From Grief to Glory
January 30th, 2008
(Review by Nathan Williams)
I recently read a tremendously helpful book entitled From Grief to Glory written by James W. Bruce III. From Grief to Glory is written out of the desire to help those who have faced one of the most bitter circumstances God can bring into the life of a believer, the loss of a child. James Bruce begins the book by explaining the great emotional mountains and valley’s which attend the gift of children. “Few things match the joy that children bring to a family. Even fewer things rival the sorrow of a family that buries a child” (p. 11).
Bruce goes on to recount the story of how his family has known both the joy and the sorrow. He tells of the events surrounding the death of his infant son to a kidney disorder and even provides several of his journal entries in the months and days leading up to his son’s death. Having experienced the loss of his son, Bruce is uniquely equipped to write this work to encourage and help parents walking through this dark valley.
Despite having experienced the loss of a child, Bruce does not attempt to share his own experience and wisdom to help other parents. Instead he reaches into the volumes of church history and extracts multitudes of stories from eminent saints who have journeyed through this lonesome valley long before our day. Bruce explains the purpose for the book by saying, “With these things in mind, the tokens retold here are offered (and may our Lord grant it) for the comfort of others who know the loss of a child, whether young or old, but particularly children of tender ages” (p. 18).
Bruce goes on to give numerous examples of great Christian leaders of the past who lost children. He begins the book with the story of John Bunyan’s imprisonment and the loss of his blind daughter. He then moves on to give an account of Martin Luther and the loss of his daughter; and R.L. Dabney and the death of his son, Bobby. The list of saints continues including: Charles Spurgeon, Philip Melanchthon, Johann Sebastian Bach, John Bradford, John Calvin, George Whitefield, George Mueller, Samuel Rutherford, and John Flavel.
The helpful part about this book is the sheer volume of quotes from these great Christian leaders of days gone by. Bruce does not simply retell their stories, but allows each saint to speak for himself during his time of trial. These quotes include journal entries, hymns, poems, and letters.
The back of the book also contains an appendix of quotes and poems which speak about the death of a child from other theologians and leaders whose stories were not told in From Grief to Glory. Through these quotes the reader is not simply dealing with an inspirational human experience story about someone else who lost a loved one. These quotes provide rich theological and practical instruction from the stalwarts of the faith. You can feel your heart being shepherded by these great men on how to think and respond to the trials God brings.
One of the most amazing aspects of this book was the huge number of believers who suffered immensely during their lives. I had no idea that several of the men mentioned in this book had suffered the loss of a child. Death impacted lives much more frequently in other centuries. Many of these saints lost more than one child to a disease we would not even consider life-threatening today, such as Measles.
This book also helps to bring forth the reality that we will all suffer major trials at some point in life. Scripture promises each of us that suffering will occur. We must be prepared spiritually and mentally to think biblical thoughts and view trials with God’s perspective.
I found this book to be very helpful in providing a biblical perspective to trials. It is a quick and easy read, but the quotes and poems will certainly shepherd one’s heart in the right direction. I will keep From Grief to Glory near me and probably will keep a couple of extra copies handy to give to grieving parents. This book is spiritual medicine for a parent’s hurting soul after the death of a child.
Nathan,
Would you give us some insight as to what you believe scripture teaches about the loss of a young child as in respect to eternity? The article posted here a couple weeks ago, “Ture Faith Perseveres”, evolved into a discussion on this very subject.
Thanks.
Hope you visit, please, our Reformed web site TheAmericanView.com. Here’s our “Mission Statement.” God bless you all – and He does bless us when we OBEY Him.
John Lofton, Editor
Recovering Republican
JLof@aol.com
Mission Statement
“For the nation and kingdom that shall not serve thee shall perish; yea, those nations shall be utterly wasted.” — Isaiah 60:12.
As Christians, we are commanded by the Lord Jesus Christ to teach all nations — including ours — to observe all things He has commanded (Matthew 28:18-20). This means bringing into captivity to Christ all areas of life and thought. This means destroying arguments that are against the knowledge of God (II Corinthians 10:5). In obedience to these commands of our Lord, this Web site is established. We covet your prayers for our success in obeying Him.
