Year: 1878




God has made us in great measure de-
pendent one upon another. In our hours of
Joy and ecstacy how quick the thought leaps
up Of sharing our pleasures with some dear
friend for JOY is only half Joy if it comes
TO us alone. In days of steady employment
the hours are shorter, the task lighter, if
near us bides a friend. In times Of sorrow
we need their love to uphold, their words Of
kindness to cheer. God knows just how
thick the clouds are; will he blame us if we
cannot see the light of his love shining
through ? He knows how dark the abyss
where our soul gropes. He knows the Bit
terness and the pain but he knows the end
from the beginning. "His love abideth
forever" Let us not, though our way
be never so prosperous and happy, from
our calm light look down and say to
some agonizing soul, al fear the lesson
the Lord intended will be lost upon you
you should be resigned. You are asking
what you will do-WiU do-not what you
should do" Earnest worker, God never
asked us to talk so to his suffering children.
If they are resigned " he knows it is be
cause they could spare the ones taken if
they "proft by the lesson it is that they
care more for themselves than the one gone
If they ask, "What does the future hold p
God knows it is because the present pain is
greater than they can bear. AS he wept
with Mary at the tomb of Lazarus, so he
weeps with those who mourn to-day. Many
a life has gone out in darkness, because OF
adverse circumstances, that not even his love
could control SO we should not sit in judg-
ment on another. 1t is only the outward
life we see. "The hidden springs we may
not know" 1t may seem very little thing,
yet it is as utterly impossible for soul to
comprehend what it has not actually passed
through as it would be for it to create a
world; and words and the combination OF
words convey meaning only in proportion
as our experience has taught us the actual
knowledge; aud as each individual expert
ence varies, so does the meaning of the same
words vary to different listeners, even as the
impression of colors on the eye. To some
the slightest shades are perceptible; then
again we reach the other extreme, where
color makes no impression whatever. There
is always, to the happy heart, as we come
suddenly upon some new scene in nature,
an intangible, indescribable language that
speaks to us-spirit communing with spirit,
face to face it can no more be caught and
translated than can the changing, varying
lights and coors OF bubble be transferred
to canvas. An instant, and the ETHEREAL
| something is gone; yet we have read vol
umes. Was it a soul ?-the spirit form of


Just that mingling of earth and sky, light and
shade that our spirit saw and comprehended
and leaped forth to meet, only to find itself
chained to too tangible house, with eyes
that in a moment see only bit of grim
earth, tree against the sunset sky, or a
purple mountain beneath the summer stars
Still We feel our hearts glow and throb
toward the great grand, loving heart OF ma
ture; yet who that has gone down under
the bitter waters but knows that


"To every mourning heart


| The sunshine brings a smart


| The spring seems all too gay,
| The flowers are wished away,
| The birds songs in the trees


| Are subtle mockeres.


| Nature, with all her tender sympathes, is
wished away" and God himself cannot
make it otherwise; but does he therefore
| blame at is better TO trust the Lord
than to put confidence in man, for he is
good, and his mercy endureth forever" "
Though the soul of Rachel, crying for her
children, will not be comforted, yet loving
sympathetic heart can do much, not in
making the sorrow less, nothing can do that
but from the very fact of our sympathy; fol
though our tears be frozen in the heart, and
the very soul withers in an agony it has nc
power to flee from, yet the heartfelt tears oi
one true friend are more than the sound Of
empty words from the lips of a thousand


would-be comforters.


If the hands fall, do not preach of the
duty of endeavor, but rather whisper of tht


peace so soon to come. If the heart sink


pray God to give the "rest that remaineth.


You cannot know how inexpressibly swee


to them is the thought that the aching hear


will cease to number, and the tired hand


be folded restfully, and the weary eyes lool
forth "on the eternal hills where the love'
ones wait.