hom 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.

_GOD'S FAMILY._

'Blessed are the pure in heart, for they