human life, and gained a human
experience, to become, under and like him, a savior of thousands; thou
hast been through the preparation, but thy real work of good, thy full
power of doing, is yet to begin.

But again: there are some spirits (and those of earth's choicest) to
whom, so far as enjoyment to themselves or others is concerned, this
life seems to have been a total failure. A hard hand from the first, and
all the way through life, seems to have been laid upon them; they seem
to live only to be chastened and crushed, and we lay them in the grave
at last in mournful silence. To such, what a vision is opened by this
belief! This hard discipline has been the school and task-work by which
their soul has been fitted for their invisible labors in a future life;
and when they pass the gates of the grave, their course of benevolent
acting first begins, and they find themselves delighted possessors of
what through many years they have sighed for--the power of doing good.
The year just past, like all other years, has taken from a thousand
circles the sainted, the just, and the beloved; there are spots in a
thousand graveyards which have become this year dearer than all the
living world; but in the loneliness of sorrow how cheering to think that
our lost ones are not wholly gone from us! They still may move about in
our homes, shedding around an atmosphere of purity and peace, promptings
of good, and reproofs of evil. We are compassed about by a cloud of
witnesses, whose hearts throb in sympathy with every effort and
struggle, and who thrill with joy at every success. How should this
thought check and rebuke every worldly feeling and unworthy purpose, and
enshrine us, in the midst of a forgetful and unspiritual world, with an
atmosphere of heavenly peace! They have overcome--have risen--are
crowned, glorified; but still they remain to us, our assistants, our
comforters, and in every hour of darkness their voice speaks to us: "So
we grieved, so we struggled, so we fainted, so we doubted; but we have
overcome, we have obtained, we have seen, we have found--and in our
victory behold the certainty of thy own."

MRS. A. AND MRS. B.;

OR, WHAT SHE THINKS ABOUT IT.

Mrs. A. and Mrs. B. were next-door neighbors and intimate friends--that
is to say, they took tea with each other very often, and, in
confidential strains, discoursed of stockings and pocket handkerchiefs,
of puddings and carpets, of cookery and domestic ec