EVENTS AND PROCEEDINGS. 95 
this tie will not now loosen. I should wrong my 
dearest earthly friend if I thought it would be so 
with you ; but I want to be loved as a son and a 
brother, and treated as such by the others, al- 
though I have been the means of bringing sorrow 
into your circle ; and I hope that my now lonely life, 
all the lonelier after the brief companionship of my 
darling, will have the occasional gleam of earthly 
sunshine which a letter from one of your household 
will give. In the letters written to Minnie and 
reaching here since her passing away, I have been 
very glad to read affectionate messages to me. 
“You are, I know, anxious to hear about our work 
here, and in this letter I will tell you something of it ; 
but I must send you a beautiful passage from 
Martineau’s ‘Endeavours after the Christian Life,’ 
which I have come across to-day. I have been 
wanting to explain why anything connected with 
Minnie, any reference to her in talk or writing, 
although making my loss all the more keenly vivid, 
yet is pleasant to me. To read her letters that have 
come from you has been an occupation eagerly 
sought ; although it has made me feel the loss more. 
Martineau puts the feeling into words thus : — 
‘Will a true heart say that an affection is evil 
because it is sad, and wish to shake it off the moment 
it brings pain? Call it what you will, that is not 
love, which itself is anxious to grow cold ; the 
emotions of a faithful soul never entertain a suicidal 
purpose and plan their own extinction ; rather do 
they reproach their own setisibility and passionately 
pray for a greater vitality. Whether, then, in joy 
or regrets, let the spirit of affection stay ; and if that 
spirit stay, the objects, though vanished, leave their 
best presence with us still. No, that is only lost truly 
which we have ceased to love.’ ” 
It will be seen from the above sentiments how 
bravely and submissively Mr. Comber desired to bear 
his great sorrow. He determined to try and do his 
