St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1878-10-18
The Death of the Child.
BY J. E. ROCKWELL, D. d.

The following sentences occur IN 4
letter which ] lately received from 4
dear son whose home is among the
broad prairies of the Southwest: "It
what Il home have we Ieturned-desO-
late and lonely. At evening prayers il
seemed hmd to substitute Il petition fol
submission in place of may this child
he trained up in the nurture and admO-
milton of the Lord His little chair and
crib are in their place, and it seems as
if he must soon wake and interrupt this
letter, as he has often done before. We
had selected Il spot for Our new church
and cemetery, and there our little one
lies in his lonely grave. To think the
ground should thus he brOken-Our fist
born the first to sleep there. AT his
funeral we sang:
My Jesus thou wilt;
oh may thy will be mine
This was the last lullaby to our babe.
sung to Agatha, Il tune | often had used
in putting him to sleep. Then, after Il
last kiss the caSket was closed and we
laid him away. God has taken him to
himself" s. a. ..s4.s ....
The sorrow and grief which these
words indicate are no new experience
In all the long ages since the sentence
was spoken, "Dust thou art, and unto
dust shalt thou RETURN" the air has been
full of sad fHreWells th the dying. Many
who read these lines may possibly even
now lie passing through the same sOr-
row, and weeping over little graves
where then darlings are sleeping, and
on which the sun shines, the storms
beat, and the flowers blossom and fade.
There is no flock, however watched and tended,
But one dead lamb is there;
There is no Preside, howsoe'er defended,
But has one vacant chair"
How often have the sad words of Da-
vd been re-pchOed, 1.-The chill is dead
can bring him back again ?" What Il
dark shadow is that which falls upon
the heart when the little feet that once
battered over the floor are still, and the
voices huShed that made such dear mu-
sic in the household 1t is an event
which the world needs not, and which
makes not even a ripple upon the great
sea of life. The wheels of business
move on without Il pause, and the surg
es of active business hurry by without
an ebb. But there are hearts crushed
and desolate, to which it seems us
though pail of night had fallen upon
them ut nOon-day.
The child is dead Oh what a world
of care, of painful anxiety, Of prayers
alternating between hopes and fears, of
long watchings by the cradle now emp
ty, of tears and agony aud crushing sOr-
row is pressed into that brief sentence.
Stricken mourners have been looking
upon sufferings which they could not
relieve have watched the painful
struggles of dissolution, and have seen
the eyes once so bright darkening with
the film of death. There was convul-
sive shudder, Il plaintive moan, that can
never be forgotten, and all was over.
1t was the last of earth.
The child is dead? God pity and
comfort the stricken hOusehold. Let
them fold those tiny hands upon the
heart, and place sweet flowers there,
too soon to wither in the tomb. Let
them softly enter the darkened cham
berlwhere the babe lies in its hushed
repOse, beautiful even in death, and
look into his little coffin and kiss again
and again those lips that, now cold and
sealed, can give no answering pressure.
1t is all affection can do. Let them fol-
low those dear remains to the grave;
leave them there. 1t is cold and
dark and lonely bed in which their lit
tie one must he laid. Yet there its
precious dust must sleep, while they
return to their home and look with bit
ter grief upon his empty cradle and his
vacant chair, and amid binding tears
put away, as useless, but sacred ever
more, his clothes and his playthings,
and break forth into fresh grief as they
realize now that the places which once
knew him shall know him no more for
ever.
And yet among these dark shadows
light shines, and springs of holy cOnso-
latiOn well forth from the Oracles of
God for those who are weeping for their
children because they are not. Ought
not every murmuring thought be stiled
by the assurance that the Lord hath
done 1t. He gave and he hath taken
away. Who can dispute his right to do
sOP Who can question the Justice or
prOpriety of his dealings If he directs
even the fall of Il sparrow, he surely OIL
deIs the sad event that tears from the
arms of his children the little ones that
they love. 1t is no chance or accident
which has befallen them. 1t is the
WIZ N vi oiO WIN even where
he loves, and who has towards them
designs of infinite wisdom and good
ness when he afflicts. He places them
in the furnace, but it is that he NAV
refine and purify them by the fires of
affection. And shall they complain of
the process by which they are fitted the
better to serve their heavenly Father.
and weaned from the world and led to
hate sin, to long for holiness and to
have sympathy with the employments
and society of heaven2,. Oh, to how
many of Gods children has the stroke
that has laid their little ones in the
grave, even though it has left them
childless and desoIate, been the means
of developing their spiritual graces. of
making them heavenly minded, and of
causing them more abundantly to man
ifest the life of faith and holiness.
And in the light which the gospel
ohaHc unon Iiffla Qra VOC ,rho Il m