God's spies,' some such would tell us that the Lord proclaims the
blessedness of those that mourn for their sins, and of them only. What
mere honest man would make a promise which was all a reservation, except
in one unmentioned point! Assuredly they who mourn for their sins will
be gloriously comforted, but certainly such also as are bowed down with
any grief. The Lord would have us know that sorrow is not a part of
life; that it is but a wind blowing throughout it, to winnow and
cleanse. Where shall the woman go whose child is at the point of death,
or whom the husband of her youth has forsaken, but to her Father in
heaven? Must she keep away until she knows herself sorry for her sins?
How should that woman care to be delivered from her sins, how could she
accept any comfort, who believed the child of her bosom lost to her for
ever? Would the Lord have such a one be of good cheer, of merry heart,
because her sins were forgiven her? Would such a mother be a woman of
whom the saviour of men might have been born? If a woman forget the
child she has borne and nourished, how shall she remember the father
from whom she has herself come? The Lord came to heal the
broken-hearted; therefore he said, 'Blessed are the mourners.' Hope in
God, mother, for the deadest of thy children, even for him who died in
his sins. Thou mayest have long to wait for him--but he will be found.
It may be, thou thyself wilt one day be sent to seek him and find him.
Rest thy hope on no excuse thy love would make for him, neither upon any
quibble theological or sacerdotal; hope on in him who created him, and
who loves him more than thou. God will excuse him better than thou, and
his uncovenanted mercy is larger than that of his ministers. Shall not
_the_ Father do _his_ best to find his prodigal? the good shepherd to
find his lost sheep? The angels in his presence know the Father, and
watch for the prodigal. Thou shalt be comforted.

There is one phase of our mourning for the dead which I must not leave