The Brookhaven leader., 1890-03-06

public. let the old political platforms
that are WORM eaten be G:3pped and
platforms that shall be made of two
planks, the one the Ten Command.
ments and the other the Sermon on the
Mount lifted for all of us to stand on.
But there is a lot of old politicians
grumbling all around the sky who don't
want new South, a new North, new
East or a new West. They have some
old war speeches that they prepared in
1861, that in all our autumnal elections
they feel called upon to inflict upon the
country. They growl louder and longer
in proportion as they are pushed back
further and further and the Henry w.
Gradys come to the front. But the
mandate, think has gone forth from
the throne of God that a new American
nation shall take the place Of the old
and the new has been baptized for God
and liberty and justice and peace and
morality andoreligion.
And now our much-lamented friend
has gone to give account. Suddenly the
facile and potent pen is laid down and
the eloquent tongue is silent What? Is
there no safeguard against fatal dis.
ease? The impersonation OF stout health
was Mr.. Grady. What compactness OF
muscle! What ruddy complexion! What
flashing eye! Standing with him in
group of twenty or thirty persons at
Piedmont, he looked the healthiest, as
his spirits were the blithest. Shall VIC
never feel again the hearty grasp OF
his hand, or be magnetized with his
eloquence? Men of the great roll, meT
of the pen, men of wit, men of power,
if our friend had to go when the call
came, so must you when your call comes.
When God asks you what have you done
with your pen or your eloquence or your
wealth or your social position, will you
be able to give satisfactory answer?
| What have we been writing all these
years? If mirth, has it been innocent
mirth, or that which tears and stings
and lacerates. From our pens have
there come forth productions healthy OF
poisonous? In the last great day when
the warrior must give account of what
| he has done with his sword, and the mer-
chant what he has done with his yard
stick, and the mason what he has done
with his trowel, and the artist what hd
! has done with his pencil, we shall have
to give account of what we have done
with our pens. There are gold pens and
diamond pens and pens of exquisite
manufacture, and every few weeks | see
some new kind of pen, each said to be
better than the other; but in the great
| day of our arraignment before the Judge
of quick and dead that will be the most
beautiful pen, whether gold or steel or
quill, which never wrote a profane or
unclean or cruel word, or which from
the day it was carved, or split at the
nib, dropped from its point kindness and
encouragement and help and gratitude
to God and benediction for man.
May God comfort tn at torn up South
ern home and all the homes of this coun'
try and of all the world which have
been swept by this plague of influenza,
which has deepened sometimes into
pneumonia and sometimes into typhus
and the victims of which are counted by
the ten thousand! Satan, who. is the
'Prince of the Power of the Air." has
been poisoning the atmosphere in
all nations. Though it is the first
time in our remembrance, he has
done the same thing before. In
1896 the unwholesome air of Cairo,
Egypt, destroyed the life of ten thou.
sand in one day, and in Constantinople
in 1714 three hundred thousand people
died of it. l am glad that by the better
sanitation of our cities and wider under
standing of hygienic laws and the
tor chill Of huc ioia thocn Ann1.
lyonic assaults upon the human race
are being resisted, but pestilential at
mosphere is still abroad. Hardly
family here but has left it's lighter or
heavier touch. Some of the best of my
flock fell under it's power and many
homes here represented have been
crushed. The fact is the biggest fail
ure in the universe is this world if there
be no Heaven beyond
But there is. and the friends who have
gone there are many and very dear. G
fearful eyes, look up to the hills Grim
soning with eternal morn! That re
union kiss will more than make up for
the parting kiss, and the welcome will
obliterate the goodbye. THE Lamb
which is in the midst of tho throne
shall lead them to living fountains OF
water and God shall wipe away all tears
from their eyes," Till then, o departed
loved ones, promise us that you will re-
member us, as we promise to remember
you. And some of you gone up from
this city by the sea and others from un-
der Southern skies, and others from the
homes of the more rigorous North, and
some from the cabins on great Western
farms, we shall meet again when our
pen has written its last word, and our
arm hassdone its last days work, and
our lips have spoken the last adieu.
And now, thou great and magnificent
soul of editor and orator! under brighter
skies we shall meet again. From God
thou camest, and to God that has re-
turned. Not broken down, but ascend
ed. Not collapsed, but irradiated. En-
throned one! Coroneted one! Sceptered
one! Emparadised one! Hail and fare
we'll.