November 15th, 1866.
My Dear Brother In The Lord, But just time for a line, and your kind note and hearty " Come over and help us," is to hand. I had thought I might have got away this autumn from Europe, but caught in it by the storm of obloquy and reproach from the enemy, I think the Lord says, " Tarry," and so I do. The spite and hatred are good to bear, and all that Shimei and Geshem or others may say make good bitter herbs to eat with the Lamb. I am persuaded we are not of this world; and if we practically live outside of it, as did the Pentecostal Christians, the world's abuse would neither frighten nor vex us as it now oft does, some of us at least. Such hurricanes are fine tests of the barometer of self-love and self-complacency and self-competency, and I desire to use them so, and to put self down if it gets up. Of course where respectability and the good opinion of man has not been judged by any, they will find the burning flame in these arids. Of course, too, the young Christians are not to be expected to stand fire as the old ones should do; for those that are leading the attack, their evil is awful and sorrowful in the extreme, and one should have one's heart soft as to themselves, though unwavering as to the Lord's truth and against the evil. And, oh, what an honor is it to be rejected with the rejected One! to be despised and maligned with the despised and with the maligned One. Dear D- goes on well, walks humbly, and is dear to us all in the Lord. I hope the hospital studies will not be too much for him, body or soul.
In haste, but in affection unfeigned,
G. V. W.