Civilian & telegraph. [volume] (Cumberland, Md.) 1859-1875, 1859-03-17

oil mlrth, mingled with the sound OF music.
But in this place of festive gayety-amid all
the bloom and beauty-a sad memento of
mortality rose-aie United sep,dchre.
Thus in every garden there is a sepulchre
lin every scene of life and joy there is some
memorial of approaching decay-upon all
with which we are acquainted, is impressed
the stamp of dissolution. In the physical
world, progress or growth is but the sue pre-
cursor to decay--the thousand forms around
US in all their varied life and beauty, bear
within themselves the elements of decompo-
sition. Vegetation with its myriad forms of
development, all eloquent with life, buds,
blossoms, and fades-the flower loses its love
illness and withers away--ths verdure of
summer, grows russet and sere in the winds
of autumn. Even the stern rock, battling
for centuries against the tempest and storm,
crumbles at length in the conflict Of ages.
Passing away" is the minor strain in the
sad song of nature.
History confirms the solemn fact, of death
in the midst of life Nations, luxuriating in
their opulence-reposing in their splendor
and arrogant in their power, have risen, cul-
minated, and fallen. In the height of their
pomp and power, the principles Of death
within them, warmed into life and activity by
the vicious zeal of corrupt demagoghes, work.
ed their destruction. The Empires of the past
| exist only in name. Babylon the great
the beauty Of the Chaldees' excellency, ia
fallen. At the zenith of her grandeur, her
citizens dreamed away the hours of her de-
fence in the arms of licentiousness, while the
Persian Monarch poured upon her flood
which extinguished forever the light of her
Empire. Jerusalem, torn by internal vio-
lence and dissensions. is hurled down by the
Roman army. Athens, enervated by the cor
rupting vices and el1eminacy of her people
languished and decayed. Rome, throned OF
her seven hills, the mistress of the world
racked by injustice and paralyzcd by immor
ahty, is trodden under foot by the Wanda
and Goth. Thus the glow of prosperity
which mantled these nations ere they de-
clined, was but the hectic flush concealine
the insidious workings of fatal disease. Al
with solemn football we tread among th,
graves of buried centuries, we see inscribed
on all the mausolcums of departed greatness
the mournful requiem of the past:
1 "rhs. hoast. of bcraIdry, the pornp OF power,
Aud all that beautyall that wealth e'sr gave
Await alike the inevitable hour;
The paths of glory lead but to the grave"
Thus also with human life--in every garden
there is a sepulehre. We gaze down the gay
thoroughfares of our cities, teeming with lifi
and busting with commoton, and see tn,
loug procession bearing with solemn treat
the "lost one" to that bourne from whsnc,
ne traveller returns" We stroll into thu
country, and everywhere We go, the whit,
tablet peering above the sod, reminds us o.
our mortality. We come nearer home--inte
our own loved circles, death has been there
the grim monster has invaded our owl
hearths, and taken from us parcnt---a chile
"A brother-a sister-a friend.
There is within our own bodies q strong
inherent tendency to dissolution. Beneath
the flash Of health and glow OF life, the Gle
, msnts of corporsal disorgsnizatjon are work
ing our decay. How touchingly beautiful j.
the figure used by the prophet, to portray
this sad fact Of our mortality, "ioe all do fad,
as leqf." But though death is thus the
destiny Of man on earth-man was never
meant to die. Death is not the child Of
Gods love--it is the child of sin. The body
with all its parts SO beautifully and perfectly
adapted to each other, was never made ts
moulder in the tomb. The bloom which
glows upon the cheek of health, was never
made to pale or fade. The sparkli'g eye
kindling with the enthusiasm of ,ne SOU
within, was never made to become dim and
lustreless in the grave. The heart which
sends the life-blood tbrobbing through The
frame, was never made to be frozen by the
chilling blasts of death. Oh no death |.
an unnatural thing. God made his creature
man to live forever. He made the caske
which enshrines his image for better des-
tiny than this. But man sinned, and by hi.
sin brought death into the world.
As we are thus continually reminded, by
the decay in nature, by the fate of Empires
and by the evidences of mortality around u,
aud within us, Of the mournful effect o
Adams transgression, the burdened soul
shrinking from the thought of last long
day of nothingnsss, cries out, is there no helpf
Must nature ever die---must nations ever be
consumed in the conhagration of their own
wild passions--must this body once destined
| for perennial bloom, moulder in the grave
forever2 Reader, that sepulchre in the gar
den, witnessed the most glorious scene in the
universe Of God--Here, the Lord of life and
glory, burst the chains of mortal corruption
and illumined the dark recesses Of the tomt
with the Shechinah Of his presence--hert
was captivity led captive there was the
pledge given of a complete and glorious re-
surrection. Now, as we look on nature, and
SEQ springing from the mass of decay and
death around us, ne,o forms of light and
beauty, we can anticipate with earnest hops
that period, when ''the whole creation, which
groaneth and travaileth together in pain unit
no~, waiting for the Redemption, shall be re.
deemed-when this earth cursed for mans
transsression, purified by fire. shall be mads
again an Eden of peace and holiness. A,
| also, amid the revolutions Of time, we SCI
emerging from the mouldering ruins of wicked
dynasties, the elements of purer and q
nobler political faith, we can look forward
with confdence to that glorious era predicted
by the prophets" WI IN the nations shall beat
their swords into plough-shares and theil
spears into pruning hooks, when nation shal