The Stark County Democrat. [volume] (Canton, Ohio) 1833-1912, 1882-11-16
should come and it seems they can't

thorough manlineSs, no WhimperinR
over religion, no whining as though
everything were going to destruction.
No patience with men In the ministry or
out of 1t built on small scale, three
feet by two, trying to drag others down,
hoping out of the debris to build some
thing for themselves; hating cant with
as much emphasis as Thomas Carlyle
hated 1t, but for opposite reasons; hating
1t not as tiger hates calf, but as
music hates discOTd, and as the sunshine
hates darkness. He was full of the gos-
pei of good cheer, the gospel of genial
lty, the gospel of spring mornings, the
gospel of carnatiOn rose and pond lily.
To him the blOssOming orchard must
have been censar swim ging before the
throne, and the clouds were pictures in
water color" Great soul. beautiful
sOuli sympathetic soul! splendid sOull
sef-sacrifcing soul! cOnsecrated sOuli
transported sOull Which of the twelve
gates of heaven he went through the
morning of his ascension l know not,
but if there be one gate whose pearl is
larger than another, and whose hinges
are more pOnderOus than anOthe, and
whose arch is more tTiumphal than
another, and at which the waiting
chariot hath swifteT wheel and snOWieT
cOuTsers than another, that was the
gate, thank, at which Thomas Guard
entered.
Concerning this departure 1 am i'm
pressed first with the mysteries and then
with the alleviatiOns. Mystery the first:
Why should so good man so terribly to
suffer? There came all those long years
of domestic anxiety because of his
wife's inValidism. Moving from Ireland
to South Africa, and tarTying there nine
years; afteTward, for the same reason,
changing from the Atlantic Coast to the
fn
Francisco, from San Francisco to Oak
land, the honeymoon lasting from the
day when, at twenty-seYen years of age.
he took her hand at Dublin until five
years ago he put her away for the reSur-
rection, holding the sick and wasted
hand as lovingly as he had when it was
sound and strong and well. On! that
husbandly faithfulness is of poor fiber
that lasts only while the eye sparkles
and the cheek has in it the flash of sun
rise! But from Dublin to Oakland it
was au ever-increasing affection. 2hen
came five years at which every moment
he was liable to paTOXysms of suffering,
pOstpOning the surgeons knife until it
could be postponed no longer, with a
nervous horror anticipating the crisis,
until his strength was all gone, and
then going out in physical agOnies,
which anOdynes and hypOdermic appli-
cations only partially assuaged. Why
all thisP Tell me. l cannot tell you. l
adjourn it to that day when Ridley shall
get explanation of the stake, aud Hugh
McKail shall get explanation of the
scaffeld, and Margaret the martyTed
Sc, tch girl shall get explanation of the
wave, and James A. Garfield shall get
explanation of the bullet, and that
Christian woman at the dark alley shall
get explanation of the cancer, and the
rainbow of Gods clear and beautiful exs
PLANTATION shall be hung across all the
depaTte showers of earthly grief.
Mystery the second: Why should he
be taken away at fifty-One years of age,
the height of his usefulness and pOWeTp
Why not wait until he was infirm?-
Why, when all the batteries are loaded
for long campaign and about to be un-
limbered, must the gunners drop? Why
not wait until this Austerlitz, this Sc
dan, this Waterloo, between infidelity
and Christianity has ended in victory to
the rider on the white hOTse2 Why in
this day take away fearless mounted
captain of the Lords host when the
feet of weak Christians are by terror
shaken out of the stiTrups? To rally
the church's courage in the conflict we
want more plumed warriors at the
front. 1t is the latter half of my text
that sounds with the roll of funeral
drums, "HOw are the mighty fallen in
the midst of the BATTLE" as though Blu
cher were slain while coming up with
at nightfall, as though
Garnet WOlsley had fallen between Al
exandria and Tel el-Kebir. At the time
when, with all his accumulation of
knowledge and experience, he was ready
to do his greatest work for God and the
church, why has this man been taken
away? Tell me. l cannot tell you. l ad-
jOurn that mystery also, to the day
when we shall know why Henry Kirke
White should expire of consumption at
twenty-One years of age, just as he had
given the church of God intimatiOn of
song power like that of Isaac Watts and
Charles Wesley in the immortal hymn:
when marshalled on the mighty plain,
The gittering host bestud thr sky,
One star alOue Of all the train
eau fix the sinners wandring eye.
1 adjourn this mystery of Thomas
lone, to the day when we shall be told
why John Summerfield, the flaming
svangel, died at twenty-seyen years of
age; and we shall find out why John Nc
ClintOck expired before he finished his
cyclOpedia of biblical, theological and
literature; and why Will
liam Morley PunshOn last year, at fifty
seven years of age, closed his lips, while
On his shoulders were the interests of
and, and there seemed so many ser
mons of fire for him to speak; and why
Beethoven was struck with complete
leafness, so that he could not hear the
Oudest crash of the organ render
ng his own music; and the day when
We shall learn why so many authors
paused forever amid half-written manu-
scripts, and so many painters never got
further than the outline OF their mas
terpiece; and so many poets stopped
the rhythm, and so many persons
sure of Christian usefulness halted at
noon. Yea, for Thomas Guard it was IL
o'clock meridian. The clock of his life
time struck one at Galway; it struck
1T South Africa; it struck 10 at San
francisco; it struck IL at Oakland; it
struck IL at Baltimore, High noon and
The sun eclipsed.
But that last word passes US out of
he shadOwed realm of mystery into the
glorious alleviations of this trying Prov
dence. EclipsedI Not extinguished.-
rolled between US and him,
with no damage to him. When Jupiter
lides one of his satellites by coming be-
ween the earth and the satellite, there
8 occultatiOn, but we have no idea the
,ataIlita Ia dastrOved. When the aarth'9