a buoy sinks in the water, and the
next moment it is up again. The soul fatigues itself with efforts which
come and go in waves; and when with laborious care she has adjusted all
things in the light of hope, back flows the tide, and sweeps all away.
In such struggles life spends itself fast; an inward wound does not
carry one deathward more surely than this worst wound of the soul. God
has made us so mercifully that there is no _certainty_, however
dreadful, to which life-forces do not in time adjust themselves,--but to
uncertainty there is no possible adjustment. Where is he? Oh, question
of questions!--question which we suppress, but which a power of infinite
force still urges on the soul, who feels a part of herself torn away.

Mary sat at her window in evening hours, and watched the slanting
sunbeams through the green blades of grass, and thought one year ago he
stood there, with his well-knit, manly form, his bright eye, his buoyant
hope, his victorious mastery of life! And where was he now? Was his
heart as sick, longing for her, as hers for him? Was he looking back to
earth and its joys with pangs of unutterable regret? or had a divine
power interpenetrated his soul, and lighted there the flame of a
celestial love which bore him far above earth? If he were among the
lost, in what age of eternity could she ever be blessed? Could Christ be
happy, if those who were one with Him were sinful and accursed? and
could Christ's own loved ones be happy, when those with whom they have
exchanged being, in whom they live and feel, are as wandering stars, for
whom is reserved the mist of darkness forever? She had been taught that
the agonies of the lost would be forever in sight of the saints, without
abating in the least their eternal joys; nay, that they would find in it
increasing motives to praise and adoration. Could it be so? Would the
last act of the great Bridegroom of the Church be to strike from the
heart of his purified Bride those yearnings of self-devoting love which
His whole example had taught her, and in which she reflected, as in a
glass, His own nature? If not, is there not some provision by which
those roots of deathless love which Christ's betrothed ones strike into
other hearts shall have a divine, redeeming power? Question vital as
life-blood to ten thousand hearts,--fathers, mothers, wives,
husbands,--to all who feel the infinite sacredness of love!

After the first interview with Mrs. Marvyn, the subje