thirst, fretted not, never were discontented. All vain longings
after this and that were gone from their hearts. They had very
little; but it seemed to be enough. They had nothing indeed, which
we could call pleasure in this world; but somehow what they had
satisfied them, because it came from God. They had a hidden
pleasure, joy, content, and peace.

They had found out that with God was the well of life; that in God
they lived and moved, and had their being. And as long as their
souls lived in God, full of the eternal life and goodness, obeying
his laws, loving the thing which he commanded, and desiring what he
promised, they could trust him for their poor worn-out dying bodies,
that he would not let them perish, but raise them up again at the
last day. They knew very little; but what they did know was full of
light. Cheerful and hopeful they were always; for they saw all
things in the light of God. They knew that God was light, and God
was love; that his love was shining down on them and on all around
them, warming, cheering, quickening into life all things which he
had made; so that when the world should have looked most dark to
them, it looked most bright, because they saw it lightened up by the
smile of their Father in heaven.

O may God bring us all to such an old age, that, as our mortal
bodies decay, our souls may be renewed day by day; that as the life
of our bodies grows cold and feeble, the life of our souls may grow
richer, warmer, stronger, more useful to all around us, for ever and
ever; that as the light of this life fades, the light of our souls
may grow brighter, fuller, deeper; till all is clear to us in the
everlasting light of God, in that perfect day for which St. Paul
thirsted through so many weary years; when he should no more see