The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1892-08-10
The Lesson of Death.Beds.

Lord Chesterfield said, at the close of
his life, have recently read Solomon
with kind of sympathetic feeling. |
have been as wicked and as vain,
though not as wise as he; but now |
am old enough to feel the truth of his
rehection-'all in the world is vanity
and vexation of SPIRIT" Goethe, the
distinguished German philosopher and
poet, declared, at the age of eighty
four, as the lights of time went out.
and the great lode.stars of eternity
were beginning to open out on his
vision, that he had scarcely tasted
twenty-four hours solid happiness in
the whole course of that protracted ca
reer. Lord Byron, the great poet.
gifted beyond measure in genius
destitute more than many of grace
wrote his experience in his own beauti.
full but unhappy strain, when he said,
upon the verge of the tomb:
Though p'ugd, gay n companions pa Ger the bowl
Though pleasure III the maddenng soul,
Ay, but to die, and go, alas!
To be the nothing that was
Ere born to life and living woe.
Count Ger the joys thine hours have seen,
Count Ger the days from anguish free,
lis something better not to be.
Nay, for myself, so dark my fate
Through every turn of life hath been,
care not when quit the scene"
The bitter scarcasm of the poet con-
trasts indeed with the glorious pecan of
the apostle, 81 have fought a good
fight, | am ready to be offered up.
There is reserved for me crown of
righteousness" Voltaire, the French
atheist, pronounced the world to be
full of wretches, and himself the
most wretched of them all. Mirabeau.
one of the same school, died-calling,
in his last moments, for opium to
deaden the terrible forebodings of COM
ing woe. Paine died intoxicated, and
disappearing. Hobbies prepared to take
leap in the dark; and Hume died
joking and jesting about the boat of
Cbaron, very much, L suspect, in the
way which school boys whistle when
they walk through dark and lonely
place, just to keep their spirits up, and
their terrors down; but Paul, of far
different character, breaks forth as he
departs, in the euthanasia indicated in
the text, " have fought good fight"
Why should there be this contrast?
Was Paul fanatic? He was the sober
est of men. Was he a mere mystic
dreamer? He was the most logical of
reasoners. Was he novice? He had
been in perils by land, in perils by sea,
in perils amongst false brethren, ar
rested, tried, beaten, scourged, impris-
oned; and yet, at the close of all, con-
scious that he had rock beneath him,
and bright light above him, and glo.
rious hope before him-he breaks forth
in these thrilling-almost Inspiring
certainly inspiriting, accents, 81 am
now ready to be offered, and the time
of my departure is at hand. 1 have
fought good fight; have finished my
course, | have kept the faith; hence
forth there is laid up for me crown of
righteousness, which God, the righteous
Judge, shall give me at that day." l
do indeed believe that a sober and eX-
tensive comparison of the death-beds
OF those who have repudiated the Cos
pei, with the dying moments of those
who have accepted and rejoiced in it,
would alone convince mankind that
Christianity is true-that infdelity,
practical or theoretical, is a deception
a delusion, mischievous in life, and
miserable in Cummings Voices
of the Day.