The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1885-11-23

aches, and heartaches, and the tremulous pray
ers by the side of the sick childs cradle, aud by
the couch OF this one fully grown. The neigh
bors often noticed how tired she looked, and old
acquaintance hardly knew her in the street; but
without complaint she waited and toiled and
endured, ard accomplished all these years.
The chidr en- are out in the world, an honor to
themselves and their parents. After awhile the
mothers last sickness comes Children and
grand children, summoned from afar, come softly
into the ROOM one by one, for she is too weak to
see more than one at time. She runs her dying
fingers lovingly through their hair and tells them
not to cry and that she is going now, but they
will all meet again, in little while, in better
wol.a. AM. 1aen kisses them hood-bye. and GOD
bless and keep you, my dear childw The day OF
the obsequies comes, and the officiating clergy
man tells the story of wifely and motherly endur-
ance, ana many hearts on earth and in heaven
echo the sentiment, and as she is carried off the
stage of this mortal lfe there cries of Faith
full unto death, she hath done what she could, |"
while overpowering all the voices of earth and
heaven is the plaudit Of the God who watched
her from first to last, saying: well done. good
and faithful servant thou hast been faithful over
a few things. will make thee ruler over many
things. Enter thou into the Joy Of thy Lord"
But what became of the father of that house
holdf He started out as young man in bust
ness, and had small income and having got a
little ahead, sickness in the family swept it all
away. He went through all the business pan
les of forty years. met many losses and suffered
many betrayals, but kept right on trusting in
God. whether business was good or poor, setting
his children good example, giving them the
best of counsel; and never prayer did he offer
for all those years but they were mentioned in
it. He is old now. and realizes it cannot be long
Def ore he must quit all these scenes but he is
going to leave his children an inheritance of
prayer and Christian principles which all the
defalcatons of earth can never touch. and, as he
goes out of the world, the church of God
blesses him and tho poor ring his door
bell to see if he is any better;
and his grave is surrounded by 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 now9' and others remark:
"He shall be held in everlasting remembrance"
And as the drama of his life Closes all the vocif
erations. and braves, and encores that ever shook
the amphltheaters. and the Drury Lanes, and
the Covent Gardens, and the Hay Markets. and
the ColiseumS of earthly spectacle were tame and
feeble compared with the long, loud thunders of
approval that shall break from the cloud of wit
nesses in the pled-up gallery of the heavens.
Choose ye between the life that shall close by be-
ing Kissed off the stage, and the life that shall
close amid the acclamatiOns supernal and arch
angelic.
D 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
it recited. The author has often been claimed
as infdel, and atheistic, so the quotation shall be
not only religiously helpful to ourselves. but
grandly vindicatory of the great dramatist.
quote from his last will and testament:
SIN the of God, amen. I, William
Shakespeare, of Stanford upon Avon, in the
county of Warwick, gentleman, in perfect health
and memory (God be praised), do make this my
last will and testament in manner and form fol-
lowing First I commend 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
everlasting" Then follow the requests and the
signature, by me- William Shakespeare" "Wit-
nesses to the publishing hereof. F. Colyns,
Jesse Shaw, John Robinson, Hamet Sadler,
Robert Whattcott"