Vermont watchman and State journal. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1836-1883, 1869-06-02

Secret Sorrow.


How many persons into whose faces we
look, as we walk the streets, have sorrows, the
existence of which would never be imagined
from anything that we can sec! Strangers
to us, we pass them by with hurried glance
which reveals naught of the pent up emotions
that struggle in their souls for the mastery.
With countenances placid as the unruffled
bosom of quiet lake, they look smiingly on
all around, and pass on their way. Could we
but see their hearts as easily as we see their
faces, how much of sorrows history it would
be ours to know These secret sorrows are
not monopolized by strangers. Even our
friends, intimate though we may be with
them often have troubles that we know not
of. The origin Of these may date beyond the
time of our acquaintance; they care not now
to speak Of them even to us Yet the hid
den grief is in their hearts, and in secret
tears fall which our eyes are never permitted
to see. There are also some Of their troubles
which are known to us, but we never mention
them in their presencei the subject Is alto
gether too painful for conversation, aud, by Q
tacit understanding, is carefully ignored
These heavy burdens they must bear alone
as far as human aid is concerned; our sym
pathies maybe felt, but cannot be expressed.
And even in those cases, where We may
speak freely concerning the griefs which
Cypress the soul, we cannot always enter into
| full sympathy with the sufferers. Our oYI
situation, for the time, may be OF an opposite
character, and We may not feel in sympa-
thetic mood; or the story Of grief may have
been so often repeated to us as to become
unaifecting; though to the sufferer, the sor
row may still be as heavy as when it was new
Then in solitude must these griefs be borne
and the tears they force be shed in secret
The soul is thrown back upon its own resour
ces. Human sympathy has reached its limit
and has failed to fully meet the case. Nc
blame is to be attached to it for this, for, like
all other human attributes, it is finite The
soul thus left alone, with the consciousness
that it is beyond the power of friends to help
finds its strength severely tested. Philosophy
may brace its failing energies, but canno
supply the aid required. Where philosophy
fails, faith triumphs; so that secret sorrow
become a means Of developing the heart BY
the strength they furnish to faith. The SOU
learns its utter helplessness, and is cast upoI
4 its God. There il feels as safe as chic
nesting in its mothers arms.
This, after all, is the ultimate resort OF the
troubled heart. God would have us feel oul
dependence on him, and he has therefore Sc
ordered it, that nothing short Of himself cal
satisfy the wants of the soul. One resource
after another is tried and fails, until the hear
comes back to God as instinctively as the doy,
returned to Noah in the Ark, having +" fount
no rest for the sole of her foot" Here We
may find rest and strength, and thus the grea'
burdens of life, which threaten at times t'
break US down, are the means OF establishing
{ US in all that is noble and true, because they
. drive us to God for help.
, Many are the tears that flow and the slgh'
!, which rise in secret The mother sits alone
, in her house, holding little lock Of golden
hair. The one whose head 1t once adorned is