| Things to Live For |
Chapter 18 |
Page 2 |
Bereavement in a household draws all the family closer together. Love never reaches its sweetest and best till it has suffered. Homes which never have been broken may be very happy in love and very bright with gladness; but, after sorrow has entered as a guest, there is a depth in the love which was never experienced before. It is a new marriage when young parents stand side by side by the coffin of their first born. Grief is like a sacrament to those who share it with Christ beside them. It brings then into a holier fellowship than they have ever known in love’s unclouded days. Many homes have been saved from harshness of spirit and sharpness of speech, from pride and coldness and heedlessness, by a sorrow which broke in upon the careless life. The tones were softer after that. There was a new gentleness in all the life. Most of us need the chastening of pain to bring out the best of our love.
Bereavement ofttimes proves a blessing to those who remain, through the laying upon them of new burdens and responsibilities. Many a son has become a man the day he saw his father’s form lowered into the grave, and then turned away to take up the mantle which had fallen at his feet, – the care of his mother, and the management of affairs. Many a thoughtless girl has become a serious woman, as in a day, when she returned from her mother’s funeral, and put her hand to the duties that now must be hers if the home is to be maintained.
Many a man has grown almost instantly into beautiful gentleness, when the taking away of the mother of his little children compelled him to be to them henceforth both father and mother. Heretofore he had left all this care to the mother. He had never done more than play with his baby when it was happy. Now he has to be nurse to it, soothing it when it cries, crooning lullabies to hush it to sleep, often walking the floor with it nights. It is hard, but the new care brigs out in him beautiful qualities never suspected before. Many a woman has been transformed from weakness to strength by the bereavement which took her husband from her side, leaving her with little children to bring up. It seemed as if the burden would crush her; but it only brought out noble things in her soul, – courage, faith, energy, skill, love, – as she took up her new double responsibility. Thus the breaking of a home is often the making of the lives on which the sorrow falls.
Page 2