The River Falls journal. (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1857-1861, 1857-11-04
VVaao shall rOIl away the Stone
fgOfn tEae door of the SePul-
cssre.

Yes, who? There il lies hard, cold
and inexorable; the stone of silence-the
stone of utter, hopeless separation. Since
the beginning of the world there it has
been-no tears have melted it-no prayers
pierced 1.-THE children of men, surging
and complaining in their anguish of be-
reavement, have dashed against it, only
to fall hopelessly backward as wave falls
and goes back into the ocean,
Nothing about the doom of death is SO
dreudful as this dead infexible silence
Gould there be, after the passage of the
river, one backward signal = one last
word, the heart would be appeasod. There
is always something left unsaid, even if
death has come deliberately and given
full warning. How much more when it
has fallen ike the lightning, and the be-
loved has been wrenched from life with
out a parting look or word
Walter Scott, after the death of his wife,
wrote "What shall | do with that portion
of my thoughts that I have always been
in the habit of telling only to herp' And
after death, for many and many weary
day, the heart throbs and aches with
things uusaid-and which can be said to
no other-for each friend takes away y
portion of ourselves There was some part
of our being related to him as to no 9TH
er, and we had things to say to him that
no other would understand or appreciate.
A portion of our thoughts had become
useless and burdensome; and again and
again, with involuntary yearning, we turn
to the stone at the door of the sepulchre.
We lean against the cold, silent marble
but there is no answer-nO yolce-nel-
thar any that regardeth.
There arc those who would have us be-
lieve that in our day this doom is reversed
there are means which have the power
to restore us the communion of our lost
ones. How many heart wrllng and tor
F! tured with the anguish of this fearful ST.
lence, has throbbed with strange, vague
hopes at the suggestion! When we hear,
sometimes, of persons of the strongest and
clearest minds becoming creduious vota-
res Of certain spiritualistic circles, let us
not wonder. If we inquire we shall al
most always find that the belief has fol-
lowed some stroke of death = it is only
the indication of the desperation of that
heart-hunger which in part it appeases.
Alb, acre it true! were it indeed so
that the wall between the spiritual aud
material is growing thin, and a new dis
pensation is terminating, in which COM
munion with the departed blest, shall be
among the privileges and possibilities of
this our mortal state; all! were it so that
when we go forth weeping in the grey
dawn, bearing spices and odors which we
long to pour forth for the beloved dead,
we should indeed find the stone rolled
away, and an angel sitting on it!
But forus the stone must be rolled away
by an asaguestionaJle angel, whose coun-
tenance is MS the Lightning, who executes
no doubtful juggle, by pale moonlight OF
starlight, but rolls back the stone in open
morning, and sits on it. Then we could
bless God for His mighty gift, and with
love and awe and reverence take up thai
blessed fellowship with another life, and
weave it reverentlY aud trustingly into
| the web Of our daily course. - Mrs. III
b. Store.