We are seriously concerned about, deeply grieved by and lament the fact that far too many of today’s so-called “Christian leaders” are a sinful embarrassment and are responsible for the cause of Christ being mocked and ridiculed. By being, first, cheerleaders for the Republican Party, they have dishonored their Lord and sold their Christian birthright for a mess of partisan political pottage. These individuals and organizations are Christian in name only, “Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof.” From such, it is added, we must turn away.
Secular, Christless conservatism — even when it is supposedly “compassionate” — will not defeat secular, Christless liberalism because to God they are two atheistic peas-in-a-pod and, thus, predestined to failure.
More than 100 years ago, speaking of the secular, Christless conservatism of his time, the great Southern Presbyterian theologian, Robert L. Dabney, observed:
“[Its] history has been that it demurs to each aggression of the progressive party, and aims to save its credit by a respectable amount of growling, but always acquiesces at last in the innovation. What was the resisted novelty of yesterday is today one of the accepted principles of conservatism; it is now conservative only in affecting to resist the next innovation, which will tomorrow be forced upon its timidity and will be succeeded by some third revolution, to be denounced and then adopted in its turn. American conservatism is merely the shadow that follows Radicalism as it moves forward to perdition. It remains behind it, but never retards it, and always advances near its leader. This pretended salt hath utterly lost its savor: wherewith shall it be salted? Its impotency is not hard to explain. It is worthless because it is the conservatism of expediency only, and not of sturdy principle. It tends to risk nothing serious for the sake of truth.”
Amen! And what Dabney says has been proven with a vengeance in modern times, under recent Republican Administrations and Congresses who were supported enthusiastically by individuals and organizations who called themselves “Christian” but who, alas, when judged by their fruits, were not.
To those who will accuse of us of desiring and trying to bring about “a Christian America,” we unashamedly plead guilty though the accusation is far too modest and somewhat muddled. To be sure, we desire a Christian America, and a Christian world, a Christian galaxy and a Christian universe. And, over time, by His grace, we hope to demonstrate that all these things already belong to the Lord Jesus Christ because He created them all and they are His property. This is why all knees must bow to the Lord and all tongues confess that He is the Lord — because He is!
Jude 1:3 3
“Beloved, when I gave all diligence to write unto you of the common salvation, it was needful for me to write unto you, and exhort you that ye should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints.” (KJV)
Mike,
John Macarthur has spoken and written on the subject of infants and salvation a great deal. His book Safe in the Arms of God deals extensively with the subject and I’ll also offer you links to an article on the subject and two sermon manuscripts.
Article- http://www.gty.org/Resources/Articles/563
The Salvation of Babies who Die (Part 1) – http://www.gty.org/Resources/transcripts/80-242
The Salvation of Babies who Die (Part 2) –
http://www.gty.org/Resources/transcripts/80-243
Hopefully this info will help
Nathan Williams
I have heard John MacArthur’s preaching on this and it is very good! Very biblical.
on a side note, please keep a little girl in your prayers. She is 9 yrs old. I worry about something she posted on the Internet, obviously without her parents knowledge. I posted a story about it on my blog today.
Please pray for her safety
God bless
Brian
Nathan,
Thanks for the links. I have read the first two (#2 being pretty long) and believe that this is the best explanation on this subject I have heard. I am looking forward to the third link-part 2 of the sermon. Dr. MacArthur shows from scripture how God saves infants even though they are born with a sin nature. This has been a very hard doctrine for me to put together, before this.
I may have to buy this book. It’s the scariest thing for me, to think of one of my grandsons dying.
I saw a dear couple in my church lose a 4 year old son, in an accident, where he was strangled on a sliding board, while his mom was in the kitchen.
I have never seen anything to compare to the pain of this tragedy.
And yet the parents, especially the mother, continued to serve the Lord, but not after a season of anger and tottal bewilderment.
It’s difficult to know how to communicate with friends when this happens. I made some bad statements, and the Lord also used me to help comfort them.
Thanks for posting this.
Where and how can I order this book? We recently lost our nineteen year old son who was preparing to go into the ministry. My pastor recommended this book.
Randy,
According to the author’s website (www.grieftoglory.com):
“The Crossway edition of my book is now out of print, but Banner of Truth has agreed to
publish it, with a scheduled release date of June 2008.”
Some used copies of the book can still be purchased through Amazon.com and other online sources. But the new edition will be out this summer.