The Dalles daily chronicle. [volume] (The Dalles, Or.) 1890-1948, 1891-07-01

with colorings against himself, in order
that others might also enjoy laugh at
his expense.
And this same generosity controlled
his ideas of business. Mr.. Atwater put
nothing away. He made no effort, TO
acquire wealth, although he might have
acquired it. His talents would have
brought it. Neither was he ambitious
of position. That to which so many men
are attracted as the central idea of their
existence, and for which SO many men
sacrifice the sweetest relations in life,
had no attractions for him. I have talk
ed with him many times on the subject
that so many lawyers find dear to speak
of, the ambition for fame, position, dis
tinction. He would none of it. So
clearly he saw the littleness of all
human enterprise, that even the am
bitions of mankind were to be laughed
at. This took away one inspiration to
effort, so that often to him there came
discouragements, and he would speak of
them. "There is nothing to be gained
by the daily strife of labor" he would
say. "It' comes to nothing, why should
we not lay aside our armor and rest"
Amongst all the people with whom he
came in contact, in a life of contact with
men, dare say not one today cherishes
an ill thought of the man who lies here.
And this because he was gentle, loving
and forgiving man. l dare say, too,
that when the hour came to part with
this life, if he could have recalled all the
relations he had sustained with men, he
would have found not one bitter thought
against human being. Such life,
such character, compels respect, esteem
and cherished memory. We shall al
ways cherish the memory of such a life,
no matter what trif1ing defects there
may have been. Here lies man whose
| H.
| spects, and those who knew him most
| intimately were most attached to him.
None knew him to turn away from him.
| To know him once, to know him well,
was always to feel personal interest III
/ his welfare.
When death calls friend away we
are startled into taking up again the old
problem of the tomorrow of death. 1t
would be difficult to speak much of that
for me, at least, to speak much of that
But there is that to be said yet in which
is the strength of hope. True. no one
can say that knowledge derived from
human investigation has ever brought
forth any information upon the subject
of our future. Blank darkness is all
that we can see when we look into the
future with only the light of the inves-
legations of science. And even the book
which we call the word of God does not
bring consolation to all. But there is
strength and hope in the fact that far
back of all systems of religion man has
believed that his life is not the end of
all things. Whatever may be the opin-
ion of men about systems of religion,
whatever one may say of the theologies,
| whatever word or form of words we may
employ to designate the Power above us
that makes righteousness, whether we
name it God, or let it go unnamed, and
whatever we may think of the origin of
this visible universe about us, the hope
of immortality does not depend on these
views. 1t is a thing apart from notions
of theology. Here lies man who had
no relations to the church, but 1 know
that in his thoughts (for the subject /
now speak of was subject of his fire.
quent conversationj he was religious
man. Systems of theology, systems OF
religion are but the garb- but the cloth
/ ing that men have put around that in
nate knowledge of our relation to
the Power above US, which is at the
center of all systems of religion, and
is religions self. The clothing may
change as our dress changes with the
fashion of the time, but the central
thing of faith in a blessed future remains
through all time-through all the de-
structions of systems. 1t did not owe
itself to them; it will survive them.
The believe of future life takes hold
upon proposition that science fails to
reach; for the mind grasps at once the
fact that the conditions of this problem
are outside the reach of human intellect.
Whether / reason of God, and whether
accept as revelation the book we receive
as such; though / deny the one and re-
iect the other, still must see that the
question to be solved as to my future
life is not touched by any of these.
Science can give no explanation'that will
enable one to grasp the thought of mind
developed out of matter. !hatever be
the possible connection of the two, we
see the future life only by faith. Man
has believed it rs far back as we can
4 trace. The savage, whose system of re-
ligion made God a vengeful being like
himself, whose thought connected future
life only with war and the chase, still
gIasped the belief in Immortality, and
only degraded it bv his low ideas OF sys-
tenn. As crude theories fade away, and
crude IL cas- of the conflict between science
and religion die out, the grasp of faith
1 becomes stronger. The eject of all this
perception of the impotency of the in
4 tellect has been to strengthen faith
which thus finds out that it.cannot rely
upon science to solve the question
Faith fears science no longer, for they
operate in different spheres.
Faith, then, that belief which takes
hold instinctively without other premise
than itself and draws the distant to us, is
the faculty by which, above and beyond
all our senses, we see the truth. Faith
in the tomorrow of death, faith in the
bright awakening from this sleep, has
pierced, and will ever pierce, the dark
ness that hangs over the leaden stream
It brings to our vision the forms OF
those we loved here, and we see them
extending hands and welcoming us
and then we know that this which we
have laid in this casket is not our friend
that was this is but the garment he was