The River Falls journal. (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1857-1861, 1859-09-14
SORROW.

se1Si' "
mortal powers,-sorrow is the, great
searcher and reyealer of hearts, the great
test of truth; for Plato has wisely said,
sorrow viii not endure, sophisms,- all
shams and unrealities melt in the fire
of that awful furnace. Sorrow reveals
forces in ourselves we never dreamed of.
The soul, n bound and sleeping prisoner,
hears knock on her cellrdoor, and
wakens. Oh, how narrow the walls! oil,
how close and dark the grated window!
how the long useless wings Beat against
the impossible barriers. Where are we?
What Is this prison? What as beyond!
Oh for more air, more light! When will
the door Be opened? The soul seems to
itself to widen and deepen; it trembles
at its own dreadful! forces; it gathers up
mi waves that break with wailing only to
flow back into the everlasting void. Tile
calmest and most centred natures are
sometimes thrown by 1.-The shock of 8
great sorrow into turnultuous amaze
ment All things are changed. The
earth no longer seems solid, the skies
no longer secure; y deep abyss seems
underlying every joyous scene of life
The s6ul, strnck with this awful inspira-
ton, is a mournful -Cassandra; she sees
blood on every threshold, and shudders
in the midst Of nlirth and festival with
the weight Of a terrible vision. 1857 q
Who shall dare be glad any more, that
has once seen the frail foundations on
which love and JOY arc built? Our
brighter hours, have they only been
weaving n network Of agonizing remem-
brances for this day Of bereavement !? The
heart is pierced with every past JOY, with
every hope of its ignorant prosperity. Be-
hind every scale in music, the gayest and
cheeriesI, the grandest, the most trium-
plant, lies its dark relative minor; the
notes are the same, but the change of a
semitone changes all to gloom all our
gayest hours are tunes that have a modu-
lation into these drcary keys everpossible
at any moment the keynote may be
| struck. i.a.. $50 te..t .H...s...e
The frmest, best prepared natures are
often beside themselves with astonishmcnt
and dsmay, when they are called to this
dread initiation. They thought it very
| happy world before, ca glorious universe
Now it is darkened with the shadow Of
! insoluhle mysteries. Why this everlast-
ling tramp of inevitable laws OH quiverine
iilife? If the wheels must roll, why must
the crushed be SO living and sensitive?
Aud yet sorrow is, godIike, sorrow is
! grand and great, SORROW is wise and far.
seeing. Our own instructive valuations
/ the intense sympathy which we give tc
the tragedy which God has inwoyen into
I the laws Of Nature, show us that it is
with no slayisA dread mo cowardly shrink
ing, that we should approach her divine
mysteries. What are. the natures that
/ cannot suffer? Who values them? From
! the fat oyster, over which the silver tde
rises and falls without one pulse upon it
/ fl, shy car, to the hero who stands with
/ quivering nerve parting with wife ant
child and home for country and God, al
the way up is an ascending scale, marked
tby increasing power to suffer; and wher
we look to the Head of all being, W
/ through principalities and powers and
princedoms, with dazzling orders and ce
lestial blazonry, to behold by what en-
bIem the Infinite Sovereign chooses to re.
veal himself, we behold, in the midst o.
the throne, "a lamb as it had been slain
Sorrow is divine. Sorrow is reigning
on the throne of the universe, and the
crown of all crowns has been one of thorns.
There have 10 n many books that treat OF
the mystery of sorrow, but only one that
bids Us glory in tribulation, and count it
all Joy when we fall into divers Affections,
that so We may be associated with that
great fellowship of suffering Of which the
Incarnate God is the head, and through
which He is carrying redemptiye conflict
to glorious victory over evil. If we suffer
with Him, we shall also reign with Him.
Even in the very making up. Of our
physical nature, God puts suggestions of
such result. Weeping may endure for
night, but JOY cometh in the morning"
There are victorious powers in our nature
which are all the while working for us in
our deepest pain. 1t is said, thai, after
the suferings Of the rack, there ensues a
period in which the simple repose from