Connecticut western news., 1886-09-22

1AO CAOh SduS5 ouO u uAA 4>OoAOA u1y God to Thee" Revs Robert Hunt and V. N. Traver read selections from the scriptures. Rev W. A. Mackey delivered the sermon, which we publish entire. Dr Hare offered heartfelt, importunate and impressive prayer. The choir sang "It is well with my soul" Rev R. F. Elsden pronounced the benediction. The weeping friends and neighbors viewed the remains, which were encased in an elegant casket covered with bread cloth. At the head of the casket rested large pillow ofiwhite and yellow roses, in the center of which were pansies ar- ranged to form the words "Our Sister !" Above the pillow was large five pointed star of white roses. These floral offer ings were provided by the Methodist society of this place. At the foot of the casket was a large stand covered with 8 bank of flowers, on which stood floral harp.
 MIR. MACKEY's SERMON.
 We are gathered here under the shad- ow of 8 great sorrow. Here is whole church, h,-pastor and people, lowing be- fore Gods inscrutable providence, un- der sense of irreparable loss. You feel it very keenly today, but you will feel 1t more keenly in the days that are com ing; for highly as you may have prized the worth of her whose form lies Ifeless in our midst, no church can fully meas ure the influence of pastors faithful wife while yet she is living. You may see and know much that she does as she goes out and comes in among you. But you cannot know the full extent to which she lays upon your church life, the delicate but telling touches of her personality. You do not hear her voice, but she speaks none the less. You do not know that her hands are under your burdens, but she is lifting all the while. You do not see her in your pulpit, but in the sermons that fall from other lips are embodied her sympathies, and crys- talized her prayers. I am not saying that you will lose all these at once, for I can but feel that still the life of your pastor on earth will continue to be touched in some way by this life from heaven. Yet you will miss her. May you find Gods grace sufficient for you. But, for your comfort, let me say to you as members and friends of this church, your words of sympathy and deeds of tenderness, so spontaneous and so free, are appreciated and will be held in grateful remembrance by him upon whom the widest fury of this unex- pected storm has broken. How great is his consciousness of loss and need of consolation only God can know. No one can fill her place. Yet our object is not " to tear agape these healing wounds afresh, !" but while sitting under our com mon sorrow and expressing our sympa- thies with the living and our reverence for the dead, calmly to face our bereave- ment and look for sources of consola- tion.
 Eunice R. Dc La Mater was born in Westerlo, Albany county, N. Y., June 1, 1848. In childhood she removed with her parents to Windham, Greene coun- ty, N. Y. Here the current of her life flowed parallel to that of Edward F. Barlow, till on the 22d of September of 1868, by Christian marriage, the two united and blended into one, each be- ing lived for the other and both for God Her religious life began at about her 18th year. In the spring of 1869 these united lives were consecrated to the ministry of the glorious gospel of the blessed God" Through the years that have followed they have been steadily devoted to the salvation of sinners and the upbuilding of the Redeemer's king dom. On Thursday, September 2, she was prostrated by an alarming illness. Medical aid was immediately called and all that skill could devise or love could execute was done, but done in vain. The fnalady made deadly progress until, on l Friday evening last, at 9 o'clock, ex- hausted nature yielded, death triumph ed and calmly as an infant on its moth ers bosom the weary sufferer sank to | rest.
 Thus ended her earthly course. But is this the end? Is there nothing be- yond the point where mortal horizons touch the clouds? Are the bloom, the sweetness and the energy of life con- sumed at last into the ashes that lie be- heath this casket lid? Cold materialism tells us that this is the end. The oil has been consumed, the flame has gone out, the frail vessel must return again to dust and the ruins become irreparable and complete. Philosophy can neither explain the mystery of the present nor inspire hope for the future. Theor1ze as best you may, you can find in all this scene of woe nothing but ruins and death. Look backward and you see the shadows of vanished years. Look forward and you see only the curtain of mystery. Look upward and the skies shut Tn the secret you long to learn. Press your ear to the earth and you hear but the sighs of the centuries. Past, present, future, heaven and earth are alike unable to bring consolation.
 You stand amid the desolations of this sorrow-shadowed home and ask the meaning of it all; but from these pen. sive walls comes only the silence o1 death. You go out and stand amid the mysteries of nature and ask for light,
 but you ask in vain. Her vast machin. cry moves on regardless of your cry.
 You lift your prayer to heaven, but the sun shines on indifferent to your woe
 or hides his face behind the clouds that
 pour their torrents on your breaking heart. But turn to the word of God and in the flood of light it pours upon the scene everything is changed. It lifts the darkness from the dying hour an6 tslls us not on1y that tho dust mtat IT