Marietta daily leader. (Marietta, Ohio) 1895-1906, 1899-01-29
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y A Preacher y
:. Among the People. !.
THE WOUNDS IN THE WORLDS
HEART

young mother took the dead body of
her child to Buddha and besought him
to restore it to life. Buddha told her
to go and get mustard seed from some
one whose family circle death had new
or invaded and bring it to him, prom
ising her that he would then restore
the dead child. The mother went
away and sought diligently for a long
time, then return ing to Buddha she
told him that no one could be foun in
al 1.-The land from whom death had not
taken some relative or friend Then
he exhorted her that since her sorrow
was common to all mankind to bear it
patiently and hopefully as others were
doing and thereby lessen the pain in
cident to the deep woundin the world s
heart.
The lesson is a good one and it
that wrings our hearts may be very
great, but it is not new. Somebody
has walked that same pathway before,
and drank from the same bitter foun-
tain of whose waters we are compelled
to drink.
Some time ago | received a letter
from friend, a part of which read as
follows: my life never came so near
having an intolerabre burden before.
This cannot be wholly apparent to
you, but if / could tell you all the sad,
sad circumstances, you would go a
great way toward seeing why. For
myself no human being since / lost my
few dear ones many years ago, has
been haf so dear to me as my blessed
child Hattie. She wants to live and
life looks very dear to her, but she
tries to bear it brave.y and to think
that whatever comes is best. But it
breaks my heart to see how she wants
to live and to know that cannot give
her my life and strength, which
would so joyfully do ii l only could
1t sometimes seems cruel to me, but
hope for what l cannot see. For a
good while, the Good Father has SEEM
ed to me too far away"
1t was another case of the faithful,
devoted teacher and capable, loving,
but sick and dying scholar. 1t indi-
Gates one of the deep wounds in the
worlds heart, and begets wider SYM
pathy for the children of men. My
friend and former teacher, for she was
my teacher too, represents a larger
class than the sorrowing mother who
has not yet been sent to get mustard
seed from some one to whose family
circle death is a stranger, is likely to
think.
Many, many, are the times that /
have stood by the bedside of one
whose hold on life was hourly weak
ening, and whose place a mother,
'ather, grandparent or friend would
gladly have taken had such an ex-
change been possible. And there are
wounds in the worlds heart deeper
han those which death inflicts. Twas
liking with an intelligent lady one
lay and the conversation turned upon
he history of her family. For a time
it was both interesting and instructive
20 me; but suddenly She stopped.
There came choking in her throat
and her eyes filled with tears. The
horn was there; it had ben touched
and she felt the stab. The simple
mention of a brothers name caused
Inc sudden and painful change in our
,alk. In a moment she explained to
ne that the brother mentioned had by
his waywardness ruined his own
bright prospects and brought such a
disgrace upon his aged moth
er, brothers and sisters as only those
who have suffered likewise can ever
know. Their can be no shadow with
out light, but sometimes the shadows
are so deep that the light seems to
have been forever obscured. The
wound in the world S heart is very deep
And lis there no balm in Gilead; is
ther no physician there?"
Yes, God is infinite, and God is love,
and so we trust
That nothing walks with aimless feet;
That no one life shall lie destroyed
Or cast as rubbish to the void
when God hath made the pile complete.
That God that ever lives and loves
One God, one law one element,
And one far of divine event
10 which the whole creation moves"
Once grant that it is not the will of
God that any should perish but that all
should turn to him and live and any
hing less than full realization of the |
poets comprehensive trust implies the
lefeat of the Infinite. There is no |
middle ground here that can long be |
maintained, Either God is infinite |
and every knee will bow, and every |
tongue confess" or he is not infinite |
md so may be defeated by the inter
'ention Of an inferior being, perchance
4 devil, perchance a willful man.
For those who declare that the bow
ng of every knee and confessing of ev-
cry tongue implies the destruction cf |
mans will and freedom to choose,
reply that in the sense in which the
successful ldntergartner brings the
little fellow left in
her charge to do the right
thing by tie constraining and iu-