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As the summer heats increased, Maud grew weaker, and at last her walks were abandoned altogether. Sometimes in the cool evening they got her into a wheeled chair, and she was drawn along the sands towards the rocks, to a spot that she particularly loved. One evening Mr. Ashton was her only companion, and Maud, as she was wont, talked out her thoughts to him. On some things she could converse more freely with him than even with her parents,—she had been so much under his guidance just at that time when we receive impressions most readily, and he had taught her many of those deep truths which belong to another life.

It was a still, quiet evening, and yet those restless waves were at their busy work amongst the rocks, low down at the base, pouring through and through the thousand archways that they had worn in the stones with their long labour.

"How wonderful that the waves should be always like this, grandpapa,-never standing quiet-never settling down quite still!"

"Wonderful indeed, Maud; and yet that motion, like everything else in God's world, is for good, answering a wise purpose."

"The sea is a beautiful thing, is it not?-a grand thing-grander than the land, is it not?" "Indeed it is."

"I have often heard it said that the sea is like eternity, because it is so vast and unbounded." "Yes, Maud, there is a poem which begins

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Then I want to ask you a question, grandpapa. There are several descriptions in the Bible, I remember, of what heaven is like. They tell us of many things that we are accustomed to here, which will not be found in heaven. And the sea is one of them: we are told that there shall be no more sea. Now, the sea is such a beautiful thing, and such a useful thing-how is it, then, that we are told so particularly that there will be no such thing in heaven ?"

"Your question is a hard one, Maudie: there are a great many things in the Bible, and especially on that subject, that we can't understand. We are not to take it all literally, you know; we are not to think that it will be just exactly as it is described there. Some of these accounts may

be only figurative-intended to give us a little idea of what we couldn't fully understand now. And perhaps this is one of them,-perhaps it doesn't mean that there will be, in reality, no sea in heaven; but it may mean that there will be no trouble, no tempest, no change there, and the sea is the emblem of these things. We read that there are living fountains of water there, and St. John heard a sound in heaven like the voice of many waters. But there will be nothing unquiet or turbulent there, to break in upon the universal peace."

"No trouble, no sorrow; these are the things meant then," said Maud, musingly. "I feel, grandpapa, that if it were not wrong, I should like to think that there is sea in heaven."

“Whatever can help to increase our happiness there, be sure that God will provide it for us, my dear child; and if it is not there, be sure that we shall never want it. But we are told in the book of Revelation that the Apostle saw in one of his visions a sea of glass mingled with fire, and those who had overcome in their battle with the world, stood upon the sea of glass, having the harps of God. What that means I cannot

tell; but, no doubt, it is some great and happy triumph, too glorious for us to understand in this life. Perhaps, Maudie, before long, you and I may be counted worthy to stand upon that sea.”

CHAPTER XIV.

MAUD'S LEAVETAKING.

"She lived and loved, will sorrow say,
By early sorrow tried;

She smiled, and sighed, and passed away,
Her life was but an April day,-

She loved and died."-ELLIOTT.

THE hay had all been gathered in long ago, and the labourers in the fields had just begun to cut the golden corn, which bent waving to the wind, when Maud returned to her old home at Springfield. All along the road they told her of the signs of a rich and abundant harvest, and her heart was glad, even though she would want none of its bounty for herself. Propped up by pillows in the corner of the carriage, her thoughts were busy upon another world, more glorious and fruitful still. These pleasant things she was soon to leave; but only to exchange them, as she felt assured, for greener pastures, and waters still more peaceful.

Mrs. Jackson met them at the hall-door, and

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