Ashtabula weekly telegraph. [volume] (Ashtabula, Ohio) 1853-1873, 1870-04-23

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or less deep, and no man should find fault
with bis lot If sorrow comes TO him. But still G
II is very hard TO bear. /
Ihave Just come home from the funeral of $
dear friend, and where l was the more sorry |
since there were SO many whose grief was I
deeper than mine 1t was good man who |
died. pious and patient, and now that he is
dead find all his excellencies standing out in
bold relief, to augment my afiliction. His
immediate frien IDS must feel very much more
deeply than $50 my sorrow becomes greater
because added to by sympathy.
AS sit here and think of all this am led
| to call up the comforting thoughts that
can command, and put them down, because
what is a comfort to me may be comfort to
some one else.
Here philosophy fails me. Though 1t is val
liable in lesser SORROWS, at such time as this
lis it not strangely we allow Michiayel, and
kindred authors to rest in their places on the
library Shelves and we betake ourselves to
one 6ook-the Bible.
have been reading in this wonderful book
for somctime,-and always love to read it,
but now close it and give myself up to re-
f1ection.
After all, dark, cloudy, hopeless nights often
shroud souls as they do hemisphercs. Souls
are hemispheres that are pcoplcd with moving,
animate thoughts; and when the sun shines
on them they are blithe and active, but under
the darkness they are dark and heavy. The
soulday is happiness the soul-night is mis-
cry. When the sun of prosperity shines on the
soul, ii makes day; when the sun is hid in ad-
versity it makes the night. Prosperity is the
zenith at meridian; adversely is the nadir.
When the soul Is in affliction we call 1t
night Our garb of mourning is black to des-
ignate the darkness of night. The ancients
wore sack-cloth and ashes, and rent their
clothes, not only when afflicted with the death
of friends but for every soul-mournng--as in
calamties, in penitence, in trouble. This de-
, noted the lack of refinement and ncatness,
! which the darkness would cover.
e In China mourning is white, to denote puri-
ty and lightness-the soul coming from the
night of earth to the celestial day "a delight
ful emblem that makes the real soul day Incl
dent to the night of earth. In Turkey mourn
ing is blue, or purple, or violet. The blue de-
notes the blue sky Of dawn, and reminds of
day returned; and purple or violet, being a
mixture of blue and black, denotes twilight,
4 or commingled sorrow and hope-day and
- night In Egypt yellow is used denotiug the
fading of flowers and leaves in autumn, or the
40 close of the Summer day of life and joy, and
a the approach of the winters night of death
70 and sorrow,-"thc scre and yellow leaf" In
,r Ethiopia the mourning garb is brown; the col
10 or of the earth at evening, and of the foliage
g at night. Every country has a connection be-
80 tween afiliction and night Job, David, Jere-
% miah and Isaiah, all use the two terms indis-
"a criminately. We are accustomed to do So
., However questionable the practice may be
n of clothing The body with the darkness tha
as shrouds the heart, in time of sorrow,-the
90 symbols of mourning are good and instructive
of Sorrow comes to all and so far from being
NO a needless or a cruel thing that men SHOULD
in suffer, it is necessary and mcrciful arrange
he ment God sends sorrows-dark nights tina
" shroud the soul in gloom. Men find Gcthse
names and even Calvarys on earth. So larg
&C. a part of soul-histOry on earth is sad, that
he when the Savior wished to learn to sympaahiZ
with men, he was obliged TO become IA Mai
of sorrows, and acquainted with grief" Hi
whole life was one of sorrow. 1t was for 9th
ers,-he could not sorrow for himself, only
lite the SHINING can do that, butt was sorrow still
tic But for every evil that God permits he send
I'd an antidote. For the evil of Punishment, h
wv, sent labor, For the pains that came wit
work, he sent the Sabbath so rich a goo
on that John Quinton of Ipswich, in his prize e
ms say on it, calls it Heavens antidOte to tt
na- Curse of Labor" For the trials of life, Go
TAG implanted Love as an antidote For the hour
of pain, and WEAKNESS, and loneliness an
,h sorrow,-just such us we all feel to-day-GO
" gives 'son gs in the night"
: A When we speak of Affections we speak {
the common lot of man. They are as variol
= 20 in their form as are human histories, mo OF
led Is WITHOUT 'hcii' Every hear' A"o"o'h
,,o, own bitterness "-"There is skeleton in eve
household. ."-"There are skulls of all sorts al
sizes in Golgotha ;"-and the heart is a Golg
~ tha with the skulls of hopes great and small
of plans magnificent and diminutive. This
so' necessary--iti is the curse. "In sorrow sh,
"t' thou bring forth" But is, after all, the cur
. only because it is painful. Great good eyoly
,'so from it.
80 Earth is the crucible into which the ore
.d, put, and suffering is the fire by which IT
!. - smeted We get the gold of the soul by 81
&C. feIing. If there is no gold in the soul, it W
% nj be all burned up and ruined;-if there is &c
,ood there, suffering will make it come out.
ions Think what suffering made of the eai
Christians under the prosecutions of Nero al
q Domitian, and Trajan, and Maximinius, a
Vaerian, and Diocletian. Think what it ma
:, of Luther under the Council of Trent; of
Waldenses under the Inquisition; of the
o'p" formed Church under the Invincible Armad
of the Huguenots of France in the reign
~ ~ Charles TX, and at the time of 81. Bartho
10y news Day in 1879, when 10000 were slain
hn" less than thirty dayst Think what it mI
. vi of Bunyan, and Melancthon of Huss,
',ie Knox; of Rogers, and Ridley, and Latin
'io and thousands of others Think what ST.
stuff was developed in the Puritans throu
AcK- suffering, and in the heroes of the Revoluti
llou | aod ,vhot hoe Iaan dpveloned in the heroes