The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1893-06-16

with love toward you since before you
were born. Let the pilgrim rest. She
] is weary. Death in the summer house,!
/ Gather about us what we will of COM
| fort and luxury, when the pale messen-
: ger comes he does not stop to look at
/ the architecture of the house before he
comes in; nor, entering. does he wait to
examine the pictures we have gathered
on the wall; or, bending over your pill
low, he does not stop to see whether
there is a color in the check, or gentle
ness in the eye, or intelligence in the
brow. But what of that? Must we
stand forever mourning among the
graves of our dead? No. No! The
people in Bengal bring cages of birds
to the graves of their dead, and they
open the cages and the birds go singing
heavenward. So would bring to the
graves of your dead all bright thoughts
and congratulations, and bid them
think of victory and redemption.
stamp on the bottom of the grave, and
it breaks through into the light and
the glory of Heaven.
The ancents used to think that the
straits entering the Red sea were very
dangerous places, and they supposed
that every ship that went through
those straits would be destroyed, and
they were in the habit of putting on
weeds of mourning for those who had
gone on that voyage, as though they
were actually dead. Do you know
what they called those straits? They
Al. L., Nat %
l stand to-day at the gate of tears
through which many of your loved
ones have gone, and l want to tell
you that all are not shipwrecked
that have gone through those straits
into the great ocean stretching out be-
vond. The sound that comes from that
other shore on still nights when we are
wrapped in prayer makes me think that
the departed are not dead. We are the
dead-we who toll; we who weep; we
who sin-we are the dead. How my
heart aches for human sorrow! This
sound of breaking hearts that | hear
all about me. This last look of faces
that will never brighten againl This
last kiss OF lips that never will speak
again. This widowhood and orphan
age. On, when will the day of sorrow
be gone.
After the sharpest winter the spring
dismounts from the shoulder of
southern gale and puts its warm hand
upon the earth. and in its palm there
comes the grass. and there come the
flowers. and God reads over the poetry
of bird. and brook, and bloom, and
pronounces it very good. What, my
friends. if every winter had not its
spring. and every night its day, and
every gloom its glow, and every bitter
now its sweet hereafter! If you have
been on sea, you know, as the ship
passes the night. there is a phosphores-
cent track left behind it, and as the
waters roll up they toss with unimag-
Unable splendor. Well. across this great
ocean of human trouble Jesus walks,
Oh. that in the phosphorescent track of
his feet we might all follow and be il
lumined!
There was a gentleman in the rail
car who saw in that same car three pas
sengers of very different circumstances.
The first was maniac. He was care
fully guarded by his attendants: his
mind, like Il ship dismasted, was beat
ING against a dark. desolate coast. from
which no help could come. The train
stopped, and the man was taken out
into the asylum. to waste away, per-
haps through years of gloom. The sec
ond passenger was culprit. The out
ragged law had seized on him. AS the
ear jolted, the chains ratified. On his
face were crime, depravity and dis
pair The train halted, and he was
taken out to the penitentiary, to which
he had been condemned. There was
the third passenger, under far different
circumstances She was bride. Every
hour was gay as marriage-bell. Life
glittcred and beclxoned. Her compan-
ion was taking her to his father S house.
The train halted. The old man was
there to welcome her to her new home.
and his white locks showed down upon
her as he sealed his word with a fathers
kiss.
Quickly we fly toward eternity. We
will soon be there. Some leave this
life condemned culprits. They refused
a pardon: they carry their chains. Oh,
it may be with us, that, leaving this
fieeting life for the next, we may find
our Father ready to greet us to our
new home with him forever. That will
be marriage banquet. Fathers well
come! Fathers bosom! Fathers kiss!