The national era. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1847-1860, 1859-07-07
WASHINGTON D. C, THURSDAY JULY I 1859
keep smiles for him, you must bring your tears

keep smiles for him, you must bring your tear:
to me-"
Constance was on her knees before her, with
her arms around her waist, and her ayerted face
upon her lap. I" / dare not" answered she, in
calm, hollow, hopeless voice. III began, ]
could not stop, perhaps. That relief / must
never have even after He believes that he
shall still be near me. would not grieve him
away by sigh nor thought. l have caused
him SORROW enough; will cause him no more
While he was in this world, he thought only OF
| God and me. When he is in the other | will
think only of Goa and him. God is doing his
best for ms both. l begin to understand it now.
Nothing but the matchless agony of losing
Herman for a time in this life, could have
made me fit for the ecstasy of place beside
him forever in the other. What would one not
bear for that? God is good" Arising, she
pressed Clara's head to her bosom, kissed her
forehead, with a long, loving kiss, and went
again to Herman.
She had her reward for her resignation and
composure for the sight of it did him more
good than anything else, and soon enabled him
| to give her the aid and encouragement for
which she forbore to appeal to him. Fear for
himself cast no shadow upon him. His early
morbid conscientiousness had been so super
seeded by his after active and healthy conscien-
tlousness, that, in his self-dcvotng life, he had
almost entirely lost the habit of thinking about
himself; and there is this to be said in favor
of striving to reach a standard of divine excel
lence: that if there was only one of all the
sons of men who could attain to it on earth,
still the perpetual effort and uplifting of ones
self towards it, is apt 10 keep a man from any
gross lapses, and to prevent the overgrowth of
any giant sins to stand at his last hour between
him and his Father. Nothing showed more
clearly how perfect was the love to which Her
man had attained, than that it was rapidly
casting out fear, even for the tender, loving,
and most beloved creature, whom he thought
himself about to leave alone in the hands Of
God. For her present suffering, he felt indeed
only too deeply but he was sure that it would be
well with her. And Constance made haste to
think so, too, for his sake, that she might show
him that she did.
" Don't look back to your parting with me-"
he said, "look forward to meeting me. Years
are short that are spent in good works; as
yours will be, my own. Do not think of lone
ly years They may not be in store for you ;
and sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof
You are young, and well, though worn and
weary. Husband your strength for my sake
that it may do the good have left undone, and
supply the imperfections of your lovers SER
vice but do not fear that God will want mes
sengers to summon you, through all your health
and strength when it is time for you to go. He
has many ministers as strong and sudden as
his flaming lghtnings, to open the gates of
Death, in spite of all the powers of Life, to
to your imprisoned, longing spirit If You
miss nae in the morning, say to YOURSELF He
has gone out for little WHILE hut he may be
with me again at noon Or at noon, say, He
is spending the day in our Kings Palace but
he will come for ne-perhaps this evening, or
tomorrow, and present me at that Court
Some day, when you least expect it perhaps, it
will prove true"
Constance listened with the meek and tender
serenity of a plying but unsufferug angel,
lowering over death-bed, yet with her hands
often clasped, as if in prayer She promised
all that he wished and be knew that with her
to promise was to perform. The endless week
ended at last, and he was better.
His delirium returned no more. He was
shle to take little food, and it did him good.
He could sit up for little while, without faint
ness. He was able to hear them read little
in the Bible; land though he never made any
such personal application of it to himself, they
could not but feel how full of hope and peace
it must be to him, and how literally many or
most of its promises and benedictions belonged
to him. How had he loved righteousness, and
prison how clothed the naked, fed the hun
CRY, and welcomed the stranger, and taken
him in to his charityD He was able to talk
with Edward, and to use his influence over
him-the influence of one who speaks from the
brink of the grave is so powerful-to moderate
his hatred of the uphoders of the fatal institu-
ton, which had so nearly destroyed his happi-
ness, las it has done the happiness of SO many,)
ard to endeavor to direct it only against the
institution itself. @
" Brothers all, brothers all /" he said. "Where
should we be now upon this subject, if We had
been born and bred where they were? They
have the worst of it, poor fellows Remember
the time is very near, when every soul of them
will own slaves no longer, o9n them only
among his transgressions. It's the sin of the
fathers visited upon the children. If one gen
Grafton says Of thing, Its wrong, but it can't
be helped ! what can you expect but that the
next will say of it, It's right, and it shan't be
helped Put down their wrongs, Ned, with
one hand-you can do great deal towards it,
if you will-but help them up with the other.
They're as good hearted as they are wrong
headed, many of them. God bless and unde
ceive them