Herald and news. [volume] (West Randolph, Vt.) 1878-1943, 1894-12-06
The Late H NJ. smith of So. Randolph

The Late III NJ Smith of So. Randolph
The funeral of II. NJ. Smith was held al
/ his late residence on the Both inst. The
l exercises were in accordance with wishes
expressed by him five years ago. He was
an unbeliever in all religions OF the day.
/ A. p. Paine read an article selected by the
| deceased and placed in sthe hands OF his
daughter, Mrs. 5. II. Brooks, five years
ago. An article was also read by Miss
I Florence H. Brooks, his granddaughter.
| Mr.. Smith was in his 9th year.
1 The extracts given below are taken
/ from the Boston Investigator;
"Once more we are brought face to face
with that mystery which man calls death.
The funeral rite is natural sacrament
which has been observed in some form by
all people, even barbarians, from the ear
I lest periods of the worlds history: and
we are assembled here day in accord
ance with an impulse as universal as the
human race, and as enduring as love and
sympathy, to perform the last earthly
/ duty toward him who now lies in The still
ness OF death before us. For him LIES
/ fitful dream on earth is over, with Its joys
and SORROWS, its hopes and disappoint-
meats. He derived his being from Nature,
the bountiful mother of us all, and his
body returns to earth's capacious bosom.
He basked in life's sunshine for his al
owy vale which separates this breathing
world from the vast beyond.
/ 'One world at time he said, lis all he
could find time to give any attention to,
and should there be another world and
existence somewhere else, Natures God
there as well as here Death he looked
upon as friend to be welcomed and not
as an enemy to be dreaded or feared.
Leaves h~-e heir time IN fail
And flowers ~ timer at the north winds
breath,
But all, all sereons are thine, o Death =
BY the immuGable decree OF nature, all
animated life is subject TO dissolution aud
death. From the wondrous tree of lite
the buds and blossoms fall with ripened
fruit, and in the common bed OF earth.
patriarchs and babes sleep side by side.
There's not flower that scents the noun
tain or the plain; there's not rosebud
that opens its perfumed petals to the
morning sun, but ere the evening comes
may wither and perish. The stem is often
broken ere the lily is full blown. We
catch but glimpse OF its beauty, breath
OF its fragrance, and il is gone forever.
All this is but an epitUme OF the life OF
man from the cradle to the grave.
Man in mellow age sinks as TRANQUILITY
into the slumber OF death as the infant
falls to sleep upon its mothers breast.
Death comes to the aged as the plucking
OF the full grown ear, as the sickle to the
evening shadows around the setting sun,
as the falling OF the scared leaf touched
by the winters FROST"
'''Tis long, Ills last, tits beautiful
rest,
When all sorrow has passed from the
brow and the breast"
when DER my cold and lifeless clay
The parting words OF love are said,
And friends and kindred meet to pay
Their last fond tribute 10 the dead,
Let no stern priest, with solemn drone,
A funeral liturgy intone,
Whose creed is foreign to my own.
Let not word be whispered there
In pity for my unbelief,
OF sorrow that could not share
The views that give their souls relief.
My faith to me is no less dea--
No less convincing and sincere
Than theirs, so rigid and austere.
Let no stale words Of church born song
Float out upon the silent air,
To prove by implication wrong
The soul OF him then lying there.
Why should such words be glibly sung |
Der one whose lively tongue
such empty phrases never rung?
But rather, let the faithful few
Whose hearts are knit so close to mine
That they with time the dearer grew,
Assemble at the days decline;
And while the golden sunbeams fall
In floods OF light upon my pail,
Let them in softened tones recall
Some tender memory OF the dead
some virtuous act, some words OF power
W nich 1, perchaDce, have done or said.
BY loved ones treasured to that hour:
Recount the deeds which admired.
Ihe motive which my soul inspired,
Inc nope by which my heart was fred.