Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1880-05-08
THE VALLEY OF THE SHADOW.

To all who walk the earth there comes,
sooner or later, that dread experience
which each must pass through alone. For
the grief which Death brings can never be
allevjated by external consultations Friend
ship, however deep and true, is powerless
to Tighten or to share this supreme afilic-
ton, and the sympathy which its manifes-
tations elicit falls fruitless at the threshold
of Sorrow. 1t is at such moments, how
ever, that the tortured soul is irresistibly
impelled despite all the teachings of
unimpassioned Philosophy, despite the
stubborn protests of disciplined Reason,
to seek shelter in the only illuminated
region-the belief in life beyond the
grave. When Life only is present to our
thoughts, when the concerns and the &C.
Invites of growth and development alone
extend their influence over US, it is not
difficult to acquiesce in the cold logic of
scientific ratiocination, and to fancy that
we have once and for all emancipated
ourselves from superstition, and gained the
shadowless nights of Materialism. But
Death comes and lays his icy hand upon
our loved ones, and in the surging current
of grief Philosophy disappears. Is it for
nothing that this intense, passionate,
vivifying yearning after Immortality
for the loved and lost is implanted
in our natures? Does that "Pow-
ser, outside ourselves, which makes
=" for righteousness, deceive us all in the
most awful and agonizing period of our
lives, with groundless and fallacious hope?
The philosopher may in his calmest hours
assert that the yearning is but relic of
persistent superstition, but when the stern
reality of Death grips hard at his heart
strings, when he is called upon to choose
for himself between the conception which
bereaves him forever, and the conception
which softens his presentpain by suggesting
future reunion, he must indeed be more
or less than human if he does not renounce
his scientific creed, and strive to recognize,
amidst his tears, the light which intimates
Immortality. And if the tortured soul
yields to its unconquerable emotions, and,
cropping for solace and support, instructive
~ turns to this reviving faith, WHO shall
presume to assert that the refuge is not
withstanding delusion and dream, and
that science has found no other world
The universe remains a mystery to man.
kind, despite of the advance of knowledge
" knowledge comes, but Wisdom fingers,
says the poet, and the knowledge
which affects to have swept away
all the foundations of hope for
a life beyond the grave is protested against
and revolted at by the whole pain racked
spirit of Humanity. The time has not yet
come when Science can put its finger upon
the brain, and explain the transformation
of nervous energy into mental phenom-
ena. Between mind and matter there is
still great gulf set, and he who believes
that g it is not all of Life to live, nor all of
g Death to die, may cherish this consoling
thought without fear that Philosophy can
confute him, or Science shatter his tender
yearnings for his dead. And so we may
with all earnestness echo the words of
sweet poet who has brooded over the
Valley of the Shadow
"Aas for him who never sees
The stars shine through his cypress trees;
Who hopeless lays his dead away,
Nor looks to see the breaking day
Across the mournfu marble play
Who has not learned, in hours Of faith,
The truth, to flesh and sense unknown,
That Life is ever lord Of Death.
And Love can never lose its own"