They are gone now to the spirit-land. But a parent's care and
solicitude are also gone. All alarm for their safety is gone; and you now
rejoice in the assurance that they have gone to a higher and happier home;
and can joyfully exclaim now with Leigh Richmond, "My child is a saint in
glory!" His infant powers, so speedily paralyzed by the ruthless hand of
death, are now expanding themselves amidst the untold glories of the
heavenly world, and are enlisted now in ministering to his pilgrim kindred
on earth.
It is true, your children were a source of great joy to you here.
Insensibly did they entwine themselves around your heart, and with all the
wild ecstasy of maternal love, you embraced them, as they attached
themselves, like the slender vine, to you. They were indeed, the life and
light of your home, and the deepest joy of your heart. But if they had
lived, might they not also have been a source of the deepest sorrow and
misery? Might they not have drawn your souls from God and heaven, causing
you to live alone for them, and bringing eventually your gray hairs down
with sorrow to the grave?
But you have watched at their dying couch, and seen them die; and in that
death you have also seen the departure of all such fears and dangers. They
are now transplanted to a more congenial clime, where they will bloom
forever in unfading loveliness, and from which they will come on errands
of ministering love to your household:--
"They come, on the wings of the morning they come,
Impatient to lead some poor wanderer home;
Some pilgrim to snatch from his stormy abode,
And lay him to rest in the arms of his God!"
One of the greatest blessings which the death of our pious kindred confers
upon their bereaved friends is, that they hold a saving communion with
them, and are ministering spirits sent to minister salvation and
consolation unto them.
Pages:
293
294
295
296
297
298
299
300
301
302
303
304
305
306
307
308
309
310
311
312
313
314
315
316
317