if she had it, would live a moment in that tempest of wind and rain. Not a moment was to be lost; and her thought was equal to the moment. She cut the cord of her only bedstead, and shouldered the dry posts, side pieces and head piece. Her daughter followed with their two wooden chairs.

Up the steep embankment they climbed, and piled all their household furniture upon the line a few rods before the black, awful chasm, gurgling with the roaring flood. The distant rumbling of the train came upon them just as they had fired the well-dried combustibles. The pile blazed up into the night, throwing its red, swaling, booming light a long way up the track. In fifteen minutes it would begin to wane, and she could not revive it with green, wet wood. The thunder of the train grew louder. It was within five miles of the fire. Would they see it in time? They might not put on the brakes soon enough. Awful thought! She tore her red flannel-gown from her in a moment, and, tying it to the end of a stick, ran up the track, waving it in both hands, while her daughter swung round her head a blazing bed-post a little before. The lives of a hundred unconscious passengers hung on the issue of the next minute. The ground trembled at the old woman's feet. The great red eye of the engine burst upon her as it came round the curve. Like a huge, sharp-sighted lion, coming suddenly upon a fire, it sent forth a thrilling roar that filled all the wild heights and ravines around. The train was at full speed, but the brakesmen wrestled at their leverage with all the strength of desperation. The wheels ground along on the rails slower and slower, until the engine stopped at the decaying fire. It still blazed enough to show them the beetling edge of the black abyss into which the train and all its passengers would have plunged, and into a death and destruction too horrible to think of, had it not been for the old woman's signal. They did not stop to thank her first for the deliverance. The guard knelt down by the side of the engine; the engine-driver and the brakesmen came and knelt by him; and all the passengers came and knelt by them, and there, in the expiring light of the burnt-out pile, in the rain and the wind, they thanked God for the salvation of their lives. All in a line the kneelers and prayers sent up in the dark heavens such a midnight voice of thanksgiving as seldom, if ever, ascended from the earth to Him who seeth in darkness as well as in secret.

Kindness is the music of good-will to men; and on this harp the smallest fingers may play heaven's sweetest tunes on earth.

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IN THE VALLEY.

BY AN OLD PHYSICIAN.

OUR methods of thought in the contemplation of death, as it seems to me, prevent our appreciation of all that we may know concerning its experiences. We are prone to think of the dark valley as a passage shrouded in unconsciousness, through which the mind, enfeebled and profoundly obscured, is carried, until, released from its mortal part, it enters upon the realities of the immortal state.

The reflections suggested by the death-bed experience of a lovely Christian wife and mother, recall some observations and incidents in professional experience, which may throw some light upon the psychical relations of the death-hour.

I make the preliminary remark, that, in most cases where consciousness exists, there is a distinct impression on the part of the patient that a change-the change of death-has come over him. It cannot be described, but there is something in the experience which infallibly conveys this truth to the mind. The expressions which we often hear lead to this belief, such as, "I am going," "This is death,' "This is the last of earth," &c., or, without words, the hurried and anxious look, or, as frequently, the more calm and silent farewell-tokens reveal to those around the new and inward experience of death.

A state of perfect consciousness often exists down to the very last moments of life, and long after both the eye and the tongue have ceased to perform their office. A gentleman whose wife was about to die of an exhausting disease, said to her that he would hold her hand when she was dying, and when she became unable to return his demonstration of affection by the usual mode, he would press her hand and desired her to return the pressure, as a token still of recognition. Long after speech was gone, and every faculty seemed shaded in death, and down to the last moment of respiration, she feebly responded to the pressure in his hand.

A mental condition sometimes exists, and it is of the deepest interest, where there seems to be a quickening of the intellect or may I not say of the immortal part ?—to the appreciation of something beyond the boundaries of this world. I think that every one who has been observant of the process of dying has been sometimes impressed by these manifestations. The Martyr Stephen, just before his death said, "I see the heavens opened,” &c. This we may say was a miraculous vision, but in this view it demonstrates the fact, that while in the body, the eye of the mind may penetrate into scenes beyond the natural. The death scenes of many subsequent martyrs and men of holy living are

on record, whose experiences somewhat similar are described. Senator Foot, who died in 1866, after lying quiet for half an hour before his death, suddenly lifted his hands, and, with eyes now open and full of earthly light, exclaimed, "I see it! I see it! the gates are wide open. Beautiful! beautiful!" and almost immediately expired.

I once stood by the couch of a young woman of intelligence who was dying of dysentery. A little before her death, the psalm was read to her containing the passage, "Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death," &c. When life was almost extinct, her mother asked her if her mind was at peace. faintly replied, "Yes, I see my way through."

She

A gentleman of about forty years of age, who had led a worldly and very thoughtless life, was the subject of heart disease. I was in attendance upon him in his last illness. He did not expect to die, and I was forbidden by his family to inform him of the certain and speedy fatal issue of his case. He seemed to feel assured that, notwithstanding, the agony of his paroxysms, I could and would do something to relieve him. When the last and fatal paroxysm of coughing occurred, he was sitting in his easy-chair, not being able to lie down. He suddenly raised himself to an erect sitting posture, his eyes started from their sockets, peering, as it seemed, into something before unseen. He raised his hand, forcibly striking his forehead, and holding it there, gazed with apparent horror at something which seemed to be present to his terrified vision. With his hand still to his forehead, he continued in this attitude for a few moments, when his hand relaxed, his jaw fell and his spirit took its flight. I was impressed in witnessing this death-scene that death had come upon him most unexpectedly, and that when he found himself in the death-struggle, his eye and his attitude indicated the terror which seized his mind as eternal scenes seemed to break upon his vision.

Such cases as the above are, however, the exception to the general rule, that even in the full possession of the mental faculties, calmness and resignation are the usual mental characteristics of the death-hour. It is generally believed that a religious or irreligious life modifies the manifested experiences of the hour of death. It has not usually proved to be so in my observation. As a rule, men die in the same morally mental state in which they have lived. Blessed are they whose life has been cheered by the presence of Jesus. His felt shadow gives a calm and quiet confidence, and secures from all "fear of evil" in the valley.