“Thank you so much for bringing all us girls together. The dear old ‘G. O. P.’ deserves our gratitude for many things, but never so much as for this.” During our former “open evening,” I quoted from a letter signed “_Une de vos filles_,” and now it makes me happy and will do you good to share part of a second from the same writer. She is quite a stranger to me, in one sense, for I do not know her personally—I wish I did—and am equally ignorant as to her home and surroundings. She has had a serious illness since she wrote to—shall I not say “us”?—before, and now her second letter will do us good again, though it is too long to be quoted in its entirety. Alluding to my quotation from her former letter, she writes, “I wonder if you can imagine my mingled feelings when your words caught my eye. There was gratitude to God, love to you, astonishment, gladness, and yet shame. It is quite true that I am happy and thankful for all God’s discipline, but I am often impatient, cross, and rebellious. Though the impatience may not reach the length of words, it ought not to be in the heart. It grieves me to find how much evil there is yet to be subdued. Still, I could not help feeling glad when I read what you said, for it made me happy to know that my letter had given you pleasure; and when you called it ‘a little bit of work done for Christ,’ that gave me more joy—it was so unexpected to find it used as a message to others.”
Here I must miss words I would fain give for all to read did space allow, and take another passage. “I liked very much what you said about not being in a hurry to speak about Christ to others, but to live as a Christian and wait an opportunity to speak for Him. When in doubt as to the wisdom of speaking, I’ve asked Him to give me three things, the words, the opportunity, and the courage, and He always does, or makes me content to wait longer. It needs all three from Him, and if the first two are given, (and don’t you believe we can feel when they are?) the third is sure to come too. Sometimes the words are ready weeks and months, and then, if I’m watching, the opportunity comes. It is grand to know that Nehemiah’s God is as ready to hear and help now. There is time for the needed courage and wisdom to be sent even between the question and the answer. You don’t mind my writing again, do you? When the heart is full it must overflow, and mine was so full of love and thanks, yet of that feeling of unworthiness, that I had to tell you. You seemed a dear and well-known friend before, now you are more so than ever. By-and-by, when we remember all the way which the Lord our God has led us, it will be nice to look back to our words, one to another, as to something that helped us heavenward and made the ‘way’ a little easier, and to know that it was part of His leading all the time.”