Page:Letters to Mothers (1839).djvu/283

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kind, pitying words. Endowed with a lofty and cultivated intellect, and with that wealth which the world is wont to estimate still more highly, she humbled herself to the meanest creature, that she might do them good. She seemed willing to become "their servant, for Jesus' sake."

What part her deep afflictions bore in this meek and sublimated benevolence, whether they were as the crucible to the gold, or as the refiner's fire to the silver, we cannot tell: He who sent them, knoweth.

Though resignation under bereavement, or the springing of spiritual graces from its bitter root, are solemn and salutary lessons to the beholder, is it not possible to advance even higher in the ,school of Christ? May not a christian be able to yield without repining, the dearest idols to Him who loved him and gave himself for him? To reveal its complacence by gifts, seems to be one of the native dialects of love. The little child presents its favourite teacher, with a fresh flower. It hastens to its mother, with the first, best rose, from its little garden. In the kiss to its father, with which it resigns itself to sleep, it gives away its whole heart.

Nor does love falter, though its gifts involve sacrifices. The young bride leaves the hearthstone of her earliest remembrances, and lifts her timid brow in the home of strangers, or follows