Sharp County record., 1879-03-27

tbeolooian. Those Royal children
which recently came from the Old World
TO rule the northern border OF our con-
tinent soon broke away from court gay
eries and forms that they might ENJOY
that strange happiness OF seeing one OF
Gods pursst rivers pouring itself over
a ledge of rocks high as a cathedral
tower. Look for q moment at the
Queens daughter medltatlng by this elo'
duence OF waters, and then let your
mind run back $500 years to Sapphor
Greek girl, and you will find her upon a
couch at midnight, with her soul look
ing outward upon the external splendor
and regretting the setting OF the moon
and the pleiades in the " darkllng noon
of night" What helps save the name
of Byron from becoming unknown or
whollvunworthV is that unsurpassed de-
lineation of nature which IS found in his
greatest poems. He threw himself up
on the bosom of the ocean, the Lake
Geneva. the Rhine River, the great and
rich East. and they hid his weaknesses
bv spreading over them the draperY OF
their spotlessness. Has not Nature thus
carried all great souls in her arms, and
thus reared them unto higher greatness? ?
Not only doe, the universe contain the
glory of God but the glory also OF
man.
But now comes a most touching IN
duirv. If this material world is at once
the glory of God and the development
of man, if it is such an author Of the
human language, and thought, and sem
timent, and i'll this material universe Is
so large that our earth Is only a little
dr0D of water IN a measUreleSS ocean,
then have we only a few brief years of
this gigantic space and time? Shall
YOU and I pluck the flowers Of only
few fields and a few summer-times, and
then become dust and disappear? II
this small earth so educates the mind
and soul. WHY may not other worlds,
more amazing and happier, take up us
Chi dren dying here and bid us resume
again the blessed Journey Of lite2 If
man came to this earth amid a mystery
which no reason can fath0m, it will re-
quire only one more such mystery to re-
peat in some other world this phenOm-
enOn of the conscious created soul.
The materialists remind up that the
brute dies; the flower dies; the song
bird falls and perishes, and, then, why
not man? Why, then, in such philosophy,
should not God die? There is alinit to
such inference. There is some boundary
where animal life and vegetable life are
on the one side and rational Hfeis on the
other The logic Of the former can not
cross over the line and wave its black
flag. Two hundred years ago Blaise
Pascal gathered up in a single strange
thought this immense difference between
the death of animal and flower and the
last hour of man. He says: Eyes,
all creatures and things die, but man
only 5HO1OS That he is dying" Oh pain
ful but most cheering knowledge! For
years man foresees the event. When
alone in the still night he says; 81, too,
must die +" 8s'the last hour comes his
eyes fill with tears-unless disease
makes him too feeble to weep. But this
very introspection, this perfect survey
of death, bespeaks a soul and shows
whats an infinite distance between mans
death-bed and the death of bird or
hOweri Yes man 5nOWS that he is dy-
ing, and therefore the more probableis
it that the Father behoids this sorrow of
His children and will bless them with a
second life,
Standing amid the wonders of that
material world which adds glory to the
Creator, marking its intimate relations
also to man, how it supplies him lam
guage, how it arouses his soul, how it
invites him away from vice, how 1t
makes him happy with its landscapes
and sunshine and with the very air he
breathes, how it inweaves itself all
through his mind and sentiments, | can
not but conclude that this Nature in
tends to carry It's gifted admirers along
with it, and having shown him for a
few years the works and beauties and
trials of this world, intends to transfer
him to a still better life. And thus the
material world, which is the glory or
effulgence of God, will be also the per-
petual development and happiness OF
His children.
GEORGE WASHINGTON.