our recompense, if we have never caused them an unhappy
moment! Half the bitterness of affliction is removed by such blessed
memories. Then let us make them ours. Let us so live that it shall be
possible for us to cherish them. Then will they bring to us many happy
hours, and sweet solace to the suffering heart. Each moment, as it flits
by, enters its record upon the tablet of memory, to be read with joy or
sorrow at some future moment.

Then let each moment find some worthy deed to perform, or kind word to
be spoken, that shall cause a glow of pleasure and satisfaction when
memory recalls it. All memories are not alike pleasing; yet each may
have its mission to perform. Past sin may bring pain with its
recollection. It comes as a warning, lest we should transgress again.
If, then, we would treasure up for ourselves pleasant memories for the
future, we must guard well the present moment.

It is equally cheering to feel that we ourselves have a place in the
memory of our friends. What a motive it should be to us, then, to live
in such a manner that their memory of us may be as "the memory of the
just," which the Scriptures declare to be "blessed."

SELFISHNESS.

The selfish man wrongs himself in attempting to wrong others. In filling
his pockets unjustly with gold, he drives away joy from his soul. He
forgets his relationship to angels, and only remembers his affinity to
brutes.

TROUBLE.

Worldly trouble is the tonic of the soul. Affliction at once humbles us
and gives us a relish for spiritual food. Those providences which teach
us the insufficiency of earth, make us lean on heaven.

REVENGE.

Revenge is the putting out of one's own eyes for the sake of putting out
the eyes of another.

A BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH.

In admiring the virtues and moral excellence of one who holds a high
rank in society, who fills a distinguished place in the State, or
occupies a responsible seat in the halls of science or in the church, we
are liable to be swayed in our judgment. His social position is a kind
of magnifying lens, through which all his virtues are viewed. But when a
comparatively obscure individual from the humbler walks of life claims
our attention, we are better able to estimate his virtues at their true
value.

Such a one we meet with in the subject of this brief sketch. Miss Hannah
S. Shedd was born in Boston, February 5, 1826. The death of her father,
preceded as it was by the