The older sister, how much the world owes her! Born while yet the
family was in limited circumstances, she had to hold and take care of
her younger brothers. And if there is anything that excites my
sympathy it is a little girl lugging round a great fat child, and
getting her ears boxed because she cannot keep him quiet. By the time
she gets to young womanhood she is pale and worn out, and her
attractiveness has been sacrificed on the altar of sisterly fidelity,
and she is consigned to celibacy, and society calls her by an
ungallant name, but in heaven they call her Miriam.
In most families the two most undesirable places in the record of
births are the first and the last, the first because she is worn out
with the cares of a home that cannot afford to hire help, and the last
because she is spoiled as a pet. Among the grandest equipages that
sweep through the streets of heaven will be those occupied by sisters
who sacrificed themselves for brothers. They will have the finest of
the Apocalyptic white horses, and many who on earth looked down upon
them will have to turn out to let them, pass.