If Christian perfection be necessary to salvation, I shall never be saved; my heart is a very hotbed for sinful thoughts, and when I decide on an action I scarcely remember to look to my Redeemer for direction.

I know not how to pray; I cannot bend my life to the grand end of doing good; I go on constantly seeking my own pleasure, pursuing the gratification of my own desires.
I forget God, and will not God forget me?
And, meantime, I know the greatness of Jehovah; I acknowledge the perfection of His word; I adore the purity of the Christian faith; my theory is right, my practice horribly wrong." The Christmas holidays came, and she and Anne returned to the parsonage, and to that happy home circle in which alone their natures expanded; amongst all other people they shrivelled up more or less.

Indeed, there were only one or two strangers who could be admitted among the sisters without producing the same result.

Emily and Anne were bound up in their lives and interests like twins.

The former from reserve, the latter from timidity, avoided all friendships and intimacies beyond their family.
Emily was impervious to influence; she never came in contact with public opinion, and her own decision of what was right and fitting was a law for her conduct and appearance, with which she allowed no one to interfere.
Her love was poured out on Anne, as Charlotte's was on her.