‘How little the sorrows of earth will seem to us as we look back, I think; even as many which even here issue in blessing. We realise that all things do indeed “work together for good to them that love God,” and I know that through this fresh sorrow the fire will burn up more and more of the earthly, so that the spirit may shine forth more brightly “to give light to all that are in the house.”—Yours with deep sympathy and affection.’ To Miss Caines, just before her death:— ‘_March 1901._ ‘MY VERY DEAR FRIEND,—We can only pray now that if it be God’s will you may be spared to the many who love you, and to whom you have been a blessing during these many years of faithful service. But if the Master should come and call for you, then He will go with you through the Valley of the Shadow of Death. His Rod and Staff which stay your tottering steps will comfort you, and He will bring you forth to the light. ‘We must say for you and for ourselves;—“Jesus, I trust Thee.” We do believe that what the world calls Death is birth into a brighter world. ‘May we all meet again where sorrow and sighing are no more.—With much love, your very affectionate.’ To a friend, on the death of Miss Caines:— ‘This morning my dear friend passed away, full of peace and content to go. The children have been all that we could wish, full of sympathy, but quietly impressed and very sorrowful. We do not wish them to leave, but to learn to look calmly on death, and hopefully up to Him Who has taught His servants to triumph over death.... ‘The loss to me is more than I can say. God’s will be done.’ The next letter is to Mrs. Cooper,[105] a much-loved old pupil, who in 1902 lost a son, a promising young artist, and seven months later her husband through death:— ‘_June 1903._ ‘I am sending you such a nice sermon by our good bishop, which I think you will like. I quite agree with you that one ought not to seek intercourse through mediums. I would never join the Psychical Society. It was _right_ to enquire as these scientific men have done, but the inexperienced are almost sure to be taken in by such, and it seems to me that we ought not to try to draw aside the veil but wait until God’s herald bids us enter. ‘I think you must expect to feel the sense of loss becoming greater, but then you will get to feel how short is the time of mourning on earth, and to ascend in heart and mind—and so to be above the storms and clouds of earth—even as the lark—and yet with him to hover over the earthly home, “that nest which you can drop into at will,—Those quivering limbs comprest.” You will want to speak to and help others with the comfort wherewith you are comforted of God....