The Tupelo journal., 1904-05-06
HIS WAYS ARE WISE.
A Message of Comfort to Those Who
Have Been Bereft Of
Loved Ones.

WueTc Iou 3 pains Cross ours We are
liable to get confused. The tears in our
eyes prevent us from reading the guide
board Alright. The sorrow that is over
u lives, like the morning mists in the
valleys, so dims our vision and hides
His presence that there is bewilderment
OF judgment and we sit alone %inconso-
liable. If we look in we see only sorrow
and q rent heart. If we look down we
see only a grave that enshrines our
dearest hope. If we look up W. cannot
understand. We can see "the stars
shine through our cypress trees but
they seem SO far, SO very far away; so
dim, so very dim to us. The mist is
over our eyes and the vision, ever at
MONDAY, faileth. We have a con-
seriousness, based on Gods promises,
that it is we'll; but failing to see His
purposes in the affection we fail to COM
prehend. We feel that here Is a depth
of working from which we have been
excluded, a mystery of purpose to which
we have contributed, yet into which
We have not been admitted. And SO,
while never doubling the wisdom or the
goodness of God, we are confused and
bewildered and long for fuller knowl-
edge.
We wonder, says David Reed Miller,
in United Presbyterian, why He permits
these fond ties to grow daily into ma
turing loneliness when they are to be
rent in twain without hope Of reunion
this side the kingdom where affections
are never severed. Why erect this beau
tiful fabric of domestic love when the
very foundations must by and by crum-
BILE and all that is lovable therein be re"
duced to dust and ashes? If the mist
were not over our eyes o the heart it.
self rent We would not thus inquire.
But when that which we hold dearest
on earth is no more, when that which
gave incentive to every aspiration is
gone, when earth seems to crumble
and heaven to recede, and the only thing
that is real is a new grave and above it
a broken heart, we will be forgiven II
out of the depths we raise these plant
i've interrogatiOns. We know God is
good. We know He is merciful. We
huOW I1c uOCS lOl dluiCL WIllluSly Uut
the awful consciousness of loss, of
unions broken, of souls severed, of
lives darkened, comes between our con-
dition and our knowledge, and we sigh
in spite of u faith. Who does not know
this? And who that has been partner in
the broken union has not felt it again
and again?
M"
Have we not all heard from the lips
of the bereft such words as these: 81
know it is all right; but oh, | would he
were here!" Il know that she is happy
in the kingdom above; but the home is
so empty and the heart has no one to
cling to-" Il know that God is good,
but why need it have been now!"
Lord, if Thou hadst been here my
brother had not died." While human
affection lasts in this world Of ours
there will be lamentation when fond
ties are broken. And who will say that
it is wrong thus to mourn? Martha
and Mary will sigh for their brother.
Abraham will MOURN his beloved wife.
| Naomi will lament her husband. Christ
will weep over his friend, and Israel
will mourn their leader even though the
angels of God have buried him 1t is not
for the full heart to sit in judgment on
the one that is empty. There are times
and seasons, to everyone, when the
heart must bear it's own burden-6ays
when Rachel will sit alone. uncom-
forted, mourning for her children
when Abraham will find no place on
| earth half so dear as Machpelah. Ma
| omi may leave her husbands grave
| and the graves of her sons in the land of
| Moab, but all the power of Israel cannot
keep her from looking back and think
ing of the days that are gone The very
desolation of her life will wiring from
| her old neighbors the pathetic inquiry:
"Is this Naomi?" Gods people will
turn aside from their pilgrimage to
mourn the departure of an Aaron or a
a Miriam, or lament for their leader
| who has gone up into the mountain to
| come back no more.
But is it not by tribulation that we
| reach the kingdom of heaven? Surely
| every sorrow brings us nearer God and
| makes us filter for his uses. Even the
rose is fresher and purer for the rain.
We learn in the School of Suffering
| what we learn nowhere else. There are
lessons taught there which no other
| department of this great university of
life teaches. And as it is necessary for
us to learn the lesson God puts US to
school. 1t is hard to say: THY will
be done,"' but it brings the soul into the
attitude of divine favor and insures a
sublimer moral culture. 1t is the one
| way to learn the deepest truth and gain
the highest comfort.
If in these things we had u W way
it would surely be no better. 1t would
indeed be a great blunder, and the con-
fusions of life would be more inexplica-
BILE. Were it not for the wise orderings
of God there would be nothing but
chaos in this world. 1t is sad for us at
| times, inexpressibly, though never
hopelessly, sad; but looking at it in the
light of our mortality we know that His
ways are wise. Looking at it from the
! viewpoints of suffering and OF reward
| we know that He is good, though His
face be hidden in the cloud. A wife who
recently had lost her husband by apo
90 T -~.,1 ~-1- l. W. n =