Bad Advertisement?
Are you a Christian?
Online Store:Visit Our Store
| To the wife of Nectarius.
PREVIOUS SECTION - NEXT SECTION - HELP 
Letter VI.1773
| 1773 To be
placed with Letter V. |
To the wife of Nectarius.
1. I hesitated to
address your excellency, from the idea that, just as to the eye when
inflamed even the mildest of remedies causes pain, so to a soul
distressed by heavy sorrow, words offered in the moment of agony, even
though they do bring much comfort, seem to be somewhat out of
place. But I bethought me that I should be speaking to a
Christian woman, who has long ago learned godly lessons, and is not
inexperienced in the vicissitudes of human life, and I judged it right
not to neglect the duty laid upon me. I know what a
mother’s heart is,1774
| 1774
i.e.from his knowledge of what Emmelia had been to
him. Yet to the celibate the wife of Nectarius might have
anticipated the well known retort of Constance to Pandulph in
King John. | and when I remember
how good and gentle you are to all, I can reckon the probable extent of
your misery at this present time. You have lost a son whom, while
he was alive, all mothers called happy, with prayers that their own
might be like him, and on his death bewailed, as though each had hidden
her own in the grave. His death is a blow to two provinces, both
to mine and to Cilicia. With him has fallen a great and
illustrious race, dashed to the ground as by the withdrawal of a
prop. Alas for the mighty mischief that the contact with an evil
demon was able to wreak! Earth, what a calamity thou hast been
compelled to sustain! If the sun had any feeling one would think
he might have shuddered at
so sad a sight. Who could utter all that the spirit in its
helplessness would have said?
2. But our lives are not without a
Providence. So we have learnt in the Gospel, for not a sparrow
falls to the ground without the will of our Father.1775
Whatever has come to pass has come to
pass by the will of our Creator. And who can resist God’s
will? Let us accept what has befallen us; for if we take it ill
we do not mend the past and we work our own ruin. Do not let us
arraign the righteous judgment of God. We are all too untaught to
assail His ineffable sentences. The Lord is now making trial of
your love for Him. Now there is an opportunity for you, through
your patience, to take the martyr’s lot. The mother of the
Maccabees1776
saw the death of
seven sons without a sigh, without even shedding one unworthy
tear. She gave thanks to God for seeing them freed from the
fetters of the flesh by fire and steel and cruel blows, and she won
praise from God, and fame among men. The loss is great, as I can
say myself; but great too are the rewards laid up by the Lord for the
patient. When first you were made a mother, and saw your boy, and
thanked God, you knew all the while that, a mortal yourself, you had
given birth to a mortal. What is there astonishing in the death
of a mortal? But we are grieved at his dying before his
time. Are we sure that this was not his time? We do not
know how to pick and choose what is good for our souls, or how to fix
the limits of the life of man. Look round at all the world in
which you live; remember that everything you see is mortal, and all
subject to corruption. Look up to heaven; even it shall be
dissolved; look at the sun, not even the sun will last for ever.
All the stars together, all living things of land and sea, all that is
fair on earth, aye, earth itself, all are subject to decay; yet a
little while and all shall be no more. Let these considerations
be some comfort to you in your trouble. Do not measure your loss
by itself; if you do it will seem intolerable; but if you take all
human affairs into account you will find that some comfort is to be
derived from them. Above all, one thing I would strongly urge;
spare your husband. Be a comfort to others. Do not make his
trouble harder to bear by wearing yourself away with sorrow. Mere
words I know cannot give comfort. Just now what is wanted is
prayer; and I do pray the Lord Himself to touch your heart by His
unspeakable power, and through good thoughts to cause light to shine
upon your soul, that you may have a source of consolation in
yourself.E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
|
