Orleans independent standard. [volume] (Irasburgh, Vt.) 1856-1871, 1863-06-19
The Dying.

"Mother, can see great distance,
said a good man once, as he was enter.
ing on the endless journey. 'Ye shall
see heaven open, and the angels of God
ascending and descending was the
promise to the disciples of our Lord
and, through, them, to Christians of all
time. Literally, as well as metaphor.
ically, in life, as well as in dying hour
has the declaration been verified-veri.
fed every day in the life, as well as in
the death, of the righteous and will be
until death shall be no more. Sights
have been seen, and sounds heard
sights or sounds freighted with ravishng
sweetness to christian people, in the broad
daylight Of life and health, and in the
gloom OF the grave; sights and sounds
vouchsafed to cheer is the most needed,
when none can come from any mortal
source, as if the very last, last moment of
a Christians life should be fulfillment
Of promise given by the Master, to be
with him when he was walking through
the valley and shadow of death
The utterances of dying Christians
indicate that they see angelic forms,
and the familiar faces of the departed
dead, lowering about them, and with
smiles of ineffable sweetness, b C n
them away to the elysium of the blessed.
Ifthese be mere fancies, they are delic-
ious fancies; if facts, they are glorious
beyond expression. Whether it were
only dream or a seeming, the angels
on the Ladder from earth to heaven, and
The promise of the Lord, who stood at
he top, the preciousness of it was to
Jacob all the same, as if it had been an
embodied fact, especially as the promise
which he had in his dream was literally
with.
The film which covers the mortal eye,
md hides from physical sense the beings
md the things at hand, has been brush.
ID away in the case of patriarehs and
prophets of olden times; and later on
he mount of TRANSPORTATION and vari-
'us martyrs of after ages have had their
aces so lighted up with heavenliness,
hat it is difficult TO be accounted for ex-
,opt by the fact of an actual sight of
things.
But, further on in the act and articles
II dissolution, the sight that pierces etl-
II, faints and fades, and taste is dead,
nd touch is dead, and feeling, and smell,
il, all are dead. Not so the car; it
urvives them all, for it is the last sense
hat dies; and it is the repeated testimo-
" of those who have returned to life
rom the furthest limits beyond, that the
whole atmosphere seemed to be filled
With sounds so rayishing, as TO be indie
by mortal words. Ii has been
estfed to by persons who have been
and then brought to, that the
'ery last perception was that Of delight
ul music.
A dying man sheds no tears. He
alls bis wife and children, his parents,
lis best fir e n IDS, to his bedside, aud,
hough tear drops rain from every eye,
he contamination of tears never comes
D him, never one falls down his cheek.
This is because the manufactures of life
ave stopped forever the human ma
hine has run down at last every gland
{ the system has ceased its functions,
nd that is why death steps in, and like
remorseess sheriff, takes possession
nd stops everything. In almost all dis
ases, the liver is the first mandatory
nat stops work, one by one the others
'llow, and all the functions Of life are
length dried up; there is no secretion
nywhere the lips and tongue, how
ry, as we have all seen the skin, how
ry or, if moistened by the damp of
cath, it is from mechanical causes. So I
lie eye in death weeps not not that all I
Ie affections are dead in the heart, but
ecause there is no moisture Oh the lip, :
hich undying affection, when ii came TO {
'thing else, laves incessantly with the G
tie mop, or feather.
There is one sign of approaching dis n
luton. We have never seen it allu- /
ID to, and we have never seen it fail. G
hen the oxtremities are cold, and the I
4ad, the very last part to lose all power 4
motion, is turned incenssantly and a
lickly and restlessly from one side on Fl
e pillow TO th c other, death comes e
thin an hour. 1t is worth the effort of a
to be able to die well, TO die o
a good old age, in peace with all man Il
nd, and in a well grounded faith of an
mortal life beyond.
Hunger is great demoralizer, and c