to the interests of life really belonged to them. When we read the history of nations, or of individuals, or observe the events of private life, we are ready to wonder that injustice and oppression should be so often suffered to prevail, that falsehood and selfish policy should sometimes seem successful, while truth, honesty, and disinterestedness are misinterpreted and unrewarded; and that the designs of craft, envy, and malignity, should ever appear to triumph. But we forget how short is their triumph. God, from that throne where He sits "judging right," bears with our impatient complaints, and with the hard and murmuring thoughts we are apt to entertain of his righteous government, knowing how soon all will be rectified. "One day is with Him as a thousand years:" and He sees that day as though it were already come, when the complicated mass of human affairs will appear arranged and adjusted according to the strictest rules of truth and equity, in the view of the assembled universe. Then all wrong will be set right; what a quieting consideration! David himself, amid the trials and persecutions he met with, says, "he should have fainted unless he had believed it." MOTHER. And it is but a little while to wait. When once death has drawn aside the veil that is upon our hearts, all that we now call mysterious, both in providence and grace (at least in relation to ourselves) will, we may reasonably suppose, be as suddenly and clearly revealed as the indistinct objects in a dark night, if the sun were in one moment to be darted to the meridian sky. FATHER. Yes, and this must be the case, whether we enter upon a state of happiness or misery. But who can conceive of the intolerable torments of self-reproach which must attend the discovery in the latter alternative! Surely it were of itself a hell of misery, to see in the light of those inextinguishable fires, the true value of those things for which heaven was bartered! EDWARD. What a good thing it would be, if we could but see it so now! FATHER. Let us remember, my dear boy, that the light of God's word shines with sufficient clearness to show all objects distinctly; if we do but also seek the illumination of His Spirit. This light, though shining in a dark place, would at all times guide us safely and pleasantly along the narrow way. MOTHER. You know, dear Edward, how anxious we are, and what exertions we make, that seven years hence you may be in a respectable and prosperous condition; qualified to pass successfully through life. You feel too, I am sure, the importance of it yourself, and this anxiety and care, if subordinate, are natural and right. But let us, my dear child, with deeper anxiety and more strenuous exertion, prepare for a period, perhaps rather more distant, but which, after all, may be much nearer. Let us only extend the date a little further, make a very slight alteration in the figures, and be chiefly concerned for your interests then. Oh, that you may be in prosperous circumstances a hundred years hence! Astronomers calculate the positions of the planets, and politicians speculate about the state of 2 affairs at that period; and shall not we make as long a calculation in relation to our own personal interests! Oh, whatever may befal us during the fleeting interval, let us give the utmost diligence, that all may be well with us in the year one thousand nine hundred and twenty-two! Thus ended their conversation; and the writer can think of no better advice wherewith to sum up the exhortations she has from time to time addressed to her kind and candid readers. Very earnestly therefore requesting their attention to it, she must, for the present, affectionately bid them farewell. |