pain, there must be another life to justify, to heal, to comfort, to
offer happiness, to develop holiness. If there be another world, and
such a one, it will be no theologic drama, but a sensible, wholesome
scene. The largest and the strongest elements of this experimental life
will survive its weakest and smallest. Love is "the greatest thing in
the world," and love "will claim its own" at last.

The affection which is true enough to live forever, need have no fear
that the life to come will thwart it. The grief that goes to the grave
unhealed, may put its trust in unimagined joy to be. The patient, the
uncomplaining, the unselfish mourner, biding his time and bearing his
lot, giving more comfort than he gets, and with beautiful wilfulness
believing in the intended kindness of an apparently harsh force which he
cannot understand, may come to perceive, even here, that infinite power
and mercy are one; and, I solemnly believe, is sure to do so in the life
beyond, where "God keeps a niche in heaven to hold our idols."




FOUR-LEAF CLOVER.

BY ELLA HIGGINSON.

I know a place where the sun is like gold,
And the cherry blooms burst with snow;
And down underneath is the loveliest nook,
Where the four-leaf clovers grow.

One leaf is for hope, and one is for faith,