disengaged from undue attachment to all things perishable, than she had been secretly in spirit, in her brightest days of health and worldly hope. The pen of the writer falters when he turns to the thought of what that departed friend was to him, in some of the saddest and in some of the pleasantest days of his life. Her counsel and sympathy cheered him when a great loss had darkened his path, and when once and again he was led to seek refreshment in a foreign excursion, she and the generous heart which shared all her impulses were among the most active in promoting all arrangements that could contribute to his instruction and enjoyment.

But the Lights and Shadows of this mortal life, are strangely intermingled, and often follow each other in quick succession. To-day light from one dear object, like the rays emanating from the Divine Infant in the old pictures of the Nativity, makes the whole interior of the happy home bright and cheerful. To-morrow that dear object is removed; the light is quenched; and all within

is sadness and gloom, save as beams of ineffable hope and comfort, which can not be obscured or intercepted, come to us from the adorable One, who is the eternal Fountain of Life and Light. He who traces these lines, and who had so often been called to participate in scenes full of heartcheering kindness and happiness, was suddenly summoned from a distance to come to a house of mourning, yet a house full of Christian Hope and Resignation, and it was his sad yet grateful privilege to commit what was mortal of the departed to the tomb, with those loving words of Hope and Consolation, which the Church ever speaks over the graves of Her Faithful Children.

H. P.

OBITUARY NOTICES.

From the Albany Atlas and Argus of March 23d, 1859.

[After noticing the death of MRS. PRUYN, the article proceeds as follows:]

To all womanly virtues and feminine accomplishments, and to rare graces of mind and person, she united a strength of character the more striking from its contrast with the gentleness of her soul and the delicacy of its frail enclosure. Surrounded by luxury and ministered to by the devoted circle of home, she never forgot the poor. Daily she made it her task to see, to console, and to relieve the victims of poverty. Gentle in manner, and charitable in all opinions, she never was swerved from the conscientious observance of duty, never trifled with the divine injunctions, or forgot the serious purpose of life. Weak, after a long conflict