Wabash express. [volume] (Terre-Haute, Vigo Co[unty], Ind.) 1841-186?, 1860-02-15

Mr.. EDIToR IL had resolved to retire
from before the public eye as one of the
contributors OF the Express. l was i'm
pressed with the belief that, though l had
but occasionally obtruded a thought, still
even that had been more than your readers
desired to be bored with But you must
pardon me for asking you TO give place in
your columns for another word
l heard the recital Of so beautiful an in.
cident few days ago. that cannot resist
the impulse to let your readers have also
the pleasure Of hearing it: An old man,
Of more than three score years and ten,
was upon his death bed. and the hour of
dissolution was fast approaching. His
pulse beat slow and slower The soul
struggled in almost mortal agony to cast
off the incumbrance Of flesh, that had, fer
near century, been its prison house
Death came on pace, and the old man
stood at the very portals Of another world.
just in this hour of earthly separation
when the body, worn out, required the rest
of the grave, and the soul, eternal as the
everlasting hills, was about taking its
fight to a more congenial clime-iust at
this dividing point bet ween life and death,
the old man awakened from his lethargy
his eye sparkled with the 6res of youth,
and his whole nature seemed intensified
into one glow Of delight Unconscious Of
all the Surroundings, be commenced talk
ing; and the silent listeners, bending low
the ear. found that the dy ingman was re-
viewing the loved sports of his boyhood's
years. he was back to his mountain
home. in the old Keystone State--the home
OF his childhood. He was vending his
way along the sparkling brook. and with
his first associates, fishing. He was anon
plueking flowers from the mountain side,
and then reciting his lessons in the village
school. He called his early playmates by
name. and seemed to be engaged in all the
sports of his schoOl-boy days. He talked
TO his father, who had been dead for more
than half century In fact, ne seemed TO
be away back in the dim vista Of the past
far back to his childhood's days-and at
the very moment his soul was leaving his
body, it appeared anxious to review the
life it had passed. before it leaped into that
dreadful aud uncertain future.
Can it be true, that approaching disso-
luton SO excites the faculties of the mind
that all the past passes palpably before usf
that great panorama Of our past lives
at this dreadful period fits plainly before
us?-that all that we have been. comes out
in bold relief to our yiew2 Ii this is so,
how glorious. how extatic, how enwraptur-
ing must be the moment, when the soul,
entirely freed from this dull, heavy NOR
tality, springs into life of conscious inn
mortality How serenely and delightfully."-
overwhelming must be that moment of
bliss, when all the past and the brilliant
dawuings Of the future lie visibly behind
and before usi Death-the entering that
narrow gate which leads to life everlsst.
ing-seems to be like commencing a Jour
ney where, on either side of the pathway,
are splendid paintings--the one pointing
out all the pleasant incidents of the past
the other growing more beautiful as We
advance, until the richest blessing Of frui.
ton enscompss US. LEILA.