The Bloomfield times. [volume] (New Bloomfield, Pa.) 1867-187?, 1872-09-17

Human Suffering.

MO fact in the phenomena of the world,
IN death alone excepted, has made SO
deep an impression upon the minds of all
classes of men in all ages as the various
sufferings to which the human race is sub
jected. Everywhere the fact has stared
men in the face, and pierced them to the
heart. From the remotest period of fable
and myth it has been alike the theme Of
the poet, the orator, and philosopher. 1t
has inspired gloomy, solemn literature,
an elegy more drear than the howl of arctic
winds, more touching than the moaning
pines in the twilight breeze. 1t is the mu-
sic of the hoary prophet. 1t trembles upon
the heaven-touched lips of the Evangelist
1t came in weird strains from the Man of
Sorrows in the garden especially consecra-
ted to the spirit of suffering. 1t has been
for two thousand years the grandest song of
the Christian Church song to whose
touching melody all classes and grades of
humanity have listened with tears, with
unspeakable rapture, and with living aspi-
rations for the land of rest (; and we have
turned toward each other again with a feel
ing of brotherly regard, and mutual for
giveness of the errors of life The song of
suffering has been sung everywhere-in the
field, in the workshop, in the counting-room,
in the palace, in the cottage, and in the
hovel in health, in sickness, in daytime,
in the night in sad and sore bereavements,
when the soul stands alone on earth, and
feels the ground sinking beneath its feet ;
and upon the bed of DEATH when the light
and eye perish together, and the darkness
without any light wraps us in unbroken
silence. The little child, the young maid
en- rich in hopes never to be realized, the
young man in his pride and ambition, mid
die life with its sober brow and home en-
joyments, and withered age, alike sing the
song of sorrow. Sooner or later every heart
is attuned to the plaintive strain. No po-
sition, no honors, no gift of genius, how
ever rare and brilliant, can purchase ex-
emption from suffering, or bribe away the
heartless spirit of anguish.
And is it not well ? Suffering must have
important purposes to fulfill in the develop
ment and perfection Of humanity. A fact
SO universal, and which is coeval with man,
cannot be regarded as an accident. Suffer
ing is designed. 1t was intended, it was
carefully provided for in the structure of
both the soal and body, and in the living
Interchangeable relations of society. Physi-
cal pain has been the occasion of calling
out the mind. 1t has developed the art of
architecture, and the sciences of physiology,
anatomy, therapeutics, and surgery. 1t
has led to the invention of mechanics, and
to the discoveries of steam and the electric
telegraph, though its connection with those
is remote. 1t has developed allthat knowl-
edge by which we are able to take care Of
ourselves and others. But for physical pain
the world would have remained children in
mind.
1t is, however, in moral point of view
that the good and beautiful effects of hu-
man suffering are best seen. 1t is the bond
of the noble feeling of humanity 1t un-
derlies the Divine Spirit of Christian
brotherhood, as it underlies the Christian
institution itself, the central source of its
power and efficacy, the sufferings and death
of the Goldman. 1t is pain and sorrow
which have chastened into gentleness and
beauty the family affections, and make
them shine upon the world like gushes of
golden sunlight upon the crystal waters
1t has planted in the shady suburbs of the
great cities hospitals for the sick, the in
sane, the blind, the dumb, and the mutila-
ted. From out the great abyss of human
neutrality-suspicious. sun, another sky, anoth-
er world has risen-the world of Christian
civilization, with its Divine forms of spirit
ual loveliness Constant suffering and sor-
row are teaching the greatest lessons of
wisdom, purity, and love. Slowly they are
evolving the spiritual that is in man and
bringing heaven and earth closer together.
Suffering has done, and is still doing a work
for men that love in no other form could do.
1t is making man nobler than he was, and
leading him on to his appointed rest.
In the very core of the heart bound up
with the inmost fibres-its most divine tex
ture--is the looking for, and the eternal
longing for rest The whole creation
groansin the pangs of birth. Through the
rifted clouds we see fields of mellow light
Ia shoreless sea Of untroubled glory, and
some souls catch now and then spiritual
] perceptions of the final rest--a Divine
! realm of peace and reunion with the dead
: and the lost Of earth, where there are no
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