The Superior times. [volume] (Superior, Wis.) 1870-1912, 1871-10-07
AT THE GRAVE.
singular Scene-Robert Dale Owens
Address at the Funeral of his Wife.

The funeral was early on Sunday
morning last, the weather being most
beautiful, and the ceremonies were con.
Quoted at the grave. They were open
ed by Mr.. Owen himself He said:
81 think 1t is commentable custom
that, as to funeral ceremonies, the wish
es of the departed on that subject
should, as far as possible, be carried
out when those wishes are known.
During Mrs. Ovens illness she said
nothing in regard TO her funeral. But
some two or three months ago it CHANGED
as men say-though there is no such
thing as chanee-but it happened that
my wife and had q conversation on
funerals. She said she would not wish
to have the bell tolled at her funeral,
especially if there were sickness near
She thought sick persons sometimes suf-
fered by hearing it, and she did not
wish her death to be the occasion of
gloom or suffering of any kind Music,
she said, she thought fitting; music Sc
rious and appropriate indeed, but also
hopeful and encouraging, with nothing
of the Responding and sepulchral about
1T, for gloom seemed to her most inap-
propriate. And what about funeral
sermon?' l asked. No. she replied,
not an ordinary funeral sermon; for
these usually contain unmeaning and
often unmerited praise. But L shoutd
like, she added, that some one who
had the ideas of death that / have
would express them at the grave
'tAll this was aid incidentally, and /
think without the least idea in her
mind that I might soon have to recall
it for she was in perfect health at the
time and |, being more than ten years
her senior, expected to go before her,
but it was otherwise ordered.
Then | sought to fulfill her wishes.
requested that the bell should not be
tolled, there being at that time a lady
"a dear friend of hers-seriously i'll
at my house. Then [ selected as
suitable for music on such an occasion
as this, poem by Mrs. Stowe, entitled
The Other World, and l had few
copies printed for distribution here"
They were distributed accordingly,
and Mr.. Owen resumed
"oome friends have kindly volun-
| teered to aid us. They will now sing q
portion of that ode. Afterwards shall
endeavor to say few words on the sub
! iect of death. Then we will sing the
remaining portion of Mrs. Stoves
| beautiful verses. And afterward, if my
esteemed friends, the Rev Mr. Mitchell
and the Rev. Mr. Ewin-one or both
desire to speak, [ am quite sure you
will hear them with great pleasure. J."
The singing was conducted by Mrs
Bella Golden, Mrs. Charles r. Parke,
Miss Louisa Duclos, and Mr.. John d.
Jones, several other persons joining in
! Then Mr. Owen said:
"No article of belief, moral or relig.
iOus, seems to me as important as the
the assurance of immortality. You re.
member the text : If there is no resur.
rectiou of the dead, then is Christ not
risen and If Christ be not risen. then
your faith is vain.
Few deny this; but comparatively
few feel any absolute certainty about
it. Even the most earnest and devout
Christians sometimes admit how wa.
vering faith often is"
Mr.. Owen then related conversations
which he had had on the subject, al
one time with well known Presbvter-
ian clergyman of New York at anoth
er time with the Episcopal Bishop.
! The former, a wealthy man, declared
to Mr. Owen who had been saying te
him that he (Mr. OWEN did not be
lieve more firmly in the existance OF the
visible world than he did in that of the
invisible-that he (the clergyman
would give half what he was worth il
the world to be able to say the same
thing.
The latter stated to Mr.. Owen thai
! assisting at the death bed of an ageC
perfect exemplar, through
out a long life of usefulness, faitI
and content-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 re.
sumed
g | did not believe-and here Ispeak
alse for her whose departure from
among us we mourn to-day-I do not
| believe more firmly in these trees that
| spread their shade over us, in this hill
on which we stand, i'll those sepulchral
monuments which we see around us
here-than / do that human life, once
granted, perishes never lore. Adeath
change there is, often terrible to wit
ness, leaving us behind, desolate and
forsaken, for few years on earth, but
no death. We never go down to the
grave We cannot be confined within
the tomb. 1t IS a cast-off garment
sacred, indeed, as are sacred all me-
mentoes which memory connects with
those we have loved and IOSt-but vet
tits only a cast off garment, encoffned,
! to which are paid the rites of sepul-
ture.
"She believed, as [ believe, that
the one life succeeds the other without
intervals; save brief transition slum-
Der it may be, Of few hours only.
Neither of us could believe in the old
ldea-almost discarded in modern lines
expressed in such lines as these
''That man when lain in lonesome grave
Shall sleep in deaths dark gloom,
Till the eternal morning wake
The slumbers of the tomb"
"Such is not Christ's doctrine. To-
day'-he said to the repentant thief on
the Cross to-day shalt thou be with
me in paradise
again [ believe, as she did, in the
meeting and recognition of friends in
heaven. While we mourn here below,
there are joyful reunions above. Also,
that the next world is one of many
mansions, to be occupied by those who
are fitted to enter therein, and this,
because, they are fitted, not by any
earning of Heaven, for which of Us is
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