250 THE JESSAMINE. 



hours of sleep had been permitted to refresh her 

 wearied body. Yet she desired to depart, and to 

 be with Christ, knowing it to be far better than a 

 lengthened sojourn upon earth ; and since the Lord 

 had appointed that lingering and agonizing disease, 

 as her path to the grave, she was content. To 

 say that, if left to her own choice she would 

 not have preferred a less torturing disease, would 

 be more than I should feel justified in asserting : but 

 I am sure that she believed that to be best for her 

 which the Lord had chosen ; and that she never 

 desired it to be otherwise than as He willed it. 



The Jessamine, at all times and in all places, is 

 lovely : but that on the antique wall, breathing 

 fragrance on my evening promenade, was certain- 

 ly the richest and the sweetest that I ever met 

 with. No flower can be more simply elegant in 

 form, more untainted in the purity of its perfect 

 whiteness, or more refreshingly odoriferous in its 

 delicate scent. There is, besides, something in 

 its utter inability to sustain itself, that farther illus- 

 trates the Christian character. The Jessamine 

 will aspire and grow to a considerable height, but it 

 must be upheld throughout, or it sinks downward, 

 and defiles in the dust of the earth those beauties 

 which were formed to expand towards heaven. 

 Let but a single shoot break loose from its sup- 

 port, and you see it straggling far away, with an 

 earthward tendency, the sport of every wind. Ts 



