The Emporia weekly news. [volume] (Emporia, Kan.) 1881-1889, 1883-04-26
L8GgRsoLL ON DEATH.

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bIr. IngersOll, the great agnostic, has
achieved measure OF celebrity in con-
nectioB with his funeral addresses which
renders his uttsrances ON the question OF
the future life of general interest To all
classes of believers. His latest effort
was the Grafton delivered at the grave
of his friend, John c. Mills, OF Wash
ington, and which we reproduce as fol-
lows:
Again We are face to.facs with that
great mystery that shrcuds this world.
We question, but there is no reply.
Out on the wide waste seas there floats
no spar. Over the desert of death the
sphinx gszes forever, but meyer speaks
In the very May of life another heart
ceased to- beat Night has fallen upon
noon, but he lived, he loved. he was
loved. Wife and children pressed
their kisses on his lips. This is enough.
The longest life contains no more.
This fills the vase OF joy. He who lies
here clothed with the perfect peace of
death was kind and loving husband,
and good father, a generous neighbor
and honest man, and these words build
monument of glory about the humblest
grave. He WAS always child, sincere
and frank, as full of hope as spring. He
divided all time into to-day and to-mor-
row. Tomorrow was without aScloud,
and of To- morrow he borrowed sunshine
for to-day. He was my friend, He
will remain so. The liYidg often be-
come eslranged. The dead are true. He
was not Christian. In the Eden of sis
hope there did not crawl and coil the
serpent of eternal pain. In many Lam
guages he sought the thoughts of men
and for himself he solved the problems
of the world. He accepted the philoso-
ply of Auguste Comte. Humanity was
his god, the human race the su.
Dreme being. In that supreme
being he rested. He believed that men
are indebted for what we enjoy 10 the
labor, to the seifdenial, the heroism of
the human race, and as we have plucked
the fruit of what others planted, we, in
thankfulness, should plant for others yet
to be. With him immortality was the
eternal consequences of his own good
acts. He believed that every good
thought. every disinterested deed, hastens
the harvest of universal good. This is a
religion that enriches poverty, that
enables us to bear the sorrows of the
saddest life, that peoples even solitude
with the happy millions yet to be; a
religion born not OF selfishness and
fear, but of love and hope; the religion
that digs wells to slake the thirst of 9TH
ers; that gladly bears the burdens of the
unborn. In the presence of death how
belief and dogmas wither and decay.
How loving words and deeds burst into
blossoms. Pluck from the tree of any
life these flowers and there remain but
the barren thorns of bigotry and creed.
All wish for happiness beyond this life
All hope to meet again the loved and
lost. In every heart there grows this
sacred flower of enternal hope. Immor-
tally is word that through all the ages
has been whispering TO loYe. The mir
acle OF thought We cannot under
stand. The mystery of death
and hope we can not comprehend. This
chaos called the world has never been
explained. The golden bridge of life
from gloom emerges and on shadow
rests. Beyond this we do not know.
Fate is speechless, destiny Is dumb, and
the secret of the future has never yet
been told. We love, we wait, we hope.
The more we love the more we fear
Upon the tenderest heart the deepest
shadows fall. All paths, whether filled
with thorns or flowers, end here. Here
success and failure are the same The
rag of wretchedness and the purple robe
of power loose differences and distinc-
tion in this democracy of death.
Character alone survives. Goodness
alone lives. Love alone is immortal
"But to all there comes q time when
the fevered lips of life long for the cool,
delicious kiss of death. Tired of the
dust and glare of day, they hear with
joy the rustlIng garments of the night
What can we say of death? What can
we say of the dead? Where they have
gone reason cannot go, and from thence
revelation has not come. But let as be-
lIeve that over the cradle nature bends
and smiles, and lovingly above the dead
in h'neGiction holds her ouistretched
hands ."