CONTENTS Foreword Prologue 9 11 PART ONE: THE ANGEL OF DEATH 1 2 3 4 The River Without a Bridge A Father's Last Embrace The Cruel Destroyer More Epitaphs 25 33 37 43 PART TWO: THE VALLEY OF WEEPING 5 6 7 8 Blast the Tree A Dagger of Ice Not As I Will More Tears 55 59 67 73 PART THREE: THE PATH TO GLORY 9 10 11 12 Sleeping in the Bosom of the Almighty Weep Not No More Crying: A Token for Children Lessons in Sorrow 91 97 103 111 Epilogue Appendix Notes Select Bibliography 119 127 137 143 FORWARD This is truly a remarkable book. Since reading it, I have often wished it had been available when I was pastoring a congregation. It is the very book I would have wanted to put into the hands of grieving parents. My friend Jay Bruce has written out of the deep pain Joni, his wife, and he suffered when their little boy died after only fifty-five days in this world. The book is not just an account of their pilgrimage at that harrowing time. It is also a fascinating compendium of the experience of men and women whose names are familiar even to some non-Christians-Calvin, Luther, Bunyan, Charles Wesley. These people all experienced the same tribulation and have set down their inmost thoughts and expressed their heartache. The book would be significant for this unique collection of quotations alone. But the spiritual insight and godly grace with which Jay Bruce writes make this volume a real treasure to own and a particular blessing to read. Eric J. Alexander St. Andrews, Scotland