Volume I Part 40 (1/2)

V

How, if at all, it may be asked, did she adjust her innermost beliefs to the current creeds of the day? I shall not attempt to define what she did not define; but a few remarks may be made Was she Unitarian or Trinitarian? I think that we may answer as ill She was ”very sure of God,” but very chary, as we have seen, of atte to define His essence Sometimes she seemed to think of God in a Unitarian sense; but there is a passage in the _Suggestions_ in which she philosophizes the Trinity ”The Perfect exists in three relations to other existence: (1) As the Creator of all other existence, of its purpose, and of theits purpose This is the Father (2) As partaken in these other modes of existence This is the Son (3) As manifested to these other ain, was she ”Protestant” or ”Catholic”? She used language at different tiht be interpreted in either direction; but she used it at all ti of her own Here is a letter which philosophizes an ”evangelical” doctrine:--

(_Miss Nightingale to her Father_) HAMPSTEAD, _Sept_ 26 [1863]

DEAR PAPA--I am sure that if any one finds nourishment in Renan or in any book I should be very sorry to ”depreciate” it There is not so ious books, that we can afford to do so I always think of Mad Mohl's, ”I don't want any book-writer to chew my food for ious books What I dislike in Renan is not that it is fine writing, but that it is _all_ fine writing His Christ is the hero of a novel; he himself, a successful novel-writer I am revolted by such expressions as _charion du pur sentiion of sentiment,” I really don't knohat he ion of love,” I agree and do not agree We _ion of loveof God's character to be so loveable--of God's ”providence,” which is the self-sa and loveable On the other hand I go along with Christ, not with Renan's Christ, far more than most Christians do

I do think that ”Christ on the Cross” is the highest expression hitherto of God--not in the vulgaron the Cross _every day_ in _every one_ of us; the wholeof God's ”providence,” _ie_ His laws, is the Cross

When Christ preaches the Cross, when allwith the as what I mean when I say that God educates the world by His laws, _ie_ _by sin_--that man must create mankind--that all this _evil_, _ie_ the Cross, is the proof of God's goodness, is the _only_ way by which God could work out man's salvation without a contradiction You say, but there is too h (not a rain more than is _necessary_) to teach man by his own mistakes,--by his _sins_, if you will--to show man the way to _perfection in eternity_--to perfection which is the only happiness

There were many points, on the other hand, at which Roly appealed to her So es sometimes ironical, sometimes serious--that at one of the latter places Mr Jowett's note in the in is: ”The enemy will say, This book is written by an Infidel who has been a Papist But _I_ wish that there werethe true relation of superstitious ideas to ion” I can well believe that her friend Cardinal Manning, for whoed a battle-royal against hiarded her as a likely convert; but towards acceptance of Ro that she was at any time inclined Yet the spirit of Catholic saintliness--and especially that of the saints whose contemplative piety was joined to active benevolence--appealed strongly to her She read books of Catholic devotion constantly, and reatly attracted by the writings of the Port Royalists, on which subject there is a long correspondence with her father She adiven, and was to --to the Bermondsey Nuns, especially, and to the Mother and Sisters of the Trinita de'

Monti--towards purity of heart and the doing of everything froain, to be ”business-like” ith Miss Nightingale alhest commendation; and in this character also the Roman Church appealed to her Its acceptance of doctrines in all their logical conclusions seeanization was business-like; its recognition of women-workers was business-like

[360] In 1867 he proposed to close the hospital which her friends the Nuns of Bermondsey had opened in Great Orale” She persuaded Lady Herbert to intercede for the nuns, but Manning would not yield further than to refer the case to Roanized a party at Rome on the side of the nuns There is an extensive correspondence a in this ale was broad-minded in her attitude towards creeds and churches For her own part she believed that religious truth was positive, and could be discovered; but in her outlook upon the beliefs of others, she judged them by their fruits She asked not so ious forht spirit within theiosity, if it was centred on self, she had no sy of one's own salvation than in thinking of one's own dinner? I have always felt that the soldier who gives his life for so a day--whether he call it his Queen or his Country or his Colours--is higher in the scale than the Saints or the Faquirs or the Evangelicals who (soion is to secure one's own salvation”

Within the liood deal hat Mrs Carlyle said to John Sterling: ”I confess that I care al about _what_ a man believes in comparison with _how_ he believes If his belief be correct, it is much the better for hiround on which I love and trust him”[361]

[361] _Letters and Memorials of Jane Welsh Carlyle_, 1883, vol i

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There is a school of philosophy, much current in our day, which carries this point of view further Theof a conception, it tells us, expresses itself in practical consequences, if the conception be true; religious truth is relative to the individual; the way to test a religion is to live it If the philosophy of the pragious creed can claihtingale lived and ious belief fro to end,” and had ”learnt to know God” in the years i her active work in the world Her belief helped to sustain her natural courage amidst the horrors of Scutari, and the fever and the cold of Balaclava It inspired the life of arduous labour to which she devoted herself on returning fro efforts for the health of the Army and the people, for the refor Does so the words of M Mohl which I have quoted above, doubt whether any vital force can have proceeded froest that to herself as to others she was offering a stone instead of bread? It was not so To her the religion which she found was as the body and blood of the Most High It is iious fervour, of passages such as these froht_ in which she describes ”Communion with God”:--

If it is said ”we cannot love a _law_,”--the mode in which God reveals Hiinates, which is manifested in, the law It is not the material presence only that we love in our fellow-creatures It is the spirit, which bespeaks the material presence, that we love Shall we then not love the spirit of all that is loveable, which _all_ material presence bespeaks to us? How penetrated enuinely, had the conception, who felt, who thought, whose iinations helped them to conceive, that the Divine Verity manifests itself in the human, partakes itself, becomes one with the hu with the hu ”verily and indeed taken and received” by the human! We will seek continually (and stimulate mankind to seek with us) to prepare the eye and the ear of the great hu it _shall_ understand ”Whether we eat or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God” To do it ”to the glory of God”

must be to fulfil the Lord's purpose That purpose isThe history of mankind should be, _will_ be one day, the history of ht nature What does ignorant finite , yet how subli heart, as co countenance, co of such difference, but nothing, nothing compared hat is within, where no eye can read What then, poor sufferer, dost thou want? I want a wise and loving counsellor, whose love and wisdom should coladly, but I want direction hoork I would suffer, oh! hoillingly, but for a purpose

God always speaks plain in His laws--His everlasting voice My poor child, He says, dost thou coive thee food which thou couldst not digest? My son, I ah thou art not always one with hted by sin, my child, it is thy Father's spirit

Whence cohted, but that it is incipient love, and truth, and wisdom, tortured or suppressed? But Law (that is, the will of the Perfect) is noithout beginning, and ever shall be, as the induce which is God within man, shall become man one with God

First find the Infinite, said a wise man, then name Him as thou wilt

”It is not hard to know God,” said Joubert, ”provided one will not force oneself to define Him” And another, of old time, said:--

Lead Thou me, God, Law, Reason, Duty, Life!

All names for Thee alike are vain and hollow[362]

[362] Cleanthes, freely rendered by J A Syestions for Thought_ called ”Cassandra” It is the story of a girl's iraphical, and I have quoted from it several times in the course of this work It ends with the death of the heroine ”Let neither narave, still less the expression of regret or of admiration; but simply the words, _I believe in God_”

CHAPTER VI

MISS NIGHTINGALE AT HOME

(1858-1861)