blessing, seeking so to profit by each bodily ailment, slight or severe, that it may bring forth in us the peaceable fruits of righteousness. " I know," says one, " of no greater blessing than health, except pain and sickness." •' 2. Bereavement. This is the bitterest of « all earthly sorrows. It is the sharpest arrow » in the quiver of God. To love tenderly and deeply and then to part ; to meet together for the last time on earth ; to bid farewell for time ; to have all past remembrances of home « and kindred broken up ; this is the reality of » sorrow. To look upon that face that shall , smile on us no more ; to close those eyes that shall see us no more ; to press those lips that , shall speak to us no more ; to stand by the . cold side of father, mother, brother, sister, friend, yet hear no sound and receive no greet- ing ; to carry to the tomb the beloved of our hearts, and then to return to a desolate home with a blank in one region of our souls, which shall never again be filled till Jesus come with all his saints; this is the bitterness of grief ; this is the wormwood and the gall !
It is this rod which ever and anon God is
laying upon us. Nor is there any that we
. need more than this. By it he is making
THE FAMILY RODS. 71
room for himself in hearts that had been filled with other objects and engrossed with other loves. He is jealous of our affection, for he claims it all as his own ; and every idol he will utterly abolish. For our sakes as well as for his own he can suffer no rival in the heart. Perhaps the joys of an earthly home are steal- ing away our hearts from the many mansions above. God breaks in upon us in mercy, and turns that home into a wilderness. Our sin finds us out ; we mourn over it and seek anew to realize our heavenly citizenship and set out anew upon our pilgrim way ; alone and yet not alone for the Father is with us. Perhaps we are sitting " at ease in Zion," comfortable and contented, amid the afflictions of a suffering church and the miseries of a world that owns no Saviour and fears no God. Jehovah speaks and we awake. He takes to himself some happy saint, or smites to the dust some wretched sinner. We are troubled at the stroke. We mourn our lethargy. While we slept, a fellow saint has gone up to be with Christ, and a fellow sinner has gone down to be with the devil and his angels. The death of the one stirs us up, the death of the other solemnizes and overawes us.
72 THE FAMILY RODS.
Thus as saint after saint ascends to God, we begin to feel that heaven is far more truly the family home than earth. We have far more brethren above than we have below. And each bereavement reminds us of this. It reminds us too that the coming of the Lord draweth nigh, and makes us look out more wistfully from our eastern casement for the first streaks of the rising dawn. It kindles in us strong desires for the day of happy meet- ing in our Father's house, when we shall clasp inseparable hands and climb in company the everlasting hills. Meanwhile it bids us give our hearts to Jesus only. It does for us what the departure of the two strangers from heaven did to the disciples on the mount of transfiguration ; — it leaves us alone with Je- sus. It turns into deep experience that long- ing for home contained in the apostle's words, "having a desire to depart and to be with Christ which is far better."
The more that bereavement transforms earth into a desert, the more are our desires drawn up to heaven. Our treasures having been transferred to heaven, our hearts must follow them. Earth's hopes are smitten, and we are taught to look for " that blessed hope,
THE FAMILY RODS. 73
the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ." The night is fall- ing and the flowers are folding up ; but as they do so they bid us look upward and see star after star coming out upon the darken- ing sky.
3. Adversity. This may be the loss of substance, or it may be the loss of our good name, or it may be the falling away of friends, or it may be the wrath of enemies, or it may be the disappointment of our hopes ; these are what are meant by adversity. But let Job tell us what it means. " Behold He breaketh down and it cannot be built again, he shutteth up a man and there can be no opening."* " He hath made me weary ; thou hast made desolate all my company. I was at ease, but he hath broken me asunder, he hath also taken me by my neck and sha- ken me to pieces and set me up for his mark ; his archers compass me about, he cleaveth my reins asunder and doth not spare ; he break- eth me with breach upon breach, he runneth upon me like a giant ; my face is foul with weeping, and on my eyelids is the shadow of death."t "My days are past, my purposes
* Job xii. 14. f J°b x*i. 7, 12, 13, 14, 16. 7
74 THE FAMILY RODS.