The Highland weekly news. [volume] (Hillsborough [Hillsboro], Highland County, Ohio) 1853-1886, 1881-11-10

l merey-seat in his days Of suffering
and bathed in her tears when b
died. I am not speaking blindI,
when I say that his religious fellow
ships, the sanetifying power of hi
! religious associations, and the tende
} ties that bound him to many of hi
brethren in Christ, had much to d.
IN making him what ne was; and h
a5undantly repaid all the brotherl,
} affec ion lavished upon him in (
? steady devotion to the church of hi
choice, clinging, through all change.
Of fortune, to her service, worBhipinG
at her altRrs, and sharing her bur
dens. His example of faithfulnOBl
is worthy of imitation. But the les
son especially suggested to th,
church is this: The church founC
him a poor boy in the wilderness
sheltered him from the temptation;
of the world, and inspired his hear
with courage to fight the great battle
Of life under the leadership of the
Captain of Salvation. The humble
little band of worshipers that thus
received and encouraged him, little
dreamed what the result would be
that the world would, some day, be
filed with his praise, and lament his
death as no death was ever before
lamented. When the church opens
her doors to the lowly, and welcomes
to her fostering care the children Of
poverty from the wilderness, or from
the lanes of our cities, she knows
not what, in such land as this, may
be the grand outcome. Gray, in his
immortal Elegy, suggests what
might have been the sublime posi-
bilities of life, had those buried in the
country churchyard been permitted
to live:
"PeFAsps Ia this neglected spot is laid
| Some heart once pregnant with celestial ere
Hands that the rod Of empire might have sway'd,
orwak'd to ecstasy the living Tyre"
But this is useless reheotion-for
what might have been can never be.
But it is worth while to reflect con-
cerning the living multitudes Of the
toiling and neglected poor, that thors
are wrapped up in their lives grand
possibilities, which only need to be
unfOlded by Christian culture to be
turned into blessed certainties.
Future Presidents, and members Of
Cabinets, and Judges, and legisla-
tors, and leaders Of armies, may to-
day be hidden in obseurity in the
humblest walks of life, waiting for the
quiCkening voice of gospel truth and
the gentle ministries of Christian af-
fection. And il, only now and then,
such ministries may be crowned with
results as brilliant as in this instance,
in ten thousand cases they may be
blessed in giving to society living
stones, fashioned and polished for
serviceable places in the temple Of
humanity. From the tomb Of the
illustrious dead let this voice come to
US, bidding us fulfill our holy mission
Of preaching the gospel to the poor.
There is a voice to all the sons of
ambition, bidding them clutch light
ly the treasures that must soon turn
to ashes. In the presence of death,
"What shadows We are, and what
shadows we pursued Ifdeath ends
all, what a mockery is human great
ness-nay, what a mockery is human
life! As says a Russian poet of the
sum of mans brief and feYerish exis-
tence;
''BOrn, living, dying,
Leaving the still shore for the troubled wave,
Battling with storm-clouds, over shipwrecks
flying,
And casting anchor in the silent grave 20
When an illustrious military chief
tain, whose name shook the world
with terror, was dying, he directed
that his winding sheet should be lift
ed on the point of a lance and car
ried through the streets of the city,
accompanied with the proclamation,
"This, this is all that remains to
Saladin the Great of all his gloryP'
So fades the glory of the world and
if there be nothing beyond "this frail
and feVerish being Of an hour" but
the winding sheet and the graVe-if
= glorious man such as he whose
death we mourn. must be compelled
at last to say to corruption, 'ThoU
art my father" and to the worm,
'Thou art my mother and my sister,
then must we say with the wise man
of the ancients, VANITY of vanities,
all is vanity" There is q value in
the labora aud in the honors ofsarth
only as they educate US for a better
life; and in view of that better life
the brightest glories and richest
prizes of earthly ambition are but the
toys Of childhood, which must soon
be thrown away as vaIueless.
After speaking of the family, DR..
Errett closed by saying:
have discharged now the solemn
covenant trust reposed in me many
years ago, growing out of friend
ship that has never known a cloud,
a confidence that has never trembled,
and love that has never changed,
PRESIDENT HINsDALE,
of Hiram College, spoke at some
length. He closed as follows;
One of the very grandest phases
of this grand man was his great sim
plicity Of character. This he retained
unsullied to the end. Nothing
could corrode or taint his original
honest fiber. Principalitias and
powers, dynasties and dominion,
were nothing to him in comparison
with the fellowship of his early
friends. His love for the old school
continued to the very end. He last
visited Hiram not long before his
final departure for Washington. He
made one of his beautiful speeches in
the chapel He spoke Of the mem
ories that lay under the snow said,
never since he went to the army had
he left Hiram with similar feelings /;
said he Was about to sail out into
unknown seas; but that he felt that
on the Hiram promontOry he has
built a cairn from which he could