Edgefield advertiser. [volume] (Edgefield, S.C.) 1836-current, 1868-01-22
The Dead Wife.

whelmn1g, so utterly irremediable-as that
for the dear dead wife the wife of your
first love, of your buoyant, hopeful youth,
with all its new experiences, its sweet
revelations, its early struggles, it's mutual
aims, its hopes, its siabors and its fruilions;
for long years together you. worked side
by side, hand in hand she shared your
troubles, and kissed away half the seyeri-
ty; she doubted your gfadness by yAthe
pleasure whichits gave her to see~you
happy; and when in the lapse Of years,
you had arrived at a position to enable
YOU to take life easy and enjoy it, as you
had never done before, a heavenly hand
takes her from your side and transports
her into the presence of. God, where you
may not follow her now. You want to,
tell her how sweetly she died; how her
friends gathered around her funeral bier,
and, in their affection, sirewed white flow.
ers upon her bosom; how lovingly and
long they gazed on the dear famiiarface,
so beautifully calm in death a heavenly
sweetness 50 pervading every lineament
as to give it IN angel seeming. You want
to tell her, too. how that last, long, fond
kiss almost broke your heart and how
YOU wanted to die when they Ct iered
her face from your sight forever, and
then as the weary weeks pass on, how
busy memory brings up the forgotten
past, with its long array of loving acts;
of spontaneous tenderness of selt.abne
cations; of sleepess vigilance; of. in
stinc,ive solicitude; how you would give
your life away for one short interview.
But it cannot be; she is an angel now,
and in her heavenly purity waits in pa
| tient affection for the time when it shall
be the M4ster's will to bring you to her
feet, and make of You an angel too.
Beautifully has it been said of THE DEAD
WIFE - ~ ss' t1a
"In comparison with that loss, all other
bereavements are trihes. The wife! she
who fills so large space in the domestic
heaven !; she who; is. SO busy, so unweary /;
bitter, bitter is the tear that falls on her
clay. You stand beside her grave and
think of the past; an amber colored path
way, where the sun shone upon beautiful
flowers or the stars hung glittering in the
sky. No thorns are remembered above
the sweet clay, save those your own hand d
raay have unwittingly planted. HerlnoT
| BILE, tender heart hes openi' to yonrHiui-
most Sight. You think of her as all gen
tleness.S all beauty. and all purity. But
she r'5deadI1 The dear head that SO often
laid upon your bosom, now rests upon a
pillow Of clay. The soft hands that min.
istered so untiringly to your every want
are folded, white and cold, beneath the
gloomy portals. The heart whose every
beat measured an eternity of love, lies
| still under your feet. And there is no
white arm over your shoulder now; no
speaking face to look up in the eye Of
love; no smile to greet you at night-fall
and the clock strikes, and ticks again
1t was sweet music when she could
hear it; now it seems to knell only the
hours through which you watched the
shadows of death gathering upon her
sweet face; but many a tale it teleth OF
Joys past, sorrows shared, and beautiful
words and deeds registered above. You
feel assured that she is ill happier world,
and that with an angel presence she Is
often at your side. Cherish these emo
tions. Let her holy presence be as a
charm to keep you from evil. Never
forget what she has been to you, and be
tender of her memory"
But if desolations like these sweep re-
sistlessly over the heart of the stout.
strong man when his wife has been taken
from his side, how incomputably greater
must be the sorrow of the widowed bo-
som when he has been removed upon
whose arms she so wholly leaned, upon
whose counsel she so wholly rested, and
upon whose providence she so implicitly
relied. Give your warmest sympathies,
then, to the widowed heart, reader, and
no longer wonder that Divinity has made
it one of the evidences of fitness for the
heavenly mansions, "to visit the widow"
to stand by her, ever ready to lend her
your countenance, your counsel, your
support, and your defence.