Bellows Falls times. [volume] (Bellows Falls, Vt.) 1856-1965, 1862-10-24
Our Sorrows awd Their Uses.

tut Ntdts nOtic VI oVtCW dEu Ab-Ntoa W
soul--hours in which there is nc sweet
light Of the sun, nor even the faint far glim-
mering of the stars--hours in which wo
look on all sides and there is nane to help,
for there is no time when we feei how Ut
terly alone we are--how far of and pow
erless is earthly love or shield, as we do in
some great shock and sarge of anguish
which shakes the centre of our souls, and
sweeps over them as the spring freshets
sweep over the banks, burying under their
chill and blackness all hope aud JOY, and
beauty. Sorrows are then so heavy and
hard to be borne, that il seems they can new
er pass away; the soul shrinks frcm its
burdens, and stands at that w;uaow whose
only outleck is landscape Of darkness and
despair.
And yet as every winter is lost and for
gotten in the sunshine and the singing ef
the birds, so the bitterness ef those sorrows
pass away--the anguish which drank up
for while the very springs of our life and
hope, is slcwly healed. Cod who numbers
the hairs of our head, sends his angels to
comfort US, and To- there is the soft, faint
gray light in the east, and then the tender
flush, and at last the daylight again-the
strong, blessed, r, joiosng daylight.
Reader, tits useless to make up eur minds
to simply having "good time in this
world. Sooner or later sorrow and bitter
trials will come-nc love will arrest them
no care win shelter us from ,hem-God's
loviug tenderness will not interfere to save
us from all suffering and endurance here;
it is written that man is of few days and
full of trouble.
And we don't rsean to imply here that all
our trials are sent to us of Him. Sin and
mistake are constantly working out mischief
iG this wcrld but there is One who hath
overcome the world, and all things shall
work together fer good to those that love
Him.
And, reader, the best way is to settle Il
with ourselves at once and forever, that we
shall not have si:og,t ther, smooth, down.
hill, bcd-of-roses sort of way in this life.
Any real, staunch, brave living is tough,
uphill woodwork that stratus the sinews
and calls for all the moral forces Of ones
nature. And the great question for us to
settle is, how we shall receive and carry
and use our sorrows? In this lies the
whole matter. They may overcome US for
while, as the equinoctial gales do the for
est, bat vixen the winds are passed by, the
trees stand up again, fair and stately as
ever; and the birds lodge in the branches
thereof. And SO are cur sorrows to be
received. We may bend under them, but
neither death, nor loss, nor change in this
world should break us They should make
our hearts mellow with quick and te,,der
sympathies and charites-shey should give
a new richness and Gavorto the fruits which
hang on the boughs of our lives, so that
: which was before small, and sour, and
gnarled, should aow be fall and sweet, with
: juices like wine, for the sun and rains have
beat upon and ripened them.
I, 1t is better to take what comes, and to
take it bravely, trustingly. We all know
of sorrows which It seemed to US we could
never bear as we saw their first shadows
looming, up over the horizons of our skies
sorrows from the thought of which
: we turned shuddering, feeling that if they
came down upon us there could never be
for Us again light, or song, or peace fot 3
single hour
And yet the sorrows came down--sor-
rows Of death, and change, and loss they
beat the stately castles of our hopes to dust
they tore the quiyering Gbres of our
hearts-our souls went mourning in sack
cloth and ashess and yet the time Of heal
ing and renewing came, and Gods south
winds blew over our souls, and we live and
Q smile, with smile chastened and sobered
= by old memories, and the world is beautiful
once more.
Not with its lost beauty. The sorrows
tnat sweep over US ieave tHeir Traces. lney
: enlarge and ripcu us-they teach US tha.
the end of living is not mere enjoyment,
bat doing good, and Improvement OF our
owa characters but we cannot carry the
= old, careless, free hearts, the light joyous
: ness of spirit; life has now become some
= thing real and earnest to US There is a
y work TO be done, victory TO be won.
So, dear reader, by all the sweet uses Of
sorrow, by all its pain and discipline, by
the thorns which must pierce us, the bruises
o we must carry; by the battles we must
: fight, some in high, but most in lowly places,
whose witnesses are the great cloud which
no man beholdeth, and by the evil which
e we must overcome, may we be made meet
for the kingdom of heaven Fiysiaia T..
To@Rsesd.
!, SHORT QUARREIs.-Two little boys, the
: children Of pious parents, got angry with