you would feel as though you had a blank--it might not be a big one--but
a little blank in your life.

'If you had had a servant who for all this long time had served you
without fee or reward, who had administered, for very love, to your
health and comfort, and who suddenly passed away, you would miss that
servant.

'If you had had a counsellor who, in hours--continually occurring--of
perplexity and amazement, had ever advised you, and seldom advised wrong;
whose advice you had followed, and seldom had reason to regret it; and
the counsellor, while you were in the same intricate mazes of your
existence, had passed away, you would miss that counsellor.

'If you had had a friend who had understood your very nature, the rise
and fall of your feelings, the bent of your thoughts, and the purpose of
your existence; a friend whose communion had ever been pleasant--the
most pleasant of all other friends--to whom you had ever turned with
satisfaction, and your friend had been taken away, you would feel some
sorrow at the loss.

'If you had had a mother for your children who had cradled and nursed and
trained them for the service of the living God, in which you most
delighted--a mother, indeed, who had never ceased to bear their sorrows
on her heart, and who had been ever willing to pour forth that heart's
blood in order to nourish them, and that darling mother had been taken
from your side, you would feel it a sorrow.

'If you had had a wife, a sweet love of a wife, who for forty years had
never given you real cause for grief; a wife who had stood with you, side