| J. R. Miller | Page 7 |
The same is true of the divine love. We never can know its best things until we enter the shadows of sorrow. Our great Teacher said, “Blessed are they that mourn.” This seems indeed a strange beatitude. But to those who have learned its meaning it is no longer strange. There are blessings, rich, deep, and satisfying, which we never can know until we mourn. You would never see the stars if the sun continued to shine through all the twenty-four hours. It would be a loss, too, to anyone if he were to pass through all the years of his human life and never once behold night’s sky with its brilliant orbs. “We can then say, “Blessed is the hour when the sun goes down and it grows dark; for then we see the glory of heaven’s stars.” Mary G. Slocum writes:—
“Across my day the shadows creeping
Brought the unwelcome night;
The distant hills, the last gleams keeping
Of dear, familiar light,
Slowly became a darkened wall around, and soon
The world, with all its loved and wonted sights, was gone.
Ah, light that made such sweet revealing,
That showed this world so bright,
You gave no hint you were concealing
The greater wealth of night!
For now, above and far beyond the hills, appear
Ten thousand worlds
I did not dream before were here.
O day, for which I made such grieving
Though now more dear the night
May life not be like you, deceiving
And blinding to my sight?
As once the light hid all except this world from me,
Is life obscuring by its glare eternity?”
This is a parable. The glare of human joy hides from our sight ten thousand blessings which we cannot see until it grows dark about us. And it would be a dire loss to live through all our days and never see these blessings. There are hundreds of Bible words which seem pale and without meaning in the time of earthly gladness, but which come out bright and shining like stars when the darkness comes on. You have no need for divine comfort when you had no sorrow; and a great part of the Bible was as yet an unopened book to you, for a large portion of it consists of comfort for those in trouble. But when the sorrow came, the words flashed. out like stars at night, unseen by day. Thus we learn the meaning of the beatitude, “Blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted.” We lose some joys, but we find others that were hidden in the light of those we lost. Where earth’s tapers burned with only flickering light, heaven’s lamps now shine. Where the human face shone in its gentle grace, the face of Christ now looks upon us in its divine yearning. Where we leaned upon a human arm, often trembling, at last broken, we find now, instead, the everlasting arm. Thus when we abide in Christ the light of his love is revealed as human joys pale. The deeper the earthly darkness, the richer are the divine comforts which are given to us, enabling us to be of good cheer whatever the tribulation.
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