To the Sick and Suffering this Volume is dedicated in the affectionate desire that the helpless days and wearisome nights appointed to them may be soothed and brightened by the Songs of Faith FOR THE SICK AND SUFFERING. "THE heart knoweth his own bitterness, and a stranger doth not intermeddle with his joy." These touching words apply both to the greater and also to the lesser and more frequent trials of life. We never fully understand how heavily even daily and common griefs press upon the hearts of others, nor how keenly troubles may be felt by them which we should think easy to bear. Nor are we always ready to admit, what is yet most true, that of each of these sorrows, a far greater portion is hidden from our view, than that which lies open before us. And if this be so in ordinary measures of pain or sorrow, much more must it be, in those instances of acute suffering, or deep affliction which sometimes occur. The isolation of spirit, expressed in this remarkable passage, is certain then to make itself felt, even amidst all the tender sympathy of those who best love the sufferer, and the unlooked-for kindnesses which so often spring up around him in the hour of his distress. No other can read the secrets of his |