Democratic Northwest. [volume] (Napoleon, Ohio) 1869-1894, 1893-11-16

We would have been elbowed by our an
cestors Of 10 centuries ago, and people who
ought to have said their last word 3,00(
years ago would snarl at us, saying, "What
are you doing herep There would have
been no room to turn around. Some Of the
past generations Of mankind were NOT
worth remembering. The first useful thing
that many people did was to die, their era.
die misfortune and their grave boon.
This world was hardly a comfortable
place to live in before the middle of the last
century. So many things have come into
the world that were not fit TO stay In, we
ought to be glad they were put out. The
waters Of Lethe, the fountain Of forgetful-
ness, are a healthful draft. The history
we have of the world in ages past is always
one sided and cannot be depended on. His
tory is fiction illustrated by a few strag-
CLING facts. In all the Pantheon the weak
est goddess is Clio, the goddess of history,
and instead Of being represented by sculp-
tors as holding a scroll might better be rep
resented as limping on crutches.
Faithful history is the saving Of a few
things out of more things lost. The inn
mortality that comes from pomp of obse-
quies, or granite shaft, or building named
after its founder, or page Of recognition in
some encyclopedia is an immortality un-
worthy of ones ambition, for 1t will cease
and is no immortality at all. Oblivionl A
hundred years. But while recognize this
universal submergence Of things earthly
who wants to be forgotteni Not one Of US
HOW TO BE REMEMBERED CENTURIES.
Absent for few weeks or months from
home, it cheers us to know that we are re-
membered there. 1t is a phrase we have
all pronounced, II hope you missed me-"
Meeting some friends from whom we have
been parted many years, we inquire, did
you ever see me before" and they say,
"Yes," and call us by name, and we feel a
delightful sensation thrilling through their
hand into our hand, and running up from
elbow to shoulder, and then parting, the
one current of delight ascending to the
brow and the other descending to the foot,
moving round and round in concentric cir
cles until every nerve and muscle and ca
pacity of body and mind and soul is perme-
ated with delight.
A few days ago, visiting the piaos es my
boyhood, met one whom l had not seen
since we played together at 10 years of age,
and had peculiar pleasure in puzzling him
little as to who was, and can hardly
describe the sensation as after awhile he
mumbled out: "Let me see. Yes, YOU are
De Witt" We all like to be remembered.
Now, have to tell you that this oblivion
of which have spoken has its defeats, and
that there is no more reason why we should
not be distinctly and wildly and gloriously
remembered five hundred million billion
Aril Apil int
now than that we should be remembered
six weeks. am going to tell you how the
thing can be done and will be done.
We may build this everlasting remem-
brance," as my text styles it, into the su-
pernal existence of those to whom we do
kindnesses in this world. You must re-
member that this infirm and treacherous
faculty which we now call memory is in the
future state to be complete and perfect.
Everlasting remem brancep Nothing will
slip the stout grip of that celestial faculty.
Did you help widow pay her rent? Did
you find for that man released from prison
place to get honest work? Did you pick
up child fallen on the curbstone, and by a
stick Of candy put in his hand stop the
hurt on his scratched knee? Did you as.
sure business man, swamped by the strin-
gency of the money market, that times
would after awhile be betterP
Did you lead a Magdalen of the street
into midnight mission, where the Lord
said to her: Neither do / condemn thee;
go and sin no more" Did you tell man,
clear discouraged in his waywardness and
hopeless and plotting suicide, that for him
was near by laver in which he might wash,
-
might wear?
IMPERIsHABLE RECORDS.
What are epitaphs in graveyards, what
are eulogiums in presence of those whose
breath is in their nostrils, what are unread
biographies in the alcoves of city library,
compared with the imperishable records
you have made in the illumined memories
of those to whom you did such kindnessesp
Forget themp They cannot forget them.
Notwithstanding all their might and splen-
dor, there are some things the glorified of
heaven cannot do, and this is one of them.
They cannot forget an earthly kindness
done. They have no cutlass to part that
cable. They have no strength to hurl into
oblivion that benefaction.
Has Paul forgotten the inhabitants of
Malta, who extended the island hospitality
when he and others with him had felt, add
ed to shipwreck, the drenching rain and
the sharp coldi Has the victim of the high
wayman on the road to Jericho forgotten
the Good Samaritan with medicament OF
oil and wine and free ride to the hostelryl
Have the English soldiers who went up to
God from the Crimean battlefelds forgot
ten Florence Nightingale
Through all eternity will the northern
and southern soldiers forget the northern
and southern women who administered to
the dying boys in blue and gray after the
awful fights in Tennessee and Pennsylvania
and Virginia and Georgia, which turned
every house and barn and shed into hos
pital, and incarnadined the Susquehanna,
and the James, and the Chattahoochee, and
the Savannah with brave bloodf The kind
nesses you do to others will stand as long
in the appreciation of others as the gates OF
heaven will stand, as the House of Many
Mansions" will stand, as long as the throne
of God will stand
BUILD TEMPLES FOR THE SKY.
Another defeat of oblivion will be found
in the character of those whom we rescue,
uplift or save. Character is eternal. Sup.
pObC ny q ElSuO we dlO AL
forming bad man into good man, dol
orous man into happy man, a disheartened
man into courageous man-every stroke Of
that work done will be immortalized.
There may never be SO much as one line in
newspaper regarding it, or no mortal
tongue may ever whisper it into human
ear, but wherever that soul shall go your
work upon it shall go, wherever that soul
rises your work on it will rise, and 30 long
as that soul will last your work on it will
| last.
Do you suppose there will ever come such
an idiotic lapse in the history of that SOU
in heaven that It shall forget that you in
vited him to Christ; that you, by prayer Oh
gospel word, turned him round from the
wrong way to the right way? No such in
sanity will ever smite a heavenly citizen
| 1t is not half as we'll on earth known that
Christopher Wren planned and built St
Doul,e ou n will Ia Gpowr, in oil haovar