Herald of the times. [volume] (Newport, R.I.) 1830-1846, 1830-12-22
From the Christian Examiner
NATURAL DREAD OF DEATH.

l
must close every scene of human life
where it hath reigned for ages over al
generations, where the very air we
breathe and the dust we tread upon was
once animated liie-it seems to us most
strange and wrong, that this most common
necessary expedient, and certain of all
events, should bring such horror and des-
olation with it; that it should bring tre-
mcndous agitation, as if it were some aw-
ful and unprecedented phenomenon; that
it should be more than death-a shock,
catastrophe, conyulson; as if nature,
instead of holding on its steady course,
were falling into irrctricvablc ruins.
! And that which is strange, is our
strangcness, to this event. Call sickness,
we repeat, call pain, an approach to death.
Call the WEAKNESS and failure of the
limbs and senses, call decay, dying. 1t
is so; it is gradual loosening of the cords
of life, ,and breaking up Of its reservoirs
and resources. So shallthey all, one and
another, give way. 81 feeP'-will the
thoughtful man say-H feel the paug of
suffering, as ift were, piercing and cut
ting asunder, one by one, the fine and
invisible bonds that hold ne to the earth.
| feel the gushing current Of life within
me to be wearing away its own channels.
! feel the sharpness of every keen emo
iton, and Of every acute and far penetra-
ting thought, as it were shortening the
moments of the souls connexion and con-
nict with the body" SO it is, and so it
shall be, till at last, "the silver cord is
looscned, and the golden bowl is broken,
and the pitcher is broken at the fountain,
and the wheel is broken at the cistern,
and dust returns to the earth as it was,
and the spirit returns unto God who gave
it."
! No; it is not a strange dispensation.-
Death is the fellow of all that is earthly;
the friend of man alone. 1t is not an ano-
maly; it is not a monster in the creation
1t is the law, and the lot of nature.
Not to thy eternal resting place.
Shalt thou retire alone.
\ Thou shalt lie down
With patriarchs ofthe infant world, with kings,
\ The powerful of the earth, the wise and good,
Fair forms and hoary seers of ages past
|
Rock-ribbed, and ancient as the sum- the wales,
! Stretching in pensive quietness between;
The venerable woods, rivers that move
! In majesty, and complaining broohs,
That make the meadows green, and poured
round all,
Old Oceans gray and melancholy waste
Are but the solemn decorations all,
Of the great tomb Of man.
But of what is it the tomb9 Does the
blest affections of the soul go down into
the dark and silent grave? Oh! no.
''Thc narrow house, and pail, and breath
less darkness" and funeral train-thesc
belong not 10 the soul They proclaim
only the bddy's dissolution. They but
celebrate the vanishing away ofthe shad-
ow of existence. Man does not die,
though the forms of popular speech thus
announce his exit He does not die
We bury, not our friend, but only the
form, the vehicle in which, for time our
friend lived. That cold, impassive clay,
is not the friend, the parent, the child,
the companion, the cherished being. No
it is not; blessed be God that we can say
II is not' 1t is the material world only
that earth claims. 1t is "dust" only that
"descends to dust The grave let US
break its awful spell, its dread dominion.
1t is the place where man lays down his
weakness, his infrmity; his diseases and
sorrows, that he may rise up to new and
glorious life. 1t is the place where man
ceascs-in all that is frail and decaying
ceases to be man, that he may be, in
glory and blessedness, an angel oflight!
Why, then, should we fear death, save
as the wicked fear, and must fear it,
Why dread to lay down this frail body
in its resting place, and this weary ach-
ing head, on the pillow of its rcpose =
WHY tremble at this--that in the long
sleep of The tomb, the body shall suffer
disease no more, and pain no more, and
hear no moro cries of want nor the groans
of distress,-and far retired from the tur-
moil of life, that violence and change
shall pass lightly over it, and the ele-
ments shall beat and the storms shall sigh
unheard around its lowly bcd?-Say ye
aged and infrm, is it the greatest OF evils 10
die2 Say ye children Of care and toli' say
We afflicted and tempted! is 1t the great
est of evils to die! =.
/ Oh,no. Come the last hour, in God S
own time and good life and glori-
Gus hope shall make it welcome - ONE
tho hour of release and aifliction
, shall make it welcome. Conc the hour
of Reunion with the loved and lost on
cnrth,--and the passionate yearnings OF
affections, and the strong aspiration OF
faith, shall bear us to their blessed land
Come death to this body-tbis burdened
tempted, frail, failing, dying body lane
to the soul, come freedom, light, and jo,
. .,:,,,., ,onoo IN tho ,mmort nj life -