Schley County GaArchives Obituaries.....Harvey, Bernard July 23, 1895
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The Schley County News Thursday, August 8th 1895
REFLECTIONS UPON THE DEATH OF LITTLE BERNARD HARVEY
To Mr. and Mrs. Mirk Harvey:-----
On February 11th 1894, little Bernard was given to you and on July 23rd 1895, 
God took him for his own and now he lives in heaven.

But little over seventeen months was this bright beautiful little son allowed 
to dwell on earth and add sunshine and comfort to your home. A mother's idol, 
a 
father's pride--pure as the driven snow, beautiful as a cherub, spotless, 
guileless and innocent, has been transmitted from earth to heaven. With a 
heart 
that only one year ago has felt the pangs of a similar sad experience and now 
overflowing with deepest sympathy for you in the weeks and days of your 
bereavement. I would extend to you these thoughts trusting that they may be of 
some use in helping to soften and lighten the burden of sorrow God in his wise 
providence has called on you to bear. As for ten days the angel of death 
hovered over your quiet home it was indeed pathetic to see you day and night 
patiently watching your darling boy and doing all within your power to put 
into 
effect all that human instrumentality could do to sustain the powers of life 
in 
your little sufferer, but alas! here again was illustr!
ated that we are powerless and God all powerful.

Who could fail to admire the Christian fortitude with which you accepted God's 
controlling power. But why should you murmur? God calls those whom he loves 
and 
why should he not claim his own brightest jewels to shine in his house through 
our own be made dreary.

It does seem hard under the circumstances to say that it is all for the best. 
The human heart is prone to give over to grief and lamentations: but wait, 
soon 
like the tired pilgrim you will fall sick and weary and if only you have 
served 
the Master here, He will take you home to rejoice in finding little Bernard 
from whom you have been separated. Then how true will be the saying that it 
was 
all for the best. Let us try to learn the lessons taught by these sad 
circumstances.

As some herbs need to be crushed to give forth their sweetest odors, so some 
natures need to be tried by suffering to evoke the true excellence and worth 
that is in them.

No soul is so obscure that God does not take thought for its schooling. Death 
always speaks with a voice of instruction, so let us heed its warnings, and 
above all remember the uncertainty of human life. There is but a breath of air 
and a beat of the heart betwixt this world and the next, but, how sweet the 
thought, to know that the last faint pulsation of little Bernard here was but 
the prelude of his endless joys hereafter. So when we reflect upon his death 
how can we but exclaim "Oh death where is thy sting, oh grave where is thy 
victory." Here our imagination follows him and may it not be that over the 
heavenly portals your darling boy is now looking with face all beautiful and 
bright as in an angel's garb he stands and looking down on earth upon you is 
saying:

"Farewell, parents! Yet not farewell. 
Where I am ye too can dwell, 
I am gone before your face. 
A moments time, a little space, 
When ye come where I have stepped, 
Ye will wonder why ye wept, 
Ye will know by wise love taught, 
That HERE is all and THERE is naught."
H.S.M., Ellaville, Ga., August 5th 1895.



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