The Somerset herald. [volume] (Somerset, Pa.) 1870-1936, 1881-10-05
WHOLE NO. 1878.

~ fOhee VIII WIN ftte1 WI
known. But let me say that the
performance of the work and its
continued enlargement must depend
upon our maintaining virtue rs well
as intelligence, and making domi-
nant in all the lands those princi-
lples of pure morality that Jesus
Christ has taught us. Just as we
cling to that we are safe, and just as
we forget and depart from that we
proceed toward disaster and ruin
And this, when we see what has
been accomplished in a mighty life
like this is, an instance of the power
of truth and right, which spreads
from heart to heart and from life to
life and from State to State, and
equally from nation to nation, until,
these pure principles reigning every
where, God shall realize His great
purpose so long ago expressed to us
in the words of prophecy, that the
Kingdoms of this world are become
the Kingdoms of our God and of His
Christ, so that then over the dead
body of James A. Garfield may all
the people join hands and swear by
the Eternal God that they will dis
miss all unworthy purposes and
love and worship only the true and
the right, and in the inspiration of
the grand principles that Jesus
Christ has taught us, to realize the
grand ends of the high civilization
to which His words of truth and
right continually point us.
/ connot prolong my remarks TO
any great extent. There are two or
three things that | must say, how
ever, before | close. There is a
voice to the church in his death that
| cannot pause now to speak Of par
ticularly. There is q tenderer and
more awful voice that speaks to the
members of the family, to that sa-
cred circle within which really his
true life and character were better
developed and more perfectly known
than anywhere else. What words
can tell the weight of anguish that
rests upon the hearts of those who
so dearly loved him and shared
with him the sweet sanctities of his
home, the pure life, the gentleness,
the kindness and the manliness that
pervaded all his actions, and made
his home a charming one for its in
mates and for all that shared in its
hospitalities? 1t is of all this the
hardest and most grievous now, that
those bound to him by the tenderest
ties in the home circle are called to
yield to the grave, to hear that voice
of love no more, to behold that man.
ly form no longer moving in the
sweet circle of home, to receive no
more the benediction of the loving
hand of the father that rested upon
the heads of the childrc and COM
manded the blessings of ~iod upon
them.
The dear old mother, who realizes
so here to-day that her fourscore
years are after all but sorrow and
labor, to whom we owe, back of all
/ have spoken of, the education and
training that made him what he was,
and who has been led from that
humble home in the wilderness side
by side with him in all his elevation,
and assured him the triumph and
the glory that came to him step by
step as he mounted up from high to
higher to receive the highest honors
that the land could bestow upon
him. Left behind him lingering on
the shore when he has passed over
to the other side, what words can
express the sympathy that is due to
her, or the consolation that can
strengthen her heart and give her
courage to bear this bitter bereave-
ment? And the wife who began
with him in young wemanhood, has
bravely kept step with him right
along through all his wondrous ca
reer, and who has been not only his
wife but his friend and his counselor
through all their succession of pros
perities and the increase of influence
and power, and who, when the day of
calamity came, was there, his minis
tering angel, his prophecies and his
priestess when the circumstances
were such as to forbid ministrations
from other hands, speaking to him
the words of cheer which sustained
him through that long, fearful strug-
gle for life, and watching over him
when his dying vision rested upon
her beloved form and sought from
her eyes an answering gaze that
should speak, when the world could
not speak, a love that has never
died and that now must be immor-
tai. And the children who have
grown to a period when they can re.
member all that belonged to him
left fatherless in a world like this,
yet surrounded with a Nations
sympathy and with a worlds affec-
ton, and able to treasure in their
hearts the grand lessons of his noble
and wondrous life, may be assured
that the eyes of the nation are upon
them and the hearts of the people
go out after them. While there is
much to support and encourage, it
is still sad thing, and calls for our
deepest sympathy that they have
lost such father, and are left to
make their way through this rough
world without his guiding hand or
his wise counsels. But that which
makes this terrible to them now is
Just that which, as the years go by,
will make very sweet and bright
and joyous memories to all the lips
of the coming years, by the very loss
which they deplore and by all the
loving actions that bound them in
blessed sympathy in the home cir
Gle. They will live over again ten
thousand times all the sweet life of
the past; and though dead, he will
still live with them, and though his
tongue be dumb in the grave, will
speak anew to them ten thousand
beautiful lessons of love and right
eousness and truth. May God in
His infinite mercy fold them in His
arms and bless them as the need in
this hour of thick darkness, and
bear them safely through what re-
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