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XXII.
THE LIGHTS AND SHADOWS OF EVENING.
"THE DAY GOETH AWAY, FOR THE SHADOWS OF EVENING ARE
STRETCHED FORTH."--Jer. vi. 4.
Have you ever observed the effect produced upon the eye by the rapid
decrease of light, which takes place as night draws on, during that
season of the year in which the twilight is shortest? For some minutes
there appears a rapid succession of light and shade, each succeeding
shadow deepening in gloom, until the night sets in. This phenomenon
arises from the necessity which the pupil of the eye finds of adapting
itself to the diminution of light; and it has hardly done so, before
the increasing darkness requires a still further expansion of the
visual aperture. Just so in human life, when its brightness has
departed, and the night is at hand; there is often a rapid succession
of painful occurrences, which fall like shadows upon the soul, and it
has continually to adapt itself to its altered circumstances. The eye
of faith can scarce keep pace with the demands made upon it, and the
effect is a sense of occasional depression, which even the Christian
cannot altogether resist. In the last two or three years of her life,
Mrs. Lyth experienced what it was to be "in heaviness through manifold
temptations;" and although she wore the same happy smile, exhibited
the same unwavering, and even triumphant confidence in God, and to
all around her, it was evident she was fast ripening for her glorious
reward; her diary shows that she was, in some of her solitary hours,
subject to momentary depression; which, as she made no allowance for
altered circumstances, and increasing infirmities, she was in danger
of attributing to a wrong cause.
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