LETTER XXII
LOSS OF CHILDREN.
To bear the loss of children with submission, requires the strong, exercise of a christian's faith. It seems to contradict the course of nature, that the young and blooming should descend to the tomb, before the aged and infirm. We expect to see the unfolding of a bud which we have watched till it had burst its sheath, trembling with joy and beauty, as it first met the sunbeam. "These same shall comfort us, concerning, all our toil," is the voice in the heart of every parent, who contemplates the children, for whom he has laboured and prayed.
The death of a babe, creates no common sorrow. Even the burial of one that has never breathed, brings a keen pang to a parent's heart. The political economist, who estimates the value of every being, by the strength of his sinews, or the gain which he is capable of producing to the community, views the removal of infancy, as but the wiping away of "the small dust from the balance." But he has not, like the mother,
