“Stop, Jane; for your life, not another word like this:--‘they build too low who build below the sky:’--a curse is on this earth--a recorded curse--we may not, must not, cannot make a heaven of it:--it is our school, our place of discipline--the infancy of our existence:--what have any of us done, or what can any of us do, that so many countless blessings should be poured upon us? that we should be invited and taught to acquaint ourselves with that Holy One, by whom came truth, pardon, and peace--through whom we may win an entrance to that heavenly city, where ‘all tears shall be wiped from all faces?’” A light of hope beamed in her serious eyes as thus she spoke, and Jane beheld it with reverence. The friends walked slowly back towards the house--there was a long pause in their discourse. It was broken by Jane asking, “You surely admit, dear cousin, that there is a vast difference in the fortunes and the trials of mankind?” “The seeming difference is vast, but not perhaps the real:--we see only the outward aspect of suffering and of prosperity--but the cup of life is mixed.” “Surely to many, who are prosperous and happy, few trials are appointed:--they are pleasant in their lives, and honoured in their deaths; they appear even upon earth to be the favourites of Heaven.” “If truly such, my love, their portion in this life will be little thought of; for they will know that in the bosom of Abraham the Lazarus of this world has his high place of honour as of comfort, and that the fashion of this world passeth away; nay, before the great change comes, one turn of the wheel may bring the loftiest fortunes to the dust, and crush them beneath it; even now, do we not see and hear the preparations of war?” “There, again, Katharine,--how can we reconcile with the power of a God of love the existence of so dark and terrible a curse as war?” “It is but one of many forms of death.” “But the miseries in its violent and bloody path----” “Are not so great as those of pestilence, or famine, or the hurricane.” “Well, Katharine, why pestilence, or famine, or hurricane?--_why death?_--and _whence sin?_” “Jane, we know not now--we shall know hereafter; let us not perplex ourselves with doubts and inquiries which none can solve; the origin of evil lies hidden from our eyes; it is a deep thing--enough for us that the Divine champion hath triumphed over sin--hath plucked the sting from death--and victory from the grave:--in and through him we may all be conquerors.” “And can they so conquer if they be not followers of the Lamb?--and may the followers of the Lamb fight and shed each other’s blood in battle?”