The record-union., 1894-06-19
ROYAL BAKING POWDER.
ARsOa 4 . E:lYs PURE:

| dread of an event which for one or for
another must sunder the closest and
! tenderest human bond. Parent ana
child, husband and wife, brother ana
! brother, friend and friend. through all
! the rapture of their mutual intercourse
are conscious of the fact that at some tune,
near or remote. beside the lneVleapie
/ door" one will sit watching and waiting
while the other has passed through the
portal to essay the mysterious beyond.
1t is in Plutarch that we read OF one
! who steadtastly declined to enter into the
relations so dear 10 men, and through
which families are formed, tor the simple
reason that he could not bring himself 10
the contemplation of being bonnd to OBJ
| jects which at any moment might be
! wrested from him, and toward which his
affections had gone with the strength OF
an overpowering passion. But his is not
the universal verdict, and obeylng the
divine impulse implanted in us. TOR the
very passing rapture OF 1t, we blnd our
selves to our fellows in the closest possl-
| bic of human relationship. and parent
and child. and husband and wife, and
| brother and brother, and friend and
| friend revel in the rich intercourse OF the
moment, and reek nothing OF the disap-
pointment, the separation, the DereaVe-
| ment, which await somewhere IN the un-
! known future. AS regards every natural
and pure affection. man believes that 1T
| is better to have loved and lost than never
to have loved at all.
| Such thoughts as these have suggested
themselves to me as | contemplated the
event which has brought us together
! here this afternoon, and when some
| philosophy, but d philosophy which shall
carry with it something OF religion as
well, must be ummoned to our AID IN
order that what was so sad and sudden IN
the death we mourn may not leave us
comfortless and sceptical as to divine
method, and goodness, and righteous
| intent All the relationships L have
enumerated are sundered here; parents
| have lost child, wife husband, a
| brother has been taken from household
in which brother and sister lavished upon
him the fullness Of their love and frlend-
ship in many choice and gracious Illus
! traLion Of it. has sustained an irreparable
loss. And the feeling perhaps very
naturally comes that all this need not
have been if intelligent and righteous
! law and not blind and relentless late,
ruled in this universe Of which we are a
part. Our friend our brother, was IN his
prime: the serious business OF lie was
| hardly begun; the family rooftree he had
! builded had felt the suns and froSts OF
/ barely half decade of years, and the
offspring he was rearing had hardly
| learned to lisp their parents names. En-
| terprises Just begun or growing TO COM
pleteness still required his governing,
| controlling hand, and places OF trust and
! honor, but yesterday awaiting him for
his acceptance, need court no more.
And is it providence or fate, divine IN
tent or cruel chance, which has launched
this calamity upon this household and
upon this company OF mourning friends:
which has taken one in his proud career
of duty and usefulness, and smitten the
life OF MIN? l confess, my friends, it Is
a mystery, but the mystery or II has
never saddened my life or obscured my
faith. 1t is just through contemplation OF
such an event as this that the ground ap-
pears for confidence and trust. The triv-
ial, the thoughtless mind, before this
stupendous fact of sudden death-death
which in it's suddenness and apparently
! ill-timed coming takes one in full career
and palsies the hand and life, may, very
naturally, perhaps, assume to dogmatlze
as TO an intelligent force IN the control OF
which we are, a force which strikes at
random and strikes to annihilate forever.
But somehow we recognize the paradox
the doubt contains, the mind and heart
alike revolt at it, and above this casket
which contains but clay you place your
flowers in the confidence Of an eternal
hope and wreathe your emblems which
speak of immortality.
If life in every illustration of it went
on uniuterruptedly from youth to age; II
this earthly scene of things ever wit
messed to the completion OF the career; if
the parent never outlived the child, and
| four or five score years were unexcep-
tonally assigned to each TO cOnsummate
the life work and bequeath it finished
! inheritance to the successor, there might
be partial reason for the belief that this
1 Ill oil rl,ot oil lou QF f0
see its work accomplished, and there an
end. But because of the fact that the in
FAINT aud the child are so frequently taken,
| the youth and the maiden, the strong
man and the beautiful woman; because
the tenure of all we hold most
dear is 50 slight and insecure, and enter
prises in which heart and conscience have
been enlisted may in a moment stand
without the projecting mind and the con-
trolling hand, because of these things, or
/, in very spite of them, the paradox is re-
cogniZed that is contained in any asser-
ton of doubt. These very broken careers
somehow seem to imply completion
! somewhere else; upon this lower plane Of
things this may be world of change and
chance but because our minds cannot
rest in the irretrievable confusion in
which they must, if we accept these NOR
tai ends as final, faith is born and plumes
its wings and mounts from every sad
ness and sorrow and bereavement to
some empyrean realm which we feel to
be lighted by Gods sunshine and guarded
by his care. As Wordsworth says:
One adequate support
! + Jr the caianitieS OF mortal life
Exists one only; an assured belief
! That the procession of our fate, hoWe'er
sad or disturbed, is ordered by Being
! OF Infinite beneyolence and power,
| Whose everlasting purposes embrace
] All accidents, converting them 10 good.
| An accident the death OF our friend
NAV seem, but let the sorrowiug ones as
sembled here recognize it only as such an
accident as the purposes OF God embrace.
| to convert it to our temporal blessing
and our eternal good.
II had rather have my dead son than
any living son in Christendom," once
said q father bereaved. The son, the hus-
| band, the brother, the friend, occupies a
place in your affections that no one else
can ever fill. 1t is not the transformers
of things about which we think even in
this hour when their transformers seems
most apparent, but it is rather upon what
| it is permanent and secure. Things that
are lasting and real have been brought
! into our lives through this life that has
| been so suddenly quenched. Honor. and
truth. and fidelity, and loyal affection
| have been given Illustration in him. real
things that cannot pass away, things
which will remain to perpetuate his
memory and make you one and all for
ever glad that he has lived and wrought,
and carried on his life work as he did,
and heen to Won what he was as son. and