The record-union., 1894-06-19

which these affections are born, these
affections survive the object OF them, and
the life is felt TO be infinitely and eternally
richer for them.
1t is only i'll this far off and general way
that can assume to give comfort TO the
sorrowing ones in such an hour as this.
The grief is too near, the calamity too
fresh for any one to allow himself
to make the consolation more speclnc,
or to endeavor to substitute any other
affection for the affection that must hence
forth be a memory. At a moment such
as this
When impetuous with emotion
And anguish long suppressed,
The swelling heart heaves moaning like the
ocean,
That cannot be at rest.
All we can counsel with the poet is:
Let us be patient and assauge the feeling
We may not wholly stay,
BY silence sanctifying, not concealing,
The grief that must have way.
This intensity Of sorrow will not last.
The darkened windows of your dwelling,
as the darkened windows OF your souls,
Will be open again and Gods sunshine
will again stream through them. The
lives which sorrow seems TO have eclipSed
will pass out of the shadow and journey
the pathways Of obedience and duty,
feeling again the attraction of all holy,
happy things. But life will be gloritied
hereafter to you by the possession of q
memory by which the one you have lost
viii seem transtigured, as recollection
idealiZes him and presents him at his no.
blest and his best and makes this esti-
mate Of him your choicest possession.
But although memory will doubtless
idealiZe the life that is gone, enshrining
it and making it an object of respect and
reverence forever, we aDate nothing of
our tribute to the real worth of the man,
who almost at the outset of his useful
ness has been called to pass the river
which laves the portal of the other world.
The sorrowing parents here can recall
the strength of his tilal affection, the in
tlexibleness of his integrity, the enthusi-
asm for duty which characterized him,
the honorable ambition which inspired
his zeal. Young as he was he had proved
himself competent in affairs, and large
and well ordered as were his own mate
rial interests he yet had time to devote to
| the interests of others, with which his
associates in the fullness of their conf
dence were proud to intrust him, and
his death has caused him to relinquish
the control of many private and also of
many public enterprises. Even IN this
hour of great depression the parents
pride must mount as they contemplate
one, in flesh and blood their own, ho has
thus honored their teachings and man
fully taking his place in the conflict of
life secured the recognition Of his fellows.
But how shall l approach that other re-
latiOnship, dear as parents, but differ
ent-a relationship in which, if love sane
titles the union, the blending OF two sep
arate lives becomes complete. SO that
when one is taken the other remains with
widowed heart and mind? TO the
one who bore this relation of wife to our
dead friend, Gods benediction must seem
to come in the memory of hero true
and worthy the lost one was, and as it in
spires the hope that the living pledges
left to her of his affection may inherit
their fathers qualities and continue his
work. And it must be with peculiar
satisfaction that she reflects to-day that
while the suddenness of this affliction de-
prived so many loving one of the privi-
lege of rendering the last sad offices 10
the dying that love delights to pay, it was
reserved to her to be allowed to minister
with gentle hand in her dear ones dire
necessity, and TO closely hold the pain
racked form while the spirit passed.
| But paternal relations have been sun
dered too, and there are others beside the
parents and the wife who sorrow here.
| And in this household, in which ties of
blood are not the only passport to the
privileges of the home, and to place in
! the hearts of the inmates, brothers loss
must come with an almost crushing vio-
lence. For, as l personally know, that
for all the children OF this household,
whether bound by the ties of blood or
not, the home here is equally home with
| all the love and privilege the word inn
/ plies. 1t is for brother in very real
sense you all may grieve, while you tenn
per this very grief with the reflection of
how real and rich this lost possession was
TO the friends whose relations with our
| lost one were more or less intimate L
| oil " l. II %
worth of the departed, and what his vir-
tues were you can emulate, while you
/ treasure his memory and revere his name.
But for the little ones, so early and SO
suddenly deprived OF fathers care, may
[ not say word? They do not realize
to-day their loss. God grant that in His
providence they may never be called upon
to realize it painfully. They become your
charge to-day, on which all are called to
| enter, and as you minister to their needs,
and fold thein to your hearts, may they be
bond uniting you in common duty
and common love. Be Gods provi-
dence to them, as he appoints you to this
task, and may the common affection You
! entertain for the dear one gone inspire
you for the duties of your common, graz
cious and God-given employment.
1t is thus | would present to you such
! counsel as / feel myself competent to Of
| fer. To-day your hearts are crushed and
brooding shadows darken the landscape
OF the soul. But even with Tomorrow
the gloom will begin to brighten. Duty
will confront you. the day will give you
courage, and with richer experiences
than ever possessed before, and feeling
| that as from holy places you have just
emerged you will take up your ap-
pointed work and labor on for man and
| God, in the confidence of some eternal
purpose ana some heavenly goal, and,
ever breaking into psalm, may each one
forever say:
All as God wills, who wisely heedS
To give or to withhold,
And KnoWeth more of all my needs
Than all my prayers have told.
Enough that blessings undeserved
Have marked my efTing track,
That wheresoe'er my feet have swerved
His Christening turned me back.
That more and more providence
OF love is understood,
Making the spGngs OF life and sense
Sweet with eternal good.
That death seems but covered way
Which opens into light,
Wherein no blinded child can stray
Eeyond the Fathers sight.
That care and trial seem at last,
Through memory's sunset air,
Like mountain ranges overpast
In purple distance fair
That all the jarring notes of life
Seem blending in psalm,
And all the angles OF its strife
Slow rounding INTO calm.
And so the shadows fall apart
And so the west winds play,
And all the windows of my heart