Year: 1862

tered-and oh. how solemn it Away
sounds, ont in the fields in the opel
airi-we all turned away, and in yer,
heaviness OF heart directed our step
homeward. The gate was closed ant
locked. and now there were none in th'
little village cemetery but the dead. 1
Vas the third time we had been ther'
in four weeks, and each time we haC
come to hide away from mortal sight I
loved one from the same household
There were three graves side by side
new graves-and in them three sisters
The footprints of weeping friends wert
still fresh around the first when thost
same friends came back to look into the
dark. cold depths of another-and ther
another.


Matte, as she had been the first o.
the three to come into the world, was
the first to go out Of it. How could
we be willing to give her up, whose
life had been so beautiful? Was she
not more needed on earth than in heav-
en-? So we thought. The world is SC
dark; the widowed mothers bone
would be so dark. Still we could say,
"Thy will be donep But it was hard
to say it, very hard. Did it not cost
even the blessed One struggle? And
yet, because he had said it, and because
Martha herself had said it, and said it
SO lovingly, we too could repeat the
holy, faith-inspiring words in faltering
accents, looking hesvenward through
our tears, Thy will be done!


am sure now that the Christians
dying is beautiful-mournful, it is true,
in some sense, and yet it is beautiful
"What rupture crowns the death scene, when


ths soul


Does but return to glory to its Godl"


1t was so in this instance. Wecould
see that Matte, when her breathing
grew fainter and fainter, and her pulse
felt like thread drawn under the fin
gers, and her brow was so cold and
clammy, had caught sight of some
blue line of the shore in the heavenly
distance, and that she heard the sweet,
enchanting strains of angel music, and
that her very soul, fluttering in impa-
tient joyfulness, was straining its ut
most powers to get free and 60 out into
the pure air and bright sunshine OF the
immortal day. We could see that these
things were so, and seeing. we felt that
earth and heaven were not so far apart
as they seemed TO be at other times
This was part of the good that her dy-
ing brought u.s. And there was other
good, as every follower Of the blessed
Jesus knows well enough-other good
that the poor human language can new
er describe; insomuch that when We
gave her back to God in all her youth
and beauty and loveliness and bright
ness and promise, we could say, Thy
will be donei


We all know how it is when a strick
en- family return from the burial; that
there is painful sense Of loneliness. Of
vacancy. Of something or somebody
wanting; that the parlor, the dining
room, the family sitting room-all the
apartments about the dear old home
appear silent and cheerless, and that
this state Of things will continue for
weeks or even months. Yes. even for
months, when the surviving members OF
the family gather around the evening
fire, the memory Of the dead is almost
the first exercise Of thought. And each,
too, understands the others. Each one
knows well enough what the others are
thinking about. And though there may
be talking, and smiling, and even laugh.
ing, vet each one knows, that it is only
an effort to make the others forget. for
the time being, what the talker himself
cannot forget-that the family circle is
bro6eni


l knew it would be so in this house
even though there should be no further
bereavements. The brothers and sis
tiers would gather around the Cheerful
hearthstone, and in noble forgetfulnesi
of their own sorrow. strive to diver
their mothers thoughts from the pain
ful subject that they themselves coult
not help thinking about. And here i
the difficulty, after all-Martha is GONE
We may talk hopefully, and hav'
bright plans and purposes and promi
ses, but Martha is GONE, and not eveI
the consultations of religion can max
Us feel that it is otherwise.


And yet there we're two sisters re
maining-two beautiful, joyous girls
whose fair cheeks had felt the sof
breatbings ofthirteen and fifteen springs
Would they not, in some measure, I'll
the place that death had made vacant
They could employ their young hand
in preserving the airy neatness Of home
in feeding the birds, and tending tn
flowers, and helping their mother, ant
doing for their brothers the THOUSAND
little acts of kindness that Martha ha'
done; and thus, in some measure, re
move the pain Of her absence, and re
store the wonted joyfulness of home
And then, too, they could start up tn
old songs again. True, at first Their
would be a broken tremulousness o
voice at the thought that the chief so
phrano was gone, but their song woul'
be all the more gentle for that, and th'
clear notes of the piano, mingling il
sweet undertone, would fll all tn,
rooms with glad, soothing melody. Al
in the days Of other years. This wa
now the mothers hope: and devoutly