Essex County herald. [volume] (Guildhall, Vt.) 1873-1964, 1875-12-04

CRY Of the late Henry Wilson, Vice E'res-
ident of this United states.
Now Elisha was fallea sick Of his Sickness
whereof he died. And JOash the King uf Israel
came down uatO him, aud wept over his face, and
saidi % my father my father, the chariot OF lsrs-
cl, and the hOrsemeu thereof .
Aud Elisha died and they buried hing Kings,
riii' II, 20.
1t was my purpose, In the selection OF
this text, not to preach sermon on the
life and death of Elisha, IsraerS prophet,
bst to give you some t..oughts that have
been occupying my mind since the intelIi-
gcnce reached us that Henry Wilson, the
Vice President of the United States, was
no more.
For thirty-1ve years Henry Wilson had
been deeply interested and had taken an
active part in the political affair. of this
country; and while he was not perfect, he
nevertheless won and sustained the conf
dence OF his fsllow-countrymen whether
in their political views he agreed or dis
agreed with them.
Permit me to rehearse to you the con-
densed statement to be found in the last
issue of the Congregationalia concerning
| him:
Henry Wilson was born in Pennington, y. H.,
on the 10th Feb, 1912, and had consequently
| reached'the ripe age of siXty.three years nine
months and six days. The story of his career
has been too often told to need rehearsing now
Suffice il to say that out of the lowest depths OF
poverty, and a heritage of hardship which would
have extinguished nearly nine hundred and nine
| ty nine out of every thousand, he nobly worked
his way upward, until, by the blessing of God
upon his unremittng toll, and the frmness of his
principles, after conquering highly respectable
rank as a literary man, and very high place as
a statesman, lie died in the capitol of the nation,
| the incumbent of the second office in its gift;
with what is the highest honor of all, the almost
universal confidence of men of all classes and
parties, in his essential purity as man, and his
undeniable honesty rs a politician.
| Ills were years which bore examination. Not
! that he was without faults; or that, had he been
able to live his life again in the light of his
completest wisdom, he might not have radically
changed it in some respects. But his career was
founded upon solid truth Of character. He loath.
ed intemperance and has done more than almost
any other public man to strengthen young men
against the fascination ofthe temptations which il
Offers He abhorrcd dishonesty, and if he were
proud of anything, ii was that he was poor mar
not in virtue of the prodigality which wastes
or the Incidence which does not reap, but by the
force Of that integrity which, in public place,
with great opportunities of emolument, avoids
even the appearance of evil. Nearly ten year.
ago, he united himself TO the Congregations
church in Natck, of which he has remained {
humble, earnest and faithful member.
Altogether the nation has great cause to mourn
his loss. 1t is not time when an honest states
man can well be spared. Good examples are no
so plentiful, that his will not be missed. While
the fairness and cathohcity of his spirit, and thu
honorable part which he, who was behind NJ
Northern man in the intenseness of his love for TIN
Union, or the breadth of the sacrifices made TO
its preservation, was bearing in wise efforts anC
agencies for its rehabilitation; will cause mourn
ing for his loss to be as sincere in all the intel
ligent South as it can be in his native North,
He passed away without the slightest imme
diate warning; yet it had long been his endeavo
SO to order his life that lie should be In READINGS
whenever the Master called for him; and hat
there been permitted to him a few conscious mo
mcnts in which to anticipate the article of death
beyond CUSHION MS penlUcht sow Woulu nave re
veaed its instant and faithful leaning upon tina
rod and staff with which GoS's own beloved one
are supported through the gloom. Deeply inter
esting in this connection, is the fact, mentioned
in tile Washington dispatches that the last bool
which Mr.. Wilson opened, was "The Changet
Crosse and the last poem he was reading thereii
was "The Christian and his Echo" And thu
some of its closing verses read:
Amen! with all my heart, then be it so;
'TiS all delightful, just and good, know;
And now to practice I'll directly go.
Directly go.
Things being so, whoever me reject,
My gracious God me surely will protect
Surely will protect.
Henceforth I'll roll on Him my every care,
And then both friend and foe embrace in PRAYER
Embrace in prayer.
But after all these duties have done,
Must /, in point Of merit, them disown,
And trust for heaven through jesus blood alone
Through jesus blood alone!
The first thought which / give YOU /: