CHAPTER XX. CHAPTER XXI. CHAPTER XXII. CHAPTER XXIII. JOURNEY OF LIFE. CHAPTER I. THE UNIVERSAL PREVALENCE OF AFFLICTION. O Happiness! how far we flee Thine own sweet paths in search of thee. COWPER. As the light of the sun creates every variety of colour visible in the aspect of nature, so also the light of religion gives apparent rise to a countless variety of opinions in society; but seeing that there are primitive hues in the rainbow, which cannot be altered by any vapours from the earth, so also there are incontrovertible and essential doctrines emanating from Holy Scripture, which no one professing Christianity could hesitate to recognise; and these only are to be considered in the following pages. Universal opinion having long pronounced that the peculiar province, as well as the highest B privilege, of women is to give comfort in all the varied sorrows of life; it may not perhaps be considered presumptuous if one, taught in the school of deep and painful experience, should suggest for the use of others a few such reflections, sincerely felt and simply stated, as appear most to promise permanent consolation during the long and sometimes rugged journey of life, as well as at its mysterious and solemn termination. Without presuming to infringe on the sacred office of "ambassadors from God" to this rebellious and suffering world, these pages are intended merely to imitate the easy and desultory nature of a conversation beside one who in any trial may require sympathy, or to be the companion of those, who may read them in the same spirit in which they are written, when watching night after night in silence and sorrow, beside the pillow of a dying friend. On such an occasion, hand in hand with those about to leave us for ever, we seem to stand on the verge of both worlds, while every thing on this side of eternity fades for the time into its proper insignificance, and the Christian appears to die twice over, in gathering the last thoughts, and supporting the last sufferings of those whose minds have been always hitherto one with his own. Words addressed to the afflicted must be, sooner or later, applicable to all; and yet in the fami |