Union County courier. [volume] (Elk Point, Union County, D.T. [S.D.]) 187?-1913, 1882-07-26
THE BENYGNYTY OF DEATH.
A Cheerful ptec Of tho Figure On the
White Horse.

Hhue Horse
tFrom the indianapolis Reviewl
Because mankind have been unable to
comprehend death they have made 1t
terrible. All literature on the subject is
CHASTITY and appalling. The portals Of
the tomb have been draped in the dark
est gloom, and the mystery which lies
beyond the grave made dreadful by every
device of language and exaggeration Of
the imagination.
Every race has constructed for itself a
death angel, and all are grim all fear
inspiring. The Hebrews named him
Sammal, and armed him with sword
and placed him in the courts Of heaven,
to ~ hence oyer the earth at the hehest
Of God. To the Greeks he was the black
twin Of sleep, slumbering in the arms of
night. The death angel of the Romans
was female figure, dark-robod, black
winged. with ravenous teeth, lowering
everywhere and darting here and there,
hungry for prey. The Morse conception
OF death is vast, cloudy presence,
sweeping on its victims and bearing
them away wrapped in its sable folds.
Our own literature personifes him as
skeleton brandishing dart; as fowler
spreading his net, setting his snares for
men.
The writer's who combine calm phil
osophy with a steady reliance upon the
infinite wisdom which designed the great
scheme of the universe tell us that death
is not an entity, but an event not
force, but state. 1t is the irrevocable
negation which closes the positive ex-
perience we call life; and it must be
right and wise and kind, else it could
not be. 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, but not in death, is death death.
Death is so unreal being that he only
is when he is not, and is not when he
is" A philosophic poet has said
death is not a dynamic agency warning
against life, but simply an occurrence
the other side oE lie" In the language
of science: "Lifc 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 we discern death and if
We look beneath the pail of horror with
which our ignorance has enrobed it we
will see its benevolence 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 uuravels all tangles. 1t
is always friendly in its results, however
terrible its fern. 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 is
made, that, since organic action implies
expenditure OF force, the modicu,n of
force given to any physical organization
must fnally be spent; henisaity. be-
cause bodily immortality on earth
would prevent all The happiness OF per-
petually rising millions and be ali IN
speakable 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 a dark, tremendous sea Of cloud,
1t is but for y time. press Gods lamp
C.ose TO my breast; its spendor, soon or late
Win pierce the gloom. l shall emerge somewhere.