| The Ministry of Comfort |
Chapter 10 |
Page 6 |
It is easy to see which of these two ways of enduring sorrow the true one is. We should forget what we have suffered. The joy set before us should shine upon our grief as the sun shines through clouds, glorifying them. We should cherish sacredly and tenderly the memory of our Christian dead, but should train ourselves to think of them as not in the grave, but in the home of the blessed with Christ, safely folded, waiting for us. Thus the bright and blessed hopes of immortality should fill us with tranquility and healthy gladness as we mover over the waves of trial.
“He taketh that we may for ever keep;
All that makes life most beautiful and deep,
Our dearest hopes, by sorrow glorified,
Beneath His everlasting wings abide:
For oh, it is our one true need to find
Earth’s vanished bliss in heavenly glory shrined.”
We should remember that the blessings which have gone away are not all that God has for us. This summer’s flowers will all fade by and by, when winter’s cold breath smites them – we shall not be able to find one of them in the fields or gardens during the long cold dreary months to come – yet we shall know all the while that God has other flowers preparing just as fragrant and as lovely as those which have perished. Spring will come again, and under its warm breath the earth will be covered once more with floral beauty as rich as that which faded in the autumn. So the joys that have gone from our home and our heart are not the only joys; God has others in store just as rich as those we have lost, and in due time He will give us these to fill our emptied hands.
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