CHAPTER IX. MENTAL PROSTRATION. Mr. Carlton, minister of the church to which the family of Mr. Townsend belonged, learned, through the newspapers, on the next day, the deep affliction that had been sustained; and, prompted by a sense of duty, repaired immediately to the house of mourning. He found the merchant alone, pacing the floor of the darkened parlor. “My dear sir,” he said, as he took the hand of the wretched man, “I need not say how deeply I sympathize with you in this melancholy bereavement, the fact of which I learned but half an hour ago. To lose so good a son, in the first ripe years of manhood, is, indeed, an affliction, and one for which there seems, at first, no solace.” “There is none, Mr. Carlton,” returned the father, with something stern and indignant in the tone of his voice. “Say not so, Mr. Townsend,” replied the minister. “There is a balm for every wound--a solace for every affliction. He who sends sorrow, will surely send the power to bear it, and enable the sufferer, like the bee, to extract honey even from a noxious plant. All that we are made to endure here, is for our good.” “So it is said, but I cannot believe it, Mr. Carlton. Is it good for me to lose my son? Is it good that the very hope and pride of my family should be stricken down, like a young and goodly tree, by the lightning of heaven? No, it is not good!” “God, in his very essence, is goodness, Mr. Townsend. His very nature, as well as his name, is love. Too wise to err, too good to be unkind, every event that takes place under his Divine appointment or permission, must, in some way, regard man’s highest and best interest--in other words, his eternal interest.” “But what has the death of my son to do with my eternal interest?” asked the merchant. “I must own that I see no connection between the two things whatever.” “The connection between acts and events in time, Mr. Townsend, and effects which are spiritual, can rarely, if ever, be traced in the present; but, notwithstanding this, nothing is truer than that whatever occurs in a man’s life, whether it be a prosperous or adverse event, a joyous or afflictive dispensation, is permitted or ordained for his good--not his natural, but his spiritual good.” “It may be, but I cannot understand it,” said Mr. Townsend, sadly.