Surely as the years pass on they ought to have made us better, more useful, more worthy. We may have been disappointed in our lofty ideas of what ought to be done, but we may have gained more clear and practical notions of what can be done. We may have lost in enthusiasm, and yet gained in earnestness. We may have lost in sensibility, yet gained in charity, activity, and power. We may be able to do far less, and yet what we do may be far better done. And our very griefs and disappointments -- have they been useless to us? Surely not. We shall have gained instead of lost by them if the Spirit of God has been working in us. Our sorrows will have wrought in us patience, our patience experience, and that experience hope -- hope that He who has led us thus far will lead us farther still, that He who has taught us in former days precious lessons -- not only by sore temptations but most sacred joys -- will teach us in the days to come fresh lessons by temptations, which we shall be more able to endure; and by joys which, though unlike those of old times, are no less sacred, but sent as lessons to our souls by Him from whom all good gifts come.

Water of Life Sermons.

Out of God's boundless bosom, the fount of life, we came; through selfish, stormy youth, and contrite tears -- just not too late; through manhood, not altogether useless; through slow and chill old age, we return whence we came, to the bosom of God once more -- to go forth again, it may be, with fresh knowledge and fresh powers, to nobler work. Amen.

The Air Mothers. 1869.