The Bolivar bulletin. [volume] (Bolivar, Hardeman County, Tenn.) 1865-1888, 1873-02-21
THE VALLEY OF THE SHADOW.

Ih6 VALLEY OE The SHADOW.
It is CALCULATED that there die each
day upon this earth 81 1924 human
beings-which gives {, 1926 hour by hour,
and 81 every minute Each tick of the
clock sounds the funeral knell of pass
ing spirit. To each one that departs,
the world has come to an end, as much
as it viii be to those who witness the
confagration of the last day. Despite
this perpetual experince, Death re-
mains to the great majority of man.
kind strange, melancholy, inscrutable.
The heart of universal mankind darkens
mt his approach "The last enemy
whice shall be destroyed is Death, 4" and
rs an enemy he is already destroyed to
those who are not, like children, alarm
Cd by the darkness, but see beyond it
the lights in their Fathers house, and
are introduced to brightera and happier
state of existence.
But, sadder and more bitter than the
prodigiOus daily array of deaths which
we have named are the bitter tears and
heart broken signs of the bereaved.
We may count the deaths, but who shall
count those signs and tears? Even
Jesus wept at the grave of Lazarus.
Where sting of Death if taken away by
the grace which Christ bestows. the
survivors are more to be compassionated
than the dead. Why should he be
cOmmiserated who has exchanged life
of tribulation for smooth haven and
eternal safety? It is those who are
left it is the anguished living hearts
that demand our sympathy. Yet even
of these, when servants of God, it is
said ''He putteth their tears in His
bottle" He preserves the tears of his
saints. Blessed are they that mourn,
for they shall be comforted. Every
sacred drop of sanctifed affection, shall
one day be luminous with the glories of
Heaven, as the sunbeams shine in the
dew drops.
Far sadder, it has always seemed to
us, than even the first anguish of
bereavement, is the gradual effacing of
the recollecting of the dead which is
wrought by time. It is mercifuI pro-
vision to man that Time should bring
healing on its wings to wounded souls,
or else each bereaved household would
be ever filed with the sights and sounds
of woe. And yet, humanity speaking,
we never so entirely part with the dead,
as when the familiar face has begun to
fade away in the dim distance of years,
and event which once convuIsed us with
agony can be spoken of without emotion.
In the one case our friends have died
to us; in the other, we die to our
friends. And how soon, as one has
said, the dead are forgotten Surely
no wish could be more rational in the
dying than that those they leave should
not bury them in oblivion as well as
the grave; and no invocation more
national to the survivors than, -'Lord,
keep thee memory green"
Yet even the sadness of the ''obIivious
antidOte" which Time is mercifulIy
instrumental in administering to human
woe, is relieved by the thought that the
Resurrection will one day bring up from
the grave not only the body, but the
soul, with all its memories and affec-
tions are fresh and strong, as when
Death hid with his dark shadow the
light of their earthly home, so that
those who are separated here shall not
only meet in Heaven, but meet feeling
as they would have felt, if the dead had
been restored to life ere the grave had
received them; as the widow of Main
felt when the Saviour gave the dead
man back to his mother.