Untitled - Electric Scotland

456 LIFE OF ARCHBISHOP TAIT [CH. xvi.
with the inquiry contained in this letter. The urgency of the
cause, and the importance of the issue, which may greatly depend
upon your Lordship s kind reply, are my only excuse.
"A very near and dear relative of ours, a young lady,
unmarried, extremely attractive in every way, and possessed of
considerable property in her own right, is very strongly minded
to enter the St. George s Mission in London, situate within your
Lordship s diocese, as a Postulant, with a pre-determination, if
the life is what she hopes to find it, to accept the Perpetual Vows
which are there administered to ladies disposed to undertake
them. She is considerably confirmed in that intention by a
belief that the system of Sisterhoods, as practised and maintained
in that Institution, is approved and countenanced by your Lord
ship. We are not aware of her precise warrant for this belief, but
a search, so far as one is open to us, in your Lordship s published
opinions, has failed to discover any valid reason why such an
opinion should be attributed to your Lordship. I therefore take
the liberty to ask if your Lordship will be so very good as to
inform me if my sister s belief in your opinion is well founded,
since I know that your Lordship s reply, whatever it may be, will
have the very greatest weight with her.
" No person whatever, I apprehend, could take any exception
to the great work which is undoubtedly being carried on by the
St. George s Mission we all respect and admire that ;
it is only
to the system of administering perpetual vows, and thereby form
ing exclusive Sisterhoods in connection with the Church of
England, that we object so strongly, and from which we are so
painfully striving to save our sister. Still we would not take upon
ourselves to say that we are perfectly right, and our sister entirely
wrong. God forbid that we should blindly and unknowingly
strive against Him we ; only desire to find the truth of the matter,
and a knowledge of your Lordship s belief respecting it will
greatly aid us in that behalf.
"
If I might be so bold as to venture still further, I would ask
another and almost greater favour. If your Lordship does disap
prove of the system of perpetual Sisterhoods, and would write a
word or two tending to dissuade ladies from entering them, I
believe that it would influence my sister more perhaps than any
thing else in the world certainly more than the words of any
other man in the world so deep is her veneration for your Lord-