformity, 
 by reciting in its Preamble, That the said Form 
 had been previously approved by Convocation ; the 
 minister who had the charge of the Bill would by 
 
the Church of England. 233 
 
 no means allow it, ^'lest it should countenance the 
 idea that the assent of Convocation was necessary ;" 
 the idea, in which we have been instructed, among 
 others, by our Master Hooker, that, assuming Church 
 and State to be co-extensive, "the Parliament of 
 England with the Convocation thereto annexed',' is 
 the sole and sufficient authority for Church legis- 
 lation among us. And more, to this same notion 
 we solemnly pledged ourselves according to law, as 
 many as have been ordained Priests, when we pro- 
 mised " so to minister the Doctrine and Discipline of 
 Christ, as this Church and Realm hath received the 
 same," not " as the Realm" alone, which Sir G. Grey's 
 argument would imply. Such a hint from those who 
 now govern ought surely to make us slow in inviting 
 State interference, and in familiarising Parliament 
 with the idea of it, except in very urgent necessity. 
 
 But are we at all sure of the wisdom and reli- 
 giousness of the measure itself, so keenly pressed 
 upon us } I will try to state the case as briefly and 
 fairly as I can. The Anglican portion of Christ's 
 Church, having to review her Canons and Formu- 
 laries, first in the sixteenth, and afterwards in the 
 seventeenth century, when she came to deal with 
 the vital doctrine of Christ, present and received, in 
 the Holy Eucharist, was providentially guided so to 
 arrange her sayings, and order her symbolical acts, 
 as to maintain, in common with all Christendom 
 for 1500 years, the reality both of the Presence and 
 
234 On the Ritual of 
 
 of the Sacrifice, while yet, in view of gross errors 
 recently prevailing, she warned us against all coarse 
 and earthly interpretations of either. 
 
 Thus, on the one hand, under the influence of 
 Queen Elizabeth, were revived some particulars in 
 the ceremonial, which had been discontinued in King 
 Edward's reign ; being such as would most dis- 
 tinctly invite acts of faith and adoration due to 
 that Holy Mystery (which ceremonies it is now pro- 
 posed to suppress) ; and, on the other hand, after 
 the Restoration, while the Church retained the 
 Rubric in question, and added here and there 
 other enactments of the same sort, she revived also 
 from King Edward's second book, the Admonition, 
 which now stands at the end of her Communion 
 Office ; thus, unequivocally and once for all, reject- 
 ing all carnal glosses, whether brought from Italy 
 or Germany ; while she accepted, in the highest 
 possible sense, the old Liturgical tenet of the Real 
 Presence. 
 
 Upon this and no other footing did the Church 
 of England providentially settle herself then ; on 
 the same and no other has she continued ever 
 since. To this every one of her Priests is impli- 
 citly pledged by the promise already quoted from 
 the Ordinal. For since the second Act of Uni- 
 formity, this Church and Realm have at no time 
 joined in any legislative Act, excepting that above 
 mentioned, relating to Subscription, in the present 
 
the Church of England. 235 
 
 year ; which, touching only the Form of Subscrip- 
 tion, not the matter subscribed to, left both doctrine 
 and ritual unaltered. So far, instead of innovating 
 on the terms of 1662, it was more like a re-enact- 
 ment of them. And yet even that step was regarded 
 by many with grave doubt, as lending a sanction to 
 unconstitutional interference. A Parliament of all 
 religions, or of none, claiming a voice on the internal 
 arrangements of one particular denomination ! 
 
 But if that was questionable, this is simply intole- 
 rable. It professes indeed to meddle with one rubric 
 only, but it involves the same prerogative over all ; 
 and that which it specifies is one of the most im- 
 portant and comprehensive, bearing directly on one 
 vital doctrine, and through that, as theologians know, 
 upon the whole creed of the Church. And, what is 
 more, those who promote the movement, openly 
 avow that their object is thus comprehensive. The 
 document bearing the respectable names of Mr. 
 Birks, Mr. Ryle, and others, and urging the change 
 of the Rubric by mere statute, grounds itself upon 
 no minor inconveniences, such as alleged unpopu- 
 larity and danger of riot here and there. They 
 quietly allege that the Bishop of London's scheme, 
 for a Declaration Act, suppressing the usages in 
 question, is necessary to prevent "the Romanistic 
 system" from extending itself, until it is at length 
 allowed unrestricted development in the Church. 
 They say in effect, "such and such religious obser- 
 
^3^ On the Ritual of 
 
 varices and doctrines, which, in our private judgment 
 are wrong and mischievous, stand, however, under 
 the direct sanction of the Law, and are in. a way 
 to become popular, and be generally received : be 
 so kind as to pass an act for putting them down." 
 Well, of course those gentlemen are free, as all are in 
 this country, to agitate for this, or any other change 
 of the law. But there are two things noticeable 
 in their mode of agitation, unlikely to recommend 
 it to calm and far-sighted Churchmen. i. That 
 the matter being so sacred, so entirely of Ecclesi- 
 astical cognizance, they surrender it by preference 
 into the hands of such a body as our House of 
 Commons. 2. That they frankly own their purpose 
 to be, not simply reformation of that one Rubric, 
 but the discomfiture at all points of a rival section 
 in the Church. 
 
