The Toledo chronicle. [volume] (Toledo, Tama County, Iowa) 1873-1924, 1875-12-09

blessed Lord TO meet;
Up through the glowing ~splendors Of q
starry, earthly night,
To see the King in his beauty" in a land
of purer light,
Methodist AdUocate.
Vice-President Wilson as q Christian.
But now let US turn from these thoughts
of his public life, and look for a moment
at his character as a Christian and a man,
or rather as a Christian man; for this he
was. 1t is said that he died alone. In
the death chamber there was no sign of
woman's hand or of woman's attention."
No friend was at his bedside in the last
moment. No friendi All, yes, there was a
Friend that stieketh closer than a brother.
In life he had been a follower of Christ,
and at life's dark, lonely ending he could
say: Though | walk through the valley
of the shadow l will fear no evil, for Thou
art with mel" But a little while before
his death he repeated aloud the words of
Alice Carey's hymn:
One sweetly solemn thought
Comes to me DER and DER,
Nearer my home to-day ami
Than ever I've been before!
Fen now pcrchance my feet
Are slipping on the brink,
And J, to-day, am nearer home
Nearer now than I think.
And after his death a volume called the
Changed Cross was found under his
pillow, with the leaves turned down at
places where, like David at the Hill Mizar.
he had refreshed his soul in communion
with God. Thus unconsciously he was
preparing for death, and he approached
it as one who wraps the drapcry of his
couch about him and lies down to pleas
ant dreams. Having served his day aud
generation he fell on sleep" His last
hours were disturbed by no sad mourning
over the past, no doubt of what awaited
him behind the veil. 1t was q sunset
without clouds. He died as he had lived,
in the precious faith of Christ. He had
never sought TO fathom the great deeps of
religion but =" as a little child" he had
taken hold upon the one essential
truth that 1.-The blood of Jesus Christ
cleanscth from all sin" Religion to him
was not a science, a theology, but a sim
pie trust in the blood and an all pervading
love toward Him who shed it. Nor was
he ever ashamed to confess this religion
before men. In the Senate, in commit
Tee rooms, everywhere, he was recognized
as a Christian, and as such he was re-
spected even by those who reviled his
faith. 1t is no small need of eulogy to
say that in nearly forty years of political
life, of life amid the bewildering cares of
politics, he never scandalized or betrayed
or forgot the principles of the Gospel of
Christ. 1t might have been said of him
as of the church at Pergamos: "Iknow
thy works and where thou dwellest,
even where Satan's seat is; and thou hold
est fast and hast not denied My faith"
He was an ambitious man, yet his am
bition was ever held in cheek by the de-
crees of right. He was a successful man.
yet he reckoned no success worth having
if it cost the sacrifice of moral principle.
He was no mere professor of the religion
of Christ. He loved it; he lived it. His
personal integrity vas beyond suspicion.
He walked before men as one who had
taken the vows of a holy life. He exem-
plitied the precepts and the transforming
power of the spirit of truth. In his re-
ligion there was nothing morose or repul-
sive. 1t was childlike, yet altogether
manly; it was orthodox, yet large hearted
and benevolent. He was a Christian with.
out a censor, a partisan without an enemy,
a man who obeyed the precept, "Let no
man despise thee" In view of the promi-
ing up of our national prosperity, and IN
view of the dearth of true manhood and
character in our political life, we mourn
for him as one whom our country could
i'll afford TO lose; we are moved to cry:
1.-THE chariot of Israel and the horsemen
thcreof!' After having served his coun-
try for two-score years it was meet that he
should die in its Capitol; having lived
without reproach, 1t was right that he
should be laid in state with the face of
Washington bending over HIM; and hav.
ing left none upon whom his mantle may
rest, it was but proper that the skies
should be hung with a somber pail on tn e
day when they carried him out to his bu.
rial. And yet we remember what he him
self said: "The Lord knows better than
VIC do when II work is over and the
world has no more need of US"
And now, friends, let us not forget the
lessons of this brave, generous, manly
life. His voice was ever earnest in the
praise of all things pure and holy and OF
good report, and, being dead, he yet
speaketh to us. Let us be glad that in our
high places of power there was one who
did not kiss his hand before the golden
calves! Let us thank God that when it
was popular to deride the precepts of our
faith as milk for babes" and the Cos
pei story as a myth which civilization had
outgrown, there was one, faithful among
the faithless, who was not ashamed of the
religion of Christ. Brave, earnest, gener-
Gus, a leader in all great national re-
forms, he was yet a supplemented believer
in the old-fashioned story of the Cross.
The time may come when the record of
his usefulness in the political world will
be little thought of, but the time will
never come when the example of his
Christian life will cease to influence the
minds of men. Wheresoever his name is
spoken there shall it be told as a memorial
Of him that he kept the faith; that he was
a good soldier of Jesus Christ.-From a
Sermon by The Reu. DR.. BuyreA, Of Chicago.
-
In the old days there we're angels who
came and took men by the hand and led
them away from the city of destruction.
We see no white winged angels now. But
yet men are led away from threatening de-
struction; a hand is put into theirs which
leads them forth toward a calm and bright
land, so that they look nomorc backward;
and the hand may be q little child's.-
George Eliot.
The good God has NOR weapons than
we wot of, and more means Of grace than
are counted in the catechism. The touch
of a little child's hand has opened manga
door through which the Master has after
ward come in and sat down and supped.-
Mrs. Charles.
THE knowledge is small which We have
on earth concerning those things that are