The Canton times. (Canton, Miss.) 1893-1906, 1900-06-29
humble child pra, err saying: 81 see

4
of feet, wounds of heart Now, look
at my wounds and see what l have
suffered and through what battles ]
am going, anu / entreat Thee by those
wounds of Thine to sympathiZe with
me-" And He will sympathize, and He
will help. Go and tell Jesus.
Again, l commend the behavior of
many in garb of mourning? How many
emblems of sorrow you behold every
where? God has His own way of TAX
! ing apart family. We must get out of
the way for coming generations We
must get off the stage that others may
come on, and for this reason there is a
long procession reaching down all the
time into the valley of shadows. This
emigration from time into eternity is
SO vast an enterprise that we cannot
understand it. Every hour we hear the
clang of the sepulchral gate The sod
must be broken. The ground must be
plowed for resurrection harvest. Eter-
nifty must be peopled. The dust must
press our eyelids. at is appointed
unto all men once to die" This emf
grafton from time into eternity keeps
three-fourths of the families of the
earth in desolation. The air is rent
with farewells, and the black taseled
vehicles of death rumble through every
street. The body of the child that was
folded so closely to the mothers heart
is put away in the cold and the dark
ness. The laughter freezes to the girls
lip, and the rose scatters. The boy in
the harvest field of Shunem says: MY
head. My head" And they carry him
home to die on the lap of his mother.
Widowhood stands with tragedies Of
woe struck into the pallor of the cheek.
Orphanage cries in vain for father and
mother. Oh, the grave is cruel! With
teeth of stone it clutches for its prey.
Is there any earthly solace? None.
We come to the obsequies, we sit with
the grief stricken, we talk pathetically
to their soul; but soon the obsequies
have passed, the carriages have left us
at the door, the friends who staid for
a few days are gone, and the heart sits
in desolation listening for the little
feet that will never again patter
the hall, or looking for the en-
trance of those who will never come
thanksgiving into the darkness-ever
and anon coming across some book or
garment or little shoe or picture that
arouses former association, almost kill |
ing the heart. Long days and nights
Of suffering that wear out the spirit |
and expunge the bright lines of life and |
give haggardness to the face and draw |
the flesh tight down over the cheek |
bone and draw dark lines under the |
sunken eye, and the hand is tremulous,
and the voice is husky and uncertain,
and the grief is wearing, grinding, ac-
eXhaustng.
Now, what are such to do? Are they
merely to look up into brazen and I'M
plying sky? Are they to walk a blast
ed heath unfed of stream, unsheltered
by overarching trees? Has God turned
is out on the barren common to die?
Oh, no! no! no. He has not. He comes
With sympathy and kindness and love.
He understands all our grief. He sees
the height and depth and the length
md the breadth of it. He is the only
me that can fully sympathze. Go and
ell Jesus. Sometimes when we have
rouble we go to our friends and we
Explain it, and they try to sympathize;
tut they do not understand it. They
understand it. But Christ sees
Ill over it and all through it. He not
'nly counts the tears and records the
groans, but before the tears started,
'efore the groans began Christ saw the
nmost hiding place of your sorrow,
nd He takes it, and He weighs it, and
lie measures it, and He pities it with an
II absorbing pity. Bone of our bone.
'lesh of our flesh. Heart of our heart.
orrow of our sorrow. AS long as He
emembers Lazarus grave He will
tand by you in the cemetery. As long
S He remembers His own heartbreak
lie will stand by you in the laceration
your affections. When He forgets
he footsore way, the sleepless nights,
he weary body, the exhausted mind, '
he awful cross, the solemn grave, then
e will forget you, but not until then. {
OlNCh NhNh We hCIC III lIOuDlt we
mt for our friends, but they were far
way; they could not get 10 us. We I
rote to them: Come right away" '
r telegraphed: Take the next train" ]
hey came at last, yet were great g
lille in coming or perhaps were too J
tie. But Christ is always near-before !
ou, behind you, within you. No moth I
. i | \
lid with such warmth and ecstasy
affection as Christ has shown toward n
~. Close at hand-nearer than the n