The weekly democratic statesman. [volume] (Austin, Tex.) 1871-1883, 1878-01-17
HOW pEoPLE nEEr DEATH.

/
columns of a Cincinnati paper to asser-
tions showing how very miserable was
Voltaire when shuffling of this mortal
coil. On the other hand Bob Ipgersoll
proves conclusively, his friends say,
that Paine died bIissfully and Voltaire
comfortably and resignedly enough.
Bat what does It signifyl The hang
mans victims often die without a
shudder, looking brayely and conf
IDENTIFY into the very graves mouth.
Devil-may-care soldiers always rest in
death on battlefelds. however fearful
the shot that smote them, with sweetest
smiles on their powder-begrimed faces.
Fatal gunshot wounds, one might in
fer, are sure passports to a blissful i'm
mortality. The mood In which man
dies, the immediate cause of his death,
the faith that sustains him, whether in
Mahomet or Vishnu OF Brahms, each
aud all produce apparently ''glorious
triumphs over death, he'll and the
grave" 1t Is not the correctness OF
ones "faith" but its irretragable
strength that makes his death ''trium
phAnt." Therefore the GLORIOUS"
deaths we have witnessed when the
trap was sprung beneath bloody
handed murderer's feet, leaving him
suspended between earth and heaven,
stained with every crime and yet dying
like a very Socrates or Saint Peter.
With many self-love is so intense
passion that they never doubt Gods
love for themselves, and such is this
self-loYo that murder to crafty it is
right, and, therefore, the murderer,
having done only that which Is right,
braves eternity with unquailing
courage. Two.thirds of the remorse-
less knaYes put to death by the law
assert perfect assurance of blessed
immortality, and again have we seen
those dying in the midst of nameless
terrors and shudderIng and shrinking
and appalled, at deaths approach whose
whole lives had been blameless and
whose Christian purity was unsullied
and faith unquesuoniug. Deeds aud
words at DEATHS door are significant of
the physical and mental condition OF
the dying rather than of the souls
coming fate. Two-thIrds of those that
die, at the supreme moment, fix their
gaze on vacuity, and in their eyes and
in every feature are written CLEANS OF
ineffable delight. Often the face is IL
Illuminated with radiance of that di-
vine blessedness of which they dream
who sssert unfaltering trust in Gods
boundless mercy. Sinner aad saint, at
the supreme moment; the soldier, his
hands red with the blood of his brother
the thief in a prison cell; the priest,
counting his beads and with his last
accents confessing his sins and appeal
ing toithe Virgin the PrOtt stan, cen
fiding in his Savior slone-alI these, at
the moment life gives way to death,
wear upon their faces an expression of
blissful repose and of fixed faith-in in.
finite joys, as if seraph stood on the
osher side of the river, beekonlng
them on and assuring them of perfect
security and boundless peace. Does the
spirit, when its eyes are opened and
those of man closed, behold the
brightness and gloues and in dwellers
of the other life2 Do the dawning
Joys of the future life send their rays,
| like splendid sunbeams, down to the
verge of this stage of existence; or are
we who rejoice in the delights of the
dead and congratulate ourselves
that the departing spirit touched
the hem of Christ's garment even
at the moment of death-are we
misled in this2 Does not the
end of. the struggle for life
invest the faces of the dead with
this expression of delicious 0eatitude?
Each soldier has seen upon the up
turned face of his dead comrade on the
battlefield this smile of exquisite re
pose. There was a brightness and
purity In it that love for the fallen in
sists could only come from Gods
throne of infinite mercy; but was not
the departure of passion, of excitement,
the cessation of superhumau eff ,rt,
the lapse of suffering into sweet obliv-
ion and perfect rest after this terrible
day and death struggle-were not these
the artists, investing the dead soldiers
face with charms which we are sup
posed to contemplate when halo Of di-
vine glory encircles in paintings the
brow of the Savior : The sweetness of
perfect repose, of utter oblivion, of
perfect physical rest, may account as
well for this divine expression of the
faces of the newly dead as the asSer-
tions of those who pirate about the ter
rors of Voltaire's death and miseries,
IN artieulo mOrtis, of the drunken Tom
Paine.
We are not of those who think faith,
however wisely directed, strong enough,
in all cases, to divest death of terrors,
and il is the strength of this faith,
as we see it illustrated when
Moslem die without grosn or shud-
dernt Plevna. rather than its subject
or character, whether 1t affect Christ
or Mahomet, that determines the bless
edness of death and defines the degree
OF heroism and confidence in the fu.
tute With which it is encountered.
Through sll the years Of athqnghtful
life each individual voluntarily or 9TH
erwise i ever making preparations for
death. Finally. in his very soul. be
81 S prsparsa for the inevitable, and
R6en the leap in the dark at last is
Aaas Il Is shsn that We read Of a divin-
| Is. et<n the terrible struggle is ended,
Hfeess|1 death With sualighk and
croHni1 N,sl. smiles and roses In
referenee $ ~ most inporsanf event
in life, We o1rs..e,'g sSnmit an eyre
grious blundet re question is not