“Not in death alone, my brother, Would I aid thee in the strife, I would fain be thy sustainer, In the fiercer fight of life. “With the help of God, thy spirit Shall not sink an easy prey. Oh, my friend, prayer is a weapon Which can turn whole hosts away! “God will aid thee! We will hold thee By our love!—thou shalt not go!— And from out thy wounded spirit, We will pluck the thorns of woe. “Say not life has no more duties Which can claim thee! where are then, All the sinners; the neglected; All the weeping sons of men? “Ah, my friend, hast thou forgotten All our dreams of early days? How we would instruct poor children, How we would the fallen raise! “God has not to me permitted, Such great work of human love, He has marked me out a lower Path of duty where to move. “But to thee, His chosen servant, Is this higher lot allowed; He has brought thee through deep waters, Through the furnace, through the cloud; “He has made of thee, a mourner Like the Christ, that thou may’st rise, To a purer height of glory, Through the pangs of sacrifice! “’Tis alone of his appointing, That thy feet on thorns have trod; Suffering, woe, renunciation, Only bring us nearer God. “And when nearest Him then largest The enfranchised heart’s embrace:— It was Christ, the man rejected, Who redeemed the human race. “Say not then thou hast no duties;— Friendless outcasts on thee call, And the sick and the afflicted, And the children, more than all. “Oh, my friend, rise up and follow, Where the hand of God shall lead; He has brought thee through affliction, But to fit thee for his need!” —Thus she spoke, and as from midnight, Springs the opal-tinted morn, So, within his dreary spirit, A new day of life was born. Strength sublime may rise from weakness, Groans be turned to songs of praise, Nor are life’s divinest labours, Only told by length of days. Young he died: but deeds of mercy, Beautified his life’s short span, And he left his worldly substance, To complete what he began. A FEW FACTS ABOUT MATRIMONY.