Part 23 (1/2)

Mrs F's brother was here with his wife, soo, and they were su child Mrs F

readher last hours, which were really touching and beautiful, especially the distributing as she had ifts I suppose this will be my last letter from Dorset and from your old room Well, you and I have passed some happy hours under this roof Good-bye, dear, with love to each and all of your beloved ones

_To Miss Eliza A Warner, Dorset, Sept 27, 1868_

I was so nearly frantic, my dear fanny, fro I was perfectly stupid, and all the way home from East Dorset hardly spoke a word to my dear John, nor did he to s to me that I hardly knehether I was in the body or out of it, and then caed for you last night, and it is lucky for your frail body that can bear so little, that you were not in your little room at Mrs G's; but not at all lucky for your heart and soul I hope God will bless us to each other It is not enough that we find in ourItit is that coers to each other, we part as if we had known each other half a century!

I areat point of union is that we have gone to our Saviour, hand in hand, on the supreme errand of life, and have not co me back to that point; or, I should rather say, to Hi for Hirieved that I have not been, fro to its end, so like Him, so full of Him, as to constrain everybody I met to love Him too Isn't there such power in a holy life, and have not some lived such a life? I hardly knohether to rejoice re love; so I do both

When I think that I have a new friend, ill be indulgent toin lad and thankful But when, added to that, I know she will pray for me, and so help my poor soul heavenward, it does see down or sitting up, or when you are a other friends It is true, as you say, that I do not think -down prayer” in my own case, but I have not a weak back and do not need such an attitude And the praying we do by the wayside, in cars and steamboats, in streets and in crowds, perhaps keeps usprayers in solitude could without the help of these littleback with the grace every moment needs You can put me into some of these silent petitions when you are too tired to pray forthis inevery instant to hear the bell toll for church, and now it is tio Good-bye, dear, till by and by

Well, I have been and come, and--wonder of wonders!--I have had a little tiny bit of a very ood ser to Christ, and I enjoyed the hymns We have had a talk, my John and I, about death, and I asked hio first, and, to ht _I_ should I aoing to have even a wish about it God only knohich had better go first, and which stay and suffer Soo into the furnace to testify that the Son of God is there with the one of the a house It seeht stand in the way, if it should happen I had a chance to go to heaven I should almost feel mean to do that, and disappoint my husband who expects to seeto be perfected ht is Christ, and who only speak to praise Him!

I like you to tell me, as you do in your East Dorset letter, how you spend your time, etc I have an insatiable curiosity about even the outer life of those I love; and of the inner one you can not say too much Good-bye We shall have plenty of time in heaven to say all we have to say to each other

III

Return to Town Death of an old Friend Letters and Notes of Love and Sy Beds Fifty Years old Letters

Her return to town brought with it ath and sympathies; but for all that they were laden with unwonted joy The summer at Dorset had been a very happy one While there she had finished _Stepping Heavenward_ and on co spirit of the book see Katy's words at its close were evidently an expression of her own feelings:

Yes, I love everybody! That crowning joy has come to me at last Christ is in my soul; He is mine; I am as conscious of it as that my husband and children are mine; and His Spirit flows forth froreen with grass, and glad with flowers

_To Miss Eliza A Warner, New York, Oct 5, 1868_

This is the first moment since we reached home, in which I could write to you, but I have had you in hts as much as ever We had a prosperous journey, but the ride to Rupert was fearfully cold I never reht I reached Williamstohen I went tostory to try to give you a glimpse of the distracted life that meets us at our very threshold as we return ho to trot down to see Miss Ly, for I am so brimful of love to everybody that I htfully_ yesterday; I wanted you there to hear But all my treasures are in earthen vessels; he seems all used up by his Sunday and scarcely touched his breakfast I don't see how his or , if we live in New York All theit well And what a blessed, blessed life it is, at the worst! ”Central peace subsisting at the heart of endless agitation”

Good-bye, dear; consider yourself embraced by a hearty soul that heartily loves you, and that soul lives in E P

On the 25th of October Mr Charles H Leonard, an old and highly esteemed friend, died very suddenly at his su worth, generous, large-hearted, and endeared to Mrs Prentiss and her husband by many acts of kindness He was one of the founders of the Church of the Covenant and had also aided liberally in building its pleasant parsonage

_To Miss Eliza A Warner, New York, Oct 26, 1868_

I am reminded as I write my date, that I a, and that I ain to feel antiquated, dilapidated, and antediluvian, etc, etc

I write to let you know that we are going to Rochester, Mass, to attend the funeral of a dear friend there It see and the coive even a little comfort to one who loves le relative in the world For twenty-four years these have been faithful friends, loving us better every year, members of our church in New Bedford, Mercer street, and then here They lived at Rochester during the su of it) just before ent to Dorset Mrs Leonard was then feeling very uneasy about her husband, but he got better and seemed about as usual, till last Tuesday, when he was stricken doith paralysis and died on Saturday Soe a portion of my tiive ive I have been to Newark twice since I wrote you Mrs Stearns is in a very suffering condition; I was appalled by the sight; appalled at the weakness of huot over that, and had a sweet glimpse at least of the _eternal_ felicity that is to be the end of what at longest is a brief period of suffering I write her a little bit of a note every few days I feel like a ball that now is tossed to Sorrow and tossed back by Sorrow to Joy For reat, such unmerited mercies

Two or three of the little notes follow:

MY DEAREST ANNA :-I long to be with you through the hours that are before you, and to help cheer and sustain you in the trial of faith and patience to which you are called But unless you need o, lest I should be the one too many in your state of excitement and suspense We all feel anxiety as to the result of the incision, but take co our care upon God May Christ Jesus, our dear Saviour, who loves and pities you infinitely more than any of us do, be very near you in this season of suspense I would gladly exchange positions with you if I ht, and if it were best; but as I may not, and it is not best, because God wills otherwise, I earnestly commend you to His tender sympathy If He means that you shall be restored to health, He will ; if He means to call you ho Dear Anna, stay yourself on Hih to support you, when all other strength fails Remember, as Lizzy Smith said, you are ”encompassed with prayers”

_Friday Afternoon_,

MY DEAR ANNA :-I send you a ”lullaby” for next Sunday, which I met with at Dorset, and hope it will speak a little word and sing a little song to you while the rest are at church How I do wish I could see you every day! I feel restless with longing; but you are hardly able to take any co visit and it is such a journey to make for-a short one! But, as I said the other day, if at any tier and it would co and run right over It see for you But don't be discouraged; pain can't last forever

”I know not the way I a But well do I know ivethat I say to Him As He takes it, is, 'Hold it fast

Sufferme home at last!'”