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 joy! They were raised upward, they expanded, as though the soul, would spring from them in ecstasy. Then, there was a whispering of the pale lips. The mother knelt down, and covered her face. She knew that the darling whom she had brought into the world, was to be offered up.

But there was one, deep, sweet, harp-like articulation, "praise." And all was over. Then, from that kneeling mother, came the same tremulous word "praise." Yet there was an ashy paleness on her brow, and they laid her fainting, by the side of the breathless and beautiful. There she revived, and finished the sentence that the young seraph had begun, "praise ye the Lord." The emotions of that death-scene, were too sublimated for tears.

More surely might we hope thus to part with our dear ones, and thus to die in Jesus, did we, in our brief probation, live near him, and for him.