THE DEAD.

It is strange what a change is wrought in one hour by death.  The moment our friend is gone from us for ever, what sacredness invests him!  Everything he ever said or did seems to return to us clothed in new significance.  A thousand yearnings rise, of things we would fain say to him—­of questions unanswered, and now unanswerable.  All he wore or touched, or looked upon familiarly, becomes sacred as relics.  Yesterday these were homely articles, to be tossed to and fro, handled lightly, given away thoughtlessly—­to-day we touch them softly, our tears drop on them; death has laid his hand on them, and they have become holy in our eyes.  Those are sad hours when one has passed from our doors never to return, and we go back to set the place in order.  There the room, so familiar, the homely belongings of their daily life, each one seems to say to us in its turn, “Neither shall their place know them any more.”  Clear the shelf now of vials and cups, and prescriptions; open the windows; step no more carefully; there is no one now to be cared for—­no one to be nursed—­no one to be awakened.

Ah! why does this bring a secret pang with it when we know that they are where none shall any more say, “I am sick!” Could only one flutter of their immortal garments be visible in such moments; could their face, glorious with the light of heaven, once smile on the deserted room, it might be better.  One needs to lose friends to understand one’s self truly.  The death of a friend teaches things within that we never knew before.  We may have expected it, prepared for it, it may have been hourly expected for weeks; yet when it comes, it falls on us suddenly, and reveals in us emotions we could not dream.  The opening of those heavenly gate for them startles and flutters our souls with strange mysterious thrills, unfelt before.  The glimpse of glories, the sweep of voices, all startle and dazzle us, and the soul for many a day aches and longs with untold longings.

We divide among ourselves the possessions of our lost ones.  Each well-known thing comes to us with an almost supernatural power.  The book we once read with them, the old Bible, the familiar hymn; then perhaps little pet articles of fancy, made dear to them by some peculiar taste, the picture, the vase!—­how costly are they now in our eyes.

We value them not for their beauty or worth, but for the frequency with which we have seen them touched or used by them; and our eye runs over the collection, and perhaps lights most lovingly on the homeliest thing which may have been oftenest touched or worn by them.