The Dallas daily herald. [volume] (Dallas, Tex.) 1873-1887, 1882-03-01

tartan pclltl, anu Win eager lllltTtol pUbuCu
his investigations in the direction of mod
ern progressive thought. He followed with
quickening step in the paths of explora-
ton and speculation so fearlessly
trodden by Darwin, by Huxley by Tyn-
dali, and by other living scientists oil the
radical and advanced type. His own
church. binding its disciples by no formu-
lated creed, but accepting the Old and New
TestamcntS as the word of God, with un-
biased liberality of private Interpretation,
favored, lift did not stimulate, the spirit of
investigation Its members profess with
sincerity, and profess only to be of one
mind and one faith with those who inn
mediatcly followed the Master and were
first called Christians at Antioch. But
however high Garfield reasoned of free
fate, free will, iorcknowledge absolute, he
was never separated from the church of the
Disciples in his affections and ia his aspira-
tions. For him it held the
ARK OF THE COVENANT.
TO him it was the gate to heaven. The
world of religious belief is full Of solecisms
and contradictions. A philosophic OBJ.
server declares that men by the thousand
will die in the defense of creed whose
doctrines they do not comprehend, and
whose tcnets they habitually violate. 1t is
equally true that men by the thousand will
cling to church organizations with in
| stnctiyo and undying fidelity, when their
belief in mature years is radically different
| from that which inspires them as n2Ophytes.
But after this range of speculation and this
| latitude of doubt Garfield came back
always with freshness and delight to the
simpler instincts of religious faith, which
earliest implanted longest survive. Not
many weeks before his assassination,
walking on the banks of the Potomac
l.
les of personal religion, concerning which
noble natures have an uncomfortable re-
serve, he said that he found the Lord
prayer and the simple petitions learned in
infancy, infinitely restlul to him, not
merely in their stated repetition, but in
their casual and frequent recall as lie went
about the daily duties of life. Certain texts
of the scriptures had very strong hold on
his memory and his heart. He heard,
while in Edinburgh some years ago, an
eminent Scotch preacher who prelaced his
sermon with reading the eighth chapter OF
| the Epistlc of the Romans, which boOl, had
been the subject of careful study with Gar
, field during all
MS RELIGIOUS LIFE,
He was greatly impressed by the
clocution OF the preacher, and de-
Clared that it had impaired q
new and deeper meaning to the majestic
utteranccs of St. Paul. lie referred often
in after years to that memorable service,
and dwelt with exaltation of feeling upon
the radiant promise and the assured hope
with which the great apostle of the Gen
tiles was persuaded that neither death nor
life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor
powers, nor things present, nor things to
come, nor height, nor Depth nor any other
creature, shall be able to separate us from
of al, 10, ,,I
Lord
The browning characteristics of General
Garlield's religious opinions as, indeed, of
all his opinions, was his liberality. In all
things he had charity,
TOLERANCE WAS OF HIS NATURE.
lie respected in others the qualities which
he possessed himself, sincerity of conviction,
and irankness of expression. With him
the inquiry was not so much what man
believes, but does he believe it? The lines
of his friendship and his confidence encir-
cled men of every creed, and men of no
creed, and TO the end of his life, on his ever
lengthening list of friends were to be found
the names of pious Catholic priest and of
an honest-minded and gencrous-hearted
iree-t1inker. On the morning of Saturday,
July 3 the president was contanted and
happy man; not in the ordinary degree, but
joyfully almost boyishly happY, On his
way to the railroad station to Which he
drove slowly in conscious enjoyment of the
beautiful morning, with an unwonted
sense OF leisure and keen anticipation
of pleasure, his talk was all in the grateful
and gratulatory vein. He felt that, after
four months oftrial, his administration was
strong in its grasp of affairs, strong in popu.
lar favor, and deserved to grow stronger;
that the grave difficulties confronting him
ut his inauguration had been safely passed;
that the trouble lay behind him and not
| before him; that he was soon to meet
THE WIFE WHOM lie LOVED,
now recovering from an i'll
ness which had but lately dis
| quietcd and almost unnerved him; that he
was going to his Alma Mater to renew the
most cherished association of his young
manhood, and to exchange greeting with
| those whose deepening interest had fol.
lowed every step of his upward progress
! from the day he entered upon his col
lege until he had attained the Hottest
elevation in the gift OF his
countrymen. Much of happiness can ever
come from the honorS or triumphs of this
world, On that quiet July morning James
| \, Garfield may have well been happy
man, No toreboding of evil haunted him.
| Not the slightest premonition Of danger
| clouded his sky. His terrible fate was upon
him in an instant, One moment he stood
erect, strong, confident in the years stretch.
ing peacefully out before him. The next
he lay wounded, bleeding holpless-doomcd
to many weeks of torture, to silence and the
grave. Great in life, he was unsurpassingly
great in death, For no cause, in the very
frenzy of wantonneSs and wickedness, hy
this, the red hand of murder
he was thrust from the full
tide of the worlds interest
from its hopes, its aspirations, its victories
into the visible presence of DEATH and he
did not quail. Not alone for the one short
moment in which stunned and da1ed, h,
could give up life, hardly aware of It's re-
linguishment, but through days OF deadN
languor, through weeks of agony that wa.
not less agony because silently borne, will
clear sight aud calm courage he
LOOKED INTO ms orEN GRAVE,
What blight and ruin met his anguishet
eyes whose lips may tell wha
brilliant, broken plans; what bonled
high ambitions; what sundcrinl
of strong, warm manhood's friend
ships; what bitter rrnding Of sweet
household ties, Behind Kim proud cx
pectnnt nation, great host of sustain
! ing friends, u cherished and happy mother
wearing the full, rich honors OF her earl,
tolls and tears; the wife of his youth, who's,
) whole life lay In his the little boys, moi
b yet merged from childhood $ day oflrulic. tn
tair young daughter the sturdy sons, ius
/. srringing into closest companionship
, claiming every day and every day reward
"A al Ia