From the first, he has met this in the spirit of Francis de
Sales, who met a similar plot,--by silence, prayer, and work, and when
urged to defend himself said "God would do it in his time." God was
the best judge how much reputation he needed to serve Him with.
In your portrait of Deronda, you speak of him as one of those rare
natures in whom a private wrong bred no bitterness. "The sense of
injury breeds, not the will to inflict injuries, but a hatred of all
injury;" and I must say, through all this conflict my brother has been
always in the spirit of Him who touched and healed the ear of Malchus
when he himself was attacked. His friends and lawyers have sometimes
been aroused and sometimes indignant with his habitual caring for
others, and his habit of vindicating and extending even to his enemies
every scrap and shred of justice that might belong to them. From first
to last of this trial, he has never for a day intermitted his regular
work. Preaching to crowded houses, preaching even in his short
vacations at watering places, carrying on his missions which have
regenerated two once wretched districts of the city, editing a paper,
and in short giving himself up to work. He cautioned his church not to
become absorbed in him and his trials, to prove their devotion by more
faithful church work and a wider charity; and never have the Plymouth
missions among the poor been so energetic and effective.
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