CHAPTER XIII. 



THE CHRISTMAS ROSE. 



1 A happy new year.' — From how many thousands 

 of voices is that greeting heard ! I love to receive 

 it even when friendships are so young, that it is 

 the first occasion offered of exchanging the kindly 

 salutation ; but there is a feeling that does not 

 display itself; an under-current, deep and strong, 

 rolling over the graves of by-gone years, and 

 sounding in secret a knell that is not heard amid 

 the cheerful tones of the upper world. True, by 

 the mercy of God, a happy new year may be mine ; 

 truly happy, if his grace render it a year of spirit- 

 ual improvement, of perceptible progress towards 

 the consummation of all real bliss : but flesh is 

 very slow to receive such interpretation of a term 

 long applied to the pleasant things of time and 

 sense ; and instead of being rejoiced at having 

 learned the truest meaning of an abused term, — of 

 being brought to understand the right appropriation 

 of the emphatic words, ' Happy are ye/ — how 

 prcne are we to look back upon the worldly sub- 



