d change and
rest, and the letter-writers had spoken truthfully. Did he take cold
in packing and travelling? Was he overworked? Were the seeds of the
disease running riot in his system during that early fall? Were they
helped along any by that letter? Who shall tell? We know this much:
he took to his bed, and he was no longer pale or quiet; the flush of
fever and the unrest of delirium were upon him. He rolled and tossed
and muttered; and it was always of his work, of his cares, of his
responsibilities--never of _rest_; and yet rest was coming to him on
swift wing. The Lord of the vineyard knoweth when his reapers have
need of soft, cool days of glory, to follow weeks of service.
Rapidly they come to him; but the river must be crossed first, and
first there must be a severing of earth-ties, a breaking of cords
stronger than life. Never mind, the King knows about this, too; and
it must be, and _is_, and _shall be_, well. The rest came--all that
we on this side knew of it--a pulseless heart, a shrouded form, lips
of ice, forehead of snow, hush and silence. Just the other side of
the filmy veil which we call "Time," what was the appearance of it
there? He knows, and has known these many years. And, thank God, the
wife of his love knows now, but we do not. "Eye hath not seen, nor
ear heard, neither hath entered into the heart, the things that are
prepared" for them.

What said the elegant modern church, that during the process of this
change was undergoing a candidating siege? Why, they met in decorous
assemblage, and passed resolutions, and had them printed, and draped
the pulpit in mourning, and sent a delegation of the church to the
funeral, with knots of the finest _crepe_ streaming from their
shoulders; and, on the Sabbath following, the quartette choir sang
the funeral dirge in such a way as to melt almost the entire audience
to tears. And then they went home, some of them, and remarked that
the candidate who occupied their pulpit that morning had an
exceedingly awkward way of managing his handkerchief, and didn't give
out notices well. They didn't believe he would "draw" the "young
people."

Now, what of all this story of one Sabbath day? Is it overdrawn? Do
you say there are no such people as have been described? I beg your
pardon, there _are_. It is _not_ a story; it is a truthful repetition
of Sabbath conversations. Would that such Sabbath desecrations were
rare. They are not. You will remember that out of a co