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TOPIC: Gordon, Samuel Dickey - Quiet Talks on Personal Problems (Other Topics in this Collection)
SUBJECT: 40. The Commonness of Pain.
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The Commonness of Pain.
Pain is as common in life as salt in the sea, and has the same bitter tang and the same power to purify. It stands with hungry hawk eyes at both ends of a man's life; it comes ahead of him at birth, is usually felt at death, and keeps close by, with haunting vigilance, all the way between.
It has all the qualities of the fire that burns, of the knife that cuts, of the bitter drink that makes you shrink back, and of the acid that eats its way insistently in. And some have found that it has other companion qualities; for fire cleanses, the surgeon's knife cuts out the bad, the bitter drink tones up, and the acid neutralizes the evil.
Everybody has suffered pain, and does, and will. It is as common as sin, and has the same biting taste. One can scarcely walk the streets, or attend a church service without seeing the badge of pain in face, or form, or dress. The mail coming in, and the calling cards, contain the same dark reminder. Ever since Eden the broken sob of its music has sounded through time as a minor dirge, but with the constant interruption of discord, and of loss of all sense of rhythm.
In some lives the problem of pain pushes its keen edge in early; in some not for a long while; but sooner or later it comes, demanding imperiously to be considered and explained. No problem has been more puzzling, or more puzzled over, and none more acute, because it edges its sharp way so very close into the life, and so near to the most tender and sacred relationships. It has baffled much study, and embittered the lives of thousands. But other thousands, though not understanding fully, have learned the secret of extracting sweets in the place where bitter grows. Many have found in it, or, better, through it, the elixir of a new life.