The Washington critic. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1885-1888, 1885-11-26

there are cries Of "faithfu unto death, she
hath done what she could,n while over
powCfiug oil the voices OF earth and heaven
is the puudit Of the God who watched her
from first to last saying "Wcll donc'
good pnd faithful servant, thou hast been
faithful over few things, | will make
'hoc ruler over many things. Enter thou
uto the joy Of thy Lord"
But what became of the father of the
houschodY lie started out Us u young
man In business and had small income, and
having got a little ahead sickness In the
fcmily swept II all away. lie went through
nll Tie business panics OF forty years, met
many losses and suffered many betrayals,
lut kept right ON trusting IN God, whether
lusincss was good or poor setting his
children a good example, giving them the
hest OF counsel; and never prayer did he
offer for all those years but they were
mentioned in 1t. lie is old now, and
realizes IL cannot he long before he must
Quit all these scenes. But he is going to
leave his children an inheritance OF prayer
and Christian principles which all the dcfal-
cations Of earth can never touch, and as he
goes out Of the world the church of God
blesses him, and the poor ring his door-bell
TO see If he is any better, and his grave
is surrounded by a multitude who went
on foot. and stood there before the process
sion Of carriages came up, as some say there
will be no one to take his place, and others
say, "Who will pity me now g' and others
remark, ale shall I've held IN everlasting re-
ntmbrance.n And as the drama Of his life
closes all the vociferations and bravos and
cncorcs that ever shook the nmphltheaters
and the Drury Lanes, and the Coveut Gar
dcus and the Haymarkets, and the Coils.
Gums Of earthly spectacle were tame and
feeble compared with the long, loud thun-
ders Of approval that shall break from the
cloud Of witnesses In the pilcd-up gallery of
the heavens. Choose ye between the life
that shall close by being hisscd of the stage,
and the life that shall close amid the accla-
nations, supernal and archangelic.
Oh, men and women on the stage OF life,
many of you in the first act of the drama,
and Others IN the second, and some of you
In the third, and a few In the fourth, and
here and there one In the fifth, but all Of
you between entrance and exit, | quote to
you as the peroration of this sermon, the
most suggestive passage that Shakespeare
ever wrote, although you never heard 1t re-
cited. The author has often been claimed
as iniidel and atheistic, so the quotation
shall be not only religiously helpful to our
selves, but grandly vindcatory of the great
dramatist. quote from his last will and
testament:
ain the name of God, amen. /, William
Shakespeare, of Stratford upon Avon, in
the county Of Warwick, gentleman, in per
feet health and memory. God be praised), ,
do make this my last will and testament In
manner and form following: First, | com
mend my soul into the hands of God, my
Creator, hoping and assuredly believing
through the only merits of Jesus Christ, my
| Saviour, to be made partaker of life ever.
| lasting"
Then follow the bequests and the sigma
ture, "By me, William Shakespeare ,
witnesses to the publishing hereof, f
Collyns, Jesse Shaw John Robinson, Ham
| net Sadler, Robert Whattcott.n