A CONSECRATED LIFE.
[To THE EDITOR OF THE " SPECTATOR.'1
Sia,—May I thank you for your kindly notice of "The Memoir of Harriet Monsell," and will you at the same time permit me to make a brief allusion to one remark in that review which opens out a wide subject, and on which turns the whole difference between the opinions I had expressed and your own?
You say, in reference to" A Consecrated Life,"—" Where lies the necessity for imposing the burden of a vow ?" But what if to a Sister a vow is no "burden," but a relief and a support ? If it were felt to be a burden, there would be sufficient proof at once that there was no real disposition or desire for such a life. There is an impulse in our nature leading us to desire the out- ward expression of deep convictions, to give palpable form to an act of devotion. And this is the ground on which those who dedicate their lives to the special service of God desire to take vows. If it failed to be the free expression of a resolved purpose it would be something very different from what was contem- plated in the passage to which you referred.—I am, Sir, &c.,
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