The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1896-12-12

ry becomes the fount OF gratitude.
The conception of ancient mythol-
ogy, which represented departed
spirits as drinking of Lethean waters,
and thereby becoming oblivious toall
the sufferings oflife, is most heather
and cruel. Far different is the wis
dom of the Scriptures. which, by
every appliance, would quicken men,
ory and never benumb it; which
would counsel us to look back from
every eminence in our advancing
Journey upon the way in which God
has led us.
The great body of those odes which
compose our inspired hymnology, are
set to this very keynote gratitude
to God, in memory of personal and
national troubles, from which he has
wroughtour deliverance. This is the
philosophy of Christian joy-the
harvest reaping coming after the
sowing of tears. Nor can l think of
a surer method of promoting rational
cheerfulness, when families are as
sembled at their domestic festival,
than conversing together about
earlier struggles and depressions;
how they wrestled with difficulties in
getting a start in life; of the self
denials which parents practiced to
give son an education; of the brave
trust with which they battled.
Tears have blessing of their own.
Without equivocation or reserve, l
mean that tears and joys are immed-
lately related, as sowing and reaping,
as means and ends, as beginnings
and issues. 1t is no poetic conceit
concerning the luxury of grief" de-
vised by those who never knew the
touch of actual sorrow, as one of the
ancients wrote on the advantages OF
poverty when he had two millions out
at usury; it is no notion of Pagan
stoicism, denying the existence of
evil, and counselling insensibility
under that which is 80 called;vit is
nothing like either that | would en-
ploy to delude the sorrowful into a
better bearing of their grief; but the
sober, honest truth, that sorrow, like
the rains and blowing of the spring,
does us good. He is only half-edu-
cate1 who is conversant with pros
perity only. There cannot be the
richest harvest in the soul and life of
that man who has not passed through
the preparatory process of sowing in
tears.
Seneca, discoursing on kindred
subject, puts into the mouth of De-
metrius this remarkable saying:
Nothing would be more unhappy
than man who had never known
affection" A notable saying, most
certainly! tits something more than
the truism that prosperity may prove
an injury by pampering our passions
with overload and mistaken indul-
gences. Mark the word: Nothing
would be more unhappy"-the Latin,
infeliG, does not mean unfortunate
merely, but unblessed, nothing would
bemore unhappy and unblessed than
one who had never known affection.
just what the ak, and plough, and
harrow, and storm and rain, do for
the mould, developing its latent
properties, fearful Affections accom-
plish IN our own conscious being. 1t
is phenomenon familiar to those
who are engaged in clearing new
countries, that oftentimes, as the
ak levels the forest, fountains OF
waters, till then concealed, spring
to the surface. That illustrates
what takes place in the human
heart when sharp Affections PROSTATE
the pride and the strength which
have overshadowed affections deep
seated and unknown. Paradoxical
as it may sound to the Inexperienced,
we are enriched by losses; and many
man has emerged from sorrow wiser,
happier than before. The rod has
struck the rock, and from the hard
and finty bosom has gushed forth
sensibility which brings a blessing
In the Sketch-Book Of Mr.. Irving
there is one piece, entitled "The
Wife," which is the general favorite
of young gentlemen of certain age,
and it is much to their credit and
honor that it is 80. 1t represents a
city merchant unexpectedly and ire
trievably embarrassed in affairs, and
brought down from affiuence to
bankruptcy.
Vacating his opulent mansion, and
taking a modest cottage in the rural
suburbs, he is just about to go to his
new home, to join his young wife
and he is tortured with the apprehen-
sion of finding her weary, detected,
and d;anonaoIata Instead Of this a