These were dark days. Poverty, hunger, and cold sometimes stared them in the face; but still the noble woman faltered not in her labors of love, nor ceased to speak cheeringly and encouragingly to the helpless invalid she had chosen to burden herself with. THE LESSON OF SELF-SACRIFICE. Let me here pause to comment upon the noble, self-sacrificing spirit of this humble nurse. Impecunious herself, she could yet find something to spare for another; but far more than this, she could deprive herself of the necessities of life, and devote her time, attention and care to one who had no claim upon her, save as she appealed to the sympathies of a tender soul. Risking want and suffering for herself, she gave up her only means of support in order to be able to care for that other, and finally took that other into her own home, shared with her her own little all, depriving herself of health, strength, and much that makes life bearable, to comfort and sustain her charge. Can human love do more than this? Is spirit love more tender, more self-denying, more beautiful? The Nazarene said: “As ye have done it unto one of the least of these, ye have done it unto me;” and again, “Greater love hath no man than this, that he lay down his life for another.” But better than the sacrifice of life is the constant denial of self, that continually blesses another at the expense of the individual. Oh, Spiritualists, heed the lesson of this woman’s work as revealed to you in these pages; heed it well, for by such labors is the soul brought into communion with the angels and fitted to enjoy the blessings of heavenly life. There are thousands of human hearts pining for some one to love, and for some one to love them; would they but look around them, and take an active, sympathetic interest in their fellow-creatures, they would speedily find some one to love, and would win a soul’s affection in return. DAYS OF DARKNESS. The days sped away, bringing only poverty and want to the little humble home. The brave woman fought nobly to keep the wolf from the door, but with ill success. The invalid still lay exhausted, weak and sightless, a helpless burden, constantly pining for a release that did not come. Dark and dreary seemed the days before them; friends they had none, and their neighbors took no notice of them. Still the brave nurse resisted the sick woman’s plea to be sent away; well did she know that unkindness and neglect would become the portion of that suffering one, did she heed her request, and so she struggled on until the hour of which I write. It would seem that human distress could go no further. It had been a day of suffering untold. Hunger, cold, and darkness settled down upon that little home, as the shades of night closed in upon a dreary March day. The last morsel of food had disappeared, the last stick of wood burned the day before.