em that would push men on to heaven
without passing through a novitiate on earth. What may be for us in the
future is but vaguely revealed,--just enough to put hope at the bottom
of our Pandora's box; but our business is in this world. Right through
the thick and thin of this world our path lies. Our strength, our
worth, our happiness, our glory, are to be attained through the
occupations and advantages of this world. Yet through discipline, and
not happiness, is the main staple here, it is not the only product. Six
days we must labor and do all work, but the seventh is a holiday. Then
we may drop the absorbing now, and revel in anticipated joys,--lift
ourselves above the dusty duties, the common pleasures that weary and
ensoil, even while they ennoble us, and live for a little while in the
bright clear atmosphere of another life,--soothed, comforted,
stimulated by the sweetness of celestial harmonies.

"O day most calm, most bright,
The fruit of this, the next world's bud,
The indorsement of Supreme delight,
Writ by a Friend, and with his blood,--
The couch of time, care's balm and bay,--
The week were dark but for thy light,
Thy torch doth show the way."

He is no friend to man who would abate one jot or tittle of our
precious legacy.

Afloat in literature may be found much objurgation concerning the
enforced strictures of the old Puritan Sabbath. Perhaps there was a
mistake in that direction; but I was brought up on them, and they never
hurt me any. At least I was never conscious of any harm, certainly of
no suffering. As I look back, I see no awful prisons and chains and
gloom, but a pleasant jumble of best clothes,--I remember now their
smell when the drawer was opened,--and Sunday-school lessons, and baked
beans, and a big red Bible with the tower of Babel in it full of little
bells, and a walk to church two miles through the lane, over the bars,
through ten-acres, over another pair of bars, through a meadow, over
another pair of bars, by Lubber Hill, over a wall, through another
meadow, through the woods, over the ridge, by Black Pond, over a fence,
across a railroad, over another fence, through a pasture, through the
long woods, through a gate, through the low woods, through another
gate, out upon the high-road at last. And then there was the long
service, during which a child could think her own thoughts, generally
ranging no higher than the fine bonnets around her, but nev