Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1891-05-11
FUNERAL DISCOURSE ON THE
DEATH OF MAY HAYDEN.

Rev. r. c. Noodle officiating. Tn,
services at the house consisted o
reading scripture, remarks, reading /;
portion of the poem entitled eResig
nation by H. w. Longfellow, reading
otherpoetical selections which FRIEND
had copied and sent to the family OF
hearing of their bereavement. At the
cemetery the services consisted o.
singing, committal, prayer and bene-
diction. We print entire the remarks
bv Mr.. Noodle and the poem by Long
fellow:
Dear Friends: - The feelings with
which we come together to-day are
not easily expressed in words. Many,
if not all, have a sense of personal
loss. Some of us were only beginning
to know our friend and were hoping
much from the acquaintance as it
should become more intimate. 9th
ers had known her long and theirs is
the deeper sorrow
We are naturally afraid of death.
God has made us so that we shrink
from it. In this way He has provided
that we should seek to preserve our
lives. But when death comes there is
no pain. 1t is simply a going out of
the life as the lamp flame dies when
the oil is gone. 1t is only stopping
of the machinery of the body. Much
as we desire to live, much as we enjoy
our home and friends, if we have
learned to be Gods children, we re-
ioice in the thought of the home above
with our Father and our Saviour and
the friends who have gone before, and
the angels.
And so 1 beseech of you, dear friends,
whether you are old or young, in view
of the fact impressed upon us to-day,
that two short weeks can take one in
the full vigor of life with hopes and
ambitions as high as any of us have,
and can usher that life with scarce
warning into the spirit land; in view
of this 1 entreat you not to make any
thing that is anchored to this earth the
highest object of your endeavOr. The
time is coming when your earthly
sell W III lOOSG us llOlO uDOlt iii Ol1clO 10
material and return to the dust from
which its substance has been taken.
Then will that which alone you can
call yourself take to itself wings not
formed from the earth, and only those
things which you can carry on those
immaterial, invisible wings will be
yours. l beseech of you to ask of God
upon your knees, not once, but every
day, to show you what is the end for
which he has given you this earthly
life of uncertain length, and what He
wishes you to do with it. Do not fail
to learn from Him how you can be-
come His child, that when this earth
Iy home must be left, you may have
home with Him.
Not, however, with reference to our
selves alone, do we think of death.
Whatever it may bring to the one who
is called to go, it leaves sorrow in the
hearts of those who remain. ] would
not forget this or make light of the
cloud that darkens this home to-day.
And vet | would desire for a moment
to suggest something Of what see be-
yond the cloud. 1 see Memory with
her sweet face smiling through her
tears, in all the years that you may
live daily bringing back to you the
pure, unselfish, earnest, thoughtful,
energetic, buoyant, happy life of her
who has gone. With Tenneyson in
his sorrow you will learn to say in
yours:
Il hold it true, whate'er befall;
feel it when sorrow most;
'Tis better to have loved and lost
Than never to have loved at ALL
And while Memory is thus busy and
you are living over and over the life
that has been, mingling in an endless
variety of thought and emotion with
your own life that shall be. / see by
the side OF Memory her sister, Imagin-
alton. l know you can not fail to Of
ten wonder, "Where is she now? What
are her surroundings? What is the ma
ture of the life upon which she has en-
tered?'' You will often ask, ''Is there
any hope of meeting her again? Does
she know anything of what we are do
ing? Can anything that we may do
bring Joy or sorrow to her? What kind
of a life will best fit us for the life
with her beyond?'' and other ques-
tions that will be like seeds and
will bring forth their fruit in your
character.
Tho H1rn,.I1 ao1 tC
til we are attracted to it by the friends
who go. 1t is like a distant country
in which we have no interest until
some of our own people take up their
residence there, and then we begin to
feel that it is in some sense our cOun-
try, and we wish to know about it.
1t is only lately that 1 have learned
of Nays interest in religion and her
desire to be a Christian. The testi-
mony of those who have known her
best agrees with my own impression
that she was noble and exemplary in
many ways, that she was faithful in
life's duties, that she was following
the light that she had and seeking
further light. And so l feel that while
we sorrow, we ought also to rejoice;
while we are enshrouded in darkness,
we should look up and see the light of
Gods love piercing the gloom; while
we shrink from the thought of death
and the grave, we should remember
the light and warmth and cheer of the
Fathers home, and hope that in the
resurrection that which now seems
dead because unseen, shall blossom
into beauty of rarer form and lowell
ness than this earth has ever known
LET us be patient! These severe Affections
Not from the ground arise,
But oftentimes celestial benedictions
Assume this dark disguise
We see but dimly thro' the mists and vapors;
Amid these earthly damps
What seem to us but sad, funereaI tapers
May be heavens distant lamps.
She is not dead-the child OF our affection
But gone unto that school
Where she no longer needs our poor protec-
ton,
h; .1O+I,