Sorrow is the Shadow of which the Light is Joy. For human beings it is, apparently, the only gateway to true joy: because the supreme victory (Self-Conquest) lies that way. Other worlds and other states there are where such is not the way.

"The Man of Sorrow acquainted with grief," is the Ultimate Illustration. Angels there must be to show as well as guide the way through this Shadow, this one mysterious and undefinable Shadow, into the light. People mourn and murmur over trivial things; the petty annoyances of daily life, the small "losses" or imaginary ills of human states, things that are but incident to human experience. When the Great Trial comes - the Supreme Sorrow - how small, how insignificant seem all the previous things of which such complaint was made I

The Angel has been that way. The great, the wise, the good have trodden the thorn-path, ah, but they passed on and through into the light!

One's grief is and must be one's own - "to tread the wine press above." To know, however, that others have been in that Valley - have pierced their feet with its thorns, and have watered its bios' soms with their tears, have breathed their sighs unto the branches of its Tree of Life - this, this is wonderful!

First grief is like the child-sorrow because of a broken toy, a disappointed wish of pleasure, a city of block houses overthrown by a careless foot. Grown-up children have no greater seeming sorrows than those of human childhood - yet the child and the one of larger growth survive.

When the Angel of Sorrow walks in human ways, takes on the conditions and obligations of earthly life, illustrates that even the uttermost of human ills can be borne, how great is the lesson!

The one who is complaining because of small ills or disappointments, is confronted with the measure of endurance, fortitude, patience that the one experiencing the Supreme Sorrow must possess, and with the knowledge that others have walked in deeper shadows and have gone through darkness into the Light.

No night time was ever set aside by the Infinite because of the human fear of the darkness. On and on the hours march until the day breaks and the shadows disappear. And O the glory of the Night of Stars! of the madonna of the heavens, the pale, patient moon!

All sorrows lead unto the Light. Angel of Sorrow, bow thy head, shed thy silent tears; we learn from thee the lesson at last, at last. And we know that without thee there could come unto the children of Earth no triumphant Joy.

Useless repining, complaining because of trivial pain or discomfort, must pass; and step by step the awakening knowledge that all selfish grief is born of that self-aggrandizement that would have every obstacle removed, every thorn brushed away from one's pathway! And if the smaller griefs are false and born of selfish desire, may not the seemingly larger ones also have their root in self-seeking, in desire to avoid the difficulties that beset one, or the conditions that are inevitable, instead of Overcoming them? O lives of Earth, O spirits of Mortals, come, come through the dark ness - the struggle - the mourning - into the light. Is thy way beset with thorns? Bravely press on and put them aside with thine own strong hands. Are thy human hands feeble? Then let thy Spirit of Courage come to thy aid. Have earthly things faded from thy grasp? Then gird on thy strength and press forward to higher things anew. Have friends proven false? Then know that real friendship is never false. Hath Love betrayed? Then know that it had no real meaning of Love; for as enduring as eternity is the Affection that is true. "When half gods go, the gods arrive" - aye; and when the false is proven such by its failure to survive, know that the real, the true, the eternal, awaiteth thee.

Selfish sorrow is akin to Selfish pleasure; both have their origin in lack of sympathy with or lack of appreciation of others.

While it is true that in the highest sense one cannot sympathize with the trouble or sorrow of another unless one has experienced a similar grief, it is also true that through such sympathy with sorrow of others one rises to the Conquest. - over selfish brooding over one's own troubles. One rises from kneeling on the sod beneath which the form of a loved one is buried, to realize the living presence of the beloved just so soon as one turns to the other mourner and softly whispers, "I know how it seems, but look above and within, not beneath" - "Sorrow is for a night, but joy cometh in the morning." Psalms 30 - 5.

The sacred remembrance and love for a Beloved One who has passed from Mortal Sight becomes a sanctincation, a hallowed and divine Mentor to be and do the highest and the best.

"1 never had a sorrow that I could spare," said one of Earth's greatest and noblest men. And well we know that the "Crown of Thorns" is the way to real victory.