Writing Letters

Does anyone like to answer letters ? How we put it off with a mental reservation that we will answer them tomorrow, and bo the pile accumulates until it is indeed formidable. We take up the fii3t: it is a business letter, needs crisp, terse language, no nonsense here but a plain yes or no style, in which you make yourself appear like old grim rough ana ready. The next we find is one from a newly-made wif e who has just entered upon the joys and trials of married life. Yes, we will write to these wedded lovers with a warmth of feeling equal to their own. We will congratúlate them upon their nearandsacredrelationship. Why dim their joy with prophecies of poverty and care? Wby hint that this now overwhelming love will go flying out of the window if poverty should come in at the door ? ■ Better to teil them of the sweetness of sacriflce of one for the other. Better to remind them of the two bears which should be the coat-ofarins of every new household, for they will shield it many times from the inroads of a ruffled temper, and soon the sharp corners will be rubbed down and the opposite dispositions will be merged one into the other, and the kindly seed thus sown will soon spring up and be thickly studded with the flowers of peace. Teil them to make a home-nest for themselves, even though it be but one room in a crowded city, or a log cabin in the far West. This sweet, undying and unalterable love is God's best gift to man, and the only unalloyed joy lef t us of Paradise. Sext in order Í3 a begging letter. We may have the heart and really desire to give quite gunerously, but we plunge our hand into the giviag side of our pocket only to find it empty. flow morüfied we feel as we write that we wish them every success in their benevoleDt enterprise, and hope, yes really, that at some future time we may contribule quite liberally to such a good work, but at present it is impossible, as there has been a great demand upon our purse that - that - . We hardly know how to finish, so hurriedly scribble our name, and then draw a long breath of relief to know that one more disagreeable duty is doue. How we loiter and look out of the window so longingly in the warm wiud, the birds calling, and the scent of the purple violets inviting us to seek them; but no, we take upthe next one with care. It, is to the sick and sorrowingor bereaved. Ah! this is harder still to answer. For what can we say in answer or sympathy to this mourning soul ? Is it a mother wailing over the loss of her ürst born, deal very tenderly with her stricken heart and teil her, 'Tor of such is the kingdom of heaven." Is it a wife mourning over her husband ? Teil her of his good deeds and the kind lef t hand which acattered seeds of kindness and generosity unseen by the right. Teil her that the poor breathed his name reverently and with blessings. Do this, drawing her thoughts away from self . Lift her up into a higher range of thought to that better and happier country to which we are all journeying. Still another lef t: Ahl this we cannot answer. We place it lovingly to our hps, for it was written by a dear hand, cold and still now, while we read the words with tear dimmed eyes. How we wish that we conld answer it, but no, no, it is too latei Ah, friends who read these liues, do you realize the signmcacce of these words, "too late?" Far better to give the roses of your love and the lilies of your sytnpathy to your living frieads than to wait and heap tliem with tears upon their graves. Il is too late now to kiss away the tears from gentle eyes that your sarcastic words have brought there. Too late to say f orgive me, all my coldness atid my pride. The time has passed for that. No sending letters to that far-away country. Only a prayer, an uplifting of the heart, and our thoughts fly swift as the wind to one who came and lived and suffered even as we do. So we lay these precious lines away with sacred care, knowing that he will answer it more lovingly, more tenderly than we could, even with our hearts iilled with a love which will live beyond the grave.