Bethink thee, brother, sister, I say; bethink thee of the splendour of God, and answer—­Would he be perfect if in his restitution of all things there were no opportunity for declaring our bitter grief and shame for the past? no moment in which to sob—­Sister, brother, I am thy slave? no room for making amends?  At the same time, when the desired moment comes, one look in the eyes may be enough, and we shall know one another even as God knows us.  Like the purposed words of the prodigal in the parable, it may be that the words of our confession will hardly find place.  Heart may so speak to heart as to forget there were such things.  Mourner, hope in God, and comfort where thou canst, and the lord of mourners will be able to comfort thee the sooner.  It may be thy very severity with thyself, has already moved the Lord to take thy part.

Such as mourn the loss of love, such from whom the friend, the brother, the lover, has turned away—­what shall I cry to them?—­You too shall be comforted—­only hearken:  Whatever selfishness clouds the love that mourns the loss of love, that selfishness must be taken out of it—­burned out of it even by pain extreme, if such be needful.  By cause of that in thy love which was not love, it may be thy loss has come; anyhow, because of thy love’s defect, thou must suffer that it may be supplied.  God will not, like the unjust judge, avenge thee to escape the cry that troubles him.  No crying will make him comfort thy selfishness.  He will not render thee incapable of loving truly.  He despises neither thy love though mingled with selfishness, nor thy suffering that springs from both; he will disentangle thy selfishness from thy love, and cast it into the fire.  His cure for thy selfishness at once and thy suffering, is to make thee love more—­and more truly; not with the love of love, but with the love of the person whose lost love thou bemoanest.  For the love of love is the love of thyself.  Begin to love as God loves, and thy grief will assuage; but for comfort wait his time.  What he will do for thee, he only knows.  It may be thou wilt never know what he will do, but only what he has done:  it was too good for thee to know save by receiving it.  The moment thou art capable of it, thine it will be.

One thing is clear in regard to every trouble—­that the natural way with it is straight to the Father’s knee.  The Father is father for his children, else why did he make himself their father?  Wouldst thou not, mourner, be comforted rather after the one eternal fashion—­the child by the father—­than in such poor temporary way as would but leave thee the more exposed to thy worst enemy, thine own unreclaimed self?—­an enemy who has but this one good thing in him—­that he will always bring thee to sorrow!

The Lord has come to wipe away our tears.  He is doing it; he will have it done as soon as he can; and until he can, he would have them flow without bitterness; to which end he tells us it is a blessed thing to mourn, because of the comfort on its way.  Accept his comfort now, and so prepare for the comfort at hand.  He is getting you ready for it, but you must be a fellow worker with him, or he will never have done.  He must have you pure in heart, eager after righteousness, a very child of his father in heaven.