The Lake Charles echo. [volume] (Lake Charles, Parish of Calcasieu, La.) 1876-1898, 1885-01-17

New York Mirror.
"All that live must die,
Passing thrOlIph natlra to Eternity ~

All LndL i've lluhL ulci
Passing through nature to Eternity
Men seldom think Of the great event
of Death until the dark shadow falls
across their own path, hiding from
their eyes the face Of some loved one
whose living smile was tho sunlight Of
their existence. Death is the great
organism of Life and the cold thought
of the tomb is the skeleton at all our
feasts. We do not want to 60 through
the dark valley, although its passages
may lead to Paradise and, with Chas.
Lamb, we do not wish to lie down in
the mouIdering grave, even with kings
and princes for our bed fellows. But
the fiat of nature is lnexorabIe There
is no appeal or repreye from the great
law that dooms us all to dust, We
flourish and fade like the leaves Of the
forest, and the faircst flower that
blooms and withers in a day, has not
Trailer hold on life than the might
est monarch that ever shook the earth
by his footsteps. Generations of men
appear and vanish like the grass and
the countless multitudes that swarm
the world to-day, will, perhaps, disaP-
pear tomorrow, like footsteps on the
sandy shore.
We do not recur to this great fact
for the purpose of making ourselves or
our readers gloomy. We believe that
the light of Immortality shines eternal
ly behind the dark cloud. No one
knows how a soul feels an hour after
death. God has but vaguely revealed
the great secret of future life. The
longing to live is the strongest evil
dence that individual existence does
not end with mortal life, and the ever
lasting hope of something better to
come, which buoys up the weary
world-worn pilgrim in his journey
through life, implies promise of its
own fulflIment. Death is but a
change. 1t can never be an eternal
sleep.
We believe this conviction of the
SOUPS endurance after death to be as
universal as the soul itself, the hollow
professions of the skeptic to the con
trary notwithstanding.
Who would consent to live day
in misery and pain, if he could "his
qnietus make with a mere bodkin {"
Knowing that death is imminent, and
ultimately inevitable, men who only
toll and suffer, would gladly lie down
and die at the end of the first days
work. But they live on, struggle on,
fight against the common enemy"
with all their might, Even the wretch
ed miseT, whose heart is welded to
his golden god, would give millions,
on his death bed, for few hours more
of life, when every motion is Il pang,
every breath groan.
Very few can say with the poet, on
approaching life's last milestone, that
Resignation gently slopes the way"
They would rather, if it were possible,
clay their fingers upon the spokes of
the great wheel" and stop where they
are. Even the world weaning disci-
pline of years of sickness can scarcely
bring a poor patient to think of the
narrow house aud the sable omnibus,
that never brings back u passenger,
without shudder of reluctance. Lit
tic children try to keep their eyes
open at night for fear of dying before
morning; aad you'll find the t0ttering
old man, who has oulliyed all his kin
dred, not ready to go yet. Husbands
aud wives, parents and children,
brothers and sisters, how closely they
cling together in Deaths chamber, or
when in times of pestilence the death
angel spreads his wings upon the
blast" How sad il is to part with
those We love, with but the dim assur-
ance of reunion in another state of
existence. For how, Or where, or
what shall We be when the breath
ceases, the heart stops beating, and
the body grows cold-neither the
voice of Nature, nor the Book Of Reye-
lation is sufficiently explicit to re.
move all doubt, even in the minds Of
its most docile believers.