Year: 1878

The child has foretaste of eternity
in his sense of the permanenee of all his
surroundings. He thinks of himself as
changing; he is to grow to be man
and do wonderful things, but all else is
to remain as it is. One can not advance
very far into life, however, before this
sense of security is rudely shaken. Fa-
ther or mother drop away the old home
that seemed as fixed fact as the foun-
dations of the earth itself, is broken up
and is home no longer some unexpected
event changes the whole outlook; all
the old landmarks are gone, and the
very pillars of trust swept away Then
is born in the soul the yearning to touch
some deep foundation that can not be
moved; to build some tower whose top
shall reach the heavens. The young,
the healthy, the fortunate, find life full
of interests. enjoy change, are happy in
the present, and this is WELL We should
make most of all Gods good gifts, but
SO use them that when they slip away
from our grasp they will leave behind
something better than themselves.


Did you ever think what it must be
to be shut away from all the activities
which are so much to you, to give up
the work that you love, the plans that
you have laid. the pleasures that you
enjoy; to be shut up with pain and
WEAKNESS. left alone with yourself ?
Sooner or later this experience comes to
most of US. We find ourselves with
nothing to interpose between us and our
own soul. 1t is a great thing to have
friends about one at such time, but a
still greater to be at peace with ones
self. AS we sit in that solitude, unable
to read, unable to converse with friends,
how fortunate are we if memory brings
US the record of days well spent, good
deeds done, kind words spoken. Then,
indeed, may the sick-room be the vesti-
bule of heaven, its stiffness freighted
with the peace of God.


In one of the families where l visited
recently was an old man, blind and deaf
and almost helpless. Passing through
the room where he sat, looking into the
still face, tried to picture to myself
the world in which he lived. Does he
live over again, thought /, his far away
childhood :? Does his mothers face shine
in upon the darkness in which be sits ?
Do his youthful days come back to him,
and were they innocent, unselfsh, such
as it gives him pleasure to recall Does
he remember with satisfaction the years
of his vigorous manhood ? Was he a
good husband and father, useful men,
Der of society? Did the poor find in
him helper, the wronged and oppress-
ed a friend Then is the darkness in
which he sits only apparent, not real.
All the past hefriends him and makes
populous his solitude. He has laid up
store of the things that endure; they
procure for him divine compensations,
an abundant entrance into life


1t is by means of religion religion
that is life, not a dogma-that the
soul makes provision for all sad days.
Its temple, not built with hands, but
descending from God out of heaven, is
set up in the heart of the worsnipper,
and there dwells the Comforter and the
peace of God. 1t has its holy of holies,
its sacred confessional, its absolution
from sin, and its heavenly benediction.
But this religion is the work of life
time, and not to be won in day by a
sudden conversion. We can not escape
from ourselves, and no contrition can
make the past as if it had not been.
Any day we may begin to reform, to
put better materials into our life, but
what we have already built is part Of
us and must remain.


| can conceive of no greater penalty
of SHINING than being saturated with
sin; no worse punishment of a mean
ness than being compelled to remember
it. The memory of our past is ghost
that will not down at our bidding; it is
a part of our enternity. Evil deeds cast
long shadows, but if we keep our faces
to the light. these shadows will fall be-
hind, not before us.


We are not half particular enough
about the motives and acts that we ad
NIT into our lives. We are particular
about the people we invite to our houses
and admit into our families; how is il
that we are so careless about the thoughts
that come and go in the chambers o.
the soul ? We can get rid of the unwel
come guest, we can make little space
between ourselves and the disagreeablt
member of the family; but how shall
we rid ourselves of the stain left by ar
impure thought, Of the effect of hat
that had in it the spirit of murder, from
the memory of the uuklndness tina
wrung another's heart, the indifference
that failed to sympathize with another
distress I?


Have you ever stood by the grave o
one dear to you, and been compelled t,