I like all who can to come and unite with me in thanking God for His many
mercies. Strange, I have opened the Holy Book where David says, (and we
will join with him,) 'Praise the Lord, oh! my soul, and all that is within
me, praise his holy name.'"




CHAPTER III.


After the other members of the family had retired, Mr. Weston, as was usual
with him, sat for a while in the parlor to read. The closing hour of the
day is, of all, the time that we love to dwell on the subject nearest our
heart. As, at the approach of death, the powers of the mind rally, and the
mortal, faint and feeble, with but a few sparks of decaying life within
him, arouses to a sense of his condition, and puts forth all his energies,
to meet the hour of parting with earth and turning his face to heaven; so,
at the close of the evening, the mind, wearied with its day's travelling,
is about to sink into that repose as necessary for it as for the body--that
repose so often compared to the one in which the tired struggler with life,
has "forever wrapped the drapery of his couch about him, and laid down to
pleasant dreams." Ere yielding, it turns with energy to the calls of
memory, though it is so soon to forget all for a while. It hears voices
long since hushed, and eyes gaze into it that have looked their last upon
earthly visions. Time is forgotten, Affection for a while holds her reign,
Sorrow appears with her train of reproachings and remorse, until
exhaustion comes to its aid, and it obtains the relief so bountifully
provided by Him who knoweth well our frames. With Mr. Weston this last hour
was well employed, for he not only read, but studied the Holy Scriptures.