The gladsome child runs farther afield; the wounded child turns to go
home. The weeper sits down close to the gate; the lord of life draws
nigh to him from within. God loves not sorrow, yet rejoices to see a man
sorrowful, for in his sorrow man leaves his heavenward door on the
latch, and God can enter to help him. He loves, I say, to see him
sorrowful, for then he can come near to part him from that which makes
his sorrow a welcome sight. When Ephraim bemoans himself, he is a
pleasant child. So good a medicine is sorrow, so powerful to slay the
moths that infest and devour the human heart, that the Lord is glad to
see a man weep. He congratulates him on his sadness. Grief is an
ill-favoured thing, but she is Love's own child, and her mother loves
her.

The promise to them that mourn, is not _the kingdom of heaven_, but
that their mourning shall be ended, that they shall be comforted. To
mourn is not to fight with evil; it is only to miss that which is good.
It is not an essential heavenly condition, like poorness of spirit or
meekness. No man will carry his mourning with him into heaven--or, if he
does, it will speedily be turned either into joy, or into what will
result in joy, namely, redemptive action.

Mourning is a canker-bitten blossom on the rose-tree of love. Is there
any mourning worthy the name that has not love for its root? Men mourn
because they love. Love is the life out of which are fashioned all the
natural feelings, every emotion of man. Love modelled by faith, is hope;
love shaped by wrong, is anger--verily anger, though pure of sin; love
invaded by loss, is grief.

The garment of mourning is oftenest a winding-sheet; the loss of the
loved by death is the main cause of the mourning of the world. The Greek