h the fatigue of so much
speaking, she seemed to gather fresh strength. She turned to me with a
look of surprising earnestness and animation, saying,--

"You, sir, have been my best friend on earth--you have taught me the way
to heaven, and I love and thank you for it--you have borne with my
weakness and my ignorance--you have spoken to me of the love of Christ,
and he has made me to feel it in my heart--I shall see him face to
face--he will never leave me nor forsake me--he is the same, and changes
not. Dear sir, God bless you!"

The child suddenly rose up, with an unexpected exertion, threw her livid,
wasted arms around me, as I sat on the bedside, laid her head on my
shoulder, and said distinctly, "God bless and reward you--give thanks for
me to him--my soul is saved--Christ is everything to me! Sir, we shall
meet in heaven, shall we not?--Oh yes, yes--then all will be
peace--peace--peace--"

She sank back on the bed, and spoke no more--fetched a deep
sigh--smiled--and died.

At this affecting moment, the rays of the morning sun darted into the
room, and filled my imagination with the significant emblem of "the
tender mercy of our God; whereby the dayspring from on high hath visited
us, to give light to them that sit in darkness and in the shadow of
death, to guide our feet into the way of peace."

It was a beam of light that seemed at once to describe the glorious
change which her soul had now already experienced; and, at the same time,
to shed the promised consolations of hope over the minds of those who
witnessed her departure.

This was an incident obviously arising from a natural cause; but one
which irresistibly connected itself with the spiritual circumstances of
the case.

For some time I remained silently gazing on the breathless corpse, and
could hardly persuade myself that Jane was indeed no longer there.

As I returned homeward, I found it difficult to repress the strong
feelings of affection which such a scene had excited. Neither did I wish
it. Religion, reason, and experience, rather bid us indulge, in due
place and season, those tender emotions, which keep the heart alive to
its most valuable sensibilities. To check them serves but to harden the
mind, and close the avenues which lead to the sources of our best
principles of action.

Jesus himself _wept_ over the foreseen sorrows of Jerusalem. He _wept_
also at the grave of his friend Lazarus. Such an example consecrates the
tear of