Wichita eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1886-1890, 1888-09-21
FUNERAL SERVICES.

4. r. Clark, Thooe Johnson, j. w. Bennett
and ]. A. Mcintyre.
After the Episcopal service Dean Adams
spoke as follows:
Though it came somewhat indirectly,
| the request that | make some remarks In
these burial ceremonies came in such a
force that | can not refuse 20 do so. IL l
can say word which will be OF any con-
ISOLATION or instruction under the circum-
stances say it gladly; but one in the
presence of death feels his utter lnslgnIh-
canoe. We are surrounded with hmitless
and numberless mysteries. Were one to
ask me "W hat is death?" would have to
answer Il do not know" The same is
true with regard to life, with regard to
| everything for that matter. When one
says II know" with regard to the phe-
nomena of nature and human experiences
he evidences great egotism and not little
vanity.
Still we speculate We can not but do
SO. 1t is in the very organization OF the
| human mind that it speculate. Though |
do not know what life is, l can say with
some show of reason that it is the result
of the union of matter with spirit.
| Some one may deny the existence of mat
ter. but wipe my brow in this hot chancel
and say that there is such a thing as mat
ter. But is there anything else? There is
a house in which some one lives, could that
|
| it, | look at the cross of flowers upon the
casket, might approach them; they show
! that some one remembered and loved the
the deceased; they crafty my sense OF
| sight; and they are fragrant; they SubServe
Proposes; could they be had not some one
| planned thsm? 1t seems reasonable to say
that there are the two great entities OF
mind at matter in the universe; it seems
reasonable to say that life is result of
| their union; then 1t would seem reasonable
to say that death is their separation. Far
ther than this, | do not see how any one
can reasonably go in definition OF life
and of death.
presenting itself-if man die shall he
| live again? l am glad to be
addressing a number Of gentlemen
today who are in the habit OF weighing
evidence, and to lie able to lay before
them my reasons for believing in immor-
| tality We have class of people in this
country who call themselves spirituallsts.
| They claim to have evidence of immortal
ity which l have not. l have never at
| tended seance which had any revelations
for me. But men just as capable of weigh
! ing evidence as | am defend the reality OF
| their materialiZationS, and l have long
| since seen that a man Or woman may
! have real experiences which l have not
had.
1t is our privilege to go back nineteen
hundred years and stand in the presence OF
the one who was more perfect than any
other. We admire and honor Julius
Caesar, but how imperfect he was! We
uncover before the great COrsican, but he
was bundle Of imperfections. Among
ancient and modern philosophers, what
one has not faults? But who dares to find
fault. with the Christ. He was crucified
and burned Christianity was burned
with him. 1t was as dead as He. How, l
do not know, but He rose from the
dead, and Christianity was alive
again. The little band of despaired ones
stood shoulder to shoulder once more.
ST. Paul at Corinth, at EpheSuS, on
Mails hill, in Athens, asked not that the
gospel be received without evidence, and
the chief article in the gospel was with
him the resurrection of the Christ. Listen
to the opening verses of the fifteenth chap
ter of his first epistle to tbs Corinthians,
from which the lesson in the book is
taken:
Moreover, brethren, declare unto you
the gospel And that he was
buried, and that he rose again the third
day, according to the Scriptures; and that
he was seen of Cephas, then OF the twelve:
after that he was seen of above FIVE hun
dred brethren at once, of whom the greater
part remain to this present, but some are
fallen asleep. After that he was seen of
James and of all the apostles; and last of
all he was seen Dl lIe dlSO, DIS VI Ouc EOIA
out Of due time"
These facts impressed st. Paul. They
ought to impress u.s. His own
personal experience when on the way to
Damarcus to prosecute the church made
another man of him, so far as impulses are
concerned. 1t may be that experience can
not influence US as it did him. But when
we see the change made in him by it we
should at least attend to it. Then why
this alter, this CHANGED, this nave, this
church? Why all the mighty fanes which
have arisen through the past-nearly 1000
years? They all prove that the Christ did
rise from the dead.
But l turn from these external and con-
crete matters to the internal, the abstract.
| have foot with which to stride. Must
there not logically be something to stride
upon? | have an eye to see, must there
not be something to see? desire immor-
tality for myself and for my departed
friend Must this desire not be correlated?
Must it not be satisfied?
Concerning the departed you know more
than /. l have meet him frequently.
have seen the CLEAN of benevolence in his
eve. | heard that he came here and built
himself up a fine business. He was a
child of God. He is in the hands of God.
This is not the place for praise or con-
domination. The full need of praise is
given to any one dead. 1t is said that he
was man and did the best he could
child of God, the deceased was child of
the church. As God is the Father of all,
she is the mother of all. She halls you,
gentlemen of these orders bearing the
silken banners, and wearing the glittering
morious of antiquity, but she claims to
crown all orders. She is older, grander,
and still ever younger and strong than
all She now gives her her dead child
into your hands to lay away in
the earth. Her dead child? No; her
living child has gone on from this cham
Der in the palace of eternity to another,
from which he will pass to another, and
another, till he knows the love of God as
he could not know it here. That chamber
is now empty. Its walls are useless. With
all reverence and tenderness for what it
has contained, the church gives the body
of her departed child into your hands.
Lay il away. In the old material sense
we may not believe in the last trump and
the resurrection, but there is spirited
and eternal sense in which We do believe
these things. In honoring you the church
only asks for reasonable thought con-
corning herself, her founder-God-and
humanity.
The knights Templar followed with the
short service of their order when the re-
m aims were OIaaed in the hearse and taken