"My wife dies, and I replace her; my children perish, and others may be
born to me; but who shall restore to me the mother who has passed away,
and who is no more?"

* * * * *


Original.

THE MOTHERS OF THE BIBLE.

ICHABOD'S MOTHER.

"Strength is born
In the deep silence of long-suffering hearts,
Not amidst joy."


The noblest characters the world knows are those who have been trained
in the school of affliction. They only who walk in the fiery furnace are
counted worthy the companionship of the Son of God. The modes of their
discipline are various as are their circumstances and peculiar traits,
but in one form or other stern trials have proved them all. They partake
of the holiness of the Lord, because they have first endured the
chastening of his love. They are filled with righteousness, because they
have known the pangs of spiritual hunger and the extremity of thirst.
They abound, because they have been empty. They are heavenly-minded,
because they have first learned in the bitterness of their spirits how
unsatisfying is earth. They are firmly anchored by faith, because