OUR title, though savouring of quaintness, is yet in keeping withthe object of this volume. As we press onward in the journey oflife, to each of us the path is new and strange. Often it is roughand thorny; often it winds through places beset with difficultiesand danger; often the sky is so dark that we can scarcely see thenarrow line upon which our advancing footsteps may rest in safety.As "Finger-Posts on the Way of Life," pointing the wary traveller inthe right direction, has this little book been written. It does not,professedly, take the high mission of the preacher; yet, while itsend is to guide in natural life, the author is never unmindful ofthe fact that all natural life is for the sake of spiritual life,and that no one can live well in the true sense, who does not livefor Heaven. He trusts, therefore, that while these "finger-posts"indicate the path in which to walk safely through the world, theywill point, as well, to the narrow way that leadeth to Life Eternal.
A LITTLE thing clouded the brow of Mrs. Abercrombie—a very littlething. But if she had known how wide the shadows were oftendiffused, and how darkly they fell, at times, on some hearts, shewould have striven more earnestly, we may believe, to keep the skyof her spirit undimmed.
It will not be uninstructive to note the incidents, in a single day,of Mrs. Abercrombie's life—to mark the early cloud upon her brow,and then to glance at the darkly falling shadows.
Mr. Abercrombie was a man of sensitive feelings, and though he hadstriven for many years to overcome his sensitiveness, he had been nomore able to change this hereditary weakness than the leopard hisspots or the Ethiopian his skin. At home, the lightest jar ofdiscord disturbed him painfully, and the low vibration ceased not,often, for many hours. The clouded brow of his wife ever threw hisheart into shadow; and the dusky vail was never removed, untilsunlight radiated again from her countenance. It was all in vainthat he tried to be indifferent to these changeful moods—to keephis spirits above their influence: in the very effort