The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1871-09-21

DuuuaY
ing last, he weather being most beauti-
tul, and the ceremonies were conducted
at the grave.
FUNERAL CEREMONIES.
! They we're opened by Mr.. Owen him
self He said:
Il think 1t is a commendable custom
that, as to funeral ceremonies, the wishes
of the departed on that subject should,
las far as possible, be carried out when
these wishes are known. During Mrs.
Owens illness she said nothing in record
to her funeral But some two or three
months ago it CHANGED, as men saw.
though there is no such thing as
Chance, but it happened that nv wife and
had a conversation on funerals She
SAID she would not wish to have any bell
tolled at her funeral, especially if their
was any sickness near. She thought sick
persons sometimes suffered by hearing it,
and she cid not wish her death to be the
occasion of gloom or suffering Of any
kind. Music, she said, she thought fit-
ting; music, serious and appropriate in
decd but also hopeful and encouraging,
with nothing Of the responding and sep
ulchral about it; Cor gloom seemed to
her most inappropriate. And what
about funeral sermon?' I asked. No.
she replied, not an ordinary funeral ser
mon; for these usually contain unmean-
ing and often unmerited praise. But
should like she added, that some one
who has the same ideas Of death that |
have, would express them at the grave
Ali this was said incidentally, and II
think without the least idea in her mind
that | might soon have to recall it, for she
was IN perfect health at the time; and I,
being more than ten years her senior ex.
pected to 30 before her; but it was 9th
erwise ordered. Then I sought TO fulfill
her wishes. | requested that the bell
should not be tolIed, there being at the
time lady-a dear friend Of hers-se-
rionsly i'll at my house. Then Iselected
as suitable for music on such an occasion
as this "a poem by Mrs. Stowe, entitled
The Other World, and [ had a few
copies printed for distribution here.
CThey were distributed accordingly, and
Mr.. Owen resumed.) Some friends have
kindly volunteered to aid u.s. They will |
now sing a portion of that ode After |!
ward l shall endeavor to say a few words |
On the subject Of death Then we will |
sing the remaining portion of Mrs. |
Stoves beautiful verses. And afterward, |
if my esteemed friends, The Rev. MIR. |
Mitchell and the Rev. Mr. Erwin-one |
or both-desire to speak, am quite sure
you will hear them with great pleasure"
The singing was conducted by Mrs. |
Bella Golden, Mrs. Chas A.. Parke, Miss
Louisa Duclos, and Mr.. John D. Jones,
several other persons juining ia. Then
~ ii
or religious, seems to me as important as
the assurance of Immortality You re.
member the text: "If there be no resur.
reetion of the dead, then is Christ not
risen; and if Christ be not risen, then
your faith is vain" Few dany this; but
comparative few feel any absolute Ger
tainty about it. Even the most earnest
and devout Christian sometimes admits
how waVerlng faith often u.s. Mr.. Owen
then related conversations which he had
had on the subject, at one time with a |
we'll known Presbyterian clergyman Of
New York, at another time with an |
Episcopal bishop. The former wealthy
man; declared to Mr. Owen, who had |
been saying to him that he (Mr. Owen |
did not believe more firmly in the ex-
isistence of the visible world than he did
in that of the invisible-that he fthe
Icleryman) would give half what he was
worth in the world to be able to say the
same thing. The latter stated to Mr..
Owen that; assisting at the death. bed oil
an aged Clergyman perfect exemplar
throughout long life of usefulness. in
| faith and conduct-and the conversation
turning on the evidence Of a future state,
the dying man exclaimed: "Ah, Bishop,
the proof, the proof! If we only had it,"
Then Mr.. Owen resumed 81 do not be
lieve-and here I speak also for her
whose departure from among us we
mourn to-day do not believe more
firmly In these trees that spread their
shade over us, in this hill on which we
stand, in those sepulcharal monuments
which we see around us here, than | do
that human life, once granted, perishes
never more. A death change there is,
often terrible to witness, leaving us be-
hind desotate and forsaken on earth, but
no death. We never go down to the
grave. We cannot be confined within
the tomb. It is cast-of garment
sacred, indeed, as are sacred all memen-
toes which memory connects with those
1--we have loved and lost-but We. it is
only cast-of garment, encofined, to
which are paid the rites of sepulchre.
She believed, as I believe, that the one
life succeeds the other without interval,
save briet transition slumber, it may be
OF a few hours only. Neither of us could
believe in the idea-almost discarded
in modern times-expressed in such lines
las these:
/ That man when laid In lonesome grave,
Shall sleep in DEATHS dark gloom,
| Till the eternal morning wake
The slumbers of the Tomb