Daily evening star. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1852-1854, 1854-06-10
THE DEAD.

1. When We are dead, there will be
some honest sorrow. A few will be
really sad, as we are robed for the grave.
Fewer, probably, than we now suppose.
We are vain enough to think our depar.
ture will produce considerable sensation.
But we over-estimate it. Out of small
circle, how soon we shall be forgotten
A single leaf from boundless forest has
fallen! That is all
The gay will laugh,
When thou art gone, the solemn brood of care
Plod on, and each one as before will share
His iavorlte phantom.
2. The world will 60 on without us.
We may have thought very important
wheel in the great machinery will be
ungeared when we are gone. But the
world goes clattering on as if nothing
had happened. If we have wondered
what would, or could be done, if we
were removed-yet how soon others will
fill our stations. That world will be a
bustling, active world with us. It was
so before we entered it. 1t will be so
when we are gone.
3. When we are dead, affection may
erect monument. But the head that
sets it up will soon be as powerless as
ours, and for the same cause. How soon
they that weep over us will follow US.
The monument itself will crumble, and
it will fall on the dust that covers us.
If the marble or granite long endures,
yet the eyes of affection will not endure
to read the craven letters. Men will
give a glance at the name Of one they
never knew, and pass on, with not
thought of the slumberer below.
On my grassy grave
lhe men OF future time will careless tread,
And read nay name upon the sculptured stone.
Nor Will the sound, ID their ears,
Recall lay VaAisiIrd memory.
4. When we are dead our influence
will not be dead. We leave epitaphs
upon indeStructible materials. Our man.
ner Of life has been writing them. We
have stirred up thorough and awakened
emotion. The wonderful machinery of
miud has felt our presence. We have
pressed the stamp Of our character into
the warm wax of our moral sensibilities
around US.
Our places of business, our social re-
sort, may know us no more; but living,
dSCOulidulC pCluSS lCCl thC ihuuChNC tllol
involves our personal departure.
5. When we are dead the kingdom of
God will not die. 1t did not depend on
us for existence. And onward Wilt 60,
when we have ceased to live. Happy.
indeed, if it had been the honor and joy
of our labors to have promoted it. Bless
ed is it to be remembered as having loved
Zion, as taking pleasure in her stones,
and favoring the dust thereof.
Sacred, consoling thought. The king
dom of Christ moves on, when we drop
our earthly relations to it.
Other servants of God will rise to fill
our places. A bright star may rise for
| the one that has fallen. Stronger hands
than ours may co he into the ranks.
| 6. When we are dead some will think
of us. Perhaps not large circle. And
what will they think F? Our present
1 course Of life is furnishing them themes
| of thought. Coldness and indifference
10 the kingdom and glory Of God-of that
will our survivor, think if it marked our
characters. And in sadness will those
that truly love ponder it.
And thoughts, how many, and how
comforting, will rise amid the pangs OF
real sorrow over our departure, if we had
shown forth the praises of him who CALL
ed us to glory and to virtue. o, reader,
think, into which of these channels am
likely to turn the thoughts of mens-Pu-
ritap Recorder.