The Minnesota pioneer. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn. Territory) 1849-1855, 1850-08-01
Substance of an Address delivered q,
the Funeral of Alexander, SON of Gov.
Ramsey, aged 4 years---on Monday,
July 20, 1850.

Substance Of an Address delivered al
the Funeral of Alexander, sol, of Gov.
Ramsey, aged 4 years---on Monday,
July 20, 1850.
But now he is dead wherefore shtuld fast
Can bring him back again | shall go to him
but he shall not return TO me. Sam. ~: %.
The dead child alluded to in the verse,
was the son of one of the most distin-
guishcd Governors of Israel. The
mother was woman of great personal
beauty, and according to the Rabbins
of large information and highly cult
waited intellect. His younger brother
was Solomon, who in after days as dis
tinguished for wisdom, and succeeded
his father in the administration of the
government. The boy had been sud-
denly taken i'll. The grief Of the affec-
tomato father was intense. He wept.
he tasted, he prayed he was wholly in
capacitated for his official duties. In
just one week the disease gained the
mastery, and the boys heart was pulse
less. When he expired, David the
father appears not tohave been present.
but perccivng the dismayed coun-
tenances and ominqu us whisperings of
the attendants, he inquired, SIS the child
dead'" and they saia, che is dead"
6 But when they loolied to see him fall again
Upon his face, and rend himself asld weep;
For, while the child WAS sick hik agony
Would bear no c0mc:rter and tLey had tho,
His hear,-strings with the tidings must give
way"
"Bchold!' says TIE inspired writer,
she arose from the q arth, and washed.
and anointed himself, and changed his
apparel, and came into the house of the
Lord and worshipped.' When, the
servants in astonishnaent inquired what
he could mean by su:h course, he re-
piled in the words to which we have in
vited your attention, " But now he is
dead, wherefore shohld | fast, Can
bring him back again: | shall go to
HIM, but he shall notreturn to me-
If this verse did not teach it. expe-
ricnce impresses upon the hearts of pa
rents that children will die. Though
apparently in the bloom of life and the
images of health, a few short hours
transforms them to statues of death. In
one of our very latest papers the fact is
recorded, that out of about $50 deaths
during one week of the present month,
$50 were about or under the age of the
once beautiful boy known to every one
present, but who is now before US speech
less, pulseless, and attired for the cold
dark grave. Nor is this an uncommon
spectacle.
There is no flock, hover watched and tended
But one dead lamb is there
There is no fires ide, howsoe'r defended,
But has 4 vacant chair.
The air is full Of farewells to the diving,
And MORNINGS for the dead;
The heart of Rachel, for her children CRYING,
VIII not be comiorted.
Though young children do die, however;
though the body returns to the dust until
the resurrection morn, We know that the
spirit lives on. 1t is only released from
a easement of flesh. The idea of the
spirit being annihilated, is both unphilo-
sophical and unscrip tural.
The verse teaches us that we should
not mourn for little children As soon
as the Governor Of Israel saw that the
child was no more, he was reeoncied
He exchanged his sackcloth for purple
and fine linen. He felt that there was
no gloom TO be attended to after his
death; that
His life of mortal breath
Was but suburb of the life elysian
Whose portal we call Death.
The early or primitive Christians SYM
pathized with David IN this view They
did not carry the chilp to the grave, but
only to his sleeping place. Upon their
tablets they engraved sentences like
these: "Marcus, an .pnocent boy; you
have already begun ito live among the
innocent ones. Lee us restrain our
signs and cease from weeping" "Lau-
renee to his sweetest son, borne away
by angels"
A lengthy and massive burial service
adapted for adults, seems singularly in
appropriate for little child. Nor is the
custom pleasing, of having little one
confined in close, black case Would