National Republican., 1883-11-26

whose deep shades tho birds sang out of sight,
beneath it tho cattle ruminated at noon, but
we pass again, and the birds have gone south,
the cattle are gone, and even tho tree itself
lifts its naked arms as II in supplication that
heaven would spare IL now 1t had every loai
Such is human life-as you may learn most
impressively by going TO some aged one ana
asking him how life looks in the retrospect
We say not that you should ask youth how
IL looks insthe prospect.
If we examine the Scripture use of the do
cay of tho leaf to represent our own dissolu-
tion we shall have hundred texts " Be-
cause as tho flower of the grass he shall pass
away. In tho morning 1t groweth up and
flourisheth in the evening 1t is cut down and
withercth." This is q specimen and stands
for all.
"Art is long and life is Reeting," wrote
Longfellow in his Psalm of Life" stood
amid the trees about his old revolutionary
house; but ne faded before those trees that
year. l went TO my college and sat down in
the old grove, and picked up leaves from
trees whore we used to play, and thought
that moro than half Of our class were dead,
while those trees put out green every year.
Mrs. Hemans wrote, Leaves have their
time to fall" &C., but she has gone with the
leaves Like leaves of trees the race of
men," wrote Homer but he has been dead
| il such man can die--over 1000 years
own undistnguished portion after death.
No matter how tenacious the leaf be of its
place on high it must come down. gently or
rudely, by frost, ripeness, or storm to its low
bed
Thus, my friends, shall we fall. We may
| cling to life, we may hold it the more tena-
cious the older we grow, as
The tree Of deepest root is found
Least willing still to quit the ground.
The adversites. the pelting storms of life
| may little incline us to let go our place but
we shall we must, come down to our lowly
bed. There we shall lie. We shall lie lower
than the leaves, and though some may now
think themselves too beautiful for the grave.
though they may have some distinction of
talent, of wealth. or of place which they
hoped would save them from the fate of the
| vulgar dead. in common with the common,
| in as narrow, in as short, in as deep, dark,
| and dsnk grave as tn ey, these will be laid
| and there beasts and men will walk over oul
sod as we walk over fallen leaves, and there
the worm shall have its home rioting on oui
moldering dust. In III Kings it says: =" For
she was kings daughter, but they found nc
more of her than the skull, and the feet, and
the palms of her hands"
5. That as the leaf comes again in the
spring. 80 our bodies will be renewed by the
resurrection.
There is a superiority of one mind ovel
and this thought, were there no resurrection
should put us on the cultivation Of those vir
tues which excel.
Especially is this So IL these minds are t.
have new spiritual body. We see tho ros
bush die, but the spring brings the leaves an
bloom and frag rance. So with all trees an
their leaves and "the survival of the fitest.
Our Lord raised Lazarus: He raised the sol
of the widow of Main Their bodies die
again, but the new spiritual body at tn
general resurrection will be like Christ
glorious body.
And 50 when we bury our friends, or on
friends shall bury us-no thanks to infdelity-
there is the hope, as sure as spring, tina
through Christ, our first fruit, that this col
ruptible shall put on interruption, and thi
mortal immortality"
1t can be said at the Christians grave 10
the cold cheek of death smiles and roses ar
blooming, and beauty immortal awakes fror
the tomb"
The Christian will then "be as tire
planted beside the waters whose leaf sha
not fade forevermore." Amen.