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XIV. To
Alexandra.
Had I only considered the
character of the loss which you have sustained, I should have wanted
consolation myself, not only because I count that what concerns you
concerns me, be it agreeable or otherwise, but because I did so dearly
love that admirable and truly excellent man. But the divine decree has
removed him from us and translated him to the better life. I therefore
scatter the cloud of sorrow from my soul, and urge you, my worthy
friend, to vanquish the pain of your sorrow by the power of reason, and
to bring your soul in this hour of need under the spell of God’s
word. Why from our very cradles do we suck the instruction of the
divine Scriptures, like milk from the breast, but that, when trouble
falls upon us, we may be able to apply the teaching of the Spirit as a
salve for our pain? I know how sad, how very grievous it is, when one
has experienced the worth of some loved object, suddenly to be deprived
of it, and to fall in a moment from happiness to misery. But to them
that are gifted with good sense, and use their powers of right reason,
no human contingency comes quite unforeseen; nothing human is stable;
nothing lasting; nor beauty, nor wealth, nor health, nor dignity; nor
any of all those things that most men rank so high. Some men fall from
a summit of opulence to lowest poverty; some lose their health and
struggle with various forms of disease; some who are proud of the
splendour of their lineage drag the crushing yoke of slavery. Beauty is
spoilt by sickness and marred by old age, and very wisely has the
supreme Ruler suffered none of these things to continue nor abide, with
the intent that their possessors, in fear of change, may lower their
proud looks, and, knowing how all such possessions ebb and flow, may
cease to put their confidence in what is short lived and fleeting, and
may fix their hopes upon the Giver of all good. I am aware, my
excellent friend, that you know all this, and I beg you to reflect on
human nature; you will find that it is mortal, and received the doom of
death from the beginning. It was to Adam that God said “Dust thou
art and to dust thou shalt return.”1629
The giver of the law is He that never lies, and experience witnesses to
His truth. Divine Scripture tells us “all men have one entrance
into life and the like going out,”1630
and every one that is born awaits the grave. And all do not live a like
length of time; some men come to an end all too soon; some in the
vigour of manhood, and some after they have experienced the trials of
old age. Thus, too, they who have taken on them the marriage yoke are
loosed from it, and it must needs be that either husband first depart
or wife reach this life’s end before him. Some have but just
entered the bridal chamber when their lot is weeping and lamentation;
some live together a little while. Enough to remember that the grief is
common to give reason ground for overcoming grief. Besides all this,
even they who are mastered by bitterest sorrow may be comforted by the
thought that the departed was the father of sons; that he left them
grown up; that he had attained a very high position, and in it, so far
from giving any cause for envy, made men love him the more, and left
behind him a reputation for liberality, for hatred of all that is bad,
for gentleness and indeed for every kind of moral virtue.1631
| 1631 The virtues specified are (i) ἐλευθερία; (ii) μισοπονηρία; and (iii) πραότης
The more classical Greek
for ἐλευθερία, the character of the ἐλεύθερος, was ἐλευθεριότης,—ἐλευθερία being used for freedom, or license; Vide Arist. Eth. Nic.
iv. 1.
The μισοπόνηρος
is a hater of knavery, as in Dem. 584, 12.
On the high character of
the πρᾶος cf.
Aristotle. Eth. Nic. iv. 5. and Archbp. Trench, synonyms of the N.T. p.
148. |
But what excuse for despondency
will be left us if we take to heart God’s own promises and the
hopes of Christians; the resurrection, I mean, eternal life,
continuance in the kingdom, and all that “eye hath not seen, nor
ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which
God hath prepared for them that love Him”?1632
Does not the Apostle say emphatically,
“I would not have you to be ignorant brethren concerning them
which are asleep, that ye sorrow not even as others which have no
hope”?1633
I have known many men who even
without hope have got the better of their grief by the force of reason
alone, and it would indeed be extraordinary if they who are supported
by such a hope should prove weaker than they who have no hope at all.
Let us then, I implore you, look at the end as a long journey. When he
went on a journey we used indeed to be sorry, but we waited his return.
Now let the separation sadden us indeed in some degree, for I am not
exhorting what is contrary to human nature, but do not let us wail as
over a corpse; let us rather congratulate him on his setting forth and
his departure hence, because he is now free from a world of
uncertainties, and fears no further change of soul or body or of
corporeal conditions. The strife now ended, he waits for his reward.
Grieve not overmuch for orphanhood and widowhood. We have a greater
Guardian whose law it is that all should take good care of orphans and
widows and about whom the divine David says “The Lord relieveth
the fatherless and widow, but the way of the wicked He turneth upside
down.”1634
Only let us put the rudders of our
lives in His hands, and we shall meet with an unfailing Providence. His
guardianship will be surer than can be that of any man, for His are the
words “Can a woman forget her sucking child that she should not
have compassion on the son of her womb? Yet will I not forget
thee.”1635
He is nearer to us than father and
mother for He is our Maker and Creator. It is not marriage that makes
fathers, but fathers are made fathers at His will.
I am now compelled thus to write
because my bonds1636
| 1636 i.e. confinement to the limits of his own diocese by the decree of
March, 449. | do not suffer
me to hasten to you, but your most God-loving and most holy bishop is
able unaided to give all consolation to your very faithful soul by word
and by deed, by sight and by communication of thought and by that
spiritual and God-given wisdom of his whereby I trust the tempest of
your grief will be lulled to sleep.E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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