Miss Haines praise and magnify her. Never shall I cease to be
thankful for being with her at Dorset, to say nothing, dear, of you! Do
you know that there are twelve cases of typhoid fever at Vassar? and
that Miss Lyman is not as well as she was? I feel greatly concerned
about her, not to say troubled. I don't suppose I shall ever hear her
pray. But I shall hear her and help her praise. I don't believe a word
about there being different grades of saints in heaven. Some people
think it modest to say that they don't expect to get anywhere near so
and so, they are so--etc., etc. But I expect to be mixed all up with the
saints, and to take perfect delight in their testimony to my Saviour.

Can you put up with this miserable letter? Folks can't rush to Newark
and to Rochester and agonise in every nerve at the sufferings of others,
and be quite coherent. I have sense enough left to know that I love you
dearly, and that I long to see you and to take sweet counsel with you
once more. Don't fail to give me the helping hand.

The following was written to Mrs. Stearns on her silver-wedding day,
Nov. 15:

MY DEAREST ANNA: I have thought of you all day with the tenderest
sympathy, knowing how you had looked forward to it, and what a contrast
it offers to your bridal day twenty-five years ago. But I hope it has
not been wholly sad. You have a rich past that can not be taken from
you, and a richer future lies before you. For I can see, though through
your tears you can not, that the Son of God walks with you in this
furnace of affliction, and that He is so sanctifying it to your soul,
that ages hence you will look on this day as better, sweeter, than the
day of your espousals. It is hard now to suffer, but after all, the
_light_ affliction is nothing, and the _weight_ of glory is everything.
You may not fully realise this or any other truth, in your enfeebled
state, but truth remains the same whether we appreciate it or not; and
so does Christ. Your despondency does not prove that He is not just as
near to you as He is to those who see Him more clearly; and it is better
to be despondent than to be self-righteous. Don't you see that in
afflicting you He means to prove to you that He loves you, and that you
love Him? Don't you remember that it is His son--not His enemy--that He
scourgeth?

The greatest saint on earth has got to reach heaven on the same terms
as the greatest sinner; unworthy, unfit, good-for-nothing; but saved
throug