No. 18.

MY SISTER,

The Lord is with you-deep waters, very deep-but you do not sink. I would but I cannot speak. Who can now speak but the one-the only one who can speak to the heart? Deep waters! but has he not said; "When thou passest through the waters I will be with thee?" Is His word true? He is thy God, and thine own one's God. He served him— he walked with Him-he loved him, and was loved by him—and now where is he? With him, and for ever! blessed thought! But you are alone-not alone I trustyea, I am sure you are not: even though you do not feel His presence, he is present with you-never nearer, never kinder, never closer than now. Henceforward His will be the place that was filled by the absent one -your friend: your children's Father. I

could find relief in weeping, but I refrain, I could weep with you, and for you, but I will refrain my tears for him. Why weep for him? no, not for him-we weep because he is not with us, but not because

it is not well with him. We would bring him back, but that may not, cannot be. His work was done, and I am sure his Master said, well done; and, the work finished, he is entered into rest. Weep, weep. You may weep, but not tears of anguish, not bitter tears; weep, and be relieved in your sorrow, and then gird up thy loins and be strong. Your work is not done. Love bids you rise and be strong. But you must rest awhile-you must sit still-you must bear the sorrow. Yes, and He will help you; the Hand that wounds will heal; He will be with you in trouble. Dark hour-heavy cloud -and yet He is in it-and behind it. He comes in this cloud. You cannot see Him, but He is there in this cloud. You will yet see Him, there is a day coming when

it shall be light-when all this shall be clear, and you will read a Father's loveHis deepest love in His darkest trial— when He came to you covered with impenetrable night.

Monday. Again, after an interval, I take up my pen to talk with you. I could speak, if I were with you, by your side, with more ease; and yet I sometimes think, I could only sit in silence, and mingle tears with yours. The sorrow is too heavy for words either to express or to soothe, and there is but One who can support cr comfort. Is it a relief to think that Jesus wept-wept, and in sympathy. He does not weep now, but He sympathizes with them that do. He is as though He wept, while He looks on you. He it is who opened the door when the spirit of the loved one passed from hence; and as He parted both-taking him, and leaving you, He felt the pang that rent your heart, and He would have spared that sorrow if He could-but it was to be. There was

a need-be for it; accept it at His hand; say-though hard it is to say—yet say, "Thy will be done."

You

I think I will say no more now. will be weary, reading, talking, thinking. Oh! you will say, if I could rest, if I could cease to think, if I could be as in days past! Many such things will come into the mind; but now hear me. Look forward-look upward-look on Him that is with you-lean on Him. Trust Him -make Him everything to you that he was, who for a little is absent from you. Consult Him in everything-talk to Him as if you felt and saw Him present before you, and believe that now, henceforward, and always hereafter, He will be more to you, than he ever has been heretofore-a Father of your fatherless children, and a Friend to your widowed heart.

Yours, &c.

No. 19.

*

"I WAS dumb-I opened not my mouth, because Thou didst it." My sister, we will be silent, for it is the Lord's Hand. Oh, mysterious Hand! But are not His ways in the sea? His paths in the deep waters? We cannot see or follow whither He would lead, and we must be silent and trust.

"What I do thou knowest not now," but shall we not know hereafter? Oh, yes, hereafter" we shall know: and impossible as it may now seem, we shall yet, and then say, "He hath done all things well." Dark hour to the lone one, to the newly-widowed heart-and who will comfort her? who will now take the place, or fill up the void, or heal the breach? He, and He only, who saith, "I wound and I heal." His hand has