d trial, into an
affection seldom found among men. They were nearly of an age, both being
a little past sixty when Mr. Craik died. The loss was too heavy to have
been patiently and serenely borne, had not the survivor known and felt
beneath him the Everlasting Arms. And even this bereavement, which in
one aspect was an irreparable loss, was seen to be only another proof of
God's love. The look ahead might be a dark one, the way desolate and
even dangerous, but goodness and mercy were still following very close
behind, and would in every new place of danger or difficulty be at hand
to help over hard places and give comfort and cheer in the night season.

CHAPTER XVI

THE SHADOW OF A GREAT SORROW

"WITH clouds He covereth the light." No human life is without some
experience of clouded skies and stormy days, and sometimes "the clouds
return after the rain." It is a blessed experience to recognize the
silver lining on the darkest storm cloud, and, better still, to be sure
of the shining of God's light behind a sky that seems wholly and
hopelessly overcast.

The year 1870 was made forever pathetically memorable by the decease of
Mrs. Muller, who lived just long enough to see the last of the New
Orphan Houses opened. From the outset of the work in November, 1835, for
more than thirty-four years, this beloved, devoted wife had been also a
sympathetic helper.

This wedded life had approached very near to the ideal of connubial
bliss, by reason of mutual fitness, common faith in God and love for His
work, and long association in prayer and service. In their case, the
days of courtship were never passed; indeed the tender and delicate
mutual attentions of those early days rather increased than decreased as
the years went on; and the great maxim was both proven and illustrated,
that the secret of winning love is the secret of keeping it. More than
that, such affection grows and becomes more and more a fountain of
mutual delight. Never had his beloved "Mary" been so precious to her
husband as during the very year of her departure.

This marriage union was so happy that Mr. Muller could not withhold his
loving witness that he never saw her at any time after she became his
wife, without a new feeling of delight. And day by day they were wont to
find at least a few moments of rest together, sitting after dinner, hand
in hand, in loving intercourse of mind and heart, made the more complete
by this touch of physical contact, an