ence, and
amiability.

Oh! how good for us to feel _obliged_ to be reconciled, and each Sunday
renews the obligation.

Let us leave no time for coldness and indifference to grow upon us ... it
only engenders hatred, and that once established in the heart, oh! how
hard is it to cast out again!

It is like a hideous cancer whose ravages no remedies can stay.

It is as the venomous plant that the gardener can never entirely
eradicate. Only by a miracle can hatred be destroyed. At once then let us
place a barrier in our hearts against the approach of coolness or
indifference, and each Saturday night the head of the family shall thus
address us: "Children, to-night we forgive, to-night we forget, and
to-morrow begin life afresh in love, one towards another."

II.

When I have sinned, wrote a pious soul, I feel chastisement will fall upon
me, and as if I could hide myself from GOD'S Eye. I _shrink_ into myself,
and then I pray, I pray, and the chastisement not being sent, I again
expand.

_Chastisement_ is like a stone threatening to crush me; _Prayer_ is the
hand that withholds it while I make atonement.

Oh! how can those live peacefully who never pray?

III.

OUR DEAD

They are not all there--our dead--buried in the churchyard, beneath the
grave, o'ershadowed by a cross, and round which the roses bloom.

There are others which nothing can recall; they are things which belong to
the _heart_ alone, and there alas! have found a tomb.

Peace surrounds me to-day; and here in my lone chamber I will invoke them,
my much-loved dead. Come!

* * * * *

The first that present themselves are _the sweet years of childhood_, so
fresh, so guileless, so happy.

They were made up of loving caresses, bountiful rewards, and fearless
confidence: the words, _pain_, _danger_, _care_, were unknown; they
brought me simple pleasures, happy days without a thought for the morrow,
and only required from me a little obedience.

Alas! they are dead ... and what numberless things have they carried with
them! What a void they have left!

Candor, lightheartedness, simplicity, no longer find a place within!

Family ties, so true, so wide, so light, have all vanished!

The homely hearth, the simple reward earned by the day's industry,
maternal chidings, forgiveness so ingenuously sought, so freely given,
promises of amendment, so sincere, so joyously received.... Is this all
gone forever? can I n