The home journal. (Winchester, Tenn.) 1858-188?, 1858-10-21

worlds goods to exempt from anxiety
for the future, and yet not enough to
burden their possessor--what could
she ask for more! She felt that she
had need of nothing more and fully
enjoyed the blessings sued upon her
pathway, rendering to him who had
so ordered her ways in mercy, the
homage of grateful heart.
Ten years had rolled away--ten
such bIisslul years when the great
rt.shadow, that had walked side
by side with her since she became a
wife, wrapped her in its almost crush
ing folds, Madeleine had prayed
God, many times in the silence Other
chamber, that when it came, when the
light of her life must be quenched in
darkness s-whcn the final summons,
she had so long dreaded, should beck
on from her side her only earthly coun.
scllor, friend and guide, it might not
come to him when absent from her.
She had agonized, as it were before
the Father Of mercies, to grant her
this petition, that she might bend her
ear for his last faint words, catch the
last departing sigh, and close the dear
eyes that never looked on her but in
kindness and affection.
llerprayer was granted. He wa
kCncd her one night with a catching
of his breath and struggle to articu-
late her name. With difficulty he re-
piled to her exclamation Of dismay
and sudden terror. "Don't be alarm
ed dearest, feel so bad Her arm
was round him TO raise and support
him--her lips was pressed to the no.
bic brow and when she raised her
head she felt the hand she had seized
uncIasp its hold on hers, II slight rat
tie in the throat, a trcmor of the whole
frame, and all was over.
Alone, in the silent night, with her
dead husband, she felt no terror bat
the nood-gates Of her grieis were
opened, and all the past came throng
Ing up with its dire, dread rcco'cc.
tions, to rcnd and torture her suffer
ing soul. Brothcrcss. Sislcrlcss. or
phanrd and WidoWcd-WhoSc arm
should now support, whose counsel
guide, whose sympathy sustain and
Soothe! But her love for the honorrd
and most sincerely beloved object
lying cold and stin b fore her, inscn,
Sihlc for the first timc 10 her carcsscs,
dul ttIilIlIS itI VIC III ST tllllt ~ tCui
ear 10 hcr voice. brought with it, its
own elements Of power to sustain and
comfort, applied to her wounded heart
its own healing balm. She had SO
long yielded even her inmost thoughts
to his control, her conduct had been
so long regulated by such entire desire
to please him, to be worthy of his at
icCtion, that such motives came TO her
AID. even now. unaWarCS. and enabled
her, after the first outburst Of sorrow
with u calm and quiet manner to en-
durc all the agony of this great and
almost crushing grief. His wife, the
mother of his children, must not prove
unworthy OF the name she bore
This wasth feeling that helped to
bear her up, and yet she was not for
gctluI ola Higher power than mans
to which she might apply for aid. 1t
was terrible struggle TO kiss the hand
that took from her her only earthly
stay, her only companion, her only
friend, 1t was not that poverty was
before her. TO gnaw away her heart
strings one by one in the struggle to
supply food and clothing for her chill
dren, but it was her loneliness, her ut
ter desoIation Of sp irit, she so deeply
bcwailcd.
But amind governed by right prin-
ciplcG will soon turn away from una
vailng sorrow. and find its best re.
source against Il hopeless grief in ap-
plying itself with more tnan usual
care to the discharge Of the duties
which remain to be performed. And
such one was Madclciuc's. Every
thing about her household soon moved
on in its wanted order. Left by the
will of her husband sole controller o.
his property, and guardian of his chill
drcn, she resolved she would never
prove unworthy OF such unbounded
confidence. And so she made it con.
stant study to know how to perform
all that these things should require o
her in such way to meet the ap
proval of her own conscience, and
secure the appreciation Of him, whose
praise had ever been of more valu,
to her than that of any other human
being, if as some believed, his spirit
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