Civilian & telegraph. [volume] (Cumberland, Md.) 1859-1875, 1863-02-05
ShrOudS Have no Pockets.

Shr0udS nave no pOokets; ratner
queer caption for al article, but one that
expresses in itself "a world of meaning.
We may spend our days in toll; we may
join in the turmoil and bus strife of
life; we may get together heaps of yell
low gold; we may possess broad acres,
princely mansions furnished with all the
comforts, yea, all the luxuries of life;
our ships may sail on every sea, bring
ing TO US the costly fabrics and the rich
gems of other lands: yet soon the brief
years of life fee by on Times unresting
wheel-the hour arrives when we must
bid adieu to all the baubles of earth. and
as we came into the world so we depart
from it. Shrouds have no pockets.
What avails all our yellow gold and
costly gems? We can bear nought of it
with US to that "unknnwn shore over
the river Of death
"Cousider the lilies of the field, how
they grow; they toll not. neither do they
spin. And yet say unto you that
even solmon in all his glory was not ar
rayed as one of these
What lesson to rebuke human vani-
ty is this. The flowers that grow wild
and untended in the fields far outvie in
gorgeousness all the costly apparel which
wealth can procure. And yet how ma.
ny pass their whole life; their every
thought centered in and confirmed to
the empty baubles of earth. Dress
monopolzes the every thought of some,
other wealth. And what avails it all in
the end, when the fitful dream of life il
ever, and the mortal part, arrsyed in
the livery of the tomb, and consigned
to its eternal resting places, the grave
Shrouds have no pockets!
How many have sought the "golder
shore washed by the waves of the blue
Pacific, where gold lies shining on the
rivers sands their hearts beating
high with hope, and their souls fred
with dreams Of wealth. They .have lef
behind them the joys and comforts o
home, the kind smiles of friends ant
loved ones. They tread for time thai
"goldeu shore, and by toll. perchanc'
by other means, win store of wealth.
Then the blighting hand of death falls
on them-what then avails their wealth
of yellow gold? Where they the pos
SCISSORS of the wealth of Golconda's
mines it would not purch ase them q
moments respite from the blighting
hand Of the king of terrors. They sink
into the arms of death the wealth they
have struggled so hard to gain is left
behind them.
The miser who has led parsimon-
ious lfe-whose every thought and ev
cry act has been to collect together th'
glittering dross of earth-whose only
pleasure in life has been to gloat ovel
his heaps of yellow gold; who has wrune
tho last peny from the widow and the
orphan, and as by alchomy turned the
sweat and tears of unrequited poverty tc
drops of gold, to swell still larger his
store of wealth. At last he falls, sick
and dies, wanting, suffering for the
commonest necessaries of life! Upon hi'
squad pallet, or heap of straw, he still
looks upon his gold, for which he has
sold all the pleasure of life, happiness,
and heaven as his god. He dies! his
hand, which has never been extended to
aid his suffering brother, is closed with
a vice-like grasp, as though he would
still clutch, and as though he would still
gather and carry with him to the realm
beyond the tomb, the dross for which he
has sold his soul. But vain-he dies?
Shrubs have no pockets. His gold is
left behind for others to enjoy--or to
abuse.
Why should we weak beings of day
spend our years, and days of life striv-
ing after gold? Life's years, to make
the ost Of them, are breif enough;
soon they fee away. and we return a.
gain to the dust from which we sprung.
Gold and broad acres avail us not when
the short span of years allotted to our
earthly life is over. We may be the po
SCISSORS of boundless wealth and broad
lands ring upon our finger of the for
mer, perhaps, and Elk feet of the latter
is oil the best of us can claim. The
rest we leave behind US for others.
Far better for US to use it while we
1--we for the amelioration Of our race,
and to aid the poor and needy.