This book has great value bringing together, as it does, many words of comfort especially to parents suffering in grief over the loss of a child. The author and his wife passed through this trial when their infant son died and they found comfort in the words of other Christian men who had experienced similar loss. These have been brought together, words from Martin Luther, Robert Dabney, Charles Spurgeon and John Bunyan to name but a few. There are at least thirty men and women quoted, some at length. All knew the pain of deep loss, some lost seven or eight or even ten children as in the case of John Owen. That God can comfort and heal His loved ones from their grief and loss and bring meaning to such things is wonderfully evident. People walking through the valley of weeping need to know that others have passed that way before and to know that they found God, His word came to them, they were sustained and healed. The subtitle is apt; “Spiritual Journeys of Mourning Parents” expresses exactly what the book is about. It is divided into three sections, “The Angel of Death”, “The Valley of Weeping” and “The Path to Glory’. A book like this is full of history too, the history of suffering men and women, their sorrows and heartbreak and the trial of their faith leading to triumph through the merciful speaking of God to their hearts. It is a ‘heart’ book but is history too. The book is healthy, it does not descend into the sentimental, and it leads the soul to God. Although it will greatly help grieving parents I am sure that others will benefit too, especially if their loved ones are walking through the valley of weeping. The book progresses with great gentleness, unhurriedly treading the painful path of this particularly poignant form of suffering. We are led to God; we see His sufficiency, His care, His tender answers and His loving purpose as He conducted His people through such things. Some of the poetry and the quotations are profoundly challenging, revealing a courageous faith, robust but kindly too. Here is a book of great pastoral worth.
