MINISTERING SPIRITS

THE re-union of parents and children in heaven,
as well as of other earthly friends, is a
cheering and delightful thought. And the idea
that our departed friends may sometimes be
near us, or wait to welcome us on the borders
of that spirit-land, is well suited to impress the
mind.

A little girl in the family of my acquaintance,
a lovely and precious child, lost her
mother at an age too early to fix the loved features
on her remembrance. She was as frail as
beautiful ; and as the bud of her heart unfolded,
it seemed as if won by that mother's prayers to
turn instinctively heavenward. The sweet,
conscientious, prayer-loving child, was the cherished
one of the bereaved family. But she
faded away early. She would lie upon the lap
of her friend, who took a mother's kind care of
her, and winding one wasted arm about her
neck, would say," Now tell me about my
mamma." And when the oft-told tale had been
repeated, she would ask softly, Take me into
the parlor : I want to see my mamma." The
repuest was never refused, ana the affectionate
child would lie for hours contentedly gazing on
her mother's portrait. But

"Pale and wan she grew, and weakly
Bearing all her pain so meekly,
That to them she still grew dearer,
As the trial hour drew nearer."

The hour came at last, and the weeping
neighbors assembled to see the child die. The
dew of death was already on the flower, as the
life sun was going down. The little chest
heaved faintly spasmodically.

"Do you know me, darling?" sobbed close
to her ear, the voice that was dearest ; but it
awoke no answer.

All at once a brightness, as if from the upper
world, burst over the child's colorless countenance.
The eye-lids flashed open, the lips
parted, the wan cuddling hands flew up, in the
little one's last impulsive effort, as she looked
piercingly into the far above.

" Mother !" she cried, with surprise and
transport in her tone and passed with that
breath into her mother's bosom.
Said a distinguished divine who stood by
that bed of joyous death :

"If I never believed in the ministration of
departed ones before I could not doubt it now.'