re, "Oh, the love of Christ! the love of
Christ!"

I found it difficult to ascertain, from expressions casually dropped,
from time to time, his real opinion with regard to his recovery; but I
thought there was some reason to doubt whether he was fully aware of his
critical situation. I did not suppose he had any preparation to make at
this late hour, and I felt sure that if he should be called ever so
unexpectedly, he would not enter the presence of his Maker with a
ruffled spirit; but I could not bear to have him go away, without
knowing how doubtful it was whether our next meeting would not be in
eternity; and perhaps too, in my own distress, I might still have looked
for words of encouragement and sympathy, to a source which had never
before failed.

It was late in the night, and I had been performing some little
sick-room offices, when suddenly he looked up to me, and exclaimed,
"This will never do! You are killing yourself for me, and I will not
permit it You must have some one to relieve you. If I had not been made
selfish by suffering, I should have insisted upon it long ago."

He spoke so like himself--with the earnestness of health, and in a tone
to which my ear had of late been a stranger, that for a moment I felt
almost bewildered with sudden hope. He received my reply to what he had
said, with a half-pitying, half-gratified smile, but in the meantime his
expression had changed--the marks of excessive debility were again
apparent, and I could not forbear adding, "It is only a little while,
you know."

"Only a little while," he repeated mournfully; "this separation is a
bitter thing, but it does not distress me now as it did--I am too weak."
"You have no reason to be distressed," I answered, "with such glorious
prospects before you. You have often told me it is the one left alone
who suffers, not the one who goes to be with Christ." He gave me a
rapid, questioning glance, then assumed for several moments an attitude
of deep thought. Finally, he slowly unclosed his eyes, and fixing them
on me, said in a calm, earnest tone, "I do not believe I am going to
die. I think I know why this illness has been sent upon me--I needed
it--I feel that it has done me good--and it is my impression, that I
shall now recover, and be a better and more useful man."

"Then it is your wish to recover?" I inquired. "If it should be the will
of God, yes. I should like to complete the dictionary, on which I have
bestowed so much