Saturday press. [volume] (Honolulu, H.I.) 1880-1885, 1882-11-11
THE BENIGNfTr or DEA1n.


Whfr Horr~.
trrcm the indianapolis Revevl
Because mankind have been unable 10
comprehend death they have made II
terrible. All literature on the subject 10
CHASTITY and appalling. The portals OF
the tomb have teen draped in the dark
est gloom, and the mystery which lies
beyond the grave made dreadful by every
device of language and oxaggeration Of
the Imagination.
Every race hns constructed for itself n
death angel. and oil are grim and fear.
inspiring. Tho Hebrews named him
Samm@l, and armed him with sword
and placed him in the courts of heaven.
TO fly hence over the earth ut the behesi
Of God. 10 tho Greeks he was The black
twin Of sleep, slumbrring in the arms OF
night Tho death angel OF the Romans
was n female figure, darkrobed, black,
winged. with favcuous teeth, lowering
everywhere and dorting here and there,
hungry for prey. The Morse conception
OF death ia vast, cloudy presence.
sweeping on it's victims aud bearing
them away wrapped in its sable folds.
Our own literature pcrsonihes him "a
skeleton brandishing dart; as fowler
spreading his net, setting his snares for
men.
The writer's who combine n calm phil
osophy with steady reliance upon the
infinite wisdom which designed the great
scheme of the universe toll us that death
is not m entity, but an event; not n
force, but a state II is the irrevocable
uegation which closes tho positive OK
perience we call life; and it must he
right and wise and kind. else it could
! not I've. Literature has involved the
subject in intangible theories. Science
and metaphysics have drawn little
nearer TO the heart OF the great mystery.
A German writer says: "Only before
death, Tut not in death, is death death
Death is so unreal being that he only
is ,ghen he is not, and is not when he
is" A philosophic poet has said :
Deaths not dynamic agency warning
against life, but simply an occurrence
the other side of life." In the language
of science: Lille is the performance
of functions by an organism; death is
the abandonment of an organism to the
forces of the universe.
Wherever we look in the realm OF
| physical man VIC discern death; and il
we look beneath The pail of horror with
which our ignorance has enrolled it We
will see its beneyolence and its beauty,
Linked inseparably with the laws of life
it bears The impress of the divinity and
is the expression of His love.
Without death there would be neither
stimulus nor romance in life. II is the
magician whose wand dissipates all com.
plications and unravels all tangles. 1t
is always friendly in its results, however
| terrible its form. 1t is /" the echo of the
| voice Of love reverberated from the
limit of life"
"To the capable observer, death
bears the double aspect of necessity and
benignity necessity, because it is an
ultimate fact, as the material world ia
made, that, since organic action implies
expenditure of force, the modicum of
force given to any physical organization
must finally be spent; benignity. be-
cause bodily Immortality on earth
would prevent all the happiness of per.
petuslly rising millions and be an un.
epeakable curse upon its possessors.
Viewed from this standpoint, the
specters of the brain, which were wont
to rise at the slightest mention of death.
vanish and. as we enter the ancient
mystery, we can say:
Though stoop
| Into dark, tremendous ses OF cloud,
| II is but for time. preEs Gods lamp
| c:o-e TO my breast; It's splsndor soon or late
| VII pierce the gloom shall emerge somewhere