Page:Sketch of Connecticut, Forty Years Since.djvu/244

 on earth? We shall soon sleep in that grave, to which thou art hastening."

"Whither I go, ye know," answered the same sweet, solemn voice, "and the way ye know. Hope in Him whom ye have believed. Like me, ye must soon slumber in the dust; but His power shall raise ye up at the last day. The Eternal, in whose sight shades of complexion, and distinctions of rank are as nothing. He who looketh only upon the heart, bless you for your love to the outcast, and lead you to that abode, where all which is benevolent, and pure shall be gathered, and sundered no more."

She then laid her hand on her Prayer-book, which with a small bible was always near her on the table, and Martha rose to light the lamp, which had hitherto been neglected.

"It is in vain, Mother!" she said "with a lamb-like smile. "I am too much exhausted to say with you my evening prayer. Pray for yourselves, and for me, that we may meet where is no infirmity or pain, and where sorrow fleeteth away."

Then, as if regretting that the night should draw over them without their accustomed devotions, looking upward she repeated with deep pathos, a few verses from the fourteenth of John.

"Let not your heart be troubled. Ye believe in Gods; believe also in me. In my Father's house are many mansions," &c.