The gates ajar. By Elizabeth Stuart Phelps.

96 The Gates Ajar.
God had seen me,-and sing on and be
happy.
" You are not the first, Mary, and you will
not be the last, to ask that question. I cannot answer it, and I never heard of any who
could. I feel sure only of this, -that he would
suffer far less to see you than to know nothing
about you; and that God's power of inventing
happiness is not to be blocked by an obstacle
like this. Perhaps Roy sees the end from the
beginning, and can bear the sight of pain for
the peace that he watches coming to meet
you. I do not know, - that doe's not perplex
me now; it only makes me anxious for one
thing."
"What is that?"
"That you and I shall not do anything to
make them sorry."
"To make them sorry?"
"Roy would care. Roy would be disappointed to see you make life a hopeless thing
for his sake, or to see you doubt his Saviour."
"Do you think that?"
"Some sort of mourning over sin enters
that happy life. God himself'was grieved'
forty years long over his wandering people.
Among the angels there has been'silence,'