Learning to Praise Through Loss
Acknowledges how difficult praise becomes in hardship and a child’s death, asking for trust in divine love and guidance through grief.
Historical edition. Historical claims and instructions are preserved as historical context.
ALMIGHTY FATHER! morning, noon, and night the cry of him who loved Thee so much, but who sinned so greatly, was: “I will praise Thee.” We, too, will praise Thee, and if our weakness and faintness make our praise but feeble, pardon us, O Lord! and remember we are but dust. Help us to do a hard thing, to praise Thee at all times. In the morning, when the laughing earth glows in Thy smile, praise is easy; but when the eye beholds dimness and darkness and gloom, when we listen to the roaring wind, and think of the deep sea and those that shall sleep therein, then slowly comes Thy praise. When things go prosperously with us, when the senses are strong, when our strength is equal to the burden, then joyfully do heart and lip praise Thee. But when night cometh, our feet stumble; when the valley of the shadow of death comes close to us, and its vapours chill our souls; when life is a burden, and even to carry this earthly tabernacle is more than our failing strength can bear; alas, then with what feebleness comes the strain!
When the little child cometh and its merry feet and pretty ways make music in our hearts, oh, then we can joyfully say: “The Lord hath given.” But when the sweet eyes close, and the little golden curls are carried to the grave and to corruption, then it is hard to say: “The Lord hath taken away, blessed be the name of the Lord.”
But did we see all Thy wondrous love, how in Thee and in Thy will we live and move and have our being, then should we see that the threads that seem so dark in this great pattern of life, are but dark for a time; nay, it is but the shadow that this weary earth throws upon them, that makes them seem dark to us. Towards heaven and Thee, they glow in golden glory, and the time will come when we shall see their brightness. If we did but believe this, it would transmute all common things and daily cares to beauty and harmony, and we should cry “What can separate us from the life that is in God?”
Grant that we may in time of trembling lay our weak hands in Thy strong one, and do Thou guide our tottering steps till such time as we, through Thy goodness to us, shall enter into Life Eternal.—AMEN.