“Time is Sorrow’s Great Friend.”

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 7, 16 February 1907, Page 21

“Time is Sorrow’s Great Friend.”

(By Landon t arter.) T, is not easy to solve the problem of -arrow; imlce.l, 1 lore is no solution of it unless each individual soul works out its own solution; but this we do know, that of all forms of purifying grief is the greate*t. Any deep. unspeakable soriow. may well be termed a regenerator, a baptism, the initiation into a true and higher life, for God di.l not wil it so. that grief, like mate rial things, should totally decay, thus leaving one the same again—such fate would, indeed. be a sad. fruitless ending for all our pain, anguish and self-control, if we retained nothing but our former weaknesses and frailties at the end of the experience. But let us rather he thankful that ’sorrow lives in us as an indestructible force*. only changing its form as the forces do, and passing from pain into sympathy—the little word that includes all our best in sight ami our best love.” “There is no grief so deep as that hopelessness which conies with such benumbing force in the early moments of our lirst great sorrow. There are then no memories of out-lived pain to encourage us. Wo have not suffered and been healed or despaired and recovered hope.” Before it comes, it is hard to imagine it possible. if one ever thinks of it at all, and when it does comr it seems more impossible still to understand the meaning of the blow, for “love <('eni<’d too fair to carry in its bosom the menace of its loss,” ami yet. true suffering must come to ail those who rightly live, and such grief is not only a preparation for, but also reconciles one to. death, for the broader the lift' the greater ami more numerous its accompanying temptations, until the long-continued self-sacrifices necessarily create* a prnport innate* desire} for peace* rest, death, the* great reconciler. There have* been few broken hearts; for. with what might frequently cause* them, there* eemies a God-given strength to suffer. Ye*s, even that dumb, dry. deep. silent grief, does not kill, but “cleanses from all impurities.” and brings preparation for future struggles. 'rime* is sorrow's great friend; for to :t certain extent Ihe acuteness of memory gives way to the definite, ami time changes the* aspect of all things, or rather we heemme different interpreters, not weakening our love* of the* lost one, however, hut prompting and exciting our hearts to do greater honour ter our love*. Youth occupies itself chiefly with the semblance of things, until sorrow’ and pain teach higher realities, for does not deep grief, properly accepted, teach more than any purchasable joys? What, so truly and effect ua 11 \ demonstrates the* necessity of spiritual consolation as the* limitations of material wealth ? In proportion to the si length and ennobling powers of healthy grief, so also is morbidness equally dangerous, for Goel does not mean us to sacrifice our duties to the living by dwelling constantly among our withered hopes; then, indeed, one* could never learn tin* meaning and lesson of sorrow grief should incite future* nobleness auel activity rather than mere regrets and a morbid restrnspeCtieui of the past. Aprrs lc plaislr > Irin Ih pdr.e A pre s In jM'lnr, In virtu.