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Then woke

Stirrings of deep Divinity within,

And, like the flickerings of a smouldering flame,
Yearnings of a hereafter. Thou it was,

When the world's din and passion's voice was still,
Calling thy wanderer home. - Williams.

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What shall I do to gain eternal life?

Discharge aright

The simple dues with which each day is rife,
Yea, with thy might.

Ere perfect scheme of action thou devise,
Thy life is fled.

But he who ever acts as conscience cries,
Shall live though dead.· Schiller.

He has gone before us. The spirit within him that used to talk to us, to look at us with kind eyes, has left the body, and is no longer visible. Blessings on his memory! May he also, if he behold us, bless us! for we need his blessing. Greatly we need it, with these hopeless yearnings for his presence; these fears that we did not do all we might have done for him; this almost shame at feeling that we are warm and living, while he is cold and motionless; at home and housed, while he is away.

But these are our thoughts, not his. His body is not his spirit; and perhaps his spirit looks upon us this moment, and sees how we loved him, and how we suffer. He knows the struggles that we have still to endure; he looks on his mortal friends with immortal kindness; on these dear relations, on these beloved children. Let us be calm in the hope of rejoining him; let us become patient in it; let us rejoice in it. Let us cherish the thoughts he would desire; let us take up

again the duties he would wish us, now and ever, to perform.

O friends that remain! ye will keep as much of me as ye are able; kind thoughts of me; recollections of our mutual joys and sufferings; recollection of the pardon we gave to each other. You will love all whom I have loved, and me in them.

Surely love, and hope, and joy are not confined to us. Surely there are myriads of beings inhabiting the invisible world. Some may have realized their heaven, and are resting. Some may be carrying it further. Some may be helping us, just as we help the bee, or the wounded bird; spirits of dear friends, who still pity our tears, rejoice in our smiles, and whisper into our hearts a belief that they are present.

The heart bids us believe it possible; and oh! whatever good thing the heart bids us believe, let us do our best to believe it; for God has put it there, and its goodness is His warrant for its being cherished. — Leigh Hunt.

The immortality of the soul is a truth which is not bright except to the pure in heart.

Through making us hope for immortality, God has made us a promise of it. If faith is the evidence of things not seen, hope is the certainty of them. Hope prophesies to us. Hope makes us free of the universe. I am a pilgrim, and life is what I have to travel over; and oh! I have many dangers and many wants; but hope is my all in all, nearly. Hope is light, and courage, and a staff; and when I sit down, it is a friend to talk with; and when I suffer, it is an angel to stand by and

strengthen me; and when I have wandered away in sin, and repented and returned to the right path, then from hope I get my peace of mind again, and newness of virtue. The morrow of the world is a purpose in the mind of God, and so is the great to-morrow of my soul. And I can be well contented to have my life subside on the bosom of him in whom the day died away this evening so beautifully, and in whom it will begin again in the morning so grandly.

O, if there is a heaven for our faith, there are friends in it for our love. Love is greater than faith.

There are some great souls, the very thought of whom is an increase of faith.

A truthful heart never breaks; it strengthens to the last. And to the last we will trust. God is almighty; then all things are his mightiness, and all life is his will. ** * * And to us joys shall be the will of God, and so shall pains and sorrows be. Providence is in all things, so that whatever we do not understand shall be to us nothing to be frightened about, but it shall be mystery and the will of God.

I know that darkness is good for me, as well as light, and that it is good for me not to know some things, as well as to know others; and for myself, I can pray to God out of my whole heart, and with the strength of my understanding, "Thy will be done on earth, as it is in heaven"; else there is not a flower, nor an insect, nor a bird, nor an animal, nor a day, nor a man, but might make me question myself to madness.- William Mountford.

Know of a truth that only the Time-shadows have

perished, or are perishable; that the real being of whatever was, and whatever is, and whatever will be, is even now and forever.

Can the earth, which is but dead, and a vision, resist Spirits, which have reality, and are alive? On the hardest adamant some footprint of us is stamped in. The last rear of the host will read traces of the earliest van. But whence? O Heaven, whither? Sense knows not; faith knows not; only that it is through mystery into mystery, from God to God. - Thomas Carlyle.

Of what import this vacant sky, these puffing elements, these insignificant lives, full of selfish loves, and quarrels, and ennui? Every thing is prospective, and man is to live hereafter. That the world is for his education is

the only sane solution of the enigma. All the comfort I have found, teaches me to confide that I shall not have less in times and places that I do not yet know. All I have seen teaches me to trust the Creator for all I have not seen. Whatever it be which the great Providence prepares for us, it must be something large and generous, and in the great style of his works.

The love that will be annihilated sooner than be treacherous has already made death impossible, and affirms itself no mortal, but a native of the deeps of absolute and inextinguishable being.-R. W. Emer

son.

'Tis only when they spring to heaven that angels
Reveal themselves to you; they sit all day
Beside you; and lie down at night by you,

Who care not for their presence

muse or sleep —

And all at once they leave you and you know them!

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Dear Festus, lay me,

When I shall die, within some narrow grave,
Not by itself for that would be too proud-
But where such graves are thickest: let it look
Nowise distinguished from the hillocks round,
So that the peasant at his brother's bed
May tread upon my own and know it not;
And we shall all be equal at the last,
Or classed according to life's natural ranks,
Fathers, sons, brothers, friends
Nor gifted.

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not rich, nor wise,

In man's self arise

August anticipations, symbols, types

Of a dim splendor ever on before,

In that eternal circle run by life:

For men begin to pass their nature's bound,
And find new hopes and cares which fast supplant
Their proper joys and griefs; and outgrow all

The narrow creeds of right and wrong, which fade
Before the unmeasured thirst for good; while peace
Rises within them ever more and more.

If I stoop

Into a dark, tremendous sea of cloud,

It is but for a time; I press God's lamp

Close to my breast—its splendor, soon or late,
Will pierce the gloom: I shall emerge one day!

Robert Browning.

The life of the Spirit is the evidence [of immortality]. Heaven begun is the living proof that makes the heaven to come credible. "Christ in you is the hope of glory." It is the eagle eye of faith which penetrates the grave, and sees far into the tranquil things of death. He alone can believe in immortality who feels the resurrection in him already.-F. W. Robertson.

We live in deeds, not years; in thoughts, not breath;

In feelings, not in figures on a dial.

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