The Sedalia weekly bazoo. [volume] (Sedalia, Mo.) 187?-1904, 1882-10-31
THE DANGER OF LIVING.

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1t is a very common thing to hear
of the danger Of dying; but great
deal less IL said Of the danger Of living.
The young and the old are often warn
ed that they may die before another
day has passed but they rarely hear
a warning on the ground that they
may live the week out. They are
told seriously, On New Years day or
some other anniversay, that this may
be the last day or year of their lives !;
but. in fact, there ought to be a grea {
deal more solemnity in the suggest ion
to them, and in the thought on their
part, that the dangers Of life are by no
me ans sure to end with the year they
have new begun. Dsing is very
small matter IN csmpssaion with liviI g
Living is the dangerous business, with
this world as it is, and with men a
they are. Can there be any question on
this point?
Unless life has been an utter
allure, a faded nothing,
what gain is there in prolonging it
To the christian. to the one who be
lieves that there is glorious eternity,
there is bright side to death-whe,h-
er it be ones own death in anticipation,
or the death of loved one in retro
spect. To such one the end of this
life is the beginning of new one. 1t
is rest from toll /; it's peace after strife ;
it is gain after loss it is glory after
humiliation. Whatever sadness there
may be in the thought of temporary
separations and absences through
death. there is comfort in the
thought Of undoubted safety
and of unfaing joy to ones self, or
to ones loved ones, by the very fact of
death.
With a.. that is admirable in a
noble life in action and in progress,
there is yet greater beauty and
a higher grandeur in a completed
and perfected life. Who could
mourn for the dead, for the dead's
sake, when it could be said with
truth, as it was recorded above the
wasted body of a murdered Garfield,
of him whom all the world
had learned to love:
"Lifes work we'll done;
Lies race we'll run;
Lies crown we'll won;
Now comes rest?"
Yet that is the record of every
worthy life, no matter how humble
it was.
And there is sense in which we
give and gain for the life that now is,
through dying. We are conscious,
out of all the losses and failures and
sad misunderstanding of life. that we
are surer of our dead than of our liv.
ing ones; and that we shall be dearer
to those whose love we value when
we are dead. Often, in some
heavy hour ofloneliness or disappoint-
nent, We cry out in our bitterness
Nothing is our own except cur dead.
When our Joy is lost-and life will take it
Then no memory of the past remains;
Save with some strange, cruel sting to
make it
Bitterness beyond all present pains.
Only the dead hearts forsake us never"
And out of our own experiences We
realize dealt q beau flying power over
the loved onts-
"Wheu i. has laid them low;
When il has set its hallOwing touch
On speechless lip and brow.
1t clothes their every gilt anu grace
with radiance from the hottest place,
With light as from an angersfsce.
It sweeps their faults with heavy hand,
AS sweeps the sea the irampied sand,
Till scarce the faintest print is scanned"
In view of this, how can the
thought of dying be gloomy to us.
in comparison with the fact
longer living. I, Living. to every
man. is q ceaseless struggle, with
a constant danger ofbeing o-srborne
w enemies, and of being MISUNDERSTOOD
or deserted or even betrayed, by