St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1892-10-10
Memorial Sermon on the Life
Lessons Of the Late
Tennyson.
Rev. Vail Finds the Moral in
the Songs Of the Dead
Singer.
Not to All People We're the
Mysteries Of His Lines
Known.
But to All Mankind Came the
Sweetness OF His
Rhymes.

and Hope, Kew. V all yesterday preacneo
a sermon on Tennyson's lin Memo
RAM" The preacher began by quoting
the words, "Love is strong as death, y
and said that he desired to give sketch
Of Tennyson'S experience that produced
the remarkable work "In Memorlam."
He described TennySOn in ripe years on
his island home, and declared the man
was the poem, and the poem was SER
mon. Turning TO specific statements.
he said:
And where is it proper to begin In
the sermon of this mans experience?
" here but at that point indicating the
turn Of the tide i'll this experience, when
1t seemed 10 him that he mightnow turn
and face the world and give inner his
Tory? If | wanted to make complete
story Of man who was entangled i'll
and released from jungle, how better
could | do so than to tell of the allure
ments that drew him after the
game-the bark of panther,
the voice OF hound. and the hunters
instinct that forgot danger until he was
lost; and then turn and show how,
amidst hundred perilS from savage
beast, from QuickSand and bog, from
poison serpent and from darkness, he
slowly threaded his way out. And if
we are to get at the real heart of this
experience. and to find the sermon that
will he good for US, we must go back
wards, and trace all the windings of
this soul, sorrow stricken. darkened by
grief, and waiting for light; and then
we find the light we must follow every
smallest ray, gathering them Singly
and in numbers, until we are well on
the way to his conclusion, and stand
where he stood at last.
Types OF Feeling.
All the peculiar phases of grief he
pictures seem appropriate. Was it not
natural to look upon the yew tree,
whose strong roots grasped the stones
of the graves and the bones of men as
type of his feeling? Was it not natural
to board the ship in Imagination and
come with the body under favoring
winds over Southern seas to the North
ern home? And when there came re-
spite-a respite as they lay the body in
the soil of Old England, and within
sound of the wind rustling in h.'r oaks,
and where the ivy would climb and
beautify even the ruins OF the most
dilapidated places-was it not natural.
after the first respite that satisfied the
friend, to have the mind revert to it's
grief and the bleeding wound bleed
anew?
And when we remember the return of
the Christmas, and The home with its
ancient memories and customs; with its
WreathS of holly, its anthems but now
sung by choiring voices, and see the
Eule log blazing ON the hearth, what
then more natural then the question, can
the departed frien;: in any way break
the barriers between the seen and the
unseen and come once more and be with
that home and with those people? These
are tie steps over which he carries us
in his feeling; and from his feeling it is
well to turn to his convictions, for there
was an ebb and flow of opinion as coil-
tinuGus as the ebb and flow of his feel
ing.
II he restoration to his normal life
after these gusts of emotion that we
find depicted in the earlier parts of the
poem had passed was accomplished by
TWO Influences, pervaded by the power
OF the unseen Father. The first intlu-
ence that was of soothing character
was. no doubt, the gentle power of the
hand of Time. Here is a plain truth
that we do not always appreciate. Does
not kind nature cover even the new
made grave with its carpet of green
grass? Does not the scar. So red and
ugly, gradually lose its redneSS and ug-
ent until it fades away? And our grief,
that comes like the swirllEg waters of
a mad river, does it not settle into more
fitful gusts, and then fade away into a
th0ughtfulneSs, very tender and tinged
with noble hope? And so do we not
find here the natural course of all our
grief, and are not all our lives read in
this one life?
OF tERc Occult Feature
Of this experience we can do little more
than to repeat what lie says. If it has a
message for you you will know it. Was
not the primrose to Peter Bell simple
primrose and nothing more? But Ten
nySon takes up the flower in the cram
MED wall to declare that its life is so
deep mystery that if he knew its full
meaning he could tell all that God and
man might he. To the ordinary man the
Ivy was little-a vine growing over
wall. 10 Charles Dickens it had an as
ISOLATION that knit around the whole life
OF man and made it a symbol of both his
life and his death. So when Tennyson
prayS that the spirit of his friend NAV be
with him, if that has meaning to
you IL MAY be that it is valuable in ways
That you know better than | and so
when he touches the land of visions and
inspirations they are conditions that have
been leading influences with men from
the day when Socrates retired to take
counsel with his inner and guiding in
fuence, down to the day when Mr. Ten
nyson waited for the inner motion of
the spirit to move him to poetic fancy
and who shall attempt explanation?
Certainly not those of us who have no
adequate understanding of the matter,
and cannot explain it even if we would
those of us who are in the dark and un-
willing to try to give others a torch that
we do not carry ana know not where TO
find! There will be some who will saw
all this part of the book is foolishness:
others will say it is the inspiration that
makes men wise beyond any other-and
those Of us who know little about it will
say, let it stand as that higher expert
encc that has touched the world all
along its history, and if ever our poor
common humanity rises high enough it
will probably have meaning for US
that we can understand.
Rot for All People.
Tennyson is not poet for all people.
and his great poem does not appeal to
all minds. But ii it is truly great
poem, why should 1t not be understood
by all? If Beethoven is a great tmu-
stefan, why should his music be under
stood by one in ten thousand? WHY.
but because the music of Beethoven is
centuries beyond its time? And in the
case of Tennyson why is the lack of
popularity but because he teaches a
friendship so ideal, so strong, that it is
foreign TO our ordinary attachments?
For are we not like the April day,
changing continually-al rain one mo-
ment, all shine the next, all driving
snow the moment after? Are not our
friendships-to borrow the imagery of
Burns-like the poppy that sheds the
bloom as you pluck it, like the borealis
that fits before you can point its place,