Thoughtful Moments

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 05, Issue 85, 31 July 1942, Page 2

Thoughtful Moments

(Supplied by the Whakal;

THE MINISTRY OF SORROW

"All through the season* of sowing and reaping. All through harvests of songs and tears, Hold us close in Thy lender keeping, G Maker of all new years." These are some extracts from An* nie S. Swan's new book, "Towards the Dawn.'' From the wealth of experience gathered in more than 70 3'ears, this writer speaks on The Ministry of Sorrow. "This is a vast and moving theme, which we should approach reverently, taking the shoes from oil' our feet .... "To individual hearts sorrow is more often a gracious ministry than a chastisement ... I have Sn jmy long life sampled almost evei\y branch of sorrow. So many of my own have now foregathered on the shore beyond, that I am almosti the last passenger of my generation left to cross that narrow sea which divides that happy land from ours . . . "That need not and does not mean that I have lost interest in the earthly iif Cj —far from it—instead I have acquired a clarity of vision which enables one to see things in their true perspective. I know why I was born, where I am going—everything between these two basic facts has simply fallen into line at the last, and the result is abiding peace. There are still dear earthly contacts, work and service, and duty calling, but it is "sunset and music the close."

"I have had only two children, the daughter is my comrade and mv blessing, for whom 1 thank God daily, and the son, who for some reason not yet revealed, God took to ir.mself in his gav boyhood standing on Ihe threshold ol manhood. Tie was Ihe pivot upon which most of my hopes were fixed. II.I!-; untimely death was the result oi an accident which could and should

have been provenLc ! . . . Through the grai'o and by the help ol' Him who said "Suffer the children to comc unto Me —and forbid them not" —I arrived at firm ground. By literal!j' casting all my cares upon God I found peace and understanding. The ache and the emptiness remained, but the more acute pain was for ever -still . . . "These are sacred places of the soul, yet if by revealing them other hearts may be comforted or strengthened surely the veil should be lifted . . . ''There is a type of people to whom personal sorrow comes as an outrage which they Fiercely resent. [ have such a one in mv mind now. She was . . . rich in this world's goods, and in personal assurance that she deserved the best. Her enly son was killed in the last Avar. She took long to recover from that blow, resenting it, uneomfoHed by the reflection that millions of other mothers Avere weeping for their children the world over. But she did "•ecover partially, though she. had

ne Ministers' Association)

OUR SUNDAY MESSAGE

the habit of speaking as if .si he had been .singled out for treatment by the Almighty, and tiiat she ought to have been spared. Some time later her husband died in the fulness' of years, honoured and respected by all . . . Then the whole tragedy was enacted again. She alienated by her attitude ail but a few old friends who stood by her to the. last. She talked of nothing else. She had a little shrine made for her husband's photograph, had fresh flowers set out on it every day— and generally behaved as if she Were the only widow in the Avorld. I ventured to suggest that she might be more grateful i'or what she had had—long years of unbroken devotion and happiness. But the suggestion left her cold, in fact she resented it Avith all her might. Hers was, of course, an exceptional ease. She defied God, not denying His power, but challenging His ordinations! She has gone, too, now, into the clearer light. I sometilmes wonder what has happened to her there . . . -"We come now with reluctant feet to the problem of the living sorrows, which arc worse to bear than death . . . We can only be really hurt by those we love. When there is treachery, disloyalty, or betrayal in the innermost courts, how is the temple to stand? That it docs stand, and can even present a fair front o a censorious world is a tribute to the overmastering courage and determination of the human heart . . . "Too often marriage, the most delicate and exacting of all human relationships, is entered into heedlessly without due thought or knowledge of all the factors involved . . . Sometimes when, all passion spent, there ensues a sharp sense of disappointment, it is possible, by honest stocktaking, to start afresh. Many people, acknowledging that they had missed the best, courageously address themselves .to acceptance of the second best, with astonishing results. "Undoubtedly sorrow—of whatever kind —is one of God's most powerful ministers. He sorrows Himself over the sins, the folly, and the stupidity of the creatures He has made . . . "In a world full of misfits, misapprehensions, and plain stupidities, how marvellous is the ministry of a common sorrow. J. H. Jowett gives us this beautiful thought-: "There are ferns in the garden of the soul as well as flowers. There is the fern of patience, and the l'ern of long-suffering, and the fern of meekness, hik", the Great Gardener of the soul delights in the ferns and purposes to save them from destruction by the "garish day." And so He takes us into the shade, the shade of disappointment, or the shade of sorrow, or the shade of seeming defeat. But it is a blessed shadow, for it is 'the shadow of the Almighty.' And here the ferns flourish, and the cloudy day makes the garden beautiful."