The Louisiana Democrat. [volume] (Alexandria, La.) 1845-1918, 1873-04-16
The Valley Of the Shadow,

1t is. calculated that there die each
day upon this earth 1884 human be-
ings-wbich gives 1896 hour by hour,
and I'd every minute. Each tick of the
clock sounds the funeral knell of a
passing spirit. 70 each Que that de-
parts, the world has come to an end,
rs much as it will be to those who wit
ness the c"nfiagrati"n of the last day.
Despite this perpetual experience.
Death remains to the great majority of
mankind strange, melancholy, inscru-
table. The heart of universal man
kind darkens at his approach. "Tbe
last enemy which shall be destroyed is
Death" and as an enemy. he is always
destroyed to those who are not, like
children, alarmed by the darkness. but
see beyond it the lights in their Faith
er's house, and are introduced to a
brighter and happier state of exis-
tence.
But, sadder and more bitter than the
prodigious daily array OF deaths which
we have named are the bitter tears and
heart broken signs of the bereaved.
we. may count the deaths, but who
shall count those 81 CHS and tears7 Even
Jesus wept at the grave of Lazarus. If
the sting OF death is taken away by the
grace which Christ bestows, the surviv-
ors are more to be compassionated than
the dead. Why should he be commis-
Grated who has exchanged life of tri-
buiatlOn for a smooth haven and eter.
nal safety9 1t is those who are left; it
is the abguiShed, living hearts that de-
mand our sympathy. Yet even of
these, when servants of God, it is said.
"He putteth their tears in his bottle"
He preserves the tears of his saints.
Blessed are they that mourn, for they
shall he comforted. Every sacred
drop of santifed affliction shall one
day be luminous with the glories of
Heaven, as the sunbe;,ms shine in the
dew drops.
Far aod'r, it has always seemed to
us, than even the first anguish of Der
pavement, in the grand etiacing of the
recollection Of the dead which is
wrought by time. 1t is merciful pro-
vision to man that Time should bring
healing it's wing to wounded souls, or
else each bereaved household would
he ever filled with the lights and sounds
of woe. And yet, humanity speaking,
we never SO entirely part with tie
dead, as when the familiar face begins
to fade away in the dim distance of
years, and an event which once ooD-
vulscd us with agony can be spoken of
without emotion, In the one case
our friends have died to us; in the
other, we die to our friends. And how
soon, as one has said, the dead are for
gotten Surely no wish could he more
rational in the dying than those they
leave should not bury them in oblivion
as well as the grave; and no invocation
more rational to the survivors than.
"Lord keep my memory green.'
Yet even the sadness Of the "obliv-
ious antdote" which Tine is mercilul-
ly instrumental in administering to
human woe, is relieved by the thought
that the Resurrection will one day
bring up from tie grave not only the
body, but the soul, with all its memo
rles and affections, as fresh and strong
as when Death hid with his dark slaI-
ow the light of their earthly home, SO
that those who are separated here shall
not only meet in Heaven, but meet
feeling as they would have felt, if the
dead had been restored to life ere the
grave had received them; as the wild
ow of Tain felt when the Saviour gave
the dead man back to his mother.