"..comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God"   2 Cor 1.4
February 28, 2001


    Over 40 years ago, while suffering the sudden death of a child, I
learned this lesson.
    The Rev. Dr. Robert Knight Rudolph, professor of Theology at the
Reformed Episcopal Seminary, was one of my professors. He was very
strict,
stern and a devout Calvinist. He was so busy that I could not even
imagine
that he would come to my eight-year-old's wake. But he did.
    When he approached me in the line of comforters, I could see that
he
shared my pain. He whispered to me what his father, Bishop Rudolph used
to
recite, the following rhyme. (This short poem was in existence in the
1800's.) He only spoke it once but I have never forgotten it

    "Death doth hide but not divide.
        Thou art but on Christ's other side.
    Thou art with Christ and Christ with me
        So united still are we!"

    As we walk this weary road with the Lord, it is as if He has asked
the
loved one to take His other hand.  The Lord can then be closer to both
of
us.