No chastening for the present seemeth joyous, but grievous, but
afterwards it yieldeth peaceable fruits of righteousness. We, as
individuals, as a nation, need to have faith in that AFTERWARDS. It is
sure to come,--sure as spring and summer to follow winter.

There is a certain amount of suffering which must follow the rending
of the great cords of life, suffering which is natural and inevitable;
it cannot be argued down; it cannot be stilled; it can no more be
soothed by any effort of faith and reason than the pain of a fractured
limb, or the agony of fire on the living flesh. All that we can do is
to brace ourselves to bear it, calling on God, as the martyrs did in
the fire, and resigning ourselves to let it burn on. We must be
willing to suffer, since God so wills. There are just so many waves to
go over us, just so many arrows of stinging thought to be shot into
our soul, just so many faintings and sinkings and revivings only to
suffer again, belonging to and inherent in our portion of sorrow; and
there is a work of healing that God has placed in the hands of Time
alone.

Time heals all things at last; yet it depends much on us in our
suffering, whether time shall send us forth healed, indeed, but maimed
and crippled and callous, or whether, looking to the great Physician
of sorrows, and co-working with him, we come forth stronger and fairer
even for our wounds.

We call ourselves a Christian people, and the peculiarity of
Christianity is that it is a worship and doctrine of sorrow. The five
wounds of Jesus, the instruments of the passion, the cross, the
sepulchre,--these are its emblems and watchwords. In thousands of
churches, amid gold and gems and altars fragrant with perfume, are
seen the crown of thorns, the nails, the spear, the cup of vinegar
mingled with gall, the sponge that could not slake that burning
death-thirst; and in a voice choked with anguish the Church in many
lands and divers tongues prays from age to age, "By thine agony and
bloody sweat, by thy cross and passion, by thy precious death and
burial!"--mighty words of comfort, whose meaning reveals itself only
to souls fainting in the cold death-sweat of mortal anguish! They tell
all Christians that by uttermost distress alone was the Captain of
their salvation made perfect as a Saviour.

Sorrow brings us into the true unity of the Church,--that unity which
underlies all external creeds, and unites all hearts that have
suffered deeply enough