Worcester daily spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1850-1888, 1871-03-01
Funeral OR. q. Howes.

Funeral of Ii. e.. HOwes.
The funeral services of tie late Benjamin G
Howes were held, in accordance with the previ
Gus announcement, in Horticultural hall, on
Tuesday, the 2Sth inst at eleven O'Clock A. NJ
The hall was filed to its utmost capacity and
the proceedings were of deeply interesting and
Impressive character. An appropriate hvmu
was sung by select quartette, after which Prof
VIM. Denton read the following passages from
the Scriptures of various times and peoples:
From Gerritt Smith,
The next lie is but the continuation of this
we begin there where we close here. If we are
upon low planes here, we shall enter upon low
planes there. If here we sustain high relations
to wisdom and goodness, we shall there also.
[From Mahomet.l
A mans true wealth hereafter Is the good he
does III this world to his fellow-men. When he
dies, people will say, "What property has he left
behind himP But the angels who examine
him will ask, "What good deeds hast thou Sent
before theeH
From Andrew Jackson Davis.l
BY birthright we are immortal.
The casket breaks, and 10, the child of angel
hood
The soul energies from its chrysas state, as
free as the planet on which it had its birth.
The maternity Of earth is indelibly engraved
upon us.
We shall know each other there.
Come, gather we a pensive review of a fathers
virtues, lingering as sweets of the dead rose upon
its leafess stalk.
A fathers wisdom is a rock of defence; his
good example is precious; his love is sacred
All We that know him bemoan him; and all We
remembering his name, will say, how is the
strong staff and the beautiful rod broken.
But 10, the staff doth blossom now a Young
tree in the garden of Godl
There i; no absolute loss in the universe
everything, dying, dies upward to subserVe
some divine purpose in the economy of the In.
finite.
In my Fathers house are many mansions; il
it were not so, | would have told Won; | 90 to
prepare place for you.
And if go and prepare Il place for you,
will come again and receive you unto myself
that where am, We may be also.
Look not mournfully into the past; it comes
not back. Wisely improve the present; it is
thine. Go forth TO meet the Shadowy future
without fear, and with manly heart
(From the Rig Veda.l
o Mother Naturel we lay in thy tender bosom
what is thine,-duSt to dust, ashes to ashes; but
the spirit to God who gave ii! o angels receive
your new charge! Peace, peace be still!
Open myself, earth! and press not too heavily;
Be easy of access and approach to the form;
AS mother with the rose her child,
SO do thou cover it, o earth!
Another hymn was then sung, at the cOnclu.
sion of which Mr.. Denton spoke substantially
as follows:
We arc met on the most solemn occasion
which can call human beings together The friend
whom we loved has been demanded by Death
whose mandate none can refuse to obey. We
should be more than mortal if we did not regret
and miss him whose kindness and geniality had
won our hearts. Death is inevitable. We Dor
row our bodies, and when earth claims we must
yield them. Death is not a curse ON account OF
the sin of our first parents. Death was in the
earth millions of ages before man. Death was
with the first monad which floated in the Their
nal waters of the earliest ares of our planet,
Wherever there is life there is death. 1t is al.
ways upward-a birth into a higher and more
glorious life The trees are waiting-the noun
tainS are waiting to 90 back to earth. The
winds ale the signing mournerS, and the
streams are Cheir bearers to their graves, from
which life in new and higher forms is developed.
The wide earth itself at last must go, and "Ieaye
not a wreck behind"
Ii all that we knew respecting the present
condition of our friend was what is revealed by
the I'D and lifelesS clay before us, we should
indeed have cause for sorrow. But our friend is
not in the coffin-h he was not bubble, to dance
on the wave of life for moment only aud then
to vanish forever from existence. He was not
flower, to bloom and diffuse its fragrance for
day and then be no more. Man sets as the sun
sets, leaving gloom and darkness TO cover the
earth, but he rises also as the sun rises, into "A
new world with new life before him We can
grasp the hand of dying friend we can see
the pallor OverSpread his features; we can hear
the last agonizing gasp; but we do not see the
spirit, struggling as a chicken to release itself
from the encasing shell, and emerge into new
world Of beauty and glory.
do not say this because it is nv fancy: do
MOI say 1t because it is nv belief; do not say
it because l have been taught it from a book; |
do not say 1t because to say it has conSoled and
cheered before and may do so again | say it be-
cause 6noU it. Some of us have clasped the
hands of those who have gone before; we have
heard the voices of our friends, and we know
they live and that we shall live again. 1t is
this knowledge which gives us strength to bear
the anguish of parting. Our friend is not lost
he is here, to console, to instruct, to guide, to
cheer. Our friend was an honest man; and by
this do not mean that he was honest simply in
respect to financial matters-he was an honest
man IN the sense in which "an honest man is
the nobleSt work of God" He was true to his
convictions, originally believer in that form of
faith called orthodox, while he believed it, he
was true to it; when his views changed, his life
correspondent to the change He toos no counsel
of selfinterest; his school, his business were
subordinate to his love of truth and his con-
victions of duty. He was too good
business man not to know that his
changed views aud his advocacy of them in
'oieVeISI WOulu SUBJECT MIN 10 great pecu0lary
losses; but what he lost in money he gained in
manhood and selfrespect. He proved himself
an honest and an earnest man. 1t is such men
as he who hold the levers with which the world
is moved in the path of progress. Had he lived
the knowledge Of his name would have become
co-eXtensive with civilization. He had the old
martyr spirit which would have enabled him to
defy the fortunes of the inquisition and to have
smiled at his prosecutors from the stake.
He was an intelligent man, enlightened by
| constant observation and reading. He was one
of the best instructors, clear, kind, genial and
| beloved by his pupils, many of whom could
| speak of tim better than eau in this direction
| But some soul is whispering to itself: "Was
| he not an inhdelp Ii by "intdel" you mean
| one who condemned the idea of a God of infinite
hate and undying revenge; a malignant and
angry Jehovah, gratihed with the eternal torture
| of human beings, answer, yes; and he glOried
| in it, and so dol If by "infdel" you mean
one who rejected Jesus as the scape-goat for hui
man guilt, answer, yes, and his infdelity did
credit to his head and heart.
| If by "inidel" you mean one who did not
believe the Bible, with its contradictions and
fables, to be the word Of the in6nite soul of the
universe, answer, yes; be was an infdel. But
| II, by "inhdel," you mean man unfalthful to
truth, unfaithful to the principles of morality,
| on obedience to which all human well-being de-
pends, answer, No, he was not an infde. No
Gear friend, those who condemn you as an in
noel dld not know you. Our friend died with
| no troubled conscien e. To him the future had
, no terrors. During the evening preceding his
deatn, after he had awakened from brie
sleep and had given directions Tor his immediate