The Emporia news. [volume] (Emporia, Kan.) 1859-1881, 1871-03-03
VOLUME II.
SORROW FOR THE DEAD.

Oh the anguish of the moment when
death comes between you and q cher
ished friend. Bitter are the tears that
cannot be staid, overwhelming the grief
that cannot be assuaged. And if the
friend whom you mourn be kind and
loving parent whose counsel you al
ways cherished, whose Cody example
you always strove to emulate and whose
earnest prayers always vouchsafed you
Heavens choicest blessings, then in
deed is the bitterness of your grief be-
yond description, and the magnitude of
your loss beyond conception. Where
is he who, bereft, by untimely death, of
a tender and affectionate father, has not
felt the surges of grief roll over his soul
with ungovernable fury? Oh! the
agony of your poor heart at such
moment. You stand beside the couch
and witness the feeble pulsations, the
gasping for breath; you try to catch
the words the indistinct articulation can
no longer make Ineligible ;you do catch
the earnest look of the eve so full of
tenderness, so full of confidence, so full
of the light of Heaven. But the eye is
becoming fixed, life is ebbing sway,
yes, see the last struggle is over. Eter-
nifty at last has robbed you of your
treasure. flushed forever is the voice
that was always so strong and so cheer
full, and which, whenever you needed,
you never went wrong; cold and life
less the hand which never failed to lead
you Alright; closed forever the eyes i'll
which you have sometimes read re-
proach and sometimes appreciation
pulseless the heart whose love for you
never grew cold, even though your
waywardness pierced it as with a thou
sand daggers. And now as you gaze
into the face, from which the look of
pain and suffering has fed never more
to return, having again become beauti-
full, but beautiful in death, and think of
all the dear noble man has been to you,
what q solemn awful feeling of lowell
ness comes over you. All the windows
of your soul are closed as with iron
shutters, there is not even the slightest
aperture through which single ray of
light or hope may enter.
But brighter moment comes bye and
bye-a calmer moment, when you real
ize that your grief is but selfish grief
after all. True your loss is irrepara-
BILE, but also true that his gain is inf
nitely greater than your loss can posi- |
sibly be. What light to dispel the dark
ness the assurance of this fact brings to |
you; what consolation to displace the
hearts heaviness; what serenity; what |
instead of lamentation and |
despair. You begin to realize that your
great grief that has rolled in pillows |
over your soul has purified and |
you. IfyOu ever felt like
making fresh start in life with better |
purposes than you ever cherished be-
fore, you feel it now. You turn away |
from the grave of the loved one think
ing of those beautiful words of Irving |
Then weave thy chaplet of flowers, |
and strew the beauties of nature about |
the grave console thy broken spirit, if |
thou canst, with these tender yet fu-
tile tributes of regret but take warning, |
by the bitterness of this, thy contrite |
over the dead, and henceforth, |
be more faithful and affectionate in the |
discharge of thy duties to the living"