Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1875-05-13
Earth's Brighter Side.

tiCe to turn aside at times from the desc
'ations of earth, from its scenes of pow
erty and vice and ignorance, places
which grow now the harvest Of atheism
and doubt, and mark what broad fields
of sunshine there have been always run
ming in great bands across our world.
AS the light and shadow are seen in
summer following each other over the
mountains, SO III the history Of man the
great shadows that have filled kind
hearts With compassion for the multitude
have been attended by outbursts of sun
shine which Oughtto betray the presence
and wish Of the Creator One reason
why we weep over the past more than
we rejoice over it may be found in the
fact that the tomb holds it all, and that
the soul instinctively pities all that has
been SO unfortunate as to die. The
grave casts its gloom over all that is
not now living along with US. From the
unknown place where IOses was hid
den from the sight OF man to the last
rites Of cur Christian heroes the very
fact Of death has covered all the past
with drapery of biackness. But we
know so little about the real import of
death that We are not justified in per-
hitting il to clothe earth with gloom.
Our tears may be only those of igno-
rance and timidity. They may be the
shrinking back of children in the dark.
If you viii omit death from the estimate,
or will suppose it to be the gateway to
still higher form Of divine goodness,
then what a mighty world this has been!
Turn away from the tomb of a Moses
and from his touchdown dying form,
and what a life was his! From an hum
bic cradle to palace! lie drank in all
the wisdom Of the Egyptians. With
loftiness Of soul like that of Charles
XII. and Washington, he chose rather
to suffer aftiictiOn with the children of
Cod than enjoy the pleasures Of sin for a
season, and with such spirit he led his
nation toward liberty, when the human
race was young and the giants held all
the middle ground; when the day of
manhood was just dawling upon a
world of violence. 1t is true his last
hours were bitter and dark, but they
were only a few of the moments of a long
life. A hundred years Of greatness stood
back Of that lonely death bed and by
their events, long and varied and grand,
they place the goodness of God above
the repr0aches of those final tears. What
co UNITS q lonely death against such a life?
There is light in which earth is seen
to have been and to be truly great. The
elements of greatness at least are within
it. 1t may be seen to contain seeds of
happiness ana success soWn by the AL
mighty That light of things is this
Turn aside from the petty sorrows of a
Moses and Seneca and mark the long
and unbending greatness Of their many
years. Look not only upon the ruins of
Athens and Alexandria, but look upon
the centuries of mental and spiritual
beauty that enyeloped them before they
fell. Turn your faces away from those
who heaped the fagots around the
Christian martyrs, and, having emptied
y
holy faces Of the martyrs themselves,
Cranmer and Rogers, and the early
Christians, Paul and James and Luke, and
read in their spirits how much of divine
grandeur God has poured out upon our
star The last moments of these martyrs
were but an atom of their magnificent
lives, and should not hide from US the
love OF God displayed in the long days of
their pilgrimage. Of the import of death
we know little. AS in the night we all
startle once before we fall truly to sleep,
SO death may be only jar, a startle of
the spirit, as it sinks from one realm to
wake in another.
Far be it from me to-day to attempt
to persuade you that this life is all rosy
and that our eyes need never weep.
There is no logic equal to such task
But upon all questions there is "another
side" of greater or less significance; and
be it powerful or weak it must always
be subjected TO an examination and al
estimate. Sinful and sorrOWful as the
world is, there is also an immense good
ness and greatness and happiness in it's
confines. A God Of love, Jesus Christ,
are always moving across it from north
to south and from east to west. The
sunlit spots in history, the Advent, the
Gospels written for man, the hymns that
have risen from happy hearts for thou
sands of years, the varied forms of great
ness that have come to men and to ma
tions, the overcoming spectacle Of
noble liyes-all tell US that the place on
which we stand is holy ground.
From these reflections may we not in
fer that there is in this world, so de-
nounced and so mistrusted, form of
higher life, life of honor, of education,
of love. of Christianity, which may
answer all who complain and who dis
trust, and may make Our earth seem all
full of the goodness of God? There may
be gems here for us all, only we are seek
ing for them upon the wrong shore. The
past forms of human excellence indicate
the fact that happiness cannot be found