 It is well, perhaps, that they have declared them- 
 selves so openly ; it may put many on their guard, 
 who might otherwise have supported them, at least 
 passively, as not liking the special usages complained 
 of, or as fearful of their being revived, when they 
 would cause disturbance. Whoever, after this their 
 plain speaking, shall join in their movement, must 
 be aware, that he is committing himself to a one- 
 sided policy, which, ultimately displacing those who 
 are called Tractarians or the like, will quite over- 
 throw the sort of equilibrium which for many years 
 has providentially subsisted among us. If any one 
 
the Church of England. 237 
 
 doubt this, let him only consider what the legal effect 
 of such a change would have been, had it taken 
 place before the prosecutions of Archdeacon Denison 
 here, and Bishop Forbes in Scotland ; with how 
 much more show of reason it might have been argued 
 that the Real Presence, as held in the rest of Chris- 
 tendom, had been unequivocally disavowed among us. 
 And if we look beyond our own country, as surely 
 we are bound to do, certain it is that such a decree, 
 not only submitted to, but promoted and solicited 
 by the Convocation of Canterbury, would effectually 
 quench, for the time at least, all the fond hopes 
 of re-union among Christians, which just now appear 
 to be dawning on us in various quarters. For un- 
 doubtedly, of all doctrines, that of the Eucharistical 
 Sacrifice is the one, on which, in the eyes both of 
 East and West, our Catholicity would appear most 
 questionable. A hair's breath more of wavering on 
 that point, would seem to them, I fear, an entire 
 forfeiture of our position. As long as we can appeal 
 to our Prayer-book, our Rubrics, and Catechisms, 
 and the dicta of our great accredited Divines, we 
 have wherewithal to confront those, who, on the 
 strength of inadequate expression in some of our 
 Formularies, and still more inadequate obedience to 
 our Rubrics, would impeach our Faith on this point. 
 Just as in regard of the other Sacrament, we indicate 
 our orthodoxy by the plain tenor of our Baptismal 
 Office, in spite of any neglect, misconstruction, or 
 
238 On the Ritual of 
 
 disparagement, with which it may be treated, in this 
 or that school or section of our Body. 
 
 In all this, as you will perceive, I take for granted : 
 First — That the usages in question, symbolize, more 
 or less directly, the Doctrines of the Real Presence 
 and Sacrifice. Secondly — That Queen Elizabeth 
 and her advisers in 1558, and the Restorers of the 
 Prayer-book in 1662 ; — i.e. the whole Church of 
 England at those dates respectively ; — are warrant 
 sufficient to allay all suspicion of any special refer- 
 ence in the said symbols to what we disown in the 
 Roman or in the Lutheran doctrine. I may add, 
 that within our own experience, the revivers of those 
 usages have been, and are, found among the most 
 earnest deprecators of Transubstantiation, and of the 
 Pope's Supremacy. 
 
 It would seem to follow upon these statements — 
 and I understand that there is a high legal autho- 
 rity for the opinion — that the onus probandi lies in 
 this matter upon the many, who practically ignore 
 or slight the usages (of which number I must con- 
 fess myself to be one), rather than upon the few 
 who have regularly maintained or recently adopted 
 them. I do indeed regret the disregard of that 
 Rubric as a real blemish in our ecclesiastical prac- 
 tice : — a contradiction to our theory, like our almost 
 entire disuse of the Discipline of Jesus Christ, our 
 obligation to which, nevertheless, we formally ac- 
 knowledge. But as in the latter case, so in this. 
 
the Church of England. 239 
 
 the time and manner of regaining the old paths 
 must, under our circumstances, be a question of 
 Equity and Charity, not of strict Law alone. I, for 
 one, rejoice whenever and wherever I see that kind 
 of revival successfully and tranquilly accomplished. 
 But the success will be more complete and the 
 satisfaction more perfect, when those who have the 
 work at heart shall have ceased to indulge them- 
 selves in invidious comparisons and scornful criticisms 
 on such among their brethren as do not yet see 
 their way to it ; and when, on certain kindred sub- 
 jects, they have learned to make candid allowance 
 for the difference between our circumstances, and 
 those with a view to which, the Primitive Canons 
 were framed. I allude particularly to the disparaging 
 tone sometimes used in speaking of mid-day Com- 
 munions, with small consideration, as it seems to me, 
 for the aged and infirm, and others who cannot 
 come early. Again, I cannot but doubt the wisdom 
 of urging all men indiscriminately to be present 
 at our Holy Mysteries : a matter left open, as far 
 as I can see, by the Prayer-book, and in ordering 
 of which it may seem most natural to abide by the 
 Spirit of the ancient Constitutions, which did not 
 willingly permit even the presence of any but Com- 
 municants, or those of whom the Clergy had reason 
 to believe that they were in a way to become such. 
 The rather, in that there appears to be some danger 
 of the idea gaining ground, which meets one so 
 
240 Oji the Ritual of the Church of England. 
 
 often in Roman Catholic books of devotion, of some 
 special, quasi - sacramental, grace, connected with 
 simply assisting devoutly at Mass, over and above 
 that promised to all earnest and faithful prayer. 
 
 On these, and all like matters, we may do well, 
 perhaps, to accept the counsel of our Church, in 
 her first Reformed Liturgy, concerning another main 
 point of Christian Discipline ^ Such as are satisfied 
 with the more modern and plainer Ritual not to be 
 offended with them that adopt the more ornate and 
 symbolical requirements of the Rubric ; those, on 
 the other hand, who find comfort and edification in 
 the ceremonies, to bear with their brethren who for 
 various reasons think best to dispense with them 
 for the present. And so, too, in regard of Commu- 
 nion after a meal, and of encouraging the presence 
 of Non-Communicants, and the like: "to follow and 
 keep the rule of Charity, and every man to be satis- 
 fied with his own conscience, not judging other 
 men's minds or consciences, whereas he hath no 
 warrant of God's word to the same." 
 
 Believe me, dear , with great respect, very 
 
 sincerely yours, 
 
 J. Keble. 
 December^ 1865. 
 
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