,
10.
[Illustration: Rural Landscape.]
CHAPTER XXVI.
THE BEREAVEMENTS OF THE CHRISTIAN HOME.[A]
[Footnote A: In this chapter we have made free use of poetical quotations
for the benefit of the afflicted.]
"On, long ago
Those blessed days departed, we are reft,
And scattered like the leaves of some fair rose,
That fall off one by one upon the breeze,
Which bears them where it listeth. Never more
Can they be gathered and become a rose.
And we can be united never more
A family on earth!"
Bereavement involves the providential discipline of home. In almost every
household there have been sorrows and tears as well as joys and hopes. As
the Christian home is the depository of the highest interests and the
purest pleasures, so it is the scene of sad bereavements and of the darkest
trials. It may become as desolate as the home of Job. The Christian may,
like the aged tree, be stripped of his clusters, his branches, all his
summer glory, and sink down into a lonely and dreary existence. His home,
which once rang with glad voices, may become silent and sad and hopeless.
Those hearts which once beat with life and love, may become still and cold;
and all the earthly interests which clustered around his fireside may pass
away like the dream of an hour!
The members of home must separate. Theirs is but a probationary state.
Their household is but a tent,--a tabernacle in the flesh, and all that it
contains will pass away.
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