The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1873-04-14
GOOD FRIDAY.

| GOOD FRIDAY.
| There is an old story in All old book Of q
certain well-to-do man who found his income
so secure, his house SO comfortable, his barns
SO well filled, that he began to look upon the
whole affair, both master and possessions, rs
| the one thing meant to be permanenAin this
shifting world. "Soul," he said, in jovial
humor one night, to the Something out of
sight inside Of his healthy body, costly
clothes, stately dwelling, aud estate" Soul,
let us eat, drink, and be merry" This live
creature, at least, he was sure Of Body and
| land and houses, being dead matter, might
| wear out, but that which had earned and
ruled them all would stay. When dawp
came, the old record goes on to state, the
morning sun found fields and flocks unal.
| tered. There, too, were the comfortable
house and the rich clothes unchanged. Even
the body, which had served its master so
long, was there ready to do his bidding.
But the soul had gone, and never sent mes.
sage back to say whittier. "For six thou
sand years." says Schiller, "the dead have
been going from us, and not one hath re.
turned to bring us fidings."
Certainly, this well-to-do man did not be-
long to these days. Whatever else our
crimes, we are not Indifferent. We all of us
take a keen interest IN that unknown country
to which each Of Us must go some day on an
memorable journey, never to come back.
takiug with us nothing that we have needed
here. When we go into strange countries
now we can make place for ourselves with
our money or acquaintances even good
clothes are Of use. But what baggage or
letters of credit can we take with Us there
Even the fair face or bodily graces which have
covered up so much Of our real selves must
be left behind. To think of the dreadful
nakedness of jti TO whom shall we talk
our lives until an hour-tve minutes before
| Who will care there for Tue next election, OF
| the price Of stocks in the market? Who will
ask for the last joke or bit OF gossip Who
will know Of the. fashions or the last new
book Things that have filled our hands
and brain for our whole lives will have van.
ished from US like breath. and hands and
brain have gone with them ! If we could
but take bit Of hair from the child that lay
In our bosom; 1t we could but feel the kiss
| which the one dearest TO Us left on our closed
eyes But the child will grow up and for.
get us; and the kiss and the dead eyes will
be together In the grave far below; and
| what will be left to us? Who can answer
| what?
No man, however silly, Is indifferent to
this end OF the history for each of us. Men
| nowadays do not talk much about death, or
heaven, or he'll. Why should they? Have
| any returned to bring them tidings? But
they stand peering, rich and poor, boor and
scholar, alike at the closed gate, with the
question Of !. the old l. Cha!dean pro-
| phet on their lips, "When man dietb
shall he live againp He. giveth UP
the ghost, and where is he? Why do the
poor crowd to funerals? Why do hosts Of
unimaginative people accept table-rappings
and mediums9 Why is death, from the
lonely murder BY midnight to the opening
of the great jaws Of the sea- and the engulf'
ing of hundreds in q moment, the one
subject which repews In us all, clay by
day, the same breathless, morbid III.
terest? Not, surely, that the article OF
death, livid lips, aid CHASING eyes are raree
| show that attracts any man. 1t IL the secret
| beyond; the hope that, battling In the opened
darkness, on the verge Of the gulf, the de
parting soul may let fall some bint OF that
which: it sees On the other side, and which II
/ will never come back to tell tous. Job, even
! I'm the first morningof time, while the world
was yet youngiand fresh, cried out with i'm
4 potent despair against this .land. Of dark
ness" The poor Indian in Brazil goes oul
at night into the forest to try to learn the
song of the bird which he fancies has come
from the spirit world with message from
/ his dead. The woman whose child died
here to-day knows only the old, unalterabIe
longing Of that savage and of that man
whom God and Satan put to trial when she
kisses her baby's icy lips, and they do mol
move again to hers. E s. $500 =
Why but for 9thts sreason~is to-day gel
apart from all otbersf There have been
countless deaths as tragic in circumstances al
that Of the Saviour. So unbrokcn has beer
mans progressto the grave. that the worlds
air has been bit the breath of the dying
In every war or pestilenee thousands are
swept into the grave. Why should not only
churches be open but business. be made tc
halt in american cities to-day, because
! eighteen centuries ago the sen Of "a Jewish