Proverbs 14:13 Even in laughter the heart is sorrowful; and the end of that mirth is heaviness. A description of Mr. Opie Read, the American humorist, reveals heart-sorrow where the reader has seen nothing but mirth. "Sometimes," says the writer, "his work is marked by the deepest pathos. He had lost two of his children, to whom he was devotedly attached, and these melancholy events made very marked impressions on the man and his work. 'When one of my babies died,' said he, in talking of the matter to me, 'I was working for a magazine, and I was required to do just so much work every day. I was compelled to do it — it was my only means of support. During that awful time I would frequently rock the cradle of my dying babe for hours at the time. With one hand I rocked that cradle of death, and with the other I was writing stuff to make people laugh. I sobbed and wept, and watched that angel and wrote that stuff, and I felt every minute as if my heart would burst. And yet some people think this funny business is all sunshine. Sometimes even now I see articles floating around that I wrote while under the shadow of death, and occasionally some editor will preface these very things with some such remark as, "The genial and sunny-souled Opie Read says so and so," — yes, about these same things that I penned when my babe was dying and my heart was bursting.'" (J. F. B. Tinling.) Parallel Verses KJV: Even in laughter the heart is sorrowful; and the end of that mirth is heaviness.WEB: Even in laughter the heart may be sorrowful, and mirth may end in heaviness. |
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