more ways than one – sacred, not merely from the murderous weapon,
or the subtle poison, or the cruel blow, but sacred from
preventible diseases, distortions, and pains. That is the first
great end we have to set against this miserable imposition.
Physical life respected, moral life comes next. What will not
content a Begging-Letter Writer for a week, would educate a score
of children for a year. Let us give all we can; let us give more
than ever. Let us do all we can; let us do more than ever. But
let us give, and do, with a high purpose; not to endow the scum of
the earth, to its own greater corruption, with the offals of our
duty.
A CHILD’S DREAM OF A STAR
THERE was once a child, and he strolled about a good deal, and
thought of a number of things. He had a sister, who was a child
too, and his constant companion. These two used to wonder all day
long. They wondered at the beauty of the flowers; they wondered at
the height and blueness of the sky; they wondered at the depth of
the bright water; they wondered at the goodness and the power of
GOD who made the lovely world.
They used to say to one another, sometimes, Supposing all the
children upon earth were to die, would the flowers, and the water,
and the sky be sorry? They believed they would be sorry. For,
said they, the buds are the children of the flowers, and the little
playful streams that gambol down the hill-sides are the children of
the water; and the smallest bright specks playing at hide and seek
in the sky all night, must surely be the children of the stars; and
they would all be grieved to see their playmates, the children of
men, no more.
There was one clear shining star that used to come out in the sky
before the rest, near the church spire, above the graves. It was
larger and more beautiful, they thought, than all the others, and
every night they watched for it, standing hand in hand at a window.
Whoever saw it first cried out, ‘I see the star!’ And often they
cried out both together, knowing so well when it would rise, and
where. So they grew to be such friends with it, that, before lying
down in their beds, they always looked out once again, to bid it
good night; and when they were turning round to sleep, they used to
say, ‘God bless the star!’
But while she was still very young, oh, very, very young, the
sister drooped, and came to be so weak that she could no longer
stand in the window at night; and then the child looked sadly out
by himself, and when he saw the star, turned round and said to the
patient pale face on the bed, ‘I see the star!’ and then a smile
would come upon the face, and a little weak voice used to say, ‘God
bless my brother and the star!’
And so the time came all too soon! when the child looked out alone,
and when there was no face on the bed; and when there was a little
grave among the graves, not there before; and when the star made
long rays down towards him, as he saw it through his tears.
Now, these rays were so bright, and they seemed to make such a
shining way from earth to Heaven, that when the child went to his
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solitary bed, he dreamed about the star; and dreamed that, lying
where he was, he saw a train of people taken up that sparkling road
by angels. And the star, opening, showed him a great world of
light, where many more such angels waited to receive them.
All these angels, who were waiting, turned their beaming eyes upon
the people who were carried up into the star; and some came out
from the long rows in which they stood, and fell upon the people’s
necks, and kissed them tenderly, and went away with them down
avenues of light, and were so happy in their company, that lying in