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Show Kathleen Norris Says: Those Who Go On Bell Syndicate. WNU Features. Gel into work with our servicemen, canteen, Red Cross, or in one of the recreation projects that exist everywhere for our no-less-heroic and necessary factory and munitions workers. PRAY AND WORK TO EASE GRIEF "Blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted." This is Kathleen Norris' message mes-sage to mothers who have lost sons in the war. She asks them to try to get their minds off their grief by exhausting themselves them-selves for the needs of others. She suggests that mothers may find some happiness by being of help to other boys. Solace can be found by taking a comprehensive com-prehensive view of the world struggle and, best of all, by prayer. By KATHLEEN NORRIS WOMEN I do not know and never will see are writing me these days to ask for a word of comfort when the dreaded news comes; when they know that the dear familiar boy who was banging in and out of the house only a little while ago, leaving crumbs and blobs of jam on the kitchen table, leaving books on the stairway and unrecognizable lumps of muddy socks on the bedroom floor, chattering at dinner about scout work, and enthusiastic enthu-siastic over nothing but some- truths and some untruths. And we KNOW that His doctrine works because be-cause whenever we have the courage cour-age to apply it, harmony and peace, fellowship and love follow it. Difficult Dif-ficult as it is to visualize a world in which enemies are forgiven, possessions pos-sessions are shared, the hungry and naked are solaced, a world in which evil is not overcome by evil, but overcome by good hard as it is to envision, yet all of us know that those are the conditions of His Kingdom King-dom on earth, and that it' is for every one of us to work toward that Kingdom. There is no disputing THAT. But having gone so far, heartbroken heart-broken mothers, go a little farther, and see what else he told us. That those who love Him and this means all the splendid boys who are offering of-fering their lives today for a new world of safety and freedom "shall not taste death forever." They are living, out of your sight. The wisest among us hasn't the vision that they have now. "This night thou shalt be with me in Paradise" was said to a poor, wretched stranger, a criminal. crim-inal. Are we to believe these words of a dying Saviour? Or are you going go-ing to pick out certain words to believe be-lieve and others not to believe? "Blessed are they that mourn for they shall be comforted." That was said for you. The Voice that was divine as well as human said that, the one voice in all the world that speaks the truth. So hold fast to that, for that comfort will be beyond all your imaginings of bliss. Get in the habit of stepping into a church every day; kneel for a few minutes, asking only the favor that you may be of use and help to other boys. Get into work with our servicemen, serv-icemen, canteen, Red Cross, or in one of the recreation projects that exist everywhere for our no-less-heroic and necessary factory and munitions workers. Get tired; get your mind off your own grief in exhausting yourself for the needs of others. And in other boys, just as young, eager, heroic, homesick as your boy was, you will And him again. Give up your own sorrow, fears, your own hopes and will, surrender them all to the unfailing guidance of God, and you will be rewarded in a way that will make you feel that you never were truly living before. Fighters Think of Home. Here is part of a letter from a boy who went through the battles of Midway and Coral sea. It was a great comfort to another boy's mother, moth-er, and, even though your boy may not have had time to write you, perhaps per-haps his feelings would have been something the same, perhaps he knew, in the last minute, that the home people were thinking of him and praying for him. The writer is 29 years old, has been in the navy for 17 months, and is still out in the South Seas. "Dear Mrs. Blank: I thought you would like to know that Jim never was in better spirits than he was that last morning. "We had breakfast together and he was just his same usual self, at ease and happy. When the crash , came he was laughing. body's "twenty-two" when they know that he is "missing in action," that he isn't coming com-ing home again. Nothing that I can say can help these mothers. But there is help for them nevertheless, firm and unfailing; un-failing; there is joy ahead for them again, if they will but lift up .then-hearts .then-hearts and their eyes to find it. Not by looking down into the earth or into the depth of the seas will they find it, but by raising mind and spirit to the blue sky and the stars, and what lies beyond. To begin with, train yourself to take a comprehensive view of the titanic combat in which the whole great world is involved. Then take a long look at life, at its mistakes and troubles, disillusionments and . burdens, and ask yourself if the boys are really to be pitied when they quit this bewildering scene in youth, go out gloriously and swiftly in battle, bat-tle, a battle, which means confusion, excitement, thrill, complete forget-fulness forget-fulness of self. No grind, no drudgery, drudg-ery, no disappointment, divorce, worry, for them; no illness, failure, old age, boredom. At the very height of vitality and eagerness and keen absorption in what they are doing, do-ing, they depart for other scenes, and leave such suffering for us, who cannot follow. Future Will Bring Reunion. But, ask the grieving mothers, will we find them again? Ah, if we KNEW that we would find them again, that they are really safe, and happier and wiser than before, that would take away all the sting of grief. But we DO know that we will find them again. It does not take mere blind faith to convince ourselves of that; it is not wishful thinking, combined com-bined with sentimentality and conventional con-ventional religious docility. Any woman who will dry her tears long enough to read the written Word, and study the facts, will find so deep and real a consolation that presently she would not change her certainty even for the old joy of the boy's living presence. It will be granted that only one Voice has ever spoken truth in this world. All other true voices were either prophesying the coming of that Voice, or echoing it after it ceased. There was but one Christ; in the two thousand years following his death there has never been another, an-other, and no uproar of voices or change in the world have been able to silence it It lives still. What the Master said in his lifetime was utterly ut-terly incomprehensible to the men who were his friends; it didn't make sense to them, and it Soesn't make sense to us. But feebly, blindly, stupidly we cling to it, because we know that it is true. We know that a peasant, preaching for but three years, followed by a few uninfiuen-tial uninfiuen-tial friends, never writing a word, executed as a common criminal we know that He is still the most powerful influence in the whole world. All Must Work Toward Religion. And this is to say that He did not deceive us, isn't it? For we could never claim that he told us some |