birds came off from the land; now and then the exulting merriment of a loon rang out of the distance, and soon a soft, southern breeze, redolent of the spicy hemlock and cedar, rippled the surface. The Sabbath had transcended its ordinary hours, and shed its sweet blessing on the following day. His rods lay idly over the stern as the chaplain thought of the duty before him, and asked counsel of the Master, who "Himself bare our sicknesses and carried our sorrows." He remembered the disciples who said, "Lord, he whom thou lovest is sick;" and the gracious answer, "This sickness is not unto death, but for the glory of God, that the Son of Man might be glorified thereby."
It is not imagination merely that gives such power to the living oracles, when they come to us where the testimony of nature unites with the inspiration. It is the blessing of Jesus, who sought the wilderness, the shore, and the mountain-side to gain strength from communion with his Father. It was in such solitudes that our Example and Forerunner found courage for his trial and suffering. Religion is eminently social, but its seat is the heart of the individual believer, and, whatever be the advantage of Christian fellowship, the flame must be fed in private, personal converse with the Father of our spirits. He who has not been alone with God, can seldom find him in the crowded church.
A brief hour, briefer for these meditations, brought the keel of the boat to a gravelly nook, where the mouth of the inlet formed a little harbor. There, awaiting the chaplain's arrival, stood a tall, upright man, past the prime of life, who, with a style of courtesy evidently foreign, bared his gray head, and greeted his visitor by name as a friend.
"You have kindly come, sir, to see my poor wife; I thank you for it. She is now expecting you, for we heard the sound of your oars as you turned the island."
A rough stone house, built by a speculator of former days, stood on a knoll a little way from the stream, and the garden around it was trimmed with some taste. As they entered, the owner said:
"Welcome to the mountain dwelling of an old soldier! He (pointing to an engraved portrait of Blucher, wreathed with laurel
