ars,
admired that discipline which sometimes prepares the young to die;
which, by sharp trials of anguish, and long days of weariness, weans
them from that keen sense of mortal enjoyment which is so naturally
theirs; which, through the attenuation of the body, illuminates the
soul, and, as it steals the bloom from the cheek, kindles the lustre of
faith in the eye, and makes even that young spirit look, unfaltering,
across the dark river, and, putting aside its earthly loves and its
reasonable expectations, exclaim, "Now I am ready!" But it would appear
that equal preparation, though in different forms, is provided for most
of us, in the various experiences of sorrow which we are called upon to
know, and which, if we would but heed them, have a celestial mission,
seeking to draw us up from this lower state, to induce us to lay up our
treasure where neither moth nor rust corrupts. And in the Christian view
of man as an heir of the spiritual word, does not sorrow, in this its
weaning tendency, receive a most beautiful explanation?

And, because it accomplishes this work, may be the reason why sorrow
always wears a kind of supernatural character. It is true that
blessings, equally with afflictions, come from Heaven; but this truth is
not so generally felt. A sharp disappointment will suddenly drive us to
God. The mariner of life sails, unthinking, over its prosperous seas,
but a flaw of storm will bring him to his prayers. And religion, reason
as we will, is peculiarly associated with affliction. And does not
sorrow possess this supernatural air, not merely because it interrupts
the usual order of things, but because, more than joy, it has a weaning
and spiritual tendency,--is sent, as it were, more directly from God
for this specific purpose? At least, after the sanctifying experience of
sorrow, we hold our joys more religiously.

There are other tendencies of sorrow akin to this, upon which I might
dwell, and which show the explanation that it receives in the Christian
light. The humbling effect that it has upon the proud and hard-hearted;
the equalizing result which it works, making the rich and poor, the
obscure and the great, stand upon the level of the common humanity,--the
common liability and dependence. I might, expanding the topic already
touched upon, speak of the influence which sorrow sheds abroad,
chastening the light, at tempering the draught of joy, and thus keeping
our hearts better balanced than otherwise