Page:The life and letters of Sir John Henniker Heaton bt. (IA lifelettersofsi00port).pdf/170

 he extended to young men at the outset of their career brought much happiness into his own life; and one likes to think of the kindness that prompted him to give up a large deck cabin in a crowded ship in the Red Sea because he had heard from the ship's doctor that a poor lady was lying dangerously ill m an airless cabin next to the heat and noise of the engine-room. It was a simple act of common humanity, and yet it had occurred to no one else on board to perform it.

It is not easy to write of the views H. H. held on the deeper things of life. He did not often speak of his ideas regarding religion, but one knew that the simplest form of faith was his. He held an unquestioning belief that God was an all-loving Father from whom the worst of us will obtain a merciful hearing, and in whose presence all misunderstandings will be cleared up and all pettiness and wrong-thinking will fall away as a garment.

"If J were a clergyman I would preach Charity, Charity, Charity, every Sunday of my life until at last people understood the meaning of the word," H. H. was sometimes heard to say. His favourite hymn was "Lead, kindly light," and those glorious words held for him the consolation of the whole world. The epitome of his life's teaching might be expressed in the lines of Kipling: