Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1902-08-07
THE HEART DESOLATE.


The happiest life is not without it's
days of pathos and oftimes Fate, the
great tragedian, comes to sink the iron
in the soul. Few indeed who have at
tanned the meridian of their years have
escaped his visits, and all have felt at
times an isolation in their sorrow
while the world passed by like moving
pictures in which they had no part or
care.
While the gay world laughs there are
on every side Rachels weeping for
their children and refusing to be com
forted because they are not Beneath
the pine whose needle-leaves forever
play sweet but mournful melody, or
under the weeping willow whose droop-
ing foliage speaks sorrow it cannot
feel, or yet beside the briar bush
whose rising incense sweet tells us in
stinctively of hope and love, some
little one or cherished memory, laden
with the flowers, is laid to rest, leav-
ing void that none can fill. And
some heart is desolate.
And in it's turn youth, too, is taken,
and it may be that one over whose face
and form womanhood has thrown its
first sweet light and grace is marked
for the reaper, and gathered to the
l. hn +o L 10
pathway of the stars. And though
this happens every day in every year
in all the ages it grows no easier to
bear, and but for the faith that
triumphs over fear this world would
be but lodge of sorrow. So who shall
chide those close Of kin if they give
way to burst of grief when the heart
is desolate?
| The young soldier far over the
ocean, in whom family and cOuntl y
take d common pride, is called to the
last dreamless bivouac, and though
J the glory of the cause buoys up the
spirits of those at home, though his
name is written in letters of light high
among the heroes of the republic, and
though muffied drums shall beat a
soldiers burial yet all these and more
can never take the place of his loved
presence or charm away the conscious
ness of loss. He was yours and he is
gone, and as you walk beneath the
complaining stars in some accustomed
haunt in a voiceless companiOnship.
earthly glory mocks your sorrow, the
soul yearns for an end of it's captivity
and for the time the heart is desolate.
And sometimes parent full Of years
is called away, perchance mother in
Israel or pillar of the church, and
the loss is wider than the circle of the
home. Then the whole community
shares the burden of the sorrow,
which like joy can be shared but not
divided. Such loss is irreparable, for
the intimacies and associations of a
lifetime are not to be replaced except
in another lifetime, and we have but
one. So bear with those who have
seen such sorrows and are acquainted
with grief like this, for well may we
believe that their cup is full and their
hearts desolate.
But they that mourn shall be COM
forted. The little ones gathered like
flowers before the reaper shall return
to US, and their voices be as the per-
fume Of happiness in that better
world. Youth and beauty shall be
there glorifed, and the mother heart
breaking on the shores of time, shall
be healed forever. The broken circle
shall be reunited, the mystery of life
removed, the signing of the wilderness
shall be turned to the songs of the re-
deemed, and the heart shall be desolate
no more.