The Fulton County news. [volume] (McConnellsburg, Pa.) 1899-current, 1904-05-11
THE MISSION OF SORROW.
Written for the News by Prof. George
w, Ashton


1t would indeed be a strange
life that had not been touched
with sorrow. No such life has
ever lived III this world. Ella
Wheeler Wilcox in her beautiful
poem "Gethsemane" says:
IAN paths that have been or shall be
Pass somewhere through GethsemGne'-
the garden of sOrrows--
The sky that is clear to-day is overcast to-mor-
row."
Butwhilewe waltin the shadows
let US watch for the kiudllng light,
it Will come. How true it is that:
There is no flock however wa tched and tended
But one dead lamb is there;
There is no freside howcer defended
But has one vacant chair"
Friend after friend departs and
earth grows strange and lonely
as one chamber after another is
locked in our hearts, but heaven
should seem nearer every day.
The great flood of human an
guish that flows down and on
ward through the ages is largely
due to death, a word pregnant
with mysteries past conception
and terrOrs past repression. We
stand appalled, in it's presence, i5
is so overwhelming IN it's reality,
and our very instructive solicltude
recolls at its contemplation. This,
however, is due to the weakness
of human nature and the fact that
death hides the faces Of loved
ones whose living smile was the
sunlight of our existence, out the
chain of affection has been but
loosened, not link of it has been
broken for love is too divine TO be
come dust. What we call death
the angels call Immortality, and
even in the night OF death, hope
sees star and listening love can
hear the rustic of wing.
While sorrow always abounds
in the world, we are not always
equally conscious of it. 1t is only
when it enters our homes, or
comes within the circle of our in.
innate friends, that we feel it's
touch more keenly than usual and
are Frustrated with grief. 1t is
then that sorrow overshadows
our lives and makes them sadly
serious. While thus bowed down
with woe, we are led to inquire
What is the meaning of all this
sorrow, and why does it come p
Is there anything good in 1t p
Must we simply bow to these
things with a little more submls-
siveness and patience, but with
only a feeling that it Is the stern
decree of fate from which there
is no possible relief? Or are these
sorrows somehow to result in
good to US, so that while we can
not escape them, nor mitigate
their painfulness, yet we our
selves are not to be left by them
just as they found us?
While we ponder we are impell.
ed to acknowledge that Gods
hand is in it all. We are not the
victims of blind fate. We live IN
a universe of intelligence all of
which Is under the control and
direction of one sovereign power.
We need 30 be reminded of this
when the shadows have settled
about US and the sharpness OF
our own suffering has caused us
to forget the greater world and
the higher hand that rules it.
Sorrow seems TO serve as a re-
fining fire to us. 1t burns out
some of the baser metals for the
time at least. 1t is good to weep.
1t makes us childlike. The child
heart Is tender. 1t weeps easily.
And we adults are reduced to the
tenderness of childhood when
something has brought US TO the
point of feeling at which we weep.
The human heart is always ten.
der under q real sorrow. Our i'll
feelings are overcome. Our little
, animosities, our jealousies and
, hostihties all fade away. They
, are drowned out by the flood Of
present sorrow. Then we car
forgive, we can love, we can pity
( as we did not do before. Our hearts
, are soft and the depths OF the soul ar
. broken up by the penetrating stroke.
Grief has a wondrous softening