Mrs. Grey did not decline the task thus sent back to her, so far as she was able to do it by writing. She was then living abroad in enfeebled health, but her passionate words touched many in England, and a movement which received the name of the Women’s League was set on foot in the usual routine way with committees and meetings. Miss Beale attended one or two of these, but does not appear to have been quite happy at them. She was necessarily hampered by the fact that the name of the College ought not to be associated with this special work. She felt also that she had not sufficiently studied the subject, nor knew enough about the organisation of societies other than educational, to be able to make suggestions before others of wide experience. On one occasion, when a difference of opinion arose about admission to the League, she felt she had not spoken as decisively as she should, and she wrote afterwards to Mrs. Grey: ‘I enclose the two circulars; but please do not question me. It seemed impertinent to speak when there were four or five Bishops’ wives present, and I doubt my judgment. I have given all my thought to other forms of organisation, and I live so much out of the world.’ And to the lady with whom she had specially differed she wrote thus:—
‘I have been trying to think how it was possible for you to misunderstand me, as I saw you did on Saturday. I thought you knew me too well to think I could wish any one to conceal their colours. I was very tired, and I see I did not make myself clear. May I try now?
‘There are two parties who call themselves Agnostics: there are those who reject the Christian moral law, and teach a truly abominable doctrine; with such one could have absolutely nothing to do; no league we could ever join could include these, for they are our enemies.
‘There are others, who hold all that Christ has taught us, who would fully accept the Christian moral law, as the one and only rule. I know some of these; their whole heart is with us; they do the work of Christ, for they go into the wilderness and find those wounded and stripped by thieves, and bring them to our inn, and bid us take care of them.
‘I am sure our Lord will one day place such on His right hand, though they may question, “Lord, when saw we Thee?” I would not separate from them, lest I should be parted from Him Whose love is certainly working in them, tho’ their “eyes are holden” that they know Him not.
‘I know still that we cannot join them, so as to do the same work, and they know it too. They gather in, they go into the highways and hedges; they leave the inner work to those who are actually disciples. One I know has just now got the care of two neglected portionless girls, and sent them to good Church schools....
‘I shall be deeply grieved, if in a crisis of such danger, we show the enemy that we are so divided that we cannot welcome as allies those who are doing Christ’s work, and acknowledging the perfection of His teaching, because we cannot understand their difficulties in accepting the doctrines we hold sacred. We shall not “water down” our teaching, nor would they wish us to do so. We shall not give up prayer, because we do not impose special rules.’
Another letter of this period (March 1886) to Mrs. Grey shows Miss Beale’s calm judgment as well as her sympathy in the difficult work of the League:—
‘ ... I am disappointed to find that some, even of mature age, seem to think it right to shut their eyes.... Of course one would be glad that such subjects as this should not be brought up without necessity, and I suppose that many of us have grown up without a notion that some of the crimes alluded to in your paper were possible. It does darken the whole world and sadden the lives of the young to know that such wickedness is possible; it may destroy their faith in God, to know it before their moral constitution has attained its full vigour, and plunge them into pessimism: one cannot help wishing to conceal these loathsome visions from those we love. I do not go with Miss Ellice Hopkins in her wish that the young should be very early warned. It seems to me that there is a parallel between that and our action in cases of bodily disease: one who looked on passively is sickened and made ill;—the nurse or surgeon bent on healing does not suffer.