What was that?
That they were all snatched away at once. For if in the case of those
who die after three or five days of sickness, the women and all the
relatives bewail this most of all, that the deceased was taken away from
their sight speedily and suddenly, much more might he have been
distrest, when thus deprived of all, not in three days, or two, or one,
but in one hour! For a calamity long contemplated, even if it be hard to
bear, may fall more lightly through this anticipation; but that which
happens contrary to expectation and suddenly is intolerable.
Would you hear of a sixth stroke? He lost them all in the very flower of
their age. You know how very overwhelming are untimely bereavements, and
productive of grief on many scores. The instance we are contemplating
was not only untimely, but also violent; so that here was a seventh
stroke. For their father did not see them expire on a bed, but they are
all overwhelmed by the falling habitation. Consider then; a man was
digging in that pile of ruins, and now he drew up a stone, and now a
limb of a deceased one; he saw a hand still holding a cup, and another
right hand placed on the table, and the mutilated form of a body, the
nose torn away, the head crusht, the eyes put out, the brain scattered,
the whole frame marred, and the variety of wounds not permitting the
father to recognize the beloved countenances.
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