on earth all round you; and _his_ love
is not dead. It lives still in the next world for you, and perhaps with
you. For why should not those who are gone, if they are gone to their
Lord, be actually nearer us, not further from us, in the heavenly world,
praying for us, and it may be, influencing and guiding us in a hundred
ways, of which we in our prison-house of mortality cannot dream?

Yes, do not be afraid to believe that he whom you have loved is still
near you, and you near him, and both of you near God, who died on the
Cross for you. That is all I can say. But what comfort there is in it,
if one can give up one's heart to believe it!

_Letters and Memories_.

. . . All that I can say about the text, Matt. xxii. 30 [of Marriage in
the world to come], is that it has nought to do with me and my wife. I
know that if immortality is to include in my case identity of person, I
shall feel for her for ever what I feel now. That feeling may be
developed in ways which I do not expect; it may have provided for it
forms of expression very different from any which are among the holiest
sacraments of life. Of that I take no care. The union I believe to be
eternal as my own soul, and I leave all in the hands of a good God.

Is not marriage the mere approximation to a unity that shall be perfect
in heaven? And shall we not be reunited in heaven by that still deeper
tie? Surely if on earth Christ the Lord has loved--some more than
others;--why should not we do the same in heaven, and yet love all?

Do I thus seem to undervalue earthly bliss? No! I enhance it when I make
it the sacrament of a higher union! Will not this thought give more
exquisite delight; will it not tear off the thorn from every rose; and
sweeten every nectar cup to perfect security of blessedness in this life,
to feel that there is more in store for us--that all expressions of love
here, are but dim shadows of a union which will be perfect if we but work
here, so as to work out our own salvation?

_Letters and Memories_.

That is an awful feeling of having the roots which connect one with the
last generation seemingly torn up, and having to say, "Now I am the root,
I stand self-supported, with no other older stature to rest on." {30} But
this one must believe that God is the God of Abraham, and that all live
to Him, and that we are no more isolated and self-supported than when we
were children on our mother's bosom.

_Letters and Memories_.