s prepared,
at any time, to say that it was not better for the dear friend, and
better for ourselves, that he should go, rather than stay;--better for
the infant to die with flowers upon its breast, than to live and have
thorns in its heart;--better to kiss the innocent lips that are still
and cold, than to see the living lips that are scorched with guilty
passion;--better to take our last look of a face while it is pleasant
to remember--serene with thought, and faith, and many charities--than
to see it toss in prolonged agony, and grow hideous with the wreck of
intellect? And, as spiritual beings, placed here not to be gratified,
but to be trained, surely we know that often it is the drawing up of
these earthly ties that draws up our souls; that a great bereavement
breaks the crust of our mere animal consciousness, and inaugurates a
spiritual faith; and we are baptized into eternal life through the cloud
and the shadow of death.

But, once more, I remark, that there are those who may say, "We do not
ask for any permanence in the conditions of life; we do not ask that
even its dearest relationships should be retained; but give, O! give
us ever those highest brightest moods of faith and of truth, which
constitute the glory of religion, and lift us above the conflict and
the sin of the world!" No truly religious mind can fail to perceive the
gravitation of its thoughts and desires, and the contrast between its
usual level and its best moments of contemplation and prayer. And it.
may indeed seem well to desire the prolongation of these experiences; to
desire to live ever in that unworldly radiance, close to the canopy
of God,--in company with the great and the holy,--in company with the
apostles and with Jesus,--on some Mount of Transfiguration, in garments
whiter than snow, and with faces bright as the sun; and the hard, bad,
trying world far distant and far below. Does not the man of spiritual
sensitiveness envy those sainted ones who have grown apart, in pure
clusters, away above the sinful world, blossoming and breathing
fragrance on the very slopes of heaven?

And yet, is this the complete ideal of life? and is this the way in
which we are to accomplish its true end? I think we may safely say that
even the brightest realizations of religion should be comparatively
rare, otherwise we forget the work and lose the discipline of our mortal
lot. The great saints--the men whose names stand highest in the calendar
of